Two users and 1 PC with NoMachine

[simonLebedev]

I want to allow my friend to use my mac PC by connecting with NoMachine and his account. But at the same time I want to be able to use the PC also, but with my account. This is somehow possible by connecting first with vnc, loggin in with friend’s account, quiting vnc and connecting with NoMachine. This way I can use the pc with my account and at the same time my friend can use it too but with his account. The problem is that it is quite uncomfortable to do these manipulations and it does not always work out. For some reason sometimes NoMachine still connects to my account, not my friends account.

Btw. using different accounts while connecting with NoMachine does not seem to make any difference. I would expect that connecting with friend’s account would lead me to see his desktop, not mine. And vice versa.

[Britgirl]

Accessing multiple user accounts running on the same host is available on Linux, and not on Mac or Windows. This functionality is called Terminal Services, you provide a virtual desktop for each user and they work separately, even at the same time.

When you access the physical desktop of NoMachine (which is what you do with the free NoMachine for Linux/Win/Mac), the users will see the same physical desktop. NoMachine can’t currently make any Windows or Mac computer become a Terminal Server.

[simonLebedev]

The method how to achieve that which I described above worked pretty good actually. But with the new 6th version one thing is broken now. I can see the screen of the second user on client pc, while I can work on the  server pc, but after the update using mouse or keyboard on client’s side affects the server account. I wonder if someone can fix this on one of the next updates?

[simonLebedev]

Any information? Or at least can someone provide me with an older version of NoMachine for mac? Older than 6.x.x.

[Britgirl]

I can see the screen of the second user on client pc, while I can work on the  server pc, but after the update using mouse or keyboard on client’s side affects the server account.

 

The problem you have is not clear. Please tell us the specific steps to reproduce the issue you have with keyboard and mouse using version 6 which you didn’t have using the earlier version 5.

Thanks.

[simonLebedev]

Britgirl,

ok. I have a Mac server, and Windows client. Both are running 6.0.62 NoMachine version. I also have screen sharing turned on on mac (Settings>Sharing>Screen sharing). I have two accounts on Mac (let’s say A and B). A is logged in, B is logged out. On Windows I have vnc viewer.

Next steps forces NoMachine clients to see the B’s screen for some reason:

I log in with Windows as client with vnc to the Mac server. I appear in a login window, even though my A account is up and running. I login with the B account. (Everything is good with vnc, I can work with both accounts, but I need the speed of NoMachine.) Than I just close VNC without logging out.

Next I just need to open NoMachine client on Windows machine and connect to the Mac client. I appear on the B desktop as needed but for some reason when I use mouse and keyboard on client side, I see reactions not on the B desktop, but on the A desktop.

[Britgirl]

Now I understand 🙂 So that’s a bug and you can do the following as your workaround:

Edit the configuration file /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/etc/node.cfg to have:

DisplayServerExtraOptions “-oldeventapi 1”

I checked it and it works. Apple deprecated the old APIs which were used (in NM version 5 and earlier) and released new ones, which were also available in v5 but were disabled by default. From version 6 we enabled the new API as default. But you can still set the old ones by using the workaround above.

 

[simonLebedev]

Thank you very much, that helped 🍺

[simonLebedev]

I have another problem. If I press one of these keys on A desktop(which is server’s desktop):

 

Command ⌘, Shift ⇧, Option ⌥, Control ⌃, Caps Lock ⇪

it also affects B desktop(which is client). Other keys like letters, and mouse work as expected.

[graywolf]

Could you do an example?

[simonLebedev]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmTxjAopWJs

On the video I show two computers (A which is server Mac, and B which is client windows notebook). A and B have separate desktops (achieved as described here). When I trigger Caps Lock on A it also triggers on B.

[simonLebedev]

Is there any solution, or any clarifications needed?

[Britgirl]

Hi, sorry for delay. We reproduced it and published the Trouble Report here: https://www.nomachine.com/TR12O08313

Sign up to receive notification of the fix when it has been released 🙂

[simonLebedev]

Britgirl, Thank you very much

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