I have installed Vine Server on a Mac Pro running Leopard Server 10.5.3. I have set several user accounts to different ports from 5900 to 5909. I am able to view the desktop for each, but when I try to type anything, the screen locks-up. I get a message that I am running a VNC server that does not support keystroke encryption. Is there any way around this issue or will it be updated in a future release?
What VNC viewer are you using to access these accounts? This sort of set-up works fine with Vine Viewer – you might give it a try. Or see if your viewer has a way to disable the encryption feature that it’s complaining is not supported. Let us know what you find out.
I have used several viewers including Vine Viewer. All give the same result. I followed the instructions with Vine Server and am able to access the accounts, but if I try to type something in Excel, Word, Safari, etc, the screen freezes. Is there anything to disable this encryption in Apple Leopard Server?
So, it sounds like maybe you’re running the Leopard built-in screen sharing, not Vine Server. Try turning off Screen Sharing in System Preferences -> Sharing on the server and make sure Vine Server is running there.
Did that and it still will not accept keystrokes from my computer. Any other ideas? I can open programs, view all the accounts that are setup, but no keystrokes.
I’ve never heard of this particular problem before – it should work. Check the setting for Keyboard Events on the Device pane of the Vine Server Preferences. Possibly one of the other settings there will work better for you (you’ll need to restart the VNC server).
It appears that the message about running a VNC server that does not support keystroke encryption is given by Apple’s screen sharing system. So if the Keyboard Events setting has no impact, my only other suggestion is that you double- or triple-check that you’ve got Screen Sharing turned off everywhere and are actually connecting from Vine Viewer to Vine Server.
Is it possible that since Screen Sharing was at one point enabled, a pref file was created that is now preventing Vine Server from running properly? I have checked everything and am now thinking that a clean install of Leopard Server may be the last resort to trying to get this issue resolved, unless keyboard encryption is going to be incorporated into a newer version of Vine Server.
Not sure what happened, but now it is working. Thanks for the help.
Because encryption isn’t part of the RFB/VNC standard we don’t plan on implementing a DIRECT encryption within Vine. However the current version of Vine already does support tunneling all VNC traffic (sent keyboard events and returning screen shots) through SSH.
Just make sure you have the SSH server enabled on your server machine (in System Preferences) and then on the VNC client click the “Secured” checkbox and provide user login information.
Explicit configuration information on this is available in the Vine Viewer and Vine Server manuals.