Headless Mac Mini refuses connection

[banjo_1928]

I have a headless Mac Mini M1 that I connect to via Screen Sharing. I often have to press the power button to wake the machine (but not every time) as it will not respond to a new connection from Screen Sharing until it is awake. I recall from the past that Macs would respond to a WOL packet. Any suggestions on what I need to do re-enable this?

The Screen Sharing client is an intel iMac running Sequoia.

 

[BillyJoeJimBob]

That setting is under System Settings<Energy in Sequoia. Confirm your other settings under Sharing.

 

[banjo_1928]

That setting is under System Settings<Energy in Sequoia. Confirm your other settings under Sharing.

I don't think that's it. I have "Wake for network access" set on both the headless server (Tahoe, Mac Mini M1) and the client (Seqoia, imac Intel). The Sharing settings are OK as well - all working if the machine is awake.

 

[smithrh]

You need to ssh into the Mac first after a reboot, then you will be able to screen share.

It's a new security feature in Tahoe.

But that's not what you're talking about, but thought I'd include it as a piece of information.

I can confirm that if you sleep a Mac, network access is gone and you won't be able to wake it remotely. Even on a completely wired connection with no WiFi in the path, and all of the settings correctly set.

New AS-based Macs I leave running as they sip power, so no need to have them sleep. You can have them password lock if you want to be a bit more secure about it.

 

[banjo_1928]

The ssh trick didn't work for me. No idea why. I have found 2 possible workarounds, neither of which is very convenient but will do for now.

1. Use Find My to play a sound on the remote machine. Kind of annoying with all the beeping.
2. Use wakeonlan (installed via Homebrew). Disadvantage is having to find the MAC address of the remote host.

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Bigwaff]

Use wakeonlan (installed via Homebrew). Disadvantage is having to find the MAC address of the remote host.

MAC address of the remote host should not change... unless you mean finding it initially, which I wouldn't necessarily characterize as a disadvantage. I say ideally should not change... if your M1 Mac mini is using WiFi, make sure Private WiFi Address is set to Fixed or Off, then the MAC address should not change. Once MAC address is stable, you can create a Bash Alias for the wakeonlan command.

https://medium.com/@jogarcia/bash-aliases-32f648e3a924

 

[chabig]

I have a user account on my Mini named 'Startup User.' This account contains no data at all, but the Mini auto-logs into it after it boots. Since the machine is then awake, I can remotely log into any other user account.

This requires FileVault to be off, since no one is around to enter a password. The other accounts of course are still secured by passwords and normal system security, and the SSD is still encrypted.

 

[banjo_1928]

MAC address of the remote host should not change... unless you mean finding it initially, which I wouldn't necessarily characterize as a disadvantage. I say ideally should not change... if your M1 Mac mini is using WiFi, make sure Private WiFi Address is set to Fixed or Off, then the MAC address should not change. Once MAC address is stable, you can create a Bash Alias for the wakeonlan command.

https://medium.com/@jogarcia/bash-aliases-32f648e3a924

I made a shell script to run wakeonlan with MAC address of the M1 ethernet port. Minor incovenience is to open Terminal, run the script and then connect Screen Sharing. Definitely a 1st world problem.

 

[smithrh]

Unless something changed, my understanding is that wake-up packets only work on wired ethernet, not wifi...