Sharing MAc Screen with Linux

January 21, 2008 11:54 AM

How do I change the resolution of my Macs desktop when sharing the screen and viewing on a linux machine using tightvnc? I am screen sharing my Mac Mini w/ leopard. I can log in and see the screen using TightVnc on a Linux machine. However, I can only get full resolution that is painfully slow over the Internet. The low quality options on the VNC viewer have no effect and I can't find anysettings on the Mac to lower the quality.
posted by nivekraz to computers & internet (3 answers total)

Well, the normal place to change the display would be under "[Apple Menu] > System Preferences" and then under "Displays."

Although I don't know if there's a special setting on TightVNC.

You can lower the quality using Apple Remote Desktop which is based on VNC so I imagine it's possible.
posted by kpmcguire at 12:13 PM on January 21, 2008

I've had *some* luck scaling things in the target Mac machine. Here are some suggestions:

* Turn off font smoothing for any size of type.
* Drop the display to "Thousands of Colors."
* Choose a low resolution for the default display (1024 x 768 or smaller).
* Deactivate all animated eye candy (dock animations, squirting windows, etc.)
* Make the desktop pattern BLACK.
posted by CheeseburgerBrown at 12:13 PM on January 21, 2008

If you find yourself doing this frequently, you can click the checkbox for "Show displays in menu bar" in the Displays preferences which will let you quickly switch between resolutions and color depths. You could also write a little applescript to switch resolutions and leave it somewhere handy.
posted by bcwinters at 12:15 PM on January 21, 2008