Nert next/wayvnc

[aenertia]

Summary

• What is the goal of this PR? Add wayvnc as a VNC remote desktop server for all ROCKNIX devices. Provides remote screen access on port 5900 — any VNC client connects without authentication. Includes H.264 hardware-accelerated encoding via V4L2 M2M on supported SoCs. Have been using a variant of this for several years. Very useful for debug and development. Somewhat useful for 'some' gaming. It's a tiny and low dep addition to base image that provides quite a lot of functionality. Now that all targets use sway this seems like a good addition.

New Packages

Package	Version	Size	Description
jansson	2.15.0	~30KB	JSON C library (wayvnc dependency for IPC/config)
wayvnc	0.10-dev (477ef59)	~200KB	VNC server for wlroots-based compositors
neatvnc	0.10-dev (28d902a)	~120KB	VNC protocol library (built as meson subproject)
aml	1.0.0 (ce4b82d)	~15KB	Async main loop library (built as meson subproject)

Total image size impact: ~365KB

Compiled Features (verified on RK3566 build)

Feature	Status	Backend
H.264 encoding	Enabled	V4L2 M2M hardware encoder (rkvenc/venus) + FFmpeg libavcodec fallback
JPEG compression	Enabled	libjpeg-turbo (Tight encoding)
TLS	Compiled in	gnutls (available but not active by default — no cert required)
WebSocket	Enabled	nettle (enables browser-based VNC clients like noVNC)
Screencopy DMA-BUF	Enabled	Zero-copy frame capture from sway compositor
Cursor rendering	Enabled	--render-cursor (renders cursor into VNC stream for gamepad UI)

Service Integration

Follows the existing SSH/Samba daemon pattern:

• systemd unit: wayvnc.service with ConditionPathExists sentinel file
• Daemon script: 003-wayvnc (setting key: vnc.enabled)
• Network virtual package: added to PKG_DEPENDS_TARGET for all devices

How to Enable

Via SSH:

mkdir -p /storage/.cache/services
touch /storage/.cache/services/wayvnc.conf
systemctl enable wayvnc
systemctl start wayvnc

Or via user autostart script (/storage/.config/autostart/wayvnc.sh):

#!/bin/bash
mkdir -p /storage/.cache/services
touch /storage/.cache/services/wayvnc.conf
systemctl start wayvnc

To disable:

systemctl stop wayvnc && systemctl disable wayvnc
rm /storage/.cache/services/wayvnc.conf

VNC client connects to <device-ip>:5900 — no authentication, no configuration needed on the client side.

Note: An EmulationStation UI toggle (Network Settings > Enable VNC) will follow in a separate PR.

Testing

• How was this tested? Built for RK3566 (aarch64). Full make image completed successfully. Verified compiled feature flags in neatvnc config.h confirm H.264 (V4L2 M2M + FFmpeg), JPEG, TLS, DMA-BUF screencopy all enabled. Verified installed binaries: wayvnc, wayvncctl, libneatvnc.so, libaml.so.
• Test results: RK3566 image builds cleanly at target/ROCKNIX-RK3566.aarch64-20260329-Generic.img.gz (1.5GB). wayvnc binary links correctly against all sway/wlroots/wayland dependencies. systemd service file and daemon script follow established patterns (identical structure to openssh 001-ssh and samba 002-samba).

Additional Context

• wayvnc attaches to the running sway session via wlroots screencopy — since all ROCKNIX devices use sway, this works universally
• H.264 hardware encoding uses V4L2 M2M directly (not through ffmpeg's encoder infrastructure) — zero-copy on SoCs with VPU: RK3566 (rkvenc), RK3588 (rkvenc), SM8250/SM8550/SM8650 (venus). Falls back gracefully to ZRLE/Tight/JPEG encoding on SoCs without hardware encoders or when VNC clients don't negotiate H.264
• H.265/HEVC is not available — the VNC protocol (RFB) has no widely-adopted H.265 pseudo-encoding, and neatvnc only implements H.264. H.264 at handheld resolutions (640x480 to 1920x1080) is more than adequate. h265 is a job for Sunshine server another day.
• neatvnc and aml are built as meson subprojects of wayvnc (not separate packages) because they are tightly version-coupled — wayvnc 0.10-dev requires neatvnc >=0.10 and aml >=1.0.0
• No firewall rules added — matches SSH and Samba which also listen without restrictions on trusted local networks

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AI Usage

Did you use AI tools to help write this code? PARTIALLY

[aenertia]

CI : https://github.com/aenertia/distribution/actions/runs/23698336513

[loki666]

not happening

[porschemad911]

not happening

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