As part of my work at Droplet Computing, I need to test our software on 4 different platforms (Windows, Apple Mac, Unbuntu and RHEL… and if I’m feeling frisky Chromebooks too!). As Apple Mac physical user, it makes sense to use virtual machines for this functional kind of testing (performance testing is another matter and has to be really done on physical systems). Being a long-standing vSphere user, it was logical to crank my home lab back up and use that gear than buy 3 laptops.
That was a pretty easy affair, but I was tussling with Unbuntu even with VMware Tools installed using Windows10 jump box to access the lab (which coincidentally resides in an enclosure in my garage. I’m using those horrid powerline adapters to get ethernet into there at the moment, needless to say, I hope to borrow a masonry drill in the next couple of days) so I can be wired directly to the wifi router that sits behind my telly.
So I thought I would give Unbuntu “Screen Sharing” a bash to see if that was any better than VMware Console. You can find Screen Sharing by simply typing “Sharing” and enabling it like so:
Trouble was I kept on getting refused/access either using the free VNC Viewer or the Apple Mac’s own Go To Server options.
Turns out Screen Sharing has its own encryption settings which are incompatible with these viewers. The easiest way to fix this is to use a dconf editor to turn off the encryption – and Bob’s your close relative…
1. Open a terminal and install dconf with:
sudo apt install dconf-editor
2. Run dconf-editor with:
dconf-editor
3. Browse to org -> gnome -> desktop -> remote-access and turn require-encryption to OFF
I did find VNC to be more network-friendly, but not as effective as a masonry drill… 🙂