I’ve had problems connecting to my Ubuntu 9.10 server via Mac OS’ built-in VNC client, “Screen Sharing”. Frequently when I connect, I get a white screen with no indication that the connection is working. If I type characters or click the mouse, it does actually send those events to the remote side. My only option was to use Chicken of the VNC (which sucks) to connect to my server. Finally, I did some digging and found the solution/workaround.
- Open a new Finder window.
- Click “Go” and then “Go to Folder” (or hit Command-Shift-G).
- Type in “/System/Library/CoreServices” and hit enter.
- Find the “Screen Sharing” application, click once to highlight.
- Click “File” and then “Get Info” (or hit Command-I).
- Find the checkbox labeled “Open in 32-bit mode” and check it.
- Close the Info window and Finder folder window.
That’s it! Apparently there is a bug in the application only when running in 64-bit mode. I don’t really care why it fixes it, I’m just glad its fixed and I thought I’d share.
Thanks to the anonymous user on Mac OS X Hints!
Stefan Edlund
Worked great thanks!
Janko Hrasko
Thank you! It would be good to know why did it stopped working in the first place as it worked fine before.
Hint:
This might have something to do with Darwin Ports, until I installed them it worked fine. I could be wrong on this.
Erik
Thanks for this info, the solution worked for me.
I had no problem connecting to Ubuntu 32-bit. But a Ubuntu 64-bit no luck, this solved it!
Brian
You sir are a GOD!!!! Thanks! This problem has plagued me for a year, the only thing i could do was log in 20 times till it finally worked. This worked first time out – thank you so much!
Alasdair
Textbook. Thanks for posting this.
Allan Marcus
AWESOME! This was driving me crazy. Many thanks.
Brian
Thanks! Worked like magic
Tim
This saved me. Thank you.
Andrew
Sweet – this had been annoying me for quite some time. Occasionally quitting and reconnecting would fix it but this has fixed it for good. 🙂
Derte84
Thanksssss. Vnc is full of bug
shpokas
saved my day, man. thanks!
edgarvl
Thank you very much it worked perfect
Nothal
Works. Thanks!
sweetie
Thanks a lot!
Wander
Worked great! Thanks.
Chovija
Thanks Worked like a charm with my hackinstosh 10.6.7.
Rob van Wijk
Thank you very much! This post has helped me a lot.
Click170
This white-screen problem was baffling me for weeks until I finally took the time to Google it and your blog came up, thanks!
Talk about dropping the ball on Apple’s part, a persistent reproducible bug in Apple’s interoperability software that’s persisted for more than a year? WTF?
Jan Hartmann
Thank you!
urihaynes
THANK YOU! Worked like a charm for me. I was pulling my hair out on this one, until I found this post. Again, thank you!
neotipper
Dude, I just spent most of the day troubleshooting my LINUX box! It never occurred to me that this was a MAC issue. 😐
Works perfectly now.
Thanks for the tip!
r3n
You the man Aaron! It fixed my problem.
nove
i have the same problem ( but actually i have it with any VNC viewer, and the screen is black,) and i did what you said and didn’t work =/ …
Erick
You are a hero.. This problem has been nagging at me for the last few days..
Thanks again for sharing..
Rgds,
Erick from Holland
Halle
Wow, thanks for this, worked perfectly.
SuperLuckyCat
Uh-huh, that did the trick. Amazing!
ksuchomel
GET INFO does not have a 32 bit button with Mavericks 10.9.4. Any other ideas?
Aaron Douglas
I think Mavericks doesn’t ship with a universal 32/64 bit binary for ScreenSharing.app. I think we’re screwed and must use a third party VNC tool. I still don’t know the cause of the issue in the first place.