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OSXvnc 1.4 Frequently Asked Questions (Last Modified: 18 August 2004) |
OSXvnc is provided by Redstone Software, Inc.
For the latest information on
OSXvnc, including the latest FAQ, please vist:
http://www.redstonesoftware.com/osxvnc
Q: OSXvnc is only a server, where's the client to connect to my machine?
A: That's right OSXvnc is only a server, there are already a number of good VNC Clients available for OS X, we recommend these:
Chicken Of The VNC
VNCThing
VNCDimension
Q: OSXvnc is only for OS X, what about OS 9?
A: Redstone Software also offers OS9vnc, it can be downloaded here:
http://www.redstonesoftware.com/Download/OS9vnc.sit
NOTE: At this time closing the OS9vnc log window will shutdown the server - please leave the log window running.
Q: The OSXvnc application launches fine the first time but after that it just bounces in the Dock and never launches?
A: This is most likely because you are running APE from unsanity.org. Whatever APE does corrupts the OSXvnc bundle to the point where it can no longer function. Please remove APE from your system and send email to unsanity.org about this problem.
Q: How can I start up OSXvnc from a command line?
A: To startup OSXvnc from command line, go inside the Application
directory(OSXvnc.app) and launch the OSXvnc-server process. To change parameters you will need to
give it arguments (-rfbport to set port, -vncauth to specify a password file,
etc). For usage run the command
with -help. For example:
/Applications/OSXvnc.app/osxvnc-server -rfbport 5901
Q: When I start OSXvnc is stops immediately with the error: "Unable to Bind Socket"?
A: This means that OSXvnc can't listen on the specified port, this is almost always because another VNC is already listening, often because OSXvnc has been set as a startup item. You can check to see with the following Terminal command:
ps -auxwww | grep vnc | grep -v grep
If this reports anything then vnc is probably already running, read the FAQ "I've setup OSXvnc as a Startup item, how can I turn it off" for instructions on how to stop it.
Q: OSXvnc is running but I can't connect to it?
A: If you don't see anything in the OSXvnc log then your network isn't allowing the connection. The most likely cause of this is that your MaxOS X machine is running the built-in firewall. You can configure the firewall to allow port 5900 (or whicherver port VNC is running on) using System Preferences -> Sharing -> Firewall
Q: I'm using 10.3 (Panther) and when I do a Fast User Switch I'm no longer able to control the remote machine.
A: This is a know bug in Apple's control API. It was probably designed with security in mind but attempts to work past it by allowing authentication, etc have not been succesful. We hope to discuss this problem with Apple and have a good solution in the future. In the meantime, you must switch back to the original user or else launch a new server, perhaps via command line, to connect to.
Q: When trying to launch OSXvnc command line it fails with the error kCGErrorIllegalArgument : initCGDisplayState: cannot map display interlocks.
A: This happens if you try to launch as an unpriviledged user in 10.2 or earlier. A priviledged user is either the user who is currently logged into the GUI or the ROOT user. Try using su (or configuring the application to autostart using the start-up item)
Q: I am using an International keyboard (or keyboard layout) and the characters don't come up appropriately.
A: Currently OSXvnc doesn't handle this as well as we would like. Part of the problem is that if both the remote and local users are using an international keyboard layout the keystrokes actually get double-corrected, thus producing the standard US keys. Try setting one of the keyboards back to US; this works a bit better.
Q: Is there a Web Server with OSXvnc or a Java applet integrated into OSXvnc?
A: No, but you can download a Java applet client and put it somewhere on the MacOS X machine's web-served directory. Then enable web serving on your machine and access the Java applet. We didn't port the Java applet, but a copy of it can be downloaded here.
Q: I'm using x2vnc or win2vnc and it seems slow. Is there a way to run OSXvnc without the slowdown from having the screen updates sent?
A: Due to a problem in some of the Apple update routines the entire server must be launched in such a way that it doesn't register for screen updates ever. Currently you can only do this by launching in command line mode and using the argument
-noupdates
Q: How can I have my connection to OSXvnc tunnel through SSH?
A: Since MacOS X ships with SSH support built in this is
pretty easy. First you will want
to make sure your VNC machine has SSH running. You can turn this on in the
System Preferences -> Sharing Panel by checking the box for "Remote
Login". Then you need an SSH
client on the machine you want to connect from (again, it's there by default on
MacOS X). For the rest of the instructions read the VNC page http://www.uk.research.att.com/archive/vnc/sshvnc.html.
If you use the "-localhost" option in
OSXvnc you will need to literally specify "127.0.0.1" when you make your ssh
port forwarding call, like this example:
ssh -L 5905:127.0.0.1:5900 mydomain.com
NOTE: In MacOS 10.3 (Panther) localhost is defined as it's IPv6 version - this doesn't work for VNC so specify 127.0.0.1
Q: Does OSXvnc support multiple displays?
A: Officially OSXvnc does not support multiple monitors at this time, it is on our list of future enhancements.
We do have a BETA feature for view only on displays besides the primary display. This feature is available only from command line. If you launch OSXvnc with the arguments"-disableRemoteEvents -display" #displayNumber# then that VNC server will serve the display associated with that number, unfortunately you must disable events becaue the event translation logic has not yet been added.
Q: Can I setup OSXvnc to allow a remote user to work in his own desktop without disrupting the user at the machine(like X-Windows)?
A: In a word, no. This is a limitation of the Mac OS X window server which currently only allows a single desktop session to be active. Even Mac OS 10.3's Fast User Switching only allows you to temporarily store a desktop session, only one session remains active at any given time. If you would like to see this feature please send requests directly to Apple.
Q: I'm running a headless MacOS X machine and OSXvnc doesn't work.
A: When Mac OS X starts it will disable certain video functions when no
monitor is plugged in. We are looking at ways to solve this in OSXvnc, but for the time being you can
purchase a dongle that makes the Mac OS X machine think that a monitor is plugged
in.
Dr
Bott has one called gHEAD available here.
Q: How can I setup OSXvnc to startup as a service without needing a user logged in?
A: OSXvnc 1.3 can setup this mode for you. Please go to the "Startup" panel and press the "Setup Startup Item" button. You will need to authenticate as a user with privilege to administer the machine. Once you have, OSXvnc will set itself to start up the next time your machine boots. In this mode you don't use the GUI application, it will just be running all the time.
If you want to do it by hand you will need to copy the OSXvnc.app/Contents/Resources/OSXvnc folder into /Library/StartupItems and then modify the OSXvnc file by hand.
NOTE: Due to Apple security restrictions this server will NOT have access to the pasteboard (Cut&Paste) between machines
Q: I've setup OSXvnc as a Startup item, how can I turn it off?
A: Starting with 1.32 the GUI can do this for you on the Startup tab. If you want to turn it off temporarily but have it continue to startup then you want to issue the following command:
sudo /Library/StartupItems/OSXvnc/OSXvnc stop
If you want to stop OSXvnc from starting up automatically any longer you can also remove the startup directory. This command will do that:
sudo rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/OSXvnc
Q: Where are the storepasswd and OSXvnc-server executables?
A: The OSXvnc-server and storepasswd executables are now stored in the /Contents/MacOS directory and are linked from the root OSXvnc.app directory as well as the /Contents/Resources directory. This prevents the GUI from launching a second dock icon when they are executed.
Q: I've set up OSXvnc as a service but when a user logs out it breaks the server.
A: This should be fixed with the 1.11 version of the startup script so that at least the server restarts. This is a temporary workaround; we are aware of the real problem, and know where it is in the code, but don't yet have a fix for it. As soon as we have a better fix, we'll issue a corrected server.
Q: OSXvnc is open source, so....where's the source?
A: Our source code is available at Sourceforge via CVS. Please try it at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/osxvnc.
Q: What are you looking at adding for future versions?
A: Outside of bugs fixes, on our list at the moment (in some rough approximation of order) are...
Q: I'm a developer and would like to help with OSXvnc.
A: Great! Please send email to osxvnc@redstonesoftware.com.