Problems with UltraVNC and Mac OS X

[Rosch]

Hi...

Here I am running several Apple boxes with Mac OS 10.3.9 and 10.4.2. Both OS X Versions are running the latest Apple Remote Desktop Software with enabled VNC support.

Well there are at least 2 heavy problems with UltraVNC.

With UltraVNC 1.0 I could happily connect to all my Macs. With 1.0.1 now when I want to connect I shortly see a part of my mac screen, then UltraVNC Viewer closes. So obviously there was a new bug introduced with 1.0.1. Does anyone know about this and takes care of it? I couldn't find any diagnostic output nor on windows nor on mac.

But even with Ultravnc 1.0 there was a problems with it regarding the keyboard mapping. It is somehow wrong.

I am running UltraVNC on Win XP SP2 (german). When connecting to Mac OS X the keyboard mapping is mostly wrong for special chars like / | \ ; : . , * # '.

This is bad if you want to type on the remote side (eg. in XCode). The remote keyboard is setted to German (like on my windows box). When I switch to american keyboard layout on mac the most keys are correct. Except / * \ and some others. So it is still hardly useable. Is that already known and will someone take care of it?

Maybe all these are bugs on apple's side but it should be cleared out what it is and what maybe can done for it.

Thanks in advance,

Roland

[wwiii]

On the Mac side, try the programs I list below in my signature.

OSXvnc is a server that has done some work to try to handle alternate keyboard layouts. I use the US English Dvorak layout on my Mac and have no problems when I connect to an XP machine running ultraVNC.

If you are connecting and getting a blank screen, set the connection profile colors to "millions of colors", "thousands of colors" or "256 colors" rather than "let server decide".

[soletan]

I'd like to pick up this thread since I encounter similar problems in remotely controlling my Mac Mini (server) running Mac OS X 10.5 from a PC (client) running Windows Vista. The latter one's keyboard layout is German as is on Mac Mini. German Umlaute are no problem when typing on Mac Mini or on Windows PC.

When I connect to "Screen Sharing" on Mac Mini using Ultra VNC 1.04 under Windows Vista, German Umlaute and (eventually) all special characters like @.-#+ aren't available at expected keys. International letters and digits work as expected with Y and Z swapped just like one of the German and US layout differences.

I haven't changed VNC viewer due to missing Vista-support in tightVNC and realVNC (free as well as personal edition) not being capable to successfully connect at all. But I tried Vine Server (osxvnc) instead of native support through Screen Sharing without any benefit.

What are my options to work remotely through VNC as good as locally. I currently can't even enter mail addresses or similar ... (BTW: pressing the two distinct keys . and , both result in same uppercase character - the German Umlaut Ö (O Diaresis).


Any support is welcome!
Thanks,
Soletan

[soletan]

Got my problem fixed. As it might help others searching the net for some essential information without luck like me I'll provide a solution here:

Again, I'm using UltraVNC viewer on a Windows Vista box to control a Mac Mini running Mac OS X 10.5. Both systems are using German keyboard layout.

Since VNC seems to be anything but internationalized the software is transferring pressed keys according US keyboard layout. Thank you for that! A VNC viewer isn't translating your keys, but send the characters to the server as is. The VNC server is expecting characters according to the US keyboard layout and thus translating those US-layout-based characters back to the server's current keyboard layout.

All you need is sending US-layout-based characters by simply changing the keyboard layout of your client operating system. Since the computer does not know what is printed as label on your key caps it's sending something you didn't intend to send. But since the server is translating that "wrong" character back to the server's keyboard layout, which is in accordance to your keyboard on client-side, your passing the character which is actually printed on your key caps.

In my case I'm working with the German layout. If I press the Ö-key (O diaresis), the VNC-viewer gets a ";" due to the US keyboard layout activated under Windows Vista. It sends that semicolon to the server, which is translating the US-based ; into the character according the server system's keyboard layout found on same key the ; is on in US layout - the Ö.

Of course, you'll have to change the keyboard layout of your Windows client whenever you frequently switch between VNC viewer and other client applications. But using Shift+LeftAlt it takes only a little moment to switch keyboard layouts as well.

[soletan]

In addition to my previous post: of course you actually don't need to change keyboard layout each time you're switching the app, since Windows remembers what keyboard layout was activated in which running application. So you'll have to change to US layout once after connecting to your VNC server and that's enough.