Remote install

Vine
1

Greetings!

I’m sure this has happened before, but I haven’t found any solutions to the problem. I can ssh into my remote mac, but I don’t have physical access to install software or interact with the GUI. I’ve set up and installed the Vine Server successfully before, but have always had physical access to the machine. I’ve been able to remotely start the Vine Server, but not install it remotely from scratch.

Can the Vine Server be remotely installed and configured from scratch?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards,
Richard

2

Yes it can – although in addition to SSH access it will require root access to actually start the server.

Once you have SSHed in you can download Vine using CURL

curl --location http://www.redstonesoftware.com/downloads/Vine.dmg > /tmp/Vine.dmg

Then Unpack it using hdiutil

hdiutil mount /tmp/Vine.dmg

Then (as root) you can launch a command line version of the server

sudo /Volumes/Vine3.0/Vine\ Server.app/OSXvnc-server -rfbnoauth

To create a password file or specify other options call the server with --help to see arguments.

3

Thanks for the help. I was able to do everything you suggested. However, the server didn’t start because I got the following warning and error:

OSXvnc-server[1290] : 3891612: (connectAndCheck) Untrusted apps are not allowed to connect to or launch Window Server before login.
OSXvnc-server[1290:10b] screen format not supported.

I know how to solve this from the GUI by starting the system server from the Vine Preferences. When I start the system server root authorization is requested, which I can enter through the GUI.

How do I resolve this issue remotely?

Thanks and best regards,
Richard

4

Right, that restriction is new in 10.5 and applies when nobody has yet logged into the computer.

The easiest way to resolve it is to manually setup Vine as a System Server (launch agent). You can do that by placing the attached file in the /Library/LaunchAgents folder. Please modify the parameters as appropriate for your configuration.

Then you can either restart your machine or issue the following command (as root):

launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/com.redstonesoftware.VineServer.plist
5

Ok. Thanks. I didn’t see the attached com.redstonesoftware.VineServer.plist. Would you post it again?

Thanks and best regards,
Richard

6

Silly bboard (it rejected my extension)…

7

One last thing for others who will read this is that they either need to make sure that the mac firewall will let through vnc traffic or forward the vnc ports through ssh to their local machine. I’d suggest the later as it provides much greater security.

Best regards,
Richard