Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > any way to disable Lion screen sharing login requirement?

any way to disable Lion screen sharing login requirement?
Thread Tools
canadave
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 2, 2012, 07:34 PM
 
My wife and I have separate accounts on our iMac. I often have need to access the iMac's screen from my Macbook Pro--sometimes to access something on my screen, sometimes to access something on her screen. Both computers are running Lion.

Is there any way to disable (or otherwise get around) the requirement of having to log in to the iMac user's screen when trying to establish a screensharing connection? I just want it to work the way it did in Snow Leopard, where you just establish a connection and a login is never required.
     
chabig
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 3, 2012, 03:21 AM
 
Think for a minute. If you don't log in, how is the computer supposed to know which account to connect you to, yours or your wife's? Snow Leopard could only support sharing one user screen at a time. Lion can have multiple people using the GUI and logging in is how it knows.
     
canadave  (op)
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 3, 2012, 12:02 PM
 
Originally Posted by chabig View Post
Think for a minute. If you don't log in, how is the computer supposed to know which account to connect you to, yours or your wife's? Snow Leopard could only support sharing one user screen at a time. Lion can have multiple people using the GUI and logging in is how it knows.
I understand that...I'm asking whether there's a way to simply log in to the currently active user, or at least disable the requirement that the logged in user manually verify the incoming screensharing request.
     
turtle777
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 3, 2012, 12:13 PM
 
Originally Posted by canadave View Post
I understand that...I'm asking whether there's a way to simply log in to the currently active user, or at least disable the requirement that the logged in user manually verify the incoming screensharing request.
You don't need a password if both Macs are currently running with the same user ID and password.

Other than that, I don't think it's possible, because you are essentially asking to turn off very basic Unix security and user account features.

-t
     
canadave  (op)
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 4, 2012, 09:45 PM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
You don't need a password if both Macs are currently running with the same user ID and password.

Other than that, I don't think it's possible, because you are essentially asking to turn off very basic Unix security and user account features.

-t
I don't understand why that would be so. In Snow Leopard, my wife could be logged in as her own ID down on the iMac, and I could connect to her screen via Screen Sharing while logged in as myself on my Macbook Pro. This procedure in Lion now requires a password. It's clearly a new "feature" of Lion, not a basic security feature. Since it's something Lion-related, I'm thinking there has to be some way to change its behaviour, or at least disable it.
     
chabig
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 4, 2012, 10:00 PM
 
As turtle said, you're asking for a way to bypass basic unix security and I doubt that it's possible. You even described it yourself, in Snow Leopard your wife was logged in yet you could see her account without a password. That's a security flaw, and apparently Apple has fixed it. Asking for a password before accessing a computer account is not too much to ask.
     
turtle777
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 4, 2012, 10:05 PM
 
I suspect that before Lion, Screen Sharing used basic VNC w/o authetication.

Possibly, Lion is using a SSH tunneled VNC, and therefore, requires authentication. It's not the Screensharing par se, but the encrypted tunnel that needs a password.

Just speculation on my part though.

-t
     
Art Vandelay
Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: New York, NY
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 5, 2012, 12:51 AM
 
You are all misunderstanding the problem. He's not talking about removing authentication to establish the screen sharing connection. He's talking about the login screen that is presented for the new per-user screen sharing once the screen sharing connection is started. Lion now supports virtual sessions. A user can now start a screen sharing session and log into their own account while a different user is sitting at the Mac using their account.
Vandelay Industries
     
turtle777
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 5, 2012, 12:52 AM
 
And you are in the wrong thread

-t
     
Art Vandelay
Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: New York, NY
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 5, 2012, 01:05 AM
 
No, don't think so.
Vandelay Industries
     
turtle777
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 5, 2012, 01:07 AM
 
Originally Posted by Art Vandelay View Post
No, don't think so.
The mod must have moved your post. It was definitely in the wrong thread, along with my post
(The original posting was in a PWL thread)

-t
     
turtle777
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 5, 2012, 01:10 AM
 
Originally Posted by Art Vandelay View Post
You are all misunderstanding the problem. He's not talking about removing authentication to establish the screen sharing connection. H
I'm not sure that's true.

The OP talks about "disable [...] the requirement of having to log in".
I interpret "log in" as authentication.

-t
     
turtle777
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 5, 2012, 01:25 AM
 
Originally Posted by canadave View Post
I don't understand why that would be so. In Snow Leopard, my wife could be logged in as her own ID down on the iMac, and I could connect to her screen via Screen Sharing while logged in as myself on my Macbook Pro. This procedure in Lion now requires a password. It's clearly a new "feature" of Lion, not a basic security feature. Since it's something Lion-related, I'm thinking there has to be some way to change its behaviour, or at least disable it.
Here is the Logic (how I observe it) behind Lion Screen Sharing:

1) If BOTH active users (both Macs) are the SAME user ID, you get connected W/O a password (authentication)
2a) If you are USER1, and USER2 is active on the other Mac, you need to enter their password to do Screen Sharing of USER2
2b) If you are USER1, and USER2 is active on the other Mac, but a USER1 exists on the other Mac, you can Screen Share to USER1 ("Virtual Screen") w/o a password.

It seems the only "provision" to log in w/o authentication (but using a different user) would be using Apple ID. I have never tried that, so you might want to check it out.

OS X Lion: Screen Sharing Overview

Also, if you use ARD (Apple Remote Desktop), you can allow certain users access to a Mac, and don't need any passwords for Screen Sharing.

-t
     
Art Vandelay
Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: New York, NY
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 5, 2012, 01:29 AM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
The mod must have moved your post. It was definitely in the wrong thread, along with my post
(The original posting was in a PWL thread)

-t
Must have been a DB goof because I never visit the PWL. I was responding in this thread.
Vandelay Industries
     
turtle777
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 5, 2012, 01:30 AM
 
Originally Posted by Art Vandelay View Post
Must have been a DB goof because I never visit the PWL. I was responding in this thread.
Yeah, possible, too. The gold old hampstor playing a prank.

-t
     
Athens
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Great White North
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 5, 2012, 02:29 AM
 
Go to System Preferences, click on Sharing, then click on Screen Sharing, then click on Computer Settings. I think what you are looking for is Anyone my request permission to control the screen. The VNC settings is also in that same box.
Blandine Bureau 1940 - 2011
Missed 2012 by 3 days, RIP Grandma :-(
     
canadave  (op)
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 11, 2012, 02:05 PM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
Here is the Logic (how I observe it) behind Lion Screen Sharing:

1) If BOTH active users (both Macs) are the SAME user ID, you get connected W/O a password (authentication)
2a) If you are USER1, and USER2 is active on the other Mac, you need to enter their password to do Screen Sharing of USER2
2b) If you are USER1, and USER2 is active on the other Mac, but a USER1 exists on the other Mac, you can Screen Share to USER1 ("Virtual Screen") w/o a password.

It seems the only "provision" to log in w/o authentication (but using a different user) would be using Apple ID. I have never tried that, so you might want to check it out.

OS X Lion: Screen Sharing Overview

Also, if you use ARD (Apple Remote Desktop), you can allow certain users access to a Mac, and don't need any passwords for Screen Sharing.

-t
Hi, sorry I haven't responded to this in a while, got busy IRL.

I don't think the Lion screen sharing logic speculated upon here is correct. At least, 2a isn't, because it additionally requires USER2 to verify the incoming request (see below).

I guess I really didn't make my question clear (my bad). What I'm trying to get around isn't the authentication. It's the fact that the person AT THE COMPUTER THAT IS BEING CONNECTED TO needs to accept the screen sharing request.

So let's say my wife is logged in downstairs on the iMac but is no longer there. Let's say I'm also logged into that iMac. But I want to do something on her screen.

So from my laptop upstairs, I initiate a screensharing request. I get the window asking if I want to log in OR use the virtual screen sharing. I want to log in to her screen. But then it says it's waiting for her to accept the request downstairs.

It's that step that I'm trying to get around. I have her password, she has mine, etc. If it simply required me to log in AS HER, I could do that. But it keeps insisting on having the user downstairs verify the request, which is a problem because often neither of us is downstairs when I'm making the screensharing request.
     
turtle777
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 11, 2012, 03:52 PM
 
I have never seen this need for the person to ACCEPT the request.

Alas, I'm using AppleRemoteDesktop, which might modify the default behavior.
I can't test a bare-bones ScreenSharing.

-t
     
Waragainstsleep
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 11, 2012, 07:10 PM
 
Have you tried using remote management instead of screensharing in the sharing prefs? My Lion Server doesn't require approval for me to share its screen. It only has one user though and no physical screen.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
JoseErickson
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Sep 2012
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Sep 18, 2012, 10:55 AM
 
Remote management rather than screen sharing is the answer. You can still use the screen sharing feature on the machine you are on rather than having to use Apple's full Remote Desktop product.
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:48 PM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,