jamf startVNC

[rmanly]

Wasn't there an option in the jamf binary to start up the VNC server by hand?

It is not listed in jamf help anymore and I don't know when it went away.

I want to try doing my daily work on Ubuntu 12.04 for a week or so and I need to be able to remotely control Mac GUI without enabling standard VNC preferably.

Basically I was thinking to ssh into a machine run 'jamf startVNC' or whatever it (was|may have been) and then run the Remote Desktop Client in Ubuntu.

Any thoughts?

EDIT: just tested it on a machine and got this

$ sudo jamf startVNC
Password:
The vnc server does not exist at /usr/sbin/jamfvnc

ooooh I see, Casper Remote is passing it off to ScreenSharing.app now.

hrmm...now what?

[talkingmoose · Accepted solution]

My guess is that the command went away when JAMF moved from installing their own VNC client to using Apple's VNC client. I believe that was in version 8.0 or after.

Any issues with leaving the VNC client enabled on the Mac all the time? If you're using ARD then it's already running. You just need to set access for a VNC client to connect.

[rmanly]

hrmm...

I must be confusing some experiments in the past with tunneling VNC over ssh and having problems with OS X there.

I thought it would be more difficult then it is.

:P

[rmanly]

So I wasn't crazy . Remmina just supports Apple's flavor of VNC without checking the box to enable "VNC viewers may control screen with password:"

TichtVNC and UltraVNC in Windows both require this to be checked.

But back to the original reason for my question I verified with Wireshark that despite the fact that Remmina works out of the box it is still doing the VNC session unencrypted.

THAT was the benefit of jamf's old solution as it not only enabled it on demand it also tunneled the VNC session over ssh.

So. It looks like without installing a third-party VNC server that supports ssh tunneling I am out of luck :(

I suppose if it comes to it I can set my main machine up to tunnel VNC over ssh and then open ARD from within that VNC session but that is kinda sucky.

[rmanly]

Well crap.

Because ARD and Screen Sharing.app "Encrypt passwords and keystrokes..."

I assumed that iSSH with it's new "VNC to Mac" setting (which also does not require the VNC password enabled/set) did so as well but it turns out it does not.

Now I am really bummed out. Good thing I only ever used it for demo purposes and not for real work.