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I have an Ubuntu 16.06LTS system (let's call it Fred) that I use while sitting in front of it and on that same system I run a VNC server (FredVNC). My problem is that when I've started an application in one environment (i.e. Fred), it ONLY runs in that environment. For example, if I start Libre Office and work on a document at home on Fred, then leave the house and want to open a .doc file in an email I'm checking remotely via a VNC client connection (to FredVNC), that .doc file does not open within VNC, but rather on my local desktop...Fred. I have to return HOME to see it. Or (alternatively) I can kill -9 Libre Office, then open the application in VNC. But then any open docs that were on Fred risk losing data.
What I would LIKE is a way to have two parallel instances of apps open up individually...so that I could be working in Libre Office in VNC, while simultaneously having Libre Office documents open on Fred.
I am assuming (perhaps naively) that there's a command line way to open up an instance of a program that will assign it to the VNC or the Fred Display. I've tried searching for this and unfortunately am in a keyword nightmare. Nothing seems to be selecting the right terms and I get totally off topic results.
If anyone knows what I need to do that would be hugely helpful. Thanks in advance!
Thank you very much for the thoughts -- yes, exactly, you have understood what's wrong or what I need to do. It might be that xpra will help me prevent this issue, so I will look into it. Not exactly what I want (there's no way to force Libre Office to run 2 instances??) but perhaps enough of a work around. – confused – 2018-07-17T19:30:26.457
@confused There's a
--display
option (e.g.lowriter --display :1
) but I cannot make it work. If it works for you then please write your own answer and I will upvote it. – Kamil Maciorowski – 2018-07-17T20:25:28.293How can I tell which display my VNC server is using? I think it's the same, actually, based on the results of uname -n, that's the same whether I'm in VNC or not. So maybe if I could simply start VNC running in a different $DISPLAY environment that would at least solve part of it? Then I could try swriter --display :1 or something? – confused – 2018-07-18T00:27:33.753
I've figured out my VNC $DISPLAY is :3.0 and my localhost is :0.0. Can I tell a window to open in one versus the other? – confused – 2018-07-18T14:16:48.520