lock or shut down display on Mac OS X iMac

Vine
#1

Dear All,

I’m using osxvnc to connect to my iMac. I would like to be able to black out the local display of the iMac and only see the display remotely. Ideally, I would also disable the local keyboard and mouse.

Is there a way to do this?

I tried locking the display, but this also locks it remotely and leads to termination of the vnc session.

Many thanks,

Samsara
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#2

There is no way to do those things currently.

Those features are in the feature request list, although we’re not aware of any way to blank the screen locally and still be able to see it remotely based on the available APIs. Disabling the local keyboard and mouse may be possible in a future release.

#3

Thanks for the quick reply. I guess I’ll hang a black cloak over it and hide it in a dark corner!

Cheers!

Samsara
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#4

I’m guessing at the moment that Apple Remote Desktop 2.2 works only with Tiger (and in any case costs 299USD minimum and isn’t open source). In any case, the administrator’s guide [1] states on page 82:

"Apple Remote Desktop can lock a computer screen. When you lock a computer screen, no one can see the desktop or use the mouse and keyboard on that computer. By default, ARD displays a picture of a padlock on locked screens, but you can display a custom picture.

You can continue to work with computers using Remote Desktop after you?ve locked their screens. However, the screen becomes unlocked if you use the Observe, Control, or Share commands. "

So an API evidently exists, although - as you say - it may not be “available” in the sense of “published”.

[1] http://images.apple.com/remotedesktop/pdf/ARD_Admin_Guide22.pdf
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#5

Very interesting. Thanks for pointing that out. We’ll have to investigate more closely when we get a chance. Our belief up to now has been that the screen buffer OSXvnc accesses is the same buffer that displays on the screen, but perhaps that’s not absolutely true.

#6

Has there been any progress on this? I just downloaded the most recent release and couldn’t find it as an option yet.

My hope is that you could access the functions that are invoked when the machine is put to sleep, and isolate the one that sleeps the display.

Samsara
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#7

The kernel sources suggest that there is indeed only a single framebuffer. However, I imagine that you could physically shut down the display (as happens when the machine is being put to sleep) without affecting the buffer. I’d never delved into the sources before, and in two hours of research that I did a while ago, I couldn’t find the exact place where the display is being put to sleep. However, I also didn’t find anything that suggested that this wouldn’t be possible. I guess someone will have to look into the details of this some more.

Samsara
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