Unable to increase resolution in shared screen from mac2.metal EC2 instance

Question

I'm connecting via VNC to a mac2.metal EC2 instance running macOS Ventura and getting a very small, hardly usable screen window.

I've tried following https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-mac-instances.html#mac-screen-resolution which seems exactly what I'm looking for to increase the shared screen resolution, however the steps do not work, as no bigger resolution is available. Running `displayplacer list` gives

```
Persistent screen id: 51819359-80D1-4BD5-8A20-913F48600A28
Contextual screen id: 1
Serial screen id: s0
Type: 24 inch external screen
Resolution: 1024x768
Hertz: 60
Color Depth: 8
Scaling: off
Origin: (0,0) - main display
Rotation: 0
Enabled: true
Resolutions for rotation 0:
  mode 0: res:800x600 hz:60 color_depth:8 scaling:on
  mode 1: res:800x600 hz:60 color_depth:8
  mode 2: res:960x720 hz:60 color_depth:8 scaling:on
  mode 3: res:1024x768 hz:60 color_depth:8 <-- current mode
  mode 4: res:1024x768 hz:60 color_depth:8 scaling:on
  mode 5: res:400x300 hz:60 color_depth:8 scaling:on
  mode 6: res:512x384 hz:60 color_depth:8 scaling:on
  mode 7: res:512x384 hz:60 color_depth:8
  mode 8: res:640x480 hz:60 color_depth:8 scaling:on
  mode 9: res:640x480 hz:60 color_depth:8
  mode 10: res:640x480 hz:60 color_depth:8
  mode 11: res:640x480 hz:60 color_depth:8
  mode 12: res:672x504 hz:60 color_depth:8 scaling:on
  mode 13: res:720x480 hz:60 color_depth:8
  mode 14: res:720x480 hz:60 color_depth:8

Execute the command below to set your screens to the current arrangement. If screen ids are switching, please run `displayplacer --help` for info on using contextual or serial ids instead of persistent ids.

displayplacer "id:51819359-80D1-4BD5-8A20-913F48600A28 res:1024x768 hz:60 color_depth:8 enabled:true scaling:off origin:(0,0) degree:0"
```
So trying to run for example `displayplacer "id:51819359-80D1-4BD5-8A20-913F48600A28 res:2560x1600 scaling:off origin:(0,0) degree:0"` will fail with
```
Screen ID 51819359-80D1-4BD5-8A20-913F48600A28: could not find res:2560x1600 scaling:off
```

Any way to add more available screen resolutions?

Answer

Hello there,

I see that you want to know how to increase resolution in shared screen from mac2.metal EC2 instances.

Please note that max resolution in MacOS EC2 instance is 1024x768 and it is not possible to increase that from AWS side of things. The reason for that is AWS doesn't recommend changing the VNC resolution as this may lead to unhealthy host issues. However, you can still increase the resolution using third party tools like "displayplacer" the one you are currently using.

One of the tools available and you've already used is "displayplacer", AWS provides the steps on how to increase the resolution using that tool [1] which based on what you have shared with us you already tried those steps, however it's still not working for you.

Upon further investigation into the syntax of the commands used, I can see that you are missing few things. Please see below:

```
Your command:

displayplacer "id:51819359-80D1-4BD5-8A20-913F48600A28 res:2560x1600 scaling:off origin:(0,0) degree:0"

The correct format for the command to pass the resolution values (please see the document from [1] for more details):

displayplacer "id:51819359-80D1-4BD5-8A20-913F48600A28 res:${2560x1600} scaling:off origin:(0,0) degree:0"
```

Next Step :

(A) Please run the command using the correct syntax, changing the display id as necessary:

displayplacer "id:51819359-80D1-4BD5-8A20-913F48600A28 res:${2560x1600} scaling:off origin:(0,0) degree:0"
	
(B) Another option if the above command and other resolutions don't work for you, is a tool called "BetterDisplay".

Please note that AWS does not endorses third party links and the below link is shared on best effort for the research done related to this case. 
[+] https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

**Have a nice day
**

Reference:

[1] Modify macOS screen resolution on Mac instances
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-mac-instances.html#mac-screen-resolution

Answer

I was able to increase it past the limit of 1024x768 by first installing [BetterDisplay](https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/) and then creating a virtual screen. You add custom resolutions like 2560x1600 in my case. Then when you connect using Screen Sharing on MacOS, you can force it to only use the larger virtual screen you just created.

Unable to increase resolution in shared screen from mac2.metal EC2 instance

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