Table of Contents

Control OS X from VNC

OS X from Linux

Note: This does not work on OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2). It has apparently been fixed in newer versions.

  1. On Mac (machine to be controlled)
    1. Open System Preferences (it's in the Apple menu)
    2. Open the Sharing panel
    3. Check the box Apple Remote Desktop
    4. Click Access Privileges
    5. Check the box VNC viewers may control screen with password
      1. enter a password of less than 8 characters
    6. Click OK
  2. On remote system (machine to control)
    1. Launch Remmina Remote Desktop Client
    2. Select Connection > New from menu
      1. Select VNC - Virtual Network Computing as Protocol
      2. Fill Server field with either IP address or hostname of the Mac
      3. Optionally fill both User name and Password to make Remmina remember Your credentials
      4. IMPORTANT: Set Color depth to High color (15 bit) or better, otherwise connection will fail
    3. Click Connect (or Save to reuse it later)

The instructions above are for a Linux machine with Remmina installed, but you can do the same from a tightVNC command line (cli or GUI, Windows or Unix). You can also access using other tools like krdc.

Windows to OS X

Microsoft Windows has various third party VNC programs available. I have found tightVNC to be the best for my purposes. Also, check out the paid product UltraVNC.

  1. On OS X machine, follow directions above
  2. On Windows Machine
    1. Install tightVNC (https://tightvnc.com/)
    2. Create connection

Linux from OS/X

  1. Start and run a VNC server on the Linux machine. Be sure to set a password
  2. From MAC, go to Finder, select Connect to Server, enter URL
    1. vnc:server_ip:5900 - Alternately, install Chicken of the VNC. Development stalled in 2005, but the project was restarted in 2010 with the name changed to simply Chicken, which can be downloaded from https://github.com/boecko/chicken/. I have not use this product. - You can also use Remote Ripple for Mac, a paid version of TightVNC created for OS X. It can be installed from the Mac Store (Android and IOS versions available from their respective stores). ===== References ===== * https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/84221/can-i-remotely-access-my-mac-from-linux-using-screen-sharing * https://www.lifeonnetwork.com/linux/how-to-remote-from-linux-to-mac/