Ubuntu – Remote Desktop connection from Mac to Ubuntu

remote desktop

I'm trying to use my MacBook to Remote Desktop connect to my Ubuntu server. I am able to ssh, but I can't seem to figure out how to Remote Desktop connect.

Any suggestions? Also my Ubuntu workstation is 1200 miles away so I can't physically access it but I can access it through ssh so hopefully I can configure what I need through ssh.

I tried the instructions in the first answer on here, but when I tried to RDP from a windows PC, ti stated that:
Remote Desktop can't connect to the remote computer for one of these reasons:

  1. Remote access to the server is not enabled
  2. The remote computer is turned off
  3. The remote computer is not available on the network

It shouldn't be #2 and 3 since I can ssh to the server just fine. So I suspect #1 is the culprit.

Best Answer

You can use Microsoft Remote Desktop from App Store. Set up your Ubuntu this way:

From DigitalOcean community page.

sudo apt-get update

If you don't have desktop installed:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

After that install XRDP:

sudo apt-get install xrdp

Enable XRDP to start on boot:

sudo systemctl enable xrdp

If you have a firewall make sure that the 3389 port is open:

sudo ufw allow 3389/tcp

Now connect with Microsoft Remote desktop to your Linux machine.

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