VNC into an Ubuntu machine from a Mac?

Question

I would like to log into my Ubuntu machine from my Mac. I tried running a VNC server on the Ubuntu machine with

 sudo x11vnc -shared -forever -nopw -display :0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth

and then connecting in the finder to "Go to server->vnc://192.168.1.2" but I get the "Contacting" dialog, but it never connects. On the Ubuntu side, I see this:

29/11/2009 03:42:03 Got connection from client 192.168.1.108
29/11/2009 03:42:03   other clients:
29/11/2009 03:42:03 Disabled X server key autorepeat.
29/11/2009 03:42:03   to force back on run: 'xset r on' (3 times)
29/11/2009 03:42:03 created xdamage object: 0x800036
29/11/2009 03:42:03 Client Protocol Version 3.889
29/11/2009 03:42:03 Protocol version sent 3.889, using 3.889
29/11/2009 03:42:03 rfbProcessClientSecurityType: executing handler for type 1
29/11/2009 03:42:03 rfbProcessClientSecurityType: returning securityResult for client rfb version >= 3.8
29/11/2009 03:42:18 XDAMAGE is not working well... misses: 77/225
29/11/2009 03:42:18 Maybe a OpenGL app like Beryl is the problem? Use -noxdamage
29/11/2009 03:42:18 To disable this check and warning specify -xdamage twice.
29/11/2009 03:42:19 cutbuffer_send: no send: uninitialized clients

I tried adding "-noxdamage" in the x11vnc command line, and it didn't help. I'm running Ubuntu 8.04.3 (x86_64) on the Linux side and Snow Leopard on the Mac side.

Answer 1

I would like to log into my Ubuntu machine from my Mac. I tried running a VNC server on the Ubuntu...

I am not the world most knowledgeable person on this topic, but - AFAIK - VNC is not a remote log-on utility but a program to share the desktop of an open session over the network (in other words: you must be already logged into the machine you want to see the desktop of).

If you want to be able to graphically log-in into a remote machine you will need some other tool instead. I have successfully managed that on xubuntu with freenx. I wrote a small how-to on serverfault. I believe you will only have to use GDM instead of the startxfce4 command and it should work.

Bear in mind that if this is the kind of functionality you are after, there are various other alternatives you can try, especially if you are using gnome. The "classic one" - if you trust the connection between the two computer (user and password are sent unencrypted) is XDMCP.

Answer 2

Instead of using VNC, what I did was the following:

• enable xdmcp on the Linux box by editing /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom and setting "Enable=true" in the "[xdmcp]" section.
• restart gdm
• start X on the Mac using "sudo X -indirect 192.168.1.2"

And now I have a GDM window where I can log onto my Linux box. Unfortunately it's SLLOOOOOOW.

Answer 3

I was able to connect to my Ubuntu machine from my Mac just as you tried to do using Chicken of the VNC instead of the built-in desktop sharing client.

Answer 4

Perhaps too obvious, but did you try this? To disable this check and warning specify -xdamage twice. (you said you tried -noxdamage but that's not what the message said to do)

EDIT: Also, are you running Beryl or Compiz? You can stop Compiz by running metacity --replace in the run dialog (if you do this in a terminal, it will close when you close the window, even if you run it with an &).