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I'd like to create a virtual monitor driver for OS X. What I mean by virtual is a monitor driver that does not drive an attached monitor, yet fools OS X into thinking there is such a monitor attached.

The purpose? It can tunnel display data to some other device over some other protocol, say VNC.

I believe this has been done before in one form or another (perhaps those apps that turn your iPad into a secondary display).

Any coding/kernel hackery pointers on this would be appreciated!

the979kid
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    Well someone has done something along these lines - as commercial I doubt they'd want to share the information but suggests it's definitely doable. I presume as there other product is a VNC client it's VNC over a virtual window on the main machine. http://www.screenrecycler.com/ScreenRecycler.html – JulesLt Sep 07 '10 at 12:19
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    Any pointers to an open source OS X display driver? – the979kid Sep 20 '10 at 10:36

3 Answers3

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After days and days of attempts, I found http://code.google.com/p/ioproxyvideofamily/ which works like a charm. Tried EWProxyFramebuffer, tried iDisplay, but this is the first one that actually works!

- Update -
Sounds like ioproxyvideofamily hasn't been kept up to date with new OS's. I haven't tried it (or any alternatives) since 10.7. If you find a better alternative, create a new answer to this question.

Nick
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  • Nick and @the979kid - Is ioproxyvideofamily still working for you with the latest versions of OS X? – Marquee Jul 17 '13 at 16:58
  • Sorry, I haven't had a need for it for a while. I think I last used it on 10.7, and it was fine. – Nick Jul 17 '13 at 20:25
  • Hey Nick, can you tell me if IOProxyVideoFamily was hardware accelerated? How fast was the display? – Justin Time Oct 21 '14 at 21:00
  • Hey @Nick, I was looking for the same thing and just spotted your answer. Unfortunately the project hasn't been updated in a long time and doesn't work on osx 10.11. Would you happen to know an alternative ? – George Profenza Aug 30 '16 at 15:35
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https://github.com/mkernel/EWProxyFramebuffer can do what you want. You have to compile it with xcode yourself and to install EWProxyFrameBuffer.kext to /System/Library/Extensions and EWProxyFrameBufferConnection.framework to /System/Library/Frameworks. Make sure all rights of the installed files are 755 and owner/group is root/wheel. Using EWProxyFrameBuffer.app, you can then de-/activate the monitor.

aleu
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I try to get http://code.google.com/p/ioproxyvideofamily/ working. Is it Lion or is it me? Because it doesn't show in System Information/Software/Extensions. Also the provided applications doesn't work.

I'm about to check out the source to see if there is something fishy in there.

Fredrik Andersson
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  • So now I downloaded the source, updated the builds to 10.7 SDK with 64-bit support. Corrected any errors and warnings. After installation, still nothing :( – Fredrik Andersson Sep 04 '11 at 22:51