Send option/alt key press to OS X connected from Windows via VNC?

Question

I recently started using a mac running Leopard Server remotely at work, using the RealVNC client to connect from my Windows XP workstation via the Leopard VNC server.

As I need to do a fair amount of editing, I would like to have the keys mapped to the same positions as the macs I have been using for a long time. The Ctrl key works as Ctrl, and the Alt key works as Cmd, which is good, but I have had no success getting the Windows logo key to work as Option/Alt. It's seriously affecting my productivity in XCode and Terminal.

Has anybody with the same setup solved this question, either by configuring Windows and/or the VNC client, or otherwise?

Answer 1

Problem existed as of synergy 1.3.4; was resolved after upgrading client (running on the Mac-side) to 1.3.6p2.

Answer 2

I use Vine VNC server on Mac OS X Leopard, and RealVNC as the client.

My Ctrl key works as Ctrl, Alt key works as Cmd and the Windows Logo key works as Option/Alt. I guess thats what you want, so perhaps try running Vine VNC server on the Mac.

Answer 3

If you use x11vnc you can remap keys the way you want using the -remap option. Besides, x11vnc is way better than vine (in speed) and built-in vnc (in stability, e.g., clipboard sharing), and can be started and stopped remotely (e.g., you can ssh into the box and kill/start x11vnc from command-line). I just tried to remap Left Shift key to act as Enter key just for the heck of it and it worked, try this:

x11vnc -rfbauth ~/.vnc/passwd -remap Shift_L-Return

Note that you need to explicitly specify the authentication method for x11vnc, or it will start with NO authentication. In this case, I created the password using x11vnc -storepasswd ~/.vnc/passwd in advance, but you can also use the passwd file created by other vnc servers. Also note that, though the name indicates dependency on x11, it does NOT require X11 to be running. The names of the keys can be looked up from the keysymdef.h (/usr/include/X11).

Answer 4

I suggest to use RealVNC client to have "Option" key enabled: both TightVNC and UltraVNC viewers do not send the "Option" key (which should be mapped to "windows" key).

See the whole response here: Option-key with VNC Viewer to remote control a Mac from a Windows 7 PC