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Remote desktop on a Mac Studio

Use the Mac Studio's desktop through Screen Sharing (VNC), carried inside your SSH connection: the password, the tunnel and a viewer for macOS, Windows or Linux.

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A Mac Studio's desktop is available through macOS Screen Sharing (VNC). It travels only through SSH: no VNC port is open to the internet, so you open an SSH tunnel and point a viewer at your own computer.

It takes three steps. The examples use port 2211; use the port on your reservation page, which is also in the email sent when the reservation goes live. The commands are shown there too, ready to copy, while the reservation is live.

Step 1: read the password

Once per rental, read your Screen Sharing password:

bash
ssh -p 2211 renter@ssh.gputorent.com cat screen-sharing-password.txt

It's random for every rental, and it's stored in ~/screen-sharing-password.txt on the machine, readable only by you. It isn't your SSH key: Screen Sharing asks for a username and password of its own.

Step 2: open the tunnel

On your own computer, run:

bash
ssh -p 2211 -N -L 5901:localhost:5900 renter@ssh.gputorent.com

This forwards port 5901 on your computer to the Mac's Screen Sharing on port 5900. -N means it opens no shell, so the window seems to do nothing: that's expected. Leave that window open while you work; closing it ends the desktop connection.

Why 5901

A Mac's own Screen Sharing may already be using port 5900, and macOS won't let a viewer connect to its own screen. Using local port 5901 avoids both problems, on any computer.

Step 3: connect a viewer

Point the viewer at localhost:5901 and log in as renter with the password from step 1.

On a Mac

Run:

bash
open vnc://localhost:5901

Or, in Finder, choose Go › Connect to Server, enter vnc://localhost:5901 and choose Connect. The built-in Screen Sharing app opens and asks for the username and password.

On Windows

Install RealVNC Viewer, which supports macOS Screen Sharing's login. Type localhost:5901 in its address bar and press Enter. When it asks, enter renter as the username and the password from step 1.

If the viewer warns that the connection isn't encrypted, that's about the VNC protocol itself: your traffic is already encrypted by the SSH tunnel.

On Linux

RealVNC Viewer is the option we recommend: it's available for Linux and supports macOS Screen Sharing's login. Connect to localhost:5901 as on Windows.

Other viewers, such as Remmina or TigerVNC, may work too, but only if they support the way macOS asks for a username and password (Apple's own authentication, not the plain VNC password). Support depends on the viewer and its version. If a viewer asks only for a password, or the login fails with the right password, use RealVNC Viewer instead.

The first login

The first time you log in to the desktop, macOS may show a few welcome screens, for example about privacy, Siri or the appearance. Skip or accept them; they don't change anything outside your account. Skip any offer to sign in with an Apple ID: there's none on the machine, and you can't add one.

Disconnecting

  • Close the viewer to leave the desktop. Your desktop session and the apps in it keep running, so you can reconnect later with steps 2 and 3. You don't need the password command again.
  • Stop the tunnel with Ctrl+C in its window, or by closing the window.
  • To end the desktop session itself, log out from the Apple menu.

Everything, including the desktop session, ends with the reservation, and the machine is erased.

Performance tips

The desktop is sent as images over your internet connection, so it's smoother with less to send:

  • Lower the picture quality or colour depth in the viewer. RealVNC Viewer has a picture quality setting in each connection's properties; the Mac's Screen Sharing app has quality options in its View menu.
  • Use a smaller window or scaling rather than a full-screen, high-resolution view.
  • Keep heavy work in the terminal. Long jobs run the same whether or not the desktop is open, and SSH is lighter than a picture of a terminal.

What it can't do

The desktop runs as renter, the same standard account as SSH, so:

  • No admin rights. Anything that asks for an administrator's name and password, such as some System Settings panes or installers, won't work.
  • No App Store and no Apple ID. You can't sign in to iCloud or the App Store, install apps from it, or turn on Find My.
  • No direct connection. The desktop is reachable only through the SSH tunnel, never on a public port.

See Mac Studio environment for the tools on the machine, and What's allowed on the machine for the rules.