Can't see desktop on multiple MacOS devices when "locked"

[ramphex]

MeshCentral: 1.1.24

One device is on MacOS 12.7.1, second device is on MacOS 14.5. When attempting to view the desktop of either device while it's on login/lock screen, the result is always a black screen and the input is not registered. Once logged in/unlocked the desktop shows up fine only after disconnecting and reconnecting and then input also works correctly.

Posting in both MeshCentral and MeshAgent as I'm not sure what is at fault here, feel free to close the one in the wrong category.

[pretenzo]

To anyone with this issue - I've managed to fix having the screen being black while locked by connecting to the Mac first via theTerminal in MeshCentral and running the command "caffeinate -u"
This wakes up the display on the lockscreen and lets me log in. Sometimes after logging in, the screen suddenly goes black again, but you can run the command again and it will stay awake after that!

It would be great if there was a way to have MeshAgent run the caffeinate command when it first connects, but automating that is currently beyond my skillset.

[pretenzo]

@si458 I'm sure you are crazy busy with maintaining this project, but is this something that could be integrated into MeshAgent relatively easily?
Connecting on a Mac that's running Big Sur or later usually results in the screen remaining black if the Mac is locked. Running 'caffeinate -u' or even just 'caffeinate' from the Terminal wakes the Mac screen up for the duration of the session so you can use access the machine remotely as expected. I'm happy to test this functionality for you too if that makes things easier. :)

[si458]

@pretenzo in theory meshagent already does this.

When u connect we run the caffeine command to wake up the screen

Also u can run display awake from the console tab which also runs caffeine to wake up the screen

[pretenzo]

Ah perfect! I believe my MeshCentral install is a few versions behind so I didn't realize that. Sorry to bother you! It's incredibly helpful to know you can do it from the console as well. Thank you for your help!

[si458]

@si458 I'm sure you are crazy busy with maintaining this project, but is this something that could be integrated into MeshAgent relatively easily?
Connecting on a Mac that's running Big Sur or later usually results in the screen remaining black if the Mac is locked. Running 'caffeinate -u' or even just 'caffeinate' from the Terminal wakes the Mac screen up for the duration of the session so you can use access the machine remotely as expected. I'm happy to test this functionality for you too if that makes things easier. :)

@pretenzo refer to above post #247 (comment)

[si458]

@pretenzo, the only issue we haven't fixed yet is that u can't access the login screen when u first turn a Mac on!

So u must have auto-login enabled so get it into the desktop, then when it sleeps later, u can still access the login screen :)