Q: Lion broke screen sharing, VNC?

I have finally upgraded to 10.7.3.  Pretty much the same problem.

Case 1 using Vine VNC Server

1. On Mac install Vine VNC Server.  I set the port to something other than the regular VNC port to prevent standard port hacking. I have an 8-character VNC password.

2. On PC (I have Windows 7) install RealVNC free version. I set the Color Level to Full <-- this is essential.

3. The viewer can now connect to Mac with the right VNC password.  My current testing is with a foreground user already logged in.  This is the common usage of VNC anyway. 

4. Play around and quit RealVNC.

5. Repeat 3 and 4 a few times.  Eventually VNC View will not be able to connect giving "unknown message type" error.

This behavior is the same in 10.7.2 and 10.7.3.  Once the error occurs it will not work consistently until Vine Server is restarted.

I have also tried free Mocha VNC Viewer on iPad/iPhone.  Same behavior.

Case 2 Using Screen Sharing

1. On Mac turn on screen sharing with a strong 8-character password.

2. On Windows 7 use Real VNC Viewer (same color level as above) to connect to Mac

3. After entering password, got a gray screen with login prompts (see my screen dump above).  Tried entering username / login at this screen.  No response whatsoever.

4. Moving the cursor around inside the gray screen area causes the Mac's cursor to turn to a color wheel in response to the mouse movement on PC side.

5. The top right corner of the gray screen (not captured in above screen dump) is a clock.  The time displayed never changes.

I conclude Mac is not using standard and correct VNC protocol.  There is not much we can do on our ends.

> Not sure if you were saying you were alright on 10.7.2.

Nope.  Did not work in 10.7.1.  Did not work in 10.7.2.  Is not working in 10.7.3.

Hello everyone,

I just installed Lion and was dissapointed to find that I could not connect to my macmini server (running snow leopard) via screen sharing like I used to... pressing command K and connecting to the server. But I found a work around:

1. Press Command K

2. Remove the vnc:// in front of the network ip address of your machine and put in afp:// instead... so an example would be afp://192.168.1.100

3. Login with an admin account

4. It will ask which shared drive to connect to on the computer, select anything

5. When it opens the window for the shared folder you just selected click on the little button on the top right of the window that says Share Screen

6. It will ask you to login again

7. Voila! You will be connected

Note: If you can see the computer on the left side navigation bar when opening any window on your computer, then a much easier variation for Step 1-5 is that you can just click on the machine on the left navigation bar then click Share Screen on the top right of the window, and then just login.

Hope this helps someone out there!

-Carlos

Screen Sharing between two Macs do work.

I think mainly this thread is about running VNC viewer on a Windows system and trying to connect it to a Mac.

OMG this worked for me!!! I have struggled with this all day only to realize it was working I just couldn't see the login prompt.

When you get the grey screen after entering the password for the VNC authentication then you get the grey fabric screen (or gray fabric screen) just enter your user name, press enter, then enter your password (for the user account on the Mac) that was setup to use with screen sharing.

Now I'm on to find out how to observe a user's session via VNC. Using the method above lets me login to a new session on the Mac but does not allow me to see the current user's session like VNC normally does.

Thanks a million Marco202!!!!

-Brad

BillytheKid45 wrote:

 

Now I'm on to find out how to observe a user's session via VNC. Using the method above lets me login to a new session on the Mac but does not allow me to see the current user's session like VNC normally does.

If a user (whose username you used for VNC) is logged in it should. You got the gray screen so, so I presume no user was actually logged into the computer at the time.

Is there any update to this? Or has anyone got a solution that works all the time?

Like everyone else, I am still suffering from the "Grey Screen Of Death" when connecting from a Win7 machine using TightVNC (or any other VNC client). The login screen just hangs, sometimes completely grey, sometimes I can click my name and the password prompt might appear, but hangs as I type in. I can connect maybe 1 in 10 times.

The only workaround I know is to logoff when I've finished my VNC session. But this is a real pain.

All the "restarting services" solutions don't fix the issue. It's just broken.

If you have an update or found a viable solution, please can you share.

-c.

No, there's no update if, like us, you're vncing from windows.

It's no better with xp btw.

Occasionally someone will drift on here, post that it works, but not have read the original post and go on to list iOS or  osx vnc clients as if it's fixed.

But it's not fixed for the clients we try on our cluster.

What surprises me is that the makers of tightvnc, realvnc etc haven't patched it for windows.

Given that apple doesn't seem overly bothered either, perhaps it's just a very small subset of users vncing from windows to lion.

Or like billythekid45, they won't list details of platform and client, let alone settings!

Restarting services and/or not logging onto the mac isn't a fix, even if it did work on any of the windows clients for me, which it does not.

This is still a deal breaker for us moving to lion.

Has anyone had a chance to test windows vnc clients to mountain lion yet?

Wow, I was getting a back screen after I loged in on the grey login screen. Just typing the passwort once again worked.

Which would have been a worthwhile post, Sebastian, except you've not posted;

What os you're connecting from

What version of lion you're connecting to

What vnc client you're using

What version of the vnc viewer client it is

Apart from that, very helpful.

Sorry, I'm just getting a bit tired of unclear postings that may or may not be related to windows clients not connecting to lion.

You are right.

I am connecting from my MBP6,1 to MacMini5,1

Both on Lion 10.7.3

I am using RealVNC Vewver E.4.6.3 and Chicken of the VNC 2.0b4

Once on a black screen just type the Passwort once again it works for me. I also give the system 10 seconds between the steps of opening the connection, entereing the password for the first and second time to settle down.

Have you tried using Screen Sharing instead? It works fantastic when both systems are on 10.7. It's accessible from the side bar of any finder window of you have other sharing enabled. The application can be launched directly too:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Screen Sharing.app

There isn't an issue with Mac -> Mac VNC, we're taling about Windows -> Mac VNC, that's what's broken.

It looks, from what Sebastian has said, that there is some issue with OSX connecting.

But for us, the real issue is that, whilst OSX can, through screen sharing or botched up password entering, at least get to OSX through VNC.

For Windows - nada.

So if everyone can mention which thread they're posting about - and it has to be said, there's little to talk about for OSX to OSX, we know a workaround - it'll help us Windows to OSx sufferers.