Desktop not shared – nxnode failing to start

[tzputtputt]

Hello,

I was having trouble with getting NoMachine running (I hadn’t used it in a while, first time since updating to Tahoe 26.4.1.   Claude helped me summarize the troubleshooting and workaround found.

**Environment:**

– Server: NoMachine Free 9.3.7 on macOS Tahoe 26.4.1 (Apple M1 Pro MacBook Pro)

– Problem: Connecting to the physical desktop

– Client: N/A — server-side issue, nxnode never starts

**Problem:**

After a fresh install of NoMachine 9.3.7 on macOS Tahoe 26.4.1, the nxnode service never starts. The NoMachine app shows “Desktop not shared” and nxserver –status reports:

`NX> 161 Enabled service: nxserver.

NX> 162 Disabled service: nxnode.

NX> 161 Enabled service: nxd.`

Restarting with sudo /etc/NX/nxserver –restart brings nxserver and nxd back but nxnode remains disabled every time. There is no nxnode.log file — the node process never starts at all.

**What I’ve verified:**

– Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions are granted for NoMachine in System Settings (confirmed in TCC database)

– The nxnode binary itself works fine: sudo /etc/NX/nxnode –osquery returns macOS, and –desktoplist correctly reports physical-desktop as available

– SSH keys exist with correct permissions

– License is valid (free, unlimited expiry)

– Full uninstall and reinstall did not fix the issue

**Observations from logs:**

1. The server.log shows Features/Features: WARNING! Assuming 15.0 compatibility. — NoMachine 9.3.7 does not recognize macOS Tahoe 26.x and falls back to assuming Sequoia (15.0) compatibility.

2. The install.log contains: tccutil reset Accessibility com.nomachine.nxnode followed by WARNING: Remove nxnode form Accessibility. — the installer itself resets nxnode’s Accessibility permission during installation.

3. The server starts, initializes its Redis database, finds the local node (NXNodes: Created list with 1 nodes), and reaches NXLocalSession: Starting physical session for ” — but nxnode is not running to handle it.

**Workaround:**

Manually starting nxnode resolves the issue immediately:

`sudo /etc/NX/nxnode –localsession &`

After this, nxserver –status shows all three services enabled and connections work normally. However, this does not survive a restart of the NoMachine server — nxnode must be manually started each time.

**Summary:**

It appears that nxserver’s automated startup sequence on macOS Tahoe 26.4.1 is not launching nxnode as a service, possibly related to the OS version detection falling back to 15.0 compatibility mode. The nxnode binary itself is fully functional when started manually.

[Author]

Posts