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Level 3

668 points

Remote Desktop not working?

I've got a Mac mini that I use as a home server, running 10.5 Server. I usually run it headless; when I need to access it directly I go through Apple Remote Desktop to get to it. Up until about two months ago that's worked without a hitch.

About two months ago I decided to change my administrator password on my server as I suspected the old password had been discovered. After I did this I naturally changed the password that Remote Desktop was using. After I did this I was unable to access the mini via Remote Desktop; it would tell me that authentication had failed. Neither the old nor the new password was working.

I connected a monitor to the mini and tried logging in directly. It too would not let me login, indicating the password was wrong. (It's perhaps worth noting that all of my user accounts on the server continued to work without any problems. It was only the administrative account that's an issue.)

I restarted from the OS X Server DVD and changed the administrative password from there, thinking that perhaps I entered it incorrectly. Once that was done I restarted - and still the mini wouldn't let me login either directly or through Remote Desktop. Now thinking that perhaps someone compromised my mini, I reformatted the drive and reinstalled OS X Server from scratch. I entered a new (third) completely unique administrative password. When it restarted I did nothing but enable Remote Desktop - and STILL I'm unable to login to it via Remote Desktop, always getting the "authentication failed" message.

I'm now hesitant to restart the mini since I want to be able to login to it. Does anyone have any idea *** is causing this issue?

Shiny New 24" iMac 2.8GHz 4GB/320GB, Mac OS X (10.4.11), Accessories by Apple, Matias, Microsoft, Epson, Dymo, Sony and others. w00t!

Posted on Dec 30, 2008 5:24 AM

21 replies

Jan 2, 2009 12:41 PM in response to davidh

I indicated I was on 10.5.6 in the first post.

The way you and I both migrate is like most folks... install the base system and then install the latest combo installer to the current level.

So to answer your question about how I did the migration, it was clean with the 10.5.6 combo updater on top of a Mac OS X Server 10.5 DVD.

Looks like there might very well be a regression in 10.5.6 that causes ARD authentication problems.

davidh

Level 4

1,890 points

Jan 2, 2009 1:21 PM in response to Paul Derby

Ah, excellent (your install method - which was what I meant by new info).

I haven't had time to install 10.5.6 on the server (nor any specific need in my case)
because I haven't had time to take it offline & do a full clone.

I'll see about doing so if I can, this weekend, and then compare.

Jan 6, 2009 3:04 PM in response to davidh

FYI - There's some new behavior in Leopard Server that you guys need to be sure that you're aware of. It depends on the way you set up the Server. If you use the Standard Setup option, you cannot use the Administrator account that you created during setup for Remote Management as it is created as a Directory User. Instead, an account is available to use called "localadmin". This username will work with the password of the Admin that you created. The Admin that you created will however work for Screen Sharing.

If you choose the Advanced Setup option during installation, you can use the Administrator account that you created for Remote Management since it is created as a local account.

I think this is what you guys may be encountering here.

davidh

Level 4

1,890 points

Jan 6, 2009 4:01 PM in response to ROBERT CAVANAGH

Ahh... excellent, good call, Robert - and thanks.

I would have missed that as I have and normally only will use the Advanced setup.
Primarily because the Server Pane setup (standard and workgroup) is not granular enough for me. I

Jan 6, 2009 8:51 PM in response to ROBERT CAVANAGH

Thanks, Robert,

So if you do a Standard Setup during installation, then immediately switch to Advanced by using Server Admin, how do you negate the "Directory User". If you can't negate the "Directory User", then what is the default password for "localadmin"?

This is probably all in one of the many manuals. I'll start looking through them tomorrow.

davidh

Level 4

1,890 points

Jan 7, 2009 3:17 AM in response to Paul Derby

I'd recommend doing your setup as Advanced, rather than switching.

But Robert noted, "This username will work with the password of the Admin that you created" - so have you tried using localadmin with the original admin password you setup ?

Remote Desktop not working?