I'm trying to remotely login to my Ubuntu machine from the MBP.

xnest -broadcast -geometry 1280x778

Finds my ubuntu manchine and presentes it's login screen.
I login, and from then on out, the keyboard is scrambled.

xphyer seems to do the same.

Screen Sharing seems to work fine but I need to leave the Ubuntu machine logged in for that to work.

Am I just lacking the proper configurations, or should I be looking for an additional piece of software?

Google has a cached page from Apple showing that there was an applescript for doing this, but Apple has taken it down.