I've got two iMac's (latest) sat side by side. Does anyone know if its possible to use them as a dual screen combo.

Apple technical help were no help!

 

Dont think you can as they are both computers and not monitors

 

...besides it's really greedy and you should donate the other one

 

I was going to say that it's not possible to do this, then I came across this. I've not tried it myself (about to download it and give it a shot though) but you may want to have look.

 

Ok, I've downloaded it. Pretty impressive actually. I'm typing this whilst viewing the screen on my iBook's LCD, and I'm still able to use my dual monitor iMac setup, so I've essentially got three screens going.

One note, you will need to update the JollysFastVNC app as it says it's expired when you run it. Not a major problem, it has a link to go to the site to download a newer version which does appear to work.

 

Actually that is quite cool Markus

Loaded it up on a G5 as the control, the powerbook G4 as the external screen and fired up photoshop. whacked all the palettes and tools into the external monitor.

Nice

 

Ok, I've downloaded this but can only get it to mirror my main iMac.

Will it act as a second screen so I can move my cursor over into the other machine. The screen is also a funny squashed size and I can't seem to sort it out.

Can you help?

 

You need to go into the monitor prefernces on the main imac, into orientation and make sure that mirroring is off. You can then adjust the screen aspect, ratio etc of the second imac monitor

 

How quick is it?
I've used VMC before and whilst it's ok I'm not sure I could put up with it as my main machine screen.
The fact it is called JollysFastVNC hints at it being quicker....

 

It did seem pretty quick. I will say that the update was very choppy when I was scrolling a thread ,but then you don't tend to read things when you're scrolling, only when stopped, so I didn't think it was much of a problem.

mamoon2,
One other thing, when you're in JollysFastVNC, and it's connected to your main machine (it should do this automatically once you have the other bit running on your mac) then make sure you select the FullScreen option, otherwise it'll put the extra "monitor" in a window and you really want it full screen.

Yes it will act as a second screen, on my setup it was to the right hand side of my main screen, not sure if you can change which side of the monitor you move the cursor to to get to the second monitor, worst case, position one of the machines on the right hand side of the other.

 

Thanks guys.

I can't seem to turn mirroring off, when I go into system preferences there is no button for it and if I search mirroring in spotlight and go into "displays" it tells me the tab is hidden as i've only got one monitor connected.

What do I do?

 

Right, let's step by step this:

Firstly, a couple of questions. The two machines are both iMacs, correct? What type of iMacs are they, and what exact version of the Mac OS are you running on them?

Secondly, We'll call the iMac you want to use as your main machine iMac A and the one you want to use as a second screen as iMac B.

1) Go to iMac B and download the latest JollysFastVNC from here

2) Go to iMac A and mount the "ScreenRecycler.current.dmg" disk image. Copy the "ScreenRcycler.app" to your applications folder and double-click on it. It may ask you to install something, in which case, do so. It will possibly also ask you to reboot, so reboot iMac A

3) On iMac A, double click on the ScreenRecyler application in your Applications folder, it should display it's dialog, which should indicate it's running

4) Go to iMac B and mount the "JollysFastVNC.0.98.00.(907502).dmg" disk image that you downloaded. Copy the "JollysFastVNC.app" application from the disk image to the Applications folder on iMac B.

5) On iMac B, launch the JollysFastVNC application. It should run and should automatically connect to the ScreenRecyler application running on iMac A, at this point you will probably see the screen within a window, we want it full size, so go to the View menu and select "Full Screen" or press the Command/Apple + F key combination to swtich it to full screen. If you wish to get out of full screen mode, use the Control + Command/Apple + Escape key combination and it'll put it back into windowed mode.
The new "monitor" will probably be located to the right of iMac A's screen, so move the cursor there and see if it moves onto the new "monitor".

A few troubleshooting tips:
Make sure if you have the firewall enabled on either iMac that you allow port 6900 (the default used by ScreenRecycler) otherwise the computers will not be able to communicate with each other.

The readme file does make mention that some machines are not capable of screen-spanning, only mirroring and thus the remote monitor will just be a mirror of the main screen. I don't think iMacs fall into this class, mainly as my Intel iMac will span screens (heck, I've got dual monitors on the iMac and it will still allow me to use ScreenRecycler). What you should be able to do, once you have the second "monitor" up, even if it's mirrored, is to go into System Preferences, then into Displays and it should show the mirroring option, which you should then be able to turn off.

 

One other thing. It looks like the default setting is to put the new "monitor" on the right hand side of the main monitor, so in other words to get to iMac B's screen, move your cursor to the right of iMac A's screen.
This positioning can be changed by going into Displays in System Preferences, then select the "Arrangement" tab, and you can change the position of the second "monitor"

 

Hi Markus,

Thanks for taking the time to do that.

I'm using two Intel Imacs (latest brushed aluminium) running OSX 10.5.6

I've followed your instructions and its working now. just need to adjust the screen size on Imac B

Thanks again

 

No problem at all

 

I use Synergy . Its not as flash as screen recycler and isnt strictly dual screen off one computer but its quick and works across different platforms.

One computer is the "server" that you plug the mouse and keyboard into. You then have "clients" eg. a computer to the left. When you move off the left of the "server" screen it will move the mouse and all keyboard input to the left "client" machine seamlessly.

You can have unlimited computers/screens on the system and it supports things like cut+paste between the server and clients. One of the reasons I like this is that you are able to run full screen apps that take focus on the "server" (ie a game) and have a browser open on the left "client". You move the mouse out of the left side of the screen and the game doesnt minimise but you can browse a site, or IM without having to wait for your game or fullscreen app to come back to the front.

Its all open source and take a bit of setting up on a mac (as I am new to macs with a mini) but you might find it easier/quicker if you have mac experience.

Give me a shout if you need a hand with setting it up etc.

J