Client not showing any graphics details on headless systems with Teamviewer
Answered
Hello all,
We have some systems recently built. The video cards we used for these units do not have VGA on them. Display Port, DVI, and HDMI.
We use Teamviewer to remote into these systems to help customers.
We have recently noticed that if the customer disconnects the monitor connected to the PC the Client application does not show any information. It's simply an overlay that you can't see any cameras/menus etc.
If the customer reconnects the monitor, all works properly again and all can be seen.
This could be an issue with Teamviewer and how it works. Or the need for VGA to be on the graphics card to avoid some kind of issue with hardware acceleration or similar.
Bottom line.. anyone seen an issue like this? I was curious if there might be an option to launch the client from command line that would potentially change how the graphics are used.
We've considered a dummy plug that will fake the system into thinking a monitor is connected. But I would prefer to understand what is really going on under the hood and how to resolve it.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Official comment
Hi Matt,
You wrote headless.
Please define what headless means to you.
I define headless as a system that has an operating system without a GUI. Ubuntu Server for example. When a monitor is connected, in general it will only show a command prompt en in general it is controlled through SSH.
If a regular os with the GUI is installed, it might be that it doesn't show anything since it runs in a sort over power save mode. Or when no monitor is detected, a hdmi monitor emulator is required to make the system think a monitor is connected with the desired resolution. Such emulators should cost you less than $10.00.
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Thank you Norman,
By headless I mean an OS (win10) with a gui ...that has simply had the monitor connection removed.
We tested further today and yesterday and found that if we use a card that has a VGA connector (not connected to a monitor, just having VGA on the video card) we do not experience the problem.
My guess is Hardware acceleration somehow is at play here. VGA seems to be some kind of anchor to allow remote access with TeamViewer when no monitor is connected. The overlay for the client does not show the same problem this way as when we were using video cards with no VGA.
We did consider a dummy plug/emulator as an option, but it was one more piece of hardware that could cause frustration with less-than-technical customers. Especially if it takes an HDMI port on the video card that might be needed for a monitor at some point.
I'm just curious if there is any more technical explanation of why we would see this kind of rendering/display issue with the software. If there are any command line options to use the client with no hardware acceleration or in any configuration that would avoid the problem. I'm not a video nerd, so I may not know what I'm talking about. :)This may very well be an issue with Teamviewer and how it represents the graphics from the card. But it's not unusual for our customers to put the NVR in a rack and not have a monitor connected.
We were unable to modify settings on any of these "headless" systems without customer jumping through hoops to get a monitor connected.
I adore this product, and the features you have brought to bear. Thank you again for your input and consideration.
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Hi Matt,
Thank you for the clarification. Your system isn't headless, but a system without a monitor. Almost the same, but way different. ;-)
It has nothing to do with hardware acceleration, but most likely with an (Intel HD) graphics card (GPU) that detects if there is a monitor connected or not. If they don't detect a monitor, they won't provide graphical information to save energy and heat.
As you discovered, you can trick them by connecting something to the monitor input. If VGA does the job, that's, fine, you don't need to occupy an HDMI slot, unless the provided resolution is not enough. That you can connect an HDMI monitor emulator that also provides feedback to the GPU regarding the monitor resolution. As far as I know, they are available in 1080 and 4K resolution.
I understand your reason for reducing the number of components, but in general, the emulators won't fail on you. I would recommend though to add a tag to it with a text like 'Do not remove this dummy plug'.
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I wanted to be clear. If we use a video card that has a VGA port on it... no emulator at all... we have no troubles.
If we use a video card that does not have a VGA output port on it, the issue is resolved.
It could also be an issue of using an ATI based card/driver vs. an Nvidia one. But we tested several systems with mid tier dedicated video cards 2GB and 4GB.
Systems without VGA would not render properly with no monitor through TeamViewer.
Systems with a VGA 15 pin Dsub connector on it (no emulator/dummy plug) would work properly and display the client text and information with No monitor connected through Teamviewer.
Just curious if any of that sheds light on the situation.
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Hi Matt,
It is an issue related to GPUs. I know it is common for Intel HD onboard GPUs, but I do know it occurs on other GPUs as well, but I do not know which. There are just to many around. To be honest, if a system is used without a monitor, I wouldn't use an additional GPU, since the onboard one will suffice.
I would make life easy and provide the field engineers some VGA connectors and HDMI monitor emulators, just in case.
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