I have a Mac mini. I want to run it “headless”, and manage it over the network using Screen Sharing. It runs Leopard just fine. But there’s one minor problem that brings the whole plan crashing down around my ears, and having spent two whole evenings trying to fix it, I’m flummoxed.
The idea, you see, is for the mini to be a testing machine. I’ll install weird shareware on it and play around; some of these apps might get written up as reviews for MacUser magazine, to which I contribute quite regularly. MacUser magazine has rules about the screen grabs that appear on its pages. Reviews must have an orange backdrop on the desktop. Features get a yellow desktop image; how-to guides get a green one. It’s all part of the colour-coding they’ve used to make navigating the magazine nice and easy.
So, back to my headless Mac mini. Here’s the problem:
When plugged into a monitor, I can change the desktop image on the mini to the orange backdrop I require and everything works fine. The moment I unplug the monitor, the backdrop disappears and is replaced by a plain blue backdrop. Not even the blue image that’s the default Tiger desktop, but something much plainer and bluer than that.
Nothing I do over Screen Sharing will remedy this. The blue backdrop remains, even if I delete the desktop preferences file and restart.
So, plug the mini back into a monitor and - oh! - the desired desktop picture is there!
Remove the monitor again, look at Screen Sharing, and - gah! - it’s gone again.
The issue seems to be something to do with Screen Sharing.
Normally a misbehaving desktop background wouldn’t be cause for much concern, but it’s driving me mad because in this instance, and for the MacUser reviews reasons outlined above, the display of the desktop background matters a great deal. Without being able to run this machine headless, it is rendered useless.
I’ve tried re-installing Leopard (erase and install, since there’s no data stored on the mini), but even that does not fix the problem. Which suggests to me that it’s a bug in 10.5.2, perhaps, or 10.5 generally because I’ve had the same problem before updating to 10.5.2.
Gah, gah, and triple drat.
4 Comments
I’m not a Mac person really, so can offer no software help, but was wondering howe clever the computer is. Could you just plug a video cable in to fool it that a monitor was there?
Or how difficult would it be to take the screen capture, then use a Photoshop fill to change the background colour appropriately?
Have you tried changing the background with the monitor unplugged and screen-sharing enabled (perhaps using VNC as your client instead)? Mac’s have display-specific backgrounds. Meaning, backgrounds are tied to the displays that are active when the background is set. I have several monitors and depending on which one I plugin, the background changes. I’m not sure if it’s resolution-specific or display-specific, but it ought to give you a place to start.
@se71: Tried plugging in a video cable. No worky. Thought about the Photoshop route, but I’m useless at Photoshop and that would probably be more hassle than it’s worth for me.
@Jim: Yes, tried that. Still no worky. You’re right about backgrounds being display-specific; it’s does look like Screen Sharing is treated as a separate display, but something’s wrong with its background every time. Even after a re-install.
I have a new Mac Mini and I’ve been searching for a solution to the same problem you have. Although I don’t have a “requirement” for a specific desktop image on my Screen Shared Mini like you do, I’m perplexed as to why this doesn’t work. Searching the Apple Support discussion forums is how I found a link to your blog. If you do get any info on this issue, please post. I’ll do the same and check back here regularly for updates. Thanks!
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