Linux – Remote desktop connection to linux computer

linuxnetworkingremote desktopssh

I am frequently using ssh to connect to remote linux machines. Using ssh -X it is even possible to use the gui. Unfortunately, this is very slow, when done over the internet. The gui is very sluggish, and frankly speaking quite annoying to use. It is also not really what I would like to have, since I don't see the desktop, and opening multiple programs via the ssh -X, makes the connection even slower.

Linux has one very handy tool named rdesktop. I can use rdesktop to log to my windows machine. In this case everything runs smoothly and results in no sluggish gui. Even better, is that I can actually see the same screen, as if I am sitting on the remote computer, which is my final goal.
My question is, whether such option exists to connect form linux to linux and have similar features like rdesktop. Or even better, is it possible to use rdesktop to connect to a linux machine?
I tired to do this, but I failed. To log on the windows machine I use Local port forwarding on an intermediate machine, since my desktop is on a local network and not directly visible from the internet. But I don't see why dis works with windows and not with linux.

Thank you for your help

With some help form the experts on this forum and some internet research I found a solution.

Solution:
It is possible to use rdesktop with Linux. For this xrdp is needed. The steps to use it are:

1) install xrdp

2) open /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini and

2.1) check on which port xrdp is listening

2.2) to be able to resume sessions change port=-1 to port=ask-1
3) if xrdp is not on do service xrdp start if it is on you have to do
service xrdp restart to load the new configuration.

4) add rule to sudo iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp --dport XRDP_PORT -j ACCEPT

5) rdesktop ip_remote_pc:XRDP_PORT -f -u "username"

6) Enjoy

Thanks for the help!

Best Answer

The Remote Desktop Protocol belongs to Microsoft, which is why Linux has a different protocol to the same effect, called Virtual Network Computing (=VNC). This has many different implementations, including, among others, chicken of the VNC (that's right, that's not Children of the VNC), UltraVNC, PocketVNC, RealVNC, Remmina, TightVNC. They perform exactly the same task as rdesktop, i.e., they speed up graphical connections to remote machines.

You can find here on Wikipedia an enlightening comparion of the different remote-access-softwares.

It should be noticed however that RDP now exists also for Linux-to-Linux communications. Possibly, the reason why you were unable to get this to work is that you will have to setup an RDP server on one of the Linux machines before being able to rdp into it: in most (all?) distros such server is not installed at system installation.

The instructions to do this depend on distro, on Debian and derivatives you would install a package called xrdp, which...

apt-cache show xrdp
.............
Description-en: Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) server
Based on research work by the rdesktop project, xrdp uses the Remote
Desktop Protocol to present a graphical login to a remote client.
xrdp can connect to a VNC server or another RDP server.

Microsoft Windows users can connect to a system running xrdp without
installing additional software.

You should check your distro's intructions to setup a proper xrdp server, then you will be able to connect to it with the same xrdp client you are using to connect to Windows hosts.

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Linux – Remote desktop access for windows from Linux

There are two commonly used protocols for establishing remote control/viewing from desktop to desktop. One is VNC, the other RDP

See What's the difference between RDP vs VNC?

You need to install a Client on your desktop, and a Server on the desktop you wish to view. Both should follow the same protocol.

It shouldn't matter if these are different softwares on different platforms as long as they both use the same protocol

There are many options on all platforms. I have used RealVNC on a windows XP machine, accessed from my ubuntu desktop using x11vnc (can't post more links, sorry)

If you are having an issue with one, try another. There are many available. If you continue to have problems, you are going to have to post a question with some information such as a config file or a log.

Hope that helps some.

Windows – XDRP and Windows Remote Desktop Issues in Fedora 25

I seem to have fixed the issue.

The trick was to make a few changes to /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini , create a .Xinitrc file to show what session manager to use, then create a XWrapper.config file.

Changes to xrdp.ini:

autorun=Xorg
max_bpp=16

.Xinitrc file:

#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
  for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
    [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
  done
  unset f
fi

# exec enlightenment_start
# exec i3
# exec mate-session
# exec xmonad
# exec startlxqt
# exec startlxde
# exec awesome
# exec bspwm
# exec gnome-session
# exec gnome-session --session=gnome-classic
# exec startkde
# exec startxfce4
# exec startfluxbox
# exec openbox-session
exec cinnamon-session
# exec pekwm
# exec catwm
# exec dwm
# exec startede
# exec icewm-session
# exec jwm
# exec monsterwm
# exec notion
# exec startdde       
# deepin-session

Finally, I created the Xwrapper.config file with a single line:

allowed_users=anybody

At this point, I could log in via the Windows Remote Desktop, as long as I changed the "session" dropdown from Xvnc to Xorg.

Best Answer

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Linux – Remote desktop access for windows from Linux

Windows – XDRP and Windows Remote Desktop Issues in Fedora 25

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