TightVNC (or other windows VNC viewer) connecting to OS LION

If anyone is still having problems connecting from a PC to Lion, I'd suggest switching to something like Splashtop. The Splashtop streamer is free, and so is the PC version of the client, and conections are much more reliable to establish

I had this problem too.

Setup:
Windows 7 x64 trying to connect to Mac OS X Lion

Suggestions say:
Important to log out of console on the machine

Which I think really means:
Important not to have auto login enabled

I tried a few things about the same time, and some or all may have helped:
* https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3289794 describes kick starting ARD
* https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3226526?start=0&tstart=0 describes Real VNC settings which were already my defaults
* Turned off auto login (this was probably the most important)

* Tweaked my VMware fusion settings, a VM was always starting on login which may have contributed to session issues or slowness

Then tried:
Ultra VNC Free Viewer (UltraVNC_1.0.9.6.1_x64_Setup.exe)
* works after resetting mac and turning off auto login, good performance
Tight VNC Free Viewer (vncviewer 1.5.3.0 TightVNC Win32 Viewer)
* works after resetting mac and turning off auto login, but it's slow
Real VNC Free Viewer (vnc-4_1_3-x86_win32_viewer.exe)
* works after resetting mac and turning off auto login, but it's slow

Another option is to run WINE VNC server on the Mac and connect to that instead of the builtin Mac VNC server. The one for Lion is only beta currently tho

I am able to follow the instructions here:

1. logout from console

2. using a Windows XP I am able to VNC to the Mac Mini Server. Now run something significant such as XCode.

Then using a second Windows PC, I tried to VNC to the same Mac again to login as a second user, but hit the same gray screen problem! I could see the login screen but couldn't enter username or password. Keystrokes didn't seem to get through.

If I log out of the first user, then the second user can login.

Question: how to achieve multi user screen sharing using VNC??

I dont believe there is a current solution for multiuser login from a PC to Lion, yet.

Multiuser login currently works from Mac to Mac, but not from PC to Mac

I was trying to figure out how to connect to my Macbook using "Screen sharing" from my windows PC.

I was suffering the same problems as discussed here: any windows VNC client just shows a "gray" screen with no way to get to the actual screen.

After some digging on the internet, tried {tight!real!any}VNC client, I figure out how to actually PASS THE LOGIN screen:

JUST TYPE YOUR USERNAME and PASSWORD

Bum, the screen comes magically on the remote viewer!!!

Caveats: you must set a vnc password in the Screen Sharing preference panel:

- click on computer setting

-select "VNC viewers may control screen with password" => insert the password

It then allows you to connect to the VNC server on your Lion PC. Once the "gray" screen is shown, type your username and pwd...

Hope this helps.

This worked for me as well. Thanks!!!

Hi,

I'm trying to login multi-user into my own Macbook.

What I mean is, on my macbook start a session logged in as another user on my own macbook.

Using JollysfastVNC I can do this, but its terribly slow, like unusable slow. Tried changing the color depth and everything.

How can I fix this?

Running Lion on Mid-2009 Macbook Pro

Message was edited by: Tayne

I tried everything but was getting gray screen. Marco202 's solution worked. Thanks for that. You don't need to enter user name, while on gray screen TYPE PASSWORD ONLY and hit enter.

@mikeypas:

Something else that has worked for me when running RealVNC Personal Edition (vP4.6.2):

Go to Options -> Connection

select 'Shared connection (do not disconnect other VNC Viewers)'

Now try connecting in.

Someone has filed a bug for this (according to our Apple rep) and they are currently 'evaluating it'. ;-)

The easiest way for me, albeit probably not the most convenient, is to use a Linux VM. Download Oracle Virtualbox (free), download the latest edition of Ubuntu desktop ISO (again, free). Mount the image and install the base system. The VM requirements are low. I use 512Kb ram, 1 CPU core and 8Gb disk size. Make sure you install the virtualbox tools for screen scaling to work. After you're done, simply use the native remote desktop viewer. Typically I do vnc over ssh, but if you don't care about security you could always go straight in. It's never failed me and when I exit the vm, I just suspend it. This allows it to start up in mere seconds. Also, on my Android phone I've always used pocket cloud free...works great.

Hi, Amazon Panda,

Thanks. Your solution works for me.

Another software that would work? Try deploying on premise remote support appliance such as RHUB or Bomgar appliances in order to establish remote connection between MAC and PC.