Black screen on connect after 8.15.3 upgrade

[Brian]

Running a MacMini 2020 with M1 chip. Working flawlessly until installing the most recent Mac update (8.15.3). Now upon successful connect to the host computer, the client (iPhone running NM v. 8.7.1) onnects with black screen. I can see the computer on the local LAN and I have an external connection to the machine via IP address, both of which have historically connected without exception to the MacMini host. The only change is the fact that the upgrade was installed on the MacMini. Does anyone else experience the same or have a solution at all?

Further info: On the MacMini host that was showing black screen to the iPhone client when attempting to connect: the black screen on the iPhone client appears when the MacMini host display has gone to sleep. The MacMini settings in energy are set to keep the computer from going to sleep when the display goes to sleep.

If a connection is attempted while the screen is awake, everything works normally.

This behavior is a change since the 8.15.3 update. No settings or any other changes were made on this computer, which was connecting fine before the update was installed. It also seems to be specific to the MacMini with the M1 processor, as I have also installed the update on my MacBook Pro (Intel CPU) and there have been no changes to it performing satisfactorily as it was before the update was installed. Hopefully this helps.

Thanks!

Brian

[bucu]

Hi,
can you edit /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/etc/node.cfg on your mac mini and add this line:
DisplayServerExtraOptions "-nosckgrab", then restart NoMachine (sudo /etc/NX/nxserver --restart) and try to reproduce?

If it’s possible it would be good to know if the problem exists in the desktop version on NoMachine as the client when connecting to that mac mini.

[Brian]

No luck with this. I unlocked the app and edited the cfg file as directed and restarted the server at the command line but the results are unchanged. The client reports and error 5: input/output error- “could not start the display server” after disconnecting from the black screen…I will go back into node.cfg and edit the added line back out I guess? What’s next (?)

[nxmac]

I normally connect to my M1 mini from a Windows desktop, but when trying to connect from my iPhone on Saturday, I was also experiencing OP’s issue.  If I left it sitting on the black screen, I would get disconnected before long.  I don’t experience this exact issue when I connect from the Windows desktop, but I do experience something similar, a white screen and a disconnect before long.  I have been connecting via SSH and restarting nxserver each day when this happens since upgrading NoMachine, and sometimes that doesn’t solve it and I have to connect via VNC to restart the service via the NoMachine GUI.

I also started noticing WindowServer crashes on macOS since upgrading to this version of NoMachine.  I didn’t make the connection with those crashes and this upgrade until one happened while I was connected today (which lead me to check forums to see if others were having issues), as I was assuming maybe a restart would solve them.  However, I was connected and active when WindowServer crashed today.  When it crashed, NoMachine indicated that I needed to re-authenticate because the desktop owner had changed.  After authenticating, I was also prompted for an admin login by NoMachine.  After putting that in, I as able to log in to the desktop again, and I could see the same crash report screen I have been seeing daily.

[Brian]

PS when I get home I will attempt to connect to the Mac mini from another desktop for you after having made the edit to the cfg file and will report my findings …

[Brian]

When connecting from another desktop (actually a MacBook Pro running the same software version of MacOS Sequoia as the MacMini, I get the following results (screenshots attached:)

1 – Two connections on NM player for this same MacMini: one for the LAN connection and the other using the external IP for on the road.

2 – Connecting with LAN connection yields a white screen

3 – Connecting with external IP address connection produces white screen (shot #4) and then shows a “Connection Reset By Peer” error (shot #3) which alternates on and off every ten seconds or so on top of the white screen.

This is with the mod to the node.cfg file edited in as requested above.

 

Attachments:

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   Screenshot-2025-01-20-at-16.43.07.png
   

2. 

   Screenshot-2025-01-20-at-16.43.45.png
   

3. 

   Screenshot-2025-01-20-at-16.44.52.png
   

4. 

   Screenshot-2025-01-20-at-16.49.01.png
   

[BerndG]

Have exactly the same issue. Server running on M1 Machine.

I got a screen succesfully one time after reboot of the server machine. Once the connection dropped out for any reason, a login show the white screen and the error message after a while.

restarting nxserver via commandline did no solved it.

Everything was without issue before update.

[BerndG]

(bloody)workaround:

Start VNC screensharing via terminal and use a VNC-Client to connect.

Stop NoMachine in Finder menu completely.

Start the app and within the app, start the server again.

-> NoMachine will work again. At least for me. To check back, I broke down my connection without logout/closing the nomachine-window. The issue was up again after re-establing my connection. I got the white screen..

I do not understand, why this is helping, but a restart of nxserver/nxd on commandline do not help…

[bucu]

Hi Brian/BerndG/nxmac

we would need logs from server side. Instructions on how to get them can be found here. You can send them to forum[at]nomachine[dot]com. If there are any crash reports that have nxnode/nxserver in their name you can send them too (you can find them by opening Konsole app and going to Crash Report tab).

[nxmac]

When I experienced the WindowServer crash yesterday while connected, it was the same as described in my previous post, but I captured screenshots and downloaded the logs presented by the client (highly unlikely these were server side and they definitely weren’t debug).  The nxnode/nxserver names did not even appear in the list of things in the problem details and system configuration section of the crash report, though, so it is possible the crash is unrelated since no one else is reporting it.  I also checked the console and did not see crashes for either of those items, but did see crashes for another item at the same time as the WindowServer crash.  I have closed that application to monitor for whether or not it might have been the root cause of that behavior .  I can still provide what I did collect if it would be helpful, or I can wait and try to do the debug tomorrow if no one else has done it by then.

[Britgirl]

Hi Bern and Brian

Thanks for sending us the logs , unfortunately they were not complete. Make sure that debug is enabled on the server side machine (nxserver --debug --enable all), then reproduce the problem, and zip up the new logs.

[daclint01]

I was having the same problem after upgrading to version 8.15.3 and attempting to connect to a Mac Mini running Mac OS v15.2. After troubleshooting for quite a while and trying a few of the suggestions found here, I finally fixed the issue by uninstalling v8.15.3 and reverting to the previous version v8.14.2.

Older versions of the nomachine software should really be available on nomachine.com for easy access in case of issues like this. I had to go to another website to get the older version to install which is not ideal.

[k1121j]

I have the exact same issue since update as Brian in reply #51459.

I can no longer connect from WAN i get the white screen and then a few moments later a connection reset message. When i get to the machine that i was trying to remote to there’s a window server unexpectedly quit message from the OS with a send to apple message.

 

[k1121j]

Where can I find a reliable copy of V8.14.2 to download?

[Britgirl]

daclint01, not offering earlier versions is 100% intentional. Apart from the cost, very often links to the package download are included in external mailing-lists, news articles and other resources outside the control of NoMachine, and in the past, often users have unknowingly happened to download outdated packages which has caused many headaches to people involved in the support team. Users can reach out to us through the website with details of the issue which is preventing them from updating, and we will provide a link for you to download the earlier version.

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