Most rock-solid connection method to headless Mac mini?

[BeatCrazy]

Although my daily driver is an iMac Pro, I have a Late 2014 mini (i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion) that I run various server-type functions (Plex) via headless implementation. I like to interface to it via the iMac Pro.

Over the years, I've yet to find a very reliable interface to this machine running headless, especially after reboots.

Some of the things I've tried:

1. fit-Headless: this works OK but obviously it's impossible to connect after a reboot, unless you have auto-login enabled <- I'm trying to avoid auto-login for security purposes
2. Native Mac Screen Sharing app: This works decent, but resolution is not great and it doesn't survive a reboot. I've tried using standard network connection, as well as an ad-hoc network with TB3-TB2 direct connection between iMac and mini.
3. Duet Display w/iPad and native Mac Screen Sharing app with an iPad 5. This used to work very well, as Screen Sharing would display a crystal clear 4:3 interface because it recognizes the native resolution of the iPad. A recent update to the Duet Display Mac app (2.3.1) seems to crash it every time I try to change resolutions. Even if I get it back working again, I'm nervous that every new macOS update will break this.
4. VNC viewer: Seems to work well, but I'm relying on a connection to their servers in order for the interface to work, and it doesn't survive a reboot, either.

So what's my most reliable solution? The machines are in the same room, and I'd prefer to run the mini 24/7.

 

[chrfr]

I'm not sure what you're saying about screen sharing not surviving a reboot. I run several headless 2012 Minis and Screen Sharing works fine even when the mini is restarted, and even if no user is logged in.
I do leave one of the HDMI simulators like the fit attached, which dramatically improves performance.

 

[BeatCrazy]

I'm not sure what you're saying about screen sharing not surviving a reboot. I run several headless 2012 Minis and Screen Sharing works fine even when the mini is restarted, and even if no user is logged in.
I do leave one of the HDMI simulators like the fit attached, which dramatically improves performance.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong? If the mini reboots, and gets to the user login screen, the Screen Sharing app on the iMac will launch, but never get me to the username/pw login prompt (within the Screen Sharing app), and eventually times out.

It's like Screen Sharing on the iMac is "stuck" until I can get a user logged in on the mini.

 

[djc6]

Does a device like this help at all with reliability?

NewerTech HDMI Headless Video Accelerator (HDMI Dummy Plug), 4K Display Emulator up to 4096 x 2160 Ultra High Definition Resolution

Harness the power of your Mac's GPU when accessing your Mac remotely using the HDMI headless video accelerator for remote access of select Apple Mac Mini from NewerTech. This discrete HDMI adapter plugs into your Mac's HDMI port and activates the GPU to emulate displays up to 1080p when accessing...

smile.amazon.com

If you say Native Mac Screen Sharing is reliable, but resolution is poor - above device is supposed to help with resolution.

 

[Clarkk]

djc6, do those accelerators give a real effort?

 

[BeatCrazy]

Does a device like this help at all with reliability?

NewerTech HDMI Headless Video Accelerator (HDMI Dummy Plug), 4K Display Emulator up to 4096 x 2160 Ultra High Definition Resolution

Harness the power of your Mac's GPU when accessing your Mac remotely using the HDMI headless video accelerator for remote access of select Apple Mac Mini from NewerTech. This discrete HDMI adapter plugs into your Mac's HDMI port and activates the GPU to emulate displays up to 1080p when accessing...

smile.amazon.com

If you say Native Mac Screen Sharing is reliable, but resolution is poor - above device is supposed to help with resolution.

I think my fit-Headless device does about the same thing. I could live with the quality, but I can't seem to get anything to connect to a 'non-logged-in' machine.

 

[getrealbro]

I cured my 2014 Mini’s headless issues by adding a head — a DELL P2312H I picked up at the local thrift for $3

But even before then I was able to set the screen resolution to 1920 x 1080 using Display Menu (in the mac apps store). And the Mini would share it’s screen via VNC Viewer before I logged in.

GetRealBro

 

[BeatCrazy]

And the Mini would share it’s screen via VNC Viewer before I logged in.

Then there must be some setting I must not have right? What do I need to have the mini display the user login screen to either Screen Share app or VNC Viewer?

 

[getrealbro]

Then there must be some setting I must not have right? What do I need to have the mini display the user login screen to either Screen Share app or VNC Viewer?

My Settings that allow me to share the screen of the headless server once it has booted and is displaying the login screen…

Headless Mac:
2014 Mini running 10.14.6
MacOS Screen Sharing - On, Admins only

Controlling Mac:
2018 Mini running 10.14.6
VNC Viewer version 6.19.1115 (r42122) x64 (Nov 11 2019 12:05:05)
Connection saved with Username and Password

Note: This may or may not make any difference but… The Mini’s have a common Admin User (with the same password on both Minis) that is used for the screen sharing.

FWIW these same settings allow me to share the screen of a second user on my wife’s 2013 27” iMac. If no one is logged into the iMac, it brings up the main login screen. If my wife is already logged in to her iMac account, VNC Viewer will log me into my iMac account.

GetRealBro

 

[BeatCrazy]

My Settings that allow me to share the screen of the headless server once it has booted and is displaying the login screen…

Headless Mac:
2014 Mini running 10.14.6
MacOS Screen Sharing - On, Admins only

Controlling Mac:
2018 Mini running 10.14.6
VNC Viewer version 6.19.1115 (r42122) x64 (Nov 11 2019 12:05:05)
Connection saved with Username and Password

Note: This may or may not make any difference but… The Mini’s have a common Admin User (with the same password on both Minis) that is used for the screen sharing.

GetRealBro

Thanks - those are the same settings I'm using, both with common Admin.

I'm starting to think it has something to do with FileVault being enabled on the headless mini. I've turned FV off, but it's gonna take a few hours to decrypt itself.

 

[getrealbro]

Thanks - those are the same settings I'm using, both with common Admin.

I'm starting to think it has something to do with FileVault being enabled on the headless mini. I've turned FV off, but it's gonna take a few hours to decrypt itself.

We do not have FileVault enabled on any of our Macs.

GetRealBro

 

[wardie]

Thanks - those are the same settings I'm using, both with common Admin.

I'm starting to think it has something to do with FileVault being enabled on the headless mini. I've turned FV off, but it's gonna take a few hours to decrypt itself.

Entirely possible. I have a similar setup and Screen Sharing works find on a reboot, but I’ve not bothered with File Vault currently. From what I remember (on my old headless MM 2009) then using FileVault stopped the Screen Sharing working after a reboot, which makes sense.

 

[chrfr]

Thanks - those are the same settings I'm using, both with common Admin.

I'm starting to think it has something to do with FileVault being enabled on the headless mini. I've turned FV off, but it's gonna take a few hours to decrypt itself.

Yes, having FileVault enable will always require a password be directly entered so the computer can boot.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Entirely possible. I have a similar setup and Screen Sharing works find on a reboot, but I’ve not bothered with File Vault currently. From what I remember (on my old headless MM 2009) then using FileVault stopped the Screen Sharing working after a reboot, which makes sense.

Yes, having FileVault enable will always require a password be directly entered so the computer can boot.

Wow. So I disabled FileVault, let my HDD decrypt, and now I can login from Screen Share/network!

So I guess I now have a very stable way(s) to get into my headless mini. Now I wish the resolution could be better... any ideas on that? For sure, I need a HiDPI resolution. I can try to force it when using the fit-Headless, and it looks amazing. But it reverts itself after ~20 seconds due to an authentication failure, because "the viewer and the server are incompatible". This is with the native Screen Sharing app, using my iMac Pro as the viewer.

EDIT: OK, I found a decent setting using the fit-Headless. Within the iMac Screen Share app, under View, I select Full Quality and turn scaling to Off. It's still not as clear as I was getting with Duet Display, but it seems to be taking the 1080p 16x9 output, scaling it 2x and giving me a pretty stable image. A little soft, but way less artifacting.

^^ This also allows me to choose 960 x 540 (interlaced HiDPI), which looks very sharp. But it's just too small of a window. I'm wondering if there is any other fit-Headless solution for HiDPI with this 2014 Mac mini? I suppose I'd have more HiDPI resolutions available with the 2018 mini.

EDIT #2 - I actually bought SwitchResX, and found that 1920x1200 w/HiDPI looks amazing! I'm no longer using the fit-Headless. Not sure if that will cause an issue, eventually?

 

[cupcakes2000]

Old thread, but for anyone else looking for headless Mac Mini solutions and not wanting to turn off FileVault, there is a terminal command that you can use to reboot, which enables the thin client access to survive the reboot.
I’m using Jump Desktop from an iPad Pro 2018 into a 2018 i7 Mac Mini.
(I have a dell monitor close by, currently for an Apple TV, which i can use if i need to - so this is not a ‘system critical’ solution)

Obviously, this doesn’t enable survival of a power failure or a reboot via another method, but does work quite well.

sudo fdesetup authrestart

 

[sergioarista]

Although my daily driver is an iMac Pro, I have a Late 2014 mini (i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion) that I run various server-type functions (Plex) via headless implementation. I like to interface to it via the iMac Pro.

Over the years, I've yet to find a very reliable interface to this machine running headless, especially after reboots.

Some of the things I've tried:

1. fit-Headless: this works OK but obviously it's impossible to connect after a reboot, unless you have auto-login enabled <- I'm trying to avoid auto-login for security purposes
2. Native Mac Screen Sharing app: This works decent, but resolution is not great and it doesn't survive a reboot. I've tried using standard network connection, as well as an ad-hoc network with TB3-TB2 direct connection between iMac and mini.
3. Duet Display w/iPad and native Mac Screen Sharing app with an iPad 5. This used to work very well, as Screen Sharing would display a crystal clear 4:3 interface because it recognizes the native resolution of the iPad. A recent update to the Duet Display Mac app (2.3.1) seems to crash it every time I try to change resolutions. Even if I get it back working again, I'm nervous that every new macOS update will break this.
4. VNC viewer: Seems to work well, but I'm relying on a connection to their servers in order for the interface to work, and it doesn't survive a reboot, either.

So what's my most reliable solution? The machines are in the same room, and I'd prefer to run the mini 24/7.

Apple Remote Desktop app, it survives reboot water you have FileVault or not, it’s pricy but it has been very reliable. Another good one is NoMachine.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Apple Remote Desktop app, it survives reboot water you have FileVault or not, it’s pricy but it has been very reliable. Another good one is NoMachine.

As mentioned above, SwitchResX is a wonderful solution for me. Been working fine for >6 months.

 

[chrfr]

Apple Remote Desktop app, it survives reboot water you have FileVault or not, it’s pricy but it has been very reliable. Another good one is NoMachine.

No remote app can work on a FileVault enabled system after a reboot unless the computer has been restarted using the sudo fdesetup authrestart command. This obviously won't happen if there's a panic or power outage.

 

[Johnny Jackhammer]

Does a device like this help at all with reliability?

NewerTech HDMI Headless Video Accelerator (HDMI Dummy Plug), 4K Display Emulator up to 4096 x 2160 Ultra High Definition Resolution

Harness the power of your Mac's GPU when accessing your Mac remotely using the HDMI headless video accelerator for remote access of select Apple Mac Mini from NewerTech. This discrete HDMI adapter plugs into your Mac's HDMI port and activates the GPU to emulate displays up to 1080p when accessing...

smile.amazon.com

If you say Native Mac Screen Sharing is reliable, but resolution is poor - above device is supposed to help with resolution.

I bought one of these and used it on my mac mini. When I use Screen Sharing to connect to the mac mini it initally works well, however at some point Screen Sharing loses the connection and processes freeze on the mac mini requiring me to log out the user on the mac mini using ssh to connect. This never happens when I have my mac mini connected to my LG 4K TV via an HDMI cable. So... I wouldn't recommend this headless adapter.

 

[djc6]

I bought one of these and used it on my mac mini. When I use Screen Sharing to connect to the mac mini it initally works well, however at some point Screen Sharing loses the connection and processes freeze on the mac mini requiring me to log out the user on the mac mini using ssh to connect. This never happens when I have my mac mini connected to my LG 4K TV via an HDMI cable. So... I wouldn't recommend this headless adapter.

Is it a screensaver / energy saving issue? Maybe you need to disable energy saving in macos setting for the fake display? Just odd it works for a while.

I don't have one, just speculating.

 

[Johnny Jackhammer]

Is it a screensaver / energy saving issue? Maybe you need to disable energy saving in macos setting for the fake display? Just odd it works for a while.

No, it's the device itself.

I removed it and installed software called BetterDisplay and haven't had an issue since - been almost a month now. I haven't purchased the Pro version... but might because it really made things easier for me.