How to use Apple Remote Desktop from Ubuntu
Need to access your Mac from your Linux desktop? While Apple Remote Desktop software might be compatible with VNC, anyone who’s tried to use a regular VNC client will know it doesn’t work. Here’s how to fix it.
First, the Mac:
- Open Finder and click System Preferences
- Under Internet & Network, open Sharing
- Enable Apple Remote Desktop. Then Access Privileges
- Enable VNC viewers may Control the screen with password, and then pop in a password.
Then on Ubuntu:
- Click System → Administration → Synaptic Package Manager
- Install the tsclient and xtightvncviewer packages
- Uninstall the xvnc4viewer package (for Ubuntu 7.10) or the xvncviewer package (Ubuntu 7.06).This is the important part – Apple Remote Desktop isn’t compatible with regular VNC. Uninstalling it makes Ubuntu prefer the alternative Tight VNC version (which uses a compression that works with Apple Remote Desktop).
- Click Applications → Internet → Terminal Server Client
- Under Computer type the IP address of the Mac, select VNC as the protocol and click Connect.
- If all goes well, a window will pop up in the top left of your screen asking for a password, and you’ll be connected to your Mac.
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June 29th, 2007 19:48
Under Ubuntu 7.04, xvncviewer can’t be uninstalled via Synaptic without uninstalling the “ubuntu-desktop” package. Hence, rather than using tsclient to initiate a connection, you can easily run xtightvncviewer from the command line and pop in the ip address and password to establish a connection to OS X.
Ed:
The above always keeps one package providing the dependency, so ubuntu-desktop won’t be uninstalled (not that that makes a difference). There’s no need for the command line - try it for yourself.
July 1st, 2007 03:13
Pankaj:
The ubuntu-desktop is just a dummy package, or a meta-package which “has a list” of all the packages it will install.
If you remove “ubuntu-desktop” nothing will happen.
Bye.
July 4th, 2007 17:52
You can also download and install OSXvnc (GPL software : http://sourceforge.net/projects/osxvnc/) on the Mac, then simply use the terminal services client built into Ubuntu.
This suits me better, since I now have a single client, built into Ubuntu that can connect to Macs (using OSXvnc), Ubuntu (using built in desktop sharing, which I think is based on tightVNC) or Windows (running Realvnc or UltraVNC).
Horses for courses. It will depend on what your configuration what works best for you.
July 4th, 2007 22:25
Great tip and very nice site. Well done and keep up the good work…
July 23rd, 2007 10:39
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title How to use Apple Remote Desktop from Ubuntu. Thanks for informative article
September 2nd, 2007 09:04
works beautifully for me. Thanks a lot for this.
September 16th, 2007 21:50
thank you, thank you, thank you. I was pulling my hair out trying to get this working with the default client.
November 8th, 2007 00:52
Its Short
Its Sweet
And it works
Great job on the guide.
December 11th, 2007 08:41
worked for me =)
December 20th, 2007 08:59
DO NOT NEED to REMOVE the xvncviewer…….
ONLY install -> xtightvncviewer
And make a Simbolic link….you Need to do THIS: (with root)
cd /etc/alternatives/
rm vncviewer
ln -s /usr/bin/xtightvncviewer vncviewer
Ed:Sure, but you can avoid the terminal work by simply uninstalling the older unnecessary VNC app.
January 4th, 2008 23:16
The proper method to update the default vnc application is by using the program “update-alternatives”, if you’re so adamant about not using the terminal then you should do:
Alt+f2 (for Run Application)
enter: sudo update-alternatives –config vncviewer
make sure you tick “Run in terminal”
click run and a terminal should appear, entered your password.
it will then list the currently available options for the default vncviewer application, look for a line matching “/usr/bin/xtightvncviewer”, enter the number that corresponds to that entry (in my case it was 2) and press enter. Viola! it will now by default use tightvnc over realvnc.
This imho is a better way of doing things, and as i mentioned, the way you’re supposed to do it (on ubuntu/debian atleast ^_^).
Ed: I’m quite aware of alternatives. It’s much simpler to remove the unneeded program
January 8th, 2008 00:00
great job guys.
January 9th, 2008 09:49
Just a note for posterity who find this page via google. In Gutsy (Ubuntu of course), the default vncviewer package is xvnc4viewer, not xvncviewer (which is available, but not installed by default) as the tutorial lists. To follow the tutorial’s method, you will need to remove the xvnc4viewer package, rather than xvncviewer.
Also, only because I too would recommend Jacob’s method, I would also advise that the commandline syntax for update alternatives is:
sudo update-alternatives –config vncviewer
Note the double dash.
Thanks for this great tutorial!! I have recommended it to a couple people already.
Ed:Thanks Acabre, we’ve updated for Gutsy as mentioned. If there was a graphical UI to switch between alternatives we’d recommend it too, but we write tutorials for Ubuntu’s stated audience - humans - which typically don’t use command line if they can avoid it. As you mention, either way works fine.