I was stuck in trying to access one of our xserve machines that just got moved from the QA network to the Build network. I could connect via ssh, and Justin could ping it but attempting to connect with VNC wasn’t working. It wouldn’t accept the usual passwords. Justin seemed to think that it was possible to change the VNC password through the command line, so I google it and read a post from 2 years ago.

• Mac Os X Terminal App

Something I’ve learned from reading “how-to” blogs is that you should always read the comments first. That’s where the most up to date information will be, if there is any. The person who wrote the post used strange template structure that made his idea hard to read and understand. Anyone who didn’t read the comments wouldn’t know that kickstart now takes plain text passwords.

1. When a password is required in the Terminal window, you see a key prompt and the cursor changes. Characters aren’t displayed as you type, to keep your password secure. Even though no characters appear as you type and the cursor doesn’t move, enter your password, then press Return. In the Terminal app on your Mac, type your password at the prompt, then press Return.
2. When I open the terminal app it prompts for a password before it displays the prompt. I can type my password, then the prompt is displayed and terminal appears to run as expected. I have compared the preferences to another machine that does not ask for the password and they are the same.
3. Even though no characters appear as you type and the cursor doesn’t move, enter your password, then press Return. Open Terminal for me In the Terminal app on your Mac, type your password at the prompt, then press Return.
4. How to open Terminal on Mac. The Terminal app is in the Utilities folder in Applications. To open it, either open your Applications folder, then open Utilities and double-click on Terminal, or press Command - spacebar to launch Spotlight and type 'Terminal,' then double-click the search result.

The long and short? If you want to change the VNC passoword do this:

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -configure -clientopts -setvnclegacy -vnclegacy yes -setvncpw -vncpw [newpassword]

Apparently you can enable VNC access and set the VNC password via the kickstart command. It isn’t terribly well documented, but since it now accepts plain text passwords, I think that’s a step in the right direction.

Mac Os X Terminal App

When you see the macOS Utilities window, choose Utilities Terminal from the menu bar. In the Terminal window, type resetpassword, then press Return to open the Reset Password assistant pictured above. Select ”My password doesn't work when logging in,” then click Next and follow the onscreen instructions for your user account. The common way to do this is to allow your user to run the shutdown command without entering a password. You that by opening Terminal.app and then run the following command: sudo visudo This gives you an editor where you can edit the sudoers configuration file. Add the following line at the bottom: jonathan ALL=(ALL) /sbin/shutdown. Terminal app can be daunting at first, but it’s really the best way to hack into your Mac’s configurations and preferences to customize things to work for you rather than against you.