MacOS – How to enable OS X screen sharing (VNC) through SSH

macosremote desktopssh

I forgot to turn on "VNC viewers may control screen with password",
to enter on my working Mac,
is there way to turn-on this feature remotely via SSH (I'm on WindowsXP now)?

Best Answer

Source: http://technotes.twosmallcoins.com/?p=279 (archived)

Putty is a good SSH client for Windows.

  1. SSH into your remote OS X machine with an administrator’s log in and password.

  2. Enable Remote Desktop (a.k.a. Screen Sharing, a.k.a. VNC) with this command:

    sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart \
-activate -configure -access -on \
-clientopts -setvnclegacy -vnclegacy yes \
-clientopts -setvncpw -vncpw mypasswd \
-restart -agent -privs -all

  3. Login using a VNC client. As I mentioned, TightVNC worked for me; for some reason, RealVNC and UltraVNC didn’t. Your password is “mypasswd” (see the -vncpw flag in the above command; you can and should change this).

  4. When you are done, turn off screen-sharing using your SSH session:

    sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart \
-deactivate -configure -access -off
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