Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Using a Ubuntu VNC client to connect to a Leopard Remote Desktop

This post explains how to connect to a Leopard Remote Desktop session from a Ubuntu client machine using VNC. It is assumed that Remote Desktop is enabled on their Mac (you should also read this regarding a password on your Leopard Remote Desktop server).

The Leopard Remote Desktop speaks a flavor of vnc, albeit one which common vnc clients seem to have difficulty with. I tried both Ubuntu's default vnc client in addition to a realVNC client, both without success. However I did find that the tightvncviewer successfully connects.

To get xtightvncviewer, install this package:

sudo apt-get install xtightvncviewer


When you want to initiate a Leopard Remote Desktop session, open a terminal and start up xtightvncviewer:

xtightvncviewer ip.of.your.mac


You should be prompted with your password (you did set a password on your Leopard Remote Desktop, correct?), and following that you should then see the desktop of your Mac in the vnc window.

6 comments:

eHewlett said...

Excellent! Worked like a charm. (After I read the linked post regarding setting a password...) Thank you!

Just one minor correction... When you want to initiate a Leopard Remote Desktop session, you'll need to type "xtightvncviewer", not "xtightvncserver".

rcc said...

Thx for catching that typo - I edited the post to reflect the change.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this. It worked perfectly; the connection is snappier than RealVNC (e.g., I can move windows without any delay); and you saved me the $50 that I would have spent on RealVNC's Enterprise Edition. Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

When you log in to your mac with this, if you get a black screen, turn down the number of colors. That worked for me

Unknown said...

I get: Connected to RFB server, using protocol version 3.8 Server did not offer supported security type.

Perhaps something's changed . . .

Anonymous said...

Connected to RFB server, using protocol version 3.8
Server did not offer supported security type