Why is Mac Screen Sharing Falling over to Chicken of the VNC?
December 1, 2015 9:33 PM Subscribe
After upgrading my Mac home theater computer to El Capitan, when I try to screen share from a client machine that's still running Snow Leopard, it passes the connection through to Chicken of the VNC instead of using the screen sharing that's built into the OS. Is there any way to fix this short of updating the client machine to a newer version of the OS?
In lieu of a fix, is there a way to copy something on the client machine and send it to the server clipboard through Chicken of the VNC? Also, is there a way to adjust the size of the screen on the server machine so that it fits into the window on the client machine and I don't have to scroll to the edges of the screen? Note that I don't want to change the actual screen resolution of the server machine since it's set for the projector. I just want to scale it on the client machine.
In lieu of a fix, is there a way to copy something on the client machine and send it to the server clipboard through Chicken of the VNC? Also, is there a way to adjust the size of the screen on the server machine so that it fits into the window on the client machine and I don't have to scroll to the edges of the screen? Note that I don't want to change the actual screen resolution of the server machine since it's set for the projector. I just want to scale it on the client machine.
Response by poster: Removing Chicken of the VNC did not work. Now, when I go to Network > Server > Share Screen nothing happens. When I go to connect to server and try to connect via vnc://ip.address I get a message that the text entered doesn't appear to be a valid URL format.
This makes me wonder if the issue is on my client machine and not the server. I had assumed it was the server because it happened at the same time I updated the OS on the server, but maybe some preference file on the client machine got corrupted.
Does anybody know what file I would look to trash or replace related to VNC/screen sharing connections in Snow Leopard?
posted by willnot at 6:55 AM on December 2, 2015
This makes me wonder if the issue is on my client machine and not the server. I had assumed it was the server because it happened at the same time I updated the OS on the server, but maybe some preference file on the client machine got corrupted.
Does anybody know what file I would look to trash or replace related to VNC/screen sharing connections in Snow Leopard?
posted by willnot at 6:55 AM on December 2, 2015
In Real VNC you press F8 to pop up a menu, where you can send a clipboard item. Maybe that or another button works to bring up the menu?
posted by flimflam at 9:19 AM on December 2, 2015
posted by flimflam at 9:19 AM on December 2, 2015
Best answer: RCDefaultApp will allow you to change which application is associated with a particular URL scheme. In this case I think you want to reset the vnc:// scheme to "/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Screen Sharing.app"
posted by jordemort at 9:31 AM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by jordemort at 9:31 AM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
Here's a stackexchange question along similar lines. The user posting the question is not very specific so it's hard to really draw comparisons, but they do note intermittent connectivity to their local remote machine as possibly associated with the use of non-Apple LAN hardware, and I do recall experiencing weird intermittent access issues when I hadn't segregated my Apple gear from my non-Apple gear.
Lastly, as much I as I feel you on the cold-dead-hands no-OS-upgrades on my daily driver, do you have access to a machine with a newer version of OSX to try?
(FWIW I just was able to screen-share into a 10.5.8 Leopard machine and from within that screen-share into Yosemite 10.10.5, which is the equivalent version gap, so it seems unlikely the protocol has changed.)
Here's a list of Apple-used ports for various products. This list appears to assert that you'll need to see :88 and :5900 to get the service to work; maybe try pinging.local:88 and :5900 in Terminal to be sure your client can see the remote machine. I think you should be able to, actually, since CotVNC could get in.
Finally, there are a range of third-party apps as I noted above that deal with non-LAN screen sharing. I currently use Splashtop but used LogMeIn for years until they announced an end to free personal use (later rescinded).
https://secure.logmein.com
http://www.splashtop.com
posted by mwhybark at 1:53 PM on December 2, 2015
Lastly, as much I as I feel you on the cold-dead-hands no-OS-upgrades on my daily driver, do you have access to a machine with a newer version of OSX to try?
(FWIW I just was able to screen-share into a 10.5.8 Leopard machine and from within that screen-share into Yosemite 10.10.5, which is the equivalent version gap, so it seems unlikely the protocol has changed.)
Here's a list of Apple-used ports for various products. This list appears to assert that you'll need to see :88 and :5900 to get the service to work; maybe try pinging
Finally, there are a range of third-party apps as I noted above that deal with non-LAN screen sharing. I currently use Splashtop but used LogMeIn for years until they announced an end to free personal use (later rescinded).
https://secure.logmein.com
http://www.splashtop.com
posted by mwhybark at 1:53 PM on December 2, 2015
Response by poster: I launched Screen Sharing.app from the directory path jordemort provided, and connected to the server directly from that instead of via the Finder, and that worked. What's more it seems to have fixed the problem with connecting via the Finder as well.
posted by willnot at 7:56 PM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by willnot at 7:56 PM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
With regard to screen sizing, OSX defaults to a windowed screen with the remote screen scaled down, and maximizing the shared screen window scales the window showing the remote machine's display to a best-fit for your local client machine - that is, it does not change the remote machine's rez, it just scales the display. I do *think* you can fiddle with the remote machine's rez via screen sharing but i haven't needed to do that for a long time.
I know personally, as useful as CotVNC was, I haven't needed to use it for years, between OSX screen sharing and various flavors of other remote-access applications and services. Ymmv, as they say. Hope this helps!
posted by mwhybark at 11:04 PM on December 1, 2015