Re: [ferret_users] Running ferret on a Linux machine through a VNC server

Problem Solved! With Steve Hankin's suggestions and some experimentation, I figured out how to set up the VNC server so that my VNC client (Chicken of the VNC on my Mac) can display a ferret-generated gif and capture it to a file using the command FRAME/FORMAT=GIF/FILE=MY_FILE.GIF. The solution is to launch the VNC server from an X-window onto the Linux machine by this command:

% vncserver -depth 8

This sets the color depth to 8 bits or 256 colors. Then everything works! My VNC client (Chicken of the VNC) has a Connection Profile Manager in which one can set the number of colors. Two options are (1) Let the server decide, and (2) 256 colors. Both seem to work for me.

So if you see the advantage using ferret on a remote Linux box running Red Hat, and you would like to use the Red Hat GUI as if you were sitting at the Linux console, then this is the set-up for you. Attached is a screen shot from my Mac showing what I see.

P.S. A couple of users suggested running ferret with the -gif switch, i.e. % ferret -gif

That works, and you get a gif, but you cannot SEE the gif as it is being generated and displayed. You have to look at it after the fact with something like xv. So you lose some of the nice interactive capability of ferret.

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Edward D. (Ned) Cokelet, Ph.D. Oceanographer

NOAA/PMEL off: (206) 526-6820

7600 Sand Point Way NE fax: (206) 526-6485

Seattle, WA 98115-6349

Edward.D.Cokelet@xxxxxxxx

The contents of this message are mine personally and do not necessarily reflect any position of the Government or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.