On Android-X86 I get only a black (blank) screen

[r3d1r]

On a Android-X86 ( https://www.android-x86.org ) install I only get a black ( blank ) screen on the VNC viewer.
With Android-X86 anyone can easily run an Android VM on Hyper-V, it´s great for development.
I tried with Android-X86 9 and Android-X86 8.
Currently I am using Android-X86 8 ( https://osdn.net/projects/android-x86/downloads/69704/android-x86_64-8.1-r6.iso )
The mouse works in the viewer, only the screen isn't presented.
I tried with UltraVNC and RealVNC viewers on a Windows 10 with the same results.
Using RealVNC standalone X64 ( https://www.realvnc.com/download/file/viewer.files/VNC-Viewer-6.21.406-Windows-64bit.exe )
Using UltraVNC 1.2.2.4 ( can´t remember where I downloaded it, it was years ago ).
Its easy to reproduce, creating the VM and installing only driodVNC-NG, nothing more.
On the android side, droidVNC-NG seems to be working good, see attached image.

[bk138]

Thanks for reporting! To rule out an OS issue, please try https://gitlab.com/vijai/screenrecorder and check if it's able to record anything.

[Martii]

On a Galaxy S8 the device likes to sleep the screen faster than the Android Settings so I have to tap the Home key on a keyboard, type (click technically atm) quickly the pass code, before seeing anything other than a black screen... don't know if this will help or not in an Android emu... might be worth a try though.

[r3d1r]

On a Galaxy S8 the device likes to sleep the screen faster than the Android Settings so I have to tap the Home key on a keyboard, type (click technically atm) quickly the pass code, before seeing anything other than a black screen... don't know if this will help or not in an Android emu... might be worth a try though.

Don't know if I understood what you said, but, HOME key does nothing in the VNC Viewer but it sends the VM to the home screen, sending any app to the background, the expected behavior.
And the screen on the VM is configured to never sleep and it never does...

[r3d1r]

Thanks for reporting! To rule out an OS issue, please try https://gitlab.com/vijai/screenrecorder and check if it's able to record anything.

I recorded a test video but was unable to play it,
Got a "Can't play this video" message.
Then I installed VLC to see if there was an issue with the default player and VLC didn't play the video too.
Tried to record again, then I realized that the recorded files was 0 bytes!
See image:

[r3d1r]

I tried a lot of options and almost none worked.
What I remember is that the one that sort of worked out run as root.
Is it possible to run this one as root to test ? How ?

[bk138]

I fear it seems that Android-X86 (or at least your build of it) does not support screen recording via MediaProjection, which is the API https://gitlab.com/vijai/screenrecorder and droidVNC-NG are using. You might want to try the original droidVNC which does things differently and requires root.

[bk138]

PS: found https://android-x86.narkive.com/kTcgqWEG/is-it-possible-to-use-mediaprojection-to-capture-android-screen

[r3d1r]

I fear it seems that Android-X86 (or at least your build of it) does not support screen recording via MediaProjection, which is the API https://gitlab.com/vijai/screenrecorder and droidVNC-NG are using. You might want to try the original droidVNC which does things differently and requires root.

I tried the original droidVNC before asking for help here and the result was that it says Superuser access is granted but didn't load and message "Could not start server :(".
The one that sort of worked, XQ-VNCServer, seems to be an exactly copy with a lot of boring advertising stuff.

Even me being a programmer ( a very old one... ) this is beyond my technical skills, but from what is in https://osdn.net/projects/android-x86/scm/git/frameworks-base/commits/2f9dd0aa805ef1163111b243cc001223681290ca I suppose that MediaProjection was incorporated to Android-X86. Wasn't it ?
Is there a way to trace this ? I would be glad to do it if you send instructions.
Should I ask for help on Android-X86 project ?
Anyway, thanks for your attention!

[bk138]

Even me being a programmer ( a very old one... ) this is beyond my technical skills, but from what is in https://osdn.net/projects/android-x86/scm/git/frameworks-base/commits/2f9dd0aa805ef1163111b243cc001223681290ca I suppose that MediaProjection was incorporated to Android-X86. Wasn't it ?
Is there a way to trace this ? I would be glad to do it if you send instructions.
Should I ask for help on Android-X86 project ?
Anyway, thanks for your attention!

The best thing to do is probably lots of researching and trying out. Maybe this is not supported at all in Android-x86, maybe it depends on build settings (what about the official emulator images, aren't those x86 as well - does screen recording work there?), maybe some special arguments to the API must be used, ...

[csiqueirasilva]

im running this droidVNC-NG on an android-x86 VM using qemu-kvm on an old Ubuntu 18. The VM has a vga adapter.

With that setup, I can succesfully connect, interact and capture images via TightVNC client or with a c# application using https://github.com/mRemoteNG/VncSharpCore