Is VNC always "balky"?

I have the Vine server installed on my Mac Mini and Chicken of the VNC on my Mac Pro. It works fine but the virtual desktop is anything but smooth. When dragging windows for example, the image shreds and there is a delay of several seconds with most operations. Is this "typical" of VNC connections? Both computers are connected to a router via ethernet so it can't be "slow" wireless! Also, I can't seem to get a connection using only the screen sharing setting. As I understand it, I should not even need Vine to make that work.

The answer is "It Depends".
The server, the client, the size of the screen, the number of colors being displayed (256, thousands, millions), the network between the 2, the CPU power of the server system, the CPU power of the client system.
I have found that using the Vine Server and Chicken of the VNC with 8-bit color (256 colors) across the internet with the server having only 768kilobits/second upload speed, to be acceptable (beats driving 300 miles to Mom's house ).
I get my best performance using the build-in Mac OS X server with the build-in Mac OS X client, even with larger screens (such as my 27" iMac at work).
However, mixing a 3rd party client or server with a built-in Mac OS X VNC componet, has generally not been all the successful. The one notable exception has been JollysFastVNC (shareware).
I have the Vine server installed on my Mac Mini and Chicken of the VNC on my Mac Pro. It works fine but the virtual desktop is anything but smooth. When dragging windows for example, the image shreds and there is a delay of several seconds with most operations. Is this "typical" of VNC connections? Both computers are connected to a router via ethernet so it can't be "slow" wireless!
I would not expect it to take seconds. A slight lag on an ethernet connection, but not seconds.
So do you have a good router?
Good ethernet cables?
Have you tried measuring your network performance by copying a very large file and timing it?
Also, I can't seem to get a connection using only the screen sharing setting. As I understand it, I should not even need Vine to make that work.
Assuming both your systems are Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6, then no, you should not need either Vine Server nor Chicken of the VNC.
So how have you configured System Preferences -> Sharing -> Screen Sharing? Did you set anything via the "Computer Settings" button.
How did you try to make a Screen Sharing connection? Did your other Mac show up in the side-bar of a Finder window, and you clicked on it? Did you try Finder -> Go -> Connect to Server -> vnc://otherMacsSharingName.local? Something else?

Similar Messages

Help needed from ARD expert : Client Status always VNC ON

Hello,
Lorna has posted the following problem which I have also encountered and I could not solve it by re-installing ARD and upgrading to version 2.2:
I administer a small office network (all 10.3.9) and I am running ARD 2.2 Admin on a G4 Powerbook, controlling a number of other laptops and some desktop machines on a mixed airport/wired ethernet network.
On one G4 desktop I just re-installed OS 10.3.9 using the Apple Sotware Updater and since then I get the "VNC ON" status on that Mac. The other Macs work fine. I have deleted this machine from the ARD Master List, and I tre-defined it,but all in vain. It always shows a VNC server status.
Obviously, the ARD admin does not "see" that the ARD client is active and I can only connect via VNC.
Does anybody know what could be the cause of this problem ?
Thank you so much

Hello,
I could locate the culprit in the meantime:
I had a hunch that Netbarrier X, which is installed on my Powerbook could be causing the problem. Although I believed I had switched Netbarrier off ("No restrictions") for troubeshooting purposes the host entries in the so-called "stop list" remain active. And there I had one single entry : 127.0.0.1. Deleting my "own" host resolved the problem. I don't understand why the other wireless Macs still worked but I am not a network specialist.
Netbarrier's illogical behaviour has caused me other troubles in the past (such as not being able to print because the cupsd app was in a stop-list!)
I think that I shall now get rid of it, it's doing more harm than good.
Thanks for responding.

How do I connect with a webbased VNC client to a dual-monitor Lion machine?

I'm using a webapplication to manage a narrowcasting system.
For this I use an installation of XAMPP on a dedicated Mac Mini hooked up to some monitors.
This software is accessible through a webinterface on the local Mac Mini. With this software people can arrange video's and send them to the monitors connected to the Mac Mini.
This works very well, but know I also want to build a feature where people can see what the Mac Mini's are sending to the monitors. For this I want to use a webbased (now it is Java) vnc viewer build into the webinterface.
I've tried a setup with the TightVNC Java viewer and the build-in OSX VNC server. This gives me the problem that when I try to connect to the Mini I always encounter the Lion login screen. This seems to be new Lion behaviour that can't be disabled. I know that there are some vnc clients that support OSX authentication (like Mocha), but at this point I haven't found a webbased solution for this.
If I use the Wine vnc server I don't have this problem (when I access the Mac Mini I go straight to the active desktop). Unfortunately Wine doesn't support multiple monitors.
I use two monitors on the Mac Mini (one for showing the video playback and one for admin work). I want to setup the vnc client in a way where the user only sees the second screen.
Is there a solution out there that eliminates both of these problems (so connecting without the Lion login screen and only giving a view of the second monitor?).
Any help would be much appreciated.

No one? Seems I want something that can't be done. To bad.

A stable, fast reliable VNC connection to Lion or Lion server

I hope this post help people with VNC setup from non Mac machines to a Mac running Lion or Lion Server 10.7.4.
Apple has changed quite a few things in Lion regrading VNC and screen sharing. As a consequence many VNC viewers are no longer compatible until the VNC software is upgraded to be Lion compatible. You will find many posts about this topic in this forum, eg
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3289794?start=0&tstart=0
Often, the result is that the user can't proceed beyond the gray login screen (screen locks up etc).
This post describes how configure Real VNCs VNC server on Lion Server 10.7.4 to work in conjunction! with ARD, thus allowing you to keep screen sharing enabled and still use ARD from client if that is desired)
Download the VNC server at (Version 5! necessary)
http://www.realvnc.com/download/vnc/latest/
and install the VNC server on the host (the computer you want to login to via VNC)
Single User Host setup
==================
- Install the VNC server and follow the intsruction
(If you your Mac is configured for remote management, screen sharing, remote apple events the installation may complete with error stating to contact the manufacturer....ignore the error as it most likely caused by a port conflict because VNC server and ARD (or apple scrren sgaring both use port 5900 per default), the software was still completely and correctly installed.
- start VNC Server by opening Finder -> Applications -> Real VNC -> VNC Server (User Mode)
You will see a small VNC icon in the top tsak bar of the screen.
(if you open the "information Center" the issues tab will show a port 5900 conflict)
- open VNCserver Options and select the connections tab:
+Change the default port from 5900 to 5901 and serve Java viewer on Port from 5800 to 5801
+ Change Authetication to "Mac password"
+ Select Encryption "always on"
- Selct the expert tab
+scroll down to the bottom of the list and change "StopUserModeOnSwitchOut" to "no"
(this settings prevents the VNC server to be stopped automatically if you have Fast Switching User Mode enabled on the host.)
- select "Apply"
(now if you open the Information Center" again, the port conflict problem should be solved.
- select "open" from the VNC server menu:
If the configuration was succesful, thw window will show a check mark in a green box stating everything is ok.
- In addition you will find the address that the client user will need to connect to the VNC server on the host
it will say something like "VNC viewer user can connect using the address 192.168.x.y:1"
Note: If you start several VNC servers, each session will need a dedicated port (like 5902, 5903 etc)
Router/Firewall Settings:
===================
Depending on the router/firewall you use your ports may have been automatically configured for you (airPort extreme for example).
You need to open port 5901 and 5801 and forward these ports to the IP address of the host. If ARD was alredy working in your setup, you can copy the port coniguration for ports 5900, 3283 and 3306 that are used by ARD and implement the same rules for the new port used by VNC 5901.
Review the settings of your firewall/router.
VNC client
========
- download the VNC client for your OS from
http://www.realvnc.com/download/viewer/
and follow the install instructions.
- Start the VNC client on your client PC (Windows for example) and enter the address that the VNC server reported to you earlier (192.168.x.y:1)
- Encryption : "Let VNC Server choose"
- select "connect"
- enter your Mac username and password that was setup on your host
you are now connected via VNC to your host.
You can also configure the VNC server to allow other users to login to the same! VNC session using their user credentials (friends/family or serverAdmins that want to share access to the host)
To do this open the options dialog box on the VNC server host computer and select "configure" next to authentication.
- add the users that are supposed to get access to your VNC session using their own credentials. (make sure this is what you really want, otherwise read on in the multi user section of this post)
Multi User Host Setup
=================
If multiple users are supposed to access the host computer using their own credentials logging into their own! desktop, follow these instructions:
- first enable Fast User Switching on your host computer by going to
System preferences -> User/Groups -> Login Options and select the check box "show fast user switching menu as..."
- For each user on the host that should be reached via a VNC session start VNC server (user) as described before and assign a new port number to the new user like 5902 etc.
- repeat the configuration outlined above for each user (eg. "StopUserModeOnSwitchOut" to "no")
(note initilally when you start the VNC server for the first time again, you will get notified that a port conflict exists again....this disappears as soon as the new port is configured)
now another user can login via VNC into his own desktop using the server address : "191.168..x.y.:2"
Final notes:
=========
I spent hours trying to get a variety of VNC viewers to work with the new screen sharing/VNC implementation in Lion and finally gave up. I called Apple Enterprise support and they confirmed that "a majority of the existing VNC products are not compatible with the new VNC implementation in Lion yet and that Apple recommends ARD". The discussion on what other non Mac users (Windows, Linux) should do did not go anywhere....
I have tested the above configuration with the free version VNC server 5 on the host and the free version VNC viewer 5 on a client. It worked flawlessly, fast, reproducable and very stable. You need to be aware that depending on the features you want (number of desktops, users etc) that you may have to purchase the personal or enterprise edition for the server.
The featurs are described here:
http://www.realvnc.com/products/vnc/
I personally installed the enterprise edition after I verified that the free editions worked stable and reliably as I needed them to work.
I hope you now have a stable VNC link into your Lion host from the platform of your choice !

I'm using the free VNC edition from RealVNC on Mt. Lion (10.8.5) and the basic information is in this article for Lion is confirmed for the VNC Server 5.0.6 (r113416) on Mt. Lion.
The main Options... window shows the Connections tab and I just changed my port to something other than 5900 and the port conflict went away.
The Free edition does not allow Mac password and encryption can't be enabled. (Ya gotta pay for that.)
Connected to it from my iPod Touch using Mocha VNC with no problems.

How to use VNC with AirPort?

Hi,
I used to have an old iMac G3 DV at home, and I always used VNC to access it from my work computer. No problem.
Now, I recently bought a brand new MacBook and a brand new AirPort Extreme base station, and I can't connect using VNC anymore. I tried every single configuration I could, using the AirPort Utility, but it was no use.
I am not really an expert though, as this is my first time using wireless. So, please, anybody there, with greater experience about configuring AirPort for it to allow VNC connection, if you could please help me solve this problem, I would really appreciate it!
I've been told that I should make the gateway IP redirect all VNC requests to my MacBook, but I have no idea of how to do that.
I'm using Vine Server 2.1 at home (former OSXvnc) and VNC Dimension 0.7.1 at work, as the client. My MacBook is the only computer connected wirelessly to that AirPort station back home. At work, I use an older iMac G3 Indigo, with 384 MB RAM and Mac OS X (10.1.5).
Any ideas? I'm sure it should be easy to do...
MacBook 13" 1.83 GHz 512 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.9) AirPort Extreme 802.11n

Hello Duane!
Thanks for the quick response, and thanks for the PDF document you provided.
I remember I tried out a lot of different configurations using port mapping under NAT, and none of them worked. But I believe the problem was precisely that my local IP address for my MacBook was not static, it was always changing between that range 10.0.1.201-10.0.1.255.
So I will try setting up a static IP address and see if it works. Now, how do I do that? I can just go to somewhere in AirPort Utility and type in an address outside the default range (let's say, 10.0.1.300) and it will remain static? Where is the place I can change that?
Sorry if I sound too much of a newbie, hehe! And thanks again for your help.

How would I load a DE/WM (Openbox?) only for use in VNC?

tl;dr:
How can I make a segregated virtual display that can only be viewed through a VNC connection?
I have a computer that I'm using as a server (Files, Downloads, IRC bouncer), and soon as an XBMC front end for the living room computer to replace the original XBox.
With the TV it will be attached to: I want to be able to watch videos, play music, look at pictures, and possibly run an emulator or two, and that's it. No access to virtual terminals, no other programs at all. I can figure this out on my own, I found a few guides, though if you have a particularly good resource, I'd love to see it.
Here's what I do want suggestions on:
I also want it to start, say, Openbox, with just a file manager, JDownloader, and maybe a VERY light IM client for sending links to the server. (Taking suggestions, I use IRC, Google Talk, and XFire already, but on my laptop and my phone I use multiprotocol clients.)
I want the IM client and JDownloader to always be running, and I want to only be able to access them (and my entire Openbox session) through VNC. I will be using VNC clients on either a 15' or 22' monitor from Windows 7, Linux (Arch and Ubuntu) and OS X Snow Leopard, as well as from an iPhone.
I would love for the VNC session to, like Virtual Box, automatically resize itself according to window size (or the iPhone's resolution) but I'd have no problems with a single resolution.
I searched, but I suspect I'm using the wrong keywords, I've seen something about this before... I'll be doing this in about two days, but I figured I'd ask for help now rather than later.

Set up an appropriate ~/.vnc/xstartup file - syntax is the same ~/.xinitrc, but it's for the vnc session only.
Details on the wiki's tightvnc page.

ARD and VNC no longer connect to 2 out of 3 servers. Please help.

We have 3 Mac OSX servers here - Web, DB, File. Recently, I attempted to connect via TightVNC - I only had a PC with me at the time. After setting the Mac servers to accept VNC connections (with a password), I was able to connect with TightVNC. ARD was still working fine as usual on the Mac.
Last week, both the VNC and ARD connections started failing on the Web and File servers. The DB server works fine with both though. All of the remote and VNC settings on all 3 servers are the same, and like I said, everything was working fine. I also tried Chicken of the VNC from my Mac, but I get the same results (cannot connect).
The ARD icons for the web and file servers are greyed out in ARD now. When I try to connect to them, I just get the message " Connection failed to (server name.)" The current status for both of these servers is "unknown." I can ping both of them though.
Any ideas on why this would be working, then stop? Would a reboot fix this?
What stumps me most is that the DB server connection is still working, even though all 3 of these servers are set up the same and were working without a problem.
Thanks for any help!
Message was edited by: jimvii
Message was edited by: jimvii
Message was edited by: jimvii
Message was edited by: jimvii
Message was edited by: jimvii

I have found that reverse DNS entries, especially when they are wrong, can really mess things up. If you haven't already, in your ARD scanner windows, right-click and add the "DNS Name" column, and adjust the columns so you can see it. Whenever you have problems connecting in ARD, that's always a quick thing you can check. If the DNS name does not match your computer name, you'll have problems.
I don't think you gave enough detail of what is and isn't working, but in general, you can try connecting both with dns names and IP addresses, and connecting to Macs sometimes works better by putting their name as macname.local instead of macname.yourdomain.com.
If you try to connect with VNC via IP address, and the IP addresses on your servers are static (should be), and it doesn't work, it very likely could be a firewall setting. Even if you have the firewall off or ports open, you'll want to run a port scan against the server in question to test what truly is open.
This is all general stuff. Post something more specific if none of this helps (detail of OS versions, programs used, ports set open, any error messages, etc).
Good luck

Remote Screen Sharing (VNC) from outside of my LAN

I often have to connect to my parents' Macs to help them out with various things. I commute between two cities and stay with them when I'm there.
(I set up a dynamic hostname with DynDNS to point to our router, which defaults to port 443, which on the home network is reserved for the QNAP NAS that's set up. I set the router up to be reachable at port 455 but I'm not sure if it is successfully sending IP address updates to DynDNS. I don't see a way to check if it is. DynDNS seems to require a paid account for that functionality and my routers log is also not very helpful. In short, I'm having trouble getting the whole dynamic DNS thing to work reliably with our router, which is otherwise a great little box: a Fritz!Box Fon WLAN 7390).
I use Jolly's Fast VNC (http://goo.gl/UmllQ) to connect to a personal server and that works wonderfully, but then there the details are taken care of for me by my provider and I just have to type in the details.
What I'd really love is something like Edovia's Screens (http://www.edovia.com/)... except for the Mac rather than the iPhone/iPad (though I do own an iPhone copy of it and it's wonderful).
We do share a MobileMe subscription in the family, but that's not very helpful here either.
So far, we've used iChat, Skype screen sharing and I often end up using TeamViewer because of its speed and near non-existant setup.
My goal is to find a way to connect to my parents' Macbooks even when they are not around so I can help them out with problems while they may not even be around. The key here is that I want to be able to control their screens without needing any action on their part.
Suggestions for the simplest possible way to do this are very welcome.

I didn't know TeamViewer could be set up to be accessible without a second user having to be around to give me the session ID and password. I wonder if it's worth looking into that if LogMeIn Free with its server always running is a perfectly acceptable solution? Any advantages to using TeamViewer's solution?
The free LogMeIn account does NOT allow file transfer. The free for personal use TeamViewer does.
LogMeIn server hides in the background, so it is less likely your parents will Quit LogMeIn.com, were as TeamViewer looks like just another app, so they might Quit from it to get it out of the way.
Of course if you need to transfer a file (or 2), you could use DropBox.com for that, and it is a very easy way to transfer files between systems. Or you could store the file on your MobileMe account in a public place, then via LogMeIn copy the file from your public space into your Parent's Mac(s). Or your could use LogMeIn to start TeamViewer, and then use TeamViewer to transfer the file.
Basically once you can start applications on your Parent's Mac(s), you can use any number of utilities for transferring data.
We do have MobileMe. I was under the impression that the way Back to my Mac works is that it will show you YOUR remote Macs in the Finder's sidebar. You know, ones that you're also logged in with YOUR MobileMe credentials. We all use our own, unique MobileMe accounts. Am I missing something?
Yes, all the Macs would need to use the same MobileMe account. Do you all really need separate accounts? Maybe a Family account.
I could deal with the port forwarding and DynDNS but I'll have to set that up to remotely administer my router and NAS, which is turning out to be quite the pain. So if I can simplify, I will. LogMeIn or TeamViewer will do the trick just fine.
Port forwarding is a once and done thing for your parent's router. It allows you to get to their Macs from outside their home. It should have nothing to do with remote admin, or your router and NAS. Also once you can Screen Share your parent's Mac, you can then use that Mac to talk from the inside to their router. Although one must be very careful about making router config changes as one "Oops" and you could loose your remote access, and have to visit Mom and Dad to get physical access
By the way, I've been using VNC/Screen Sharing and AFP file sharing over ssh tunnels in conjunction with port forwarding on the destination router for years. I do this, even though it is more work, because it was available long before most of the above services were available, and because it has a lot more flexibility once you know how to use it. Oh yea, I'm also a Unix software developer and spend a lot of time using ssh anyway

Black screen connecting to built-in VNC (10.4.7) from Linux

Hi there,
I just enabled the built-in VNC server in my G4 running 10.4.7, and for testing purposes enabled full rights to the connecting VNC client.
However, when connecting with a tight vnc client (from Ubuntu linux), I get a connection to the Mac and I can use the mouse, but the VNC client screen/window appears completely black; i.e., I cannot see the Mac screen on my VNC client. This behavior persists irrespectively of the actual tight vnc client; have tried multiple.
Anyone can help?
PS: I tried the OSXvnc solution (and thus disabling the built-in version of VNC), and this works flawlessly .. so I do not think that the problem is on the VNC client side.

I hate to interrupt your fuming, Joshua, but those Apple "nazis" do still sell Tiger as of a few days ago. Call 1-800-SOS-APPL and ask for Phone Sales (not iPhone sales, but a sales department that only operates over the phone, not through the online store).
As for "I just love how they dont support older products anymore," I think if you look around a little, you'll discover that Microsoft doesn't sell outdated versions of its OS any more, and most car manufacturers aren't selling their 2005 car models any more either. In fact the practice of not selling discontinued, superseded products is standard across most industries. Apple's continued selling of Tiger long after the introduction of Leopard is quite unusual.
And as for the "nazi" practice of not allowing you to install Tiger on your Powerbook from the Intel iMac's discs, the machines use entirely different architectures, and the iMac discs are configured specifically for the Intel architecture. The OS on them is also licensed for use on only one computer, not multiple computers, as you would know if you read the license agreement. And while you may never have encountered this limitation before, the discs that are shipped with every Mac have always, since the mac's earliest days, been specific to that machine model and, in all but a few exceptional (and accidental) cases, unusable on any other model. Apple has never changed this longstanding policy/practice. It's nothing new.

Screen Sharing / vnc with OS X 10.5.6 fails

I can not get the Screen Sharing that comes with OS X 10.5.6 to work with any vnc client. The server is my laptop, an MBP 2.4 GHz Intel running OS X 10.5.6.
*I enable Screen Sharing by doing the following:*
1) +System Preferences > Sharing > Screen Sharing+ is checked
2) +System Preferences > Sharing > Screen Sharing > Computer Settings > Anyone may request permission to control screen+ is checked
3) +System Preferences > Sharing > Screen Sharing > Computer Settings > VNC viewers may control screen with password+ is checked and I've entered a password
4) I also have Remote Login enabled for SSH access, but no other services are enabled.
*I see two different behaviors depending on one of two clients that I try using:*
1) +Chicken of the VNC v2.0b4+ running on same machine- Always says "Connection Terminated / Authentication Failed" without ever asking for a password. Logs the following in system.log (dates, hostnames and pids removed):
Chicken of the VNC: Server reports Version RFB 003.889
Chicken of the VNC: Bogus RFB Protocol Version Number from AppleRemoteDesktop, switching to protocol 003.007
I believe that the information in system.log is OK, and is just warning me that Chicken of the VNC is working around Apple's strange protocol version.
2) +TightVNC 1.3.9 on Windows XP sp2+- Says "Security type requested", then asks for a password. I enter it, click OK and tightvnc simply waits endlessly.
*Other Notes:*
1) I have tried configuring and starting the server using kickstart from the command line as suggested at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2370 (+sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/k ickstart -activate -configure -access -on -restart -agent -privs -all+)
2) I have tried unchecking +VNC viewers may control screen with password+, but in this case Chicken of the VNC says "Please configure Apple Remote Desktop to allow VNC Viewers to control the screen. Unknown authType 30,31,32" and TightVNC says "Server did not offer supported security type!"
3) If I disable the Screen Sharing feature that comes out of the box with OS X, I CAN install and successfully run the OSXVnc server available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/osxvnc/. In this case, both Chicken of the VNC and TightVNC are able to connect.
*So Apple's Screen Sharing does not work. Does anyone know what the problem is? Are there any log files I can look at, or is there another way I can debug this? I'm not impressed. :)*

Thanks for the suggestion. It was possible that one of these files had become corrupted, so I tried moving each of these files to another directory but unfortunately I'm still seeing the same behavior.
Here's what happens with each of these files individually after they're moved:
1) When I set the VNC password in the system prefs, com.apple.VNCSettings.txt gets re-created (with the same contents as the original unless I change the password, so that just looks like a hash of the password).
2) com.apple.RemoteManagement.plist also gets recreated when I change the system prefs. If I use "sudo plutil -convert xml1 com.apple.RemoteManagement.plist" I get the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>ARD_AllLocalUsers</key>
<true/>
<key>ARD_AllLocalUsersPrivs</key>
<integer>2</integer>
<key>ScreenSharingReqPermEnabled</key>
<true/>
<key>VNCLegacyConnectionsEnabled</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>
3) For me, com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist does not exist.
4) Interestingly, com.apple.ARDAgent.plist does not get created until I run "sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/k ickstart -activate -configure -access -on -restart -agent -privs -all". Its XML contents are as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>AdminConnectInfoList</key>
<dict/>
<key>AgentLogLevel</key>
<integer>3</integer>
<key>ServerConnectInfoList</key>
<dict/>
<key>Version</key>
<real>3</real>
</dict>
</plist>
Looking at this, I tried setting ScreenSharingReqPermEnabled to false, but that didn't help. Then I increased AgentLogLevel to 100 and got a lot of output in system.log (12:28:45 is when I restart the server and 12:29:34 is when I try to connect):
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: ******ARDAgent Launched******
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: got a sessionDict, onConsoleRef is 0xa04cd400
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: grUserOnConsole is 1
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 122
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: LoadMenuExtra: Attempting to unload menu extra
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: PostNotificationForced: Going to send notifation value 9
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: UpdatePrefs: versionFlt : 0.000000 kCurrentPrefsVersion : 3.000000
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 44
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 22
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 100
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 94
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 96
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 18
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 106
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 74
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 130
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 60
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 45
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 65
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 66
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 105
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 115
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 38
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 12
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 61
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 20
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 62
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 39
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 30
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 101
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 53
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 103
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 107
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 109
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 135
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 41
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 110
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 111
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 28
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 36
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 48
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 59
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 57
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 116
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 58
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: InitAppUsageHandlers: Called gTrackingDays is set to 0
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: CheckRFBServerPIDFile: return 679
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: RemoteCommandListenerThread init communications
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: RFBServerStart - did not kill 679
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: DOCStartDOC: No serial number. Task Server not started.
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: DT_InitLocalProcessing: Loading existing tasks from disk.
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: DT_InitLocalProcessing: Found 0 tasks
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 158
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 117
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 118
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: AddHandler: Added handler for cmdCode 162
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: ARD Agent: RFB Server exited quickly after starting - probable failure.
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: PostNotificationForced: Going to send notifation value 6
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: PostNotificationForced: Setting lastNotification to value 6
Feb 24 12:28:45 ARDAgent [749]: ******ARDAgent Ready******
Feb 24 12:29:34 Chicken of the VNC[693]: Server reports Version RFB 003.889
Feb 24 12:29:34 Chicken of the VNC[693]: Bogus RFB Protocol Version Number from AppleRemoteDesktop, switching to protocol 003.007
Feb 24 12:29:36 ARDAgent [749]: PostNotificationForced: Going to send notifation value 1
Feb 24 12:29:36 ARDAgent [749]: PostNotificationForced: Got request for kCurrentStateNotification. Sending value 6
Interesting that it says "ARD Agent: RFB Server exited quickly after starting - probable failure." That doesn't sound too good.
I will try to watch fs_usage more closely to see what else gets modified and accessed, but I'm increasingly suspicious that there's simply a bug which is showing up under whatever specific conditions I have on my machine. Perhaps the included log info will trigger an idea for someone.

Remmina not transmitting mouse wheel to VNC session

Hi,
I have just noticed that remmina is not transmitting mouse wheel events to VNC session. Never tried RDP, so I don't know if this is also affected.
First question: Is it only on my system or a general problem on Arch ?
If it is a general problem on Arch ...
I did a bit research abot this subject area, and I found some bug reports in multiple distros, but they are all marked as solved. So I think that it is fixed upstream. Otherwise the distros could not mark it as solved, right ?
If the package maintainer should read this ... is there a plan to update this package in near future ?
Thanks and Regards,
Markus

Usability bugs. The most annoying one was the size of the remmina window that was "never" right. And clicking the "1" button (top left) did unpredictable things. In most cases the window was maximised to full screen height leaving black bars above and below. The bug seems to appear less and less. I promise I will file a bug when I experience it again :-)
Crashes were always rare in my case.
But here's not the right place to lament around.

VNC into Mac and keyboard layout

Hi,
I'm trying to get keyboard layout mapping to work between the mac mini which is the VNC server and any remote VNC clients (linux, windows, mac). Tried ultravnc, tightvnc, realvnc clients. And 10.5.x built-in as well as Vine VNC servers. The mini has an Alphagrip keyboard with US+Finnish layouts. The client PCs have Finnish layout typically, also US or German.
Problem is that any pipe, tilde, @ etc "special" characters typed through the clients end up as umlauts or other characters in the VNC.
Any suggestions how I could make VNC work so that the VNC keyboard layout is always the client layout?
Thanks,
- Jan

Thanks for pointers!
Setting "US" in OSXvnc did not work with any local client-side layout, oddly not even EN/US local + EN/US remote with OSXvnc use either "US" or "Current Layout".
But the following nearly works. Client Finnish keyboard, server Mac Mini Finnish keyboard, for the ultraVNC client change Finnish/FI to US winxp locale (using XP's/Vista's Language Bar), in OSXvnc choose "Current Layout" and set global Mac layout to Finnish.
I.e. have same keyboard at both ends but set the "wrong" US locale in WinXP for the ultraVNC client.
Now nearly everything works (with this laptop and server) - all umlauts and special characters. The only and unfortunately also critical problem is that the key "|" does not "work", it outputs "'*" instead. On the Mac the key is on the left of spacebar, on the client on the right. I don't see how this alone could change the scancodes. But apparently it does. Because it does not work.
Is there not some UTF / Unicode version of VNC for all OS X, Windows, Linux?
Or some VNC that would handle keyboard layouts smartly, transparent to the user?
Another option, IME with RDP (MS Terminal Services, rdesktop) there is no problem with keyboard layouts. Perhaps you guys know some RDP server for OS X?

How to use VNC for Solaris 10

Hello, I am completely green when it comes to Unix / Solaris. I am trying to use VNC from the Solaris 10 Companion DVD. I have it installed. I followed the easy to use steps from this site : http://www.salixtraining.co.uk/index_files/vncsol10.htm
But the problem is I don't know how to use it now that I have it installed.
What I am tring to do is install an e-ticketing software program on my test Solaris server and I am stuck on getting PHP to work correctly and I am trying get the company, whose product I am trying to use, to connect to my server to investigate. I want them to be able to remote connect to and be able to see and access the server to see if they can help.
Can anyone help? I really need step by step instructions. Assume that I don't know anything!
Thanks in advance,
Aaron

Hello, here are the instructions I follow to install VNC on my systems running Solaris Express, you may use this to your own install, I dont use the one included on the companion CD, I download the one from RealVNC instead, I hope this helps:
VNC
INSTALL VNC (RealVNC) 4.1.2 - Solaris Express 11 b71 Sparc
a)
File to use: �vnc-4_1_2-sparc_solaris.tar.gz�
#gunzip vnc-4_1_2-sparc_solaris.tar.gz
#tar �xvf vnc-4_1_2-sparc_solaris.tar
#cd vnc-4_1_2-sparc_solaris
b)
Install it by running:
# ./vncinstall /usr/bin /usr/share/man
               Note: this will also install man pages into �/usr/share/man/man1�
If you want to use the Java VNC viewer (Open browser and type pc_name:display#):
Copy the files from the java directory to some suitable installation directory
such as /usr/local/vnc/classes (vncserver will read this path!- don�t change it):
# mkdir -p /usr/local/vnc/classes
# cp java/* /usr/local/vnc/classes
c)
Add these 2 lines to .profile (under the user)- (This will make it to connect always with screen 1):
vncserver -kill :1
vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1024x768 (or any other combination you want like 1280x1024,etc)
note: dont use it if you want to have a different screen to connect everytime.
d)
Create a /.vnc directory first, we will create the xstartup file inside:
file /.vnc/xstartup:
#!/bin/sh
# xrdb $HOME/.Xresources      < This line Not really needed!! >
xsetroot -solid grey
gnome-session          <add selection for KDE or CDE if needed see bellow notes>
** Here is How to Create the �xstartup� file:
echo "#!/bin/sh
xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
#/usr/dt/bin/dtsession CDE < CDE, gnome or sessions: >
#gnome-session Gnome < comment with '#' the one you don't >
< want to use. >
" > xstartup
# chmod 744 xstartup To make it executable!.
*** Sample used for the user: (use the same file for the other users) �it will be created
the first time using it, just change it/add to the following sample:
First time to login will ask to create a password or
Run /export/home/�name�/.vnc/passwd (to add password to login)
You may need to change ownership on the following 3 if you create them under different user:
/.vnc folder
/.vnc/xstartup
/.vnc/passwd
using #chown -name- .vnc (xstartup and passwd)
To check process for VNC running:
# ps -ef | grep Xvnc
To stop the process:
# kill pid# (stop it hard way)
kill display:
#vncserver -kill :#
to connect from another system just type the hostIP:screen#, e.g. 192.168.1.20:1
murilloa
Edited by: murilloa on Sep 13, 2007 7:52 PM

Entry in /etc/hosts.allow for insecure VNC?

I read the ssh wiki article which teaches to add an entry to /etc/hosts.allow for sshd. I am know that tunneling vnc through sshd is the way to go security wise, however, there are cases where I need to switch on un-encrypted vnc for the purposes of sharing my X11 session with family members. Anyway, my question deals with an entry in the /etc/hosts.allow for gnome's desktop sharing (which is vnc as I understand it). Does anyone know the syntax to allow vnc for any incoming connection (default port of 5900).
I have tried:
vino: ALL
Xvnc: ALL
X11vnc: ALL
None of which worked.
Thanks!

when I don't know what's the name of the process listening to specific port, I always execute
netstat -tnlp
to get the proper processes' names.

Apple Remote Desktop 3 and Real VNC

Just wanted to post an FYI, that recently I found out VNC (Real VNC) Server & Viewer were conflicting with ARD 3.2 in terms of screen sharing/control. All other connections were fine. (e.g. chat, message, package install, etc..) For me to regain a successful connection to my clients I had to uninstall VNC, reboot and "whalla" screen share/control was full functional again. I don't know if anyone had a work around for the two programs to work simultaneously, but I couldn't figure it out and just uninstalled VNC. Not sure if this would be the same case with Ultra VNC, but I think it is safe to say that if you are wanting to remote manage a group of Macs (PC's included) you should stick with just one program. Any thoughts out there?

The "normal" version:
Yep. All generic VNC software will conflict with ARD. This is a good note for most admins out there.
The "geek" version:
Tell RealVNC to use port 5901. Look at the "Connection Options" section of the documentation for your server-side os/version.
The "too much information?" version:
Actually, VNC servers and ARD do just fine side by side. (Aside from listening and bonjour advertising and that), both servers are actually inactive until they receive a connection request. The clincher is that any services ...from Apache to ARD reports to SMB to VNC... always need to be listening to different sockets on different ports. In the good old days, VNC servers could actually listen on several ports and would serve at different color depths and resolutions based on the port number of an incoming request. In fact even today, because ARD uses a mostly standards-compliant VNC implementation, it has to use a different port for reports and commands and such so it won't conflict with the inbuilt VNC server.
VNC is usually on port 5900 nowadays. ARD uses 5900 for its VNC without asking. ARD also uses (or has used) 3283, 5432, 5433, and 5988 for reports and other non-VNC communication. (See: Apple's [list of common ports|http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1629].) In my experience, ARD's VNC client can very reliably control standards-compliant VNC servers, though your mileage may vary.
-- To control a non-ARD VNC server via ARD, just do whatever you normally would in ARD. When controlling, it may warn you that the VNC server doesn't support keystroke encryption, etc. but should still work fine.
-- To connect ARD to a VNC service running on a different port, choose "Add by Address… ⌥⇧⌘N" and in the address field, type the domain name or IP address as you normally would, but append a full colon ":" and the port number. For example, jsmith.example.com:5901 would connect to the computer named jsmith but would look for the VNC service on port 5901.
-- To control a Mac which is running the OS's ARD-VNC server from a third-party VNC app, you must have 'plain' VNC access turned server-side (that is, on the Mac to be controlled: System Prefs > Sharing > Remote Management > Computer Settings > "VNC viewers…"). As long as you use a decent client, it should work reliably after that.
I routinely run the standard ARD "Remote Management" services on my servers for normal remote interaction, but then have a Vine Server set up on 5901 with vastly different settings to benefit low bandwidth connections from the internet, from my iPod's VNC client, or through bouncy ssh tunnels.
If you have any other experiences or questions, or especially if anyone wants try any of this and encounters problems, by all means post back.
Cheers, Joel

Is VNC always "balky"?

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