I use x11vnc and a vnc client to connect to remote Linux desktops from other Linux computers. I have no problem connecting to display :0. As such, I can remotely access that desktop and help users with support and such. I would like Windows clients to be able to do the same. So I have installed Xrdp. And I can get a desktop from the Linux computer (Leap 15.3). There are two problems I do not seem to be able to solve: 1. I can only get icewm. I want KDE. I have tried editing /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh so that it should start plasma. But it does not work. 2. I cannot get it to share display:0. In fact, that's what I really want. It is running the desktop I am really after. I have tried things like making my own definition in Xrdp that should access display:0, based on various suggestions. No go. My question is: has anyone gotten either of these things to work? Or, should I install a Windows client and access x11vnc? I have been trying not to need to install software on the Windows clients if at all possible. But I can if Xrdp won't do as I would like. -- Roger Oberholtzer
On 10/28/22 00:08, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
I use x11vnc and a vnc client to connect to remote Linux desktops from other Linux computers. I have no problem connecting to display :0. As such, I can remotely access that desktop and help users with support and such.
I would like Windows clients to be able to do the same. So I have installed Xrdp. And I can get a desktop from the Linux computer (Leap 15.3).
There are two problems I do not seem to be able to solve:
1. I can only get icewm. I want KDE. I have tried editing /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh so that it should start plasma. But it does not work.
2. I cannot get it to share display:0. In fact, that's what I really want. It is running the desktop I am really after. I have tried things like making my own definition in Xrdp that should access display:0, based on various suggestions. No go.
My question is: has anyone gotten either of these things to work? Or, should I install a Windows client and access x11vnc? I have been trying not to need to install software on the Windows clients if at all possible. But I can if Xrdp won't do as I would like.
For kde, edit /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh and make SESSION=plasma. Then login again. I don't know about the display:0 issue, but could it be that the Windows client needs to have an X server? A good free one is Xming. We've been using xrdp extensively since the start of the Covids for teleworking. It's been indispensable! I run openSUSE on my home machine, then run Win-10 in VirtualBox to connect to a virtual Win-10 instance (Citrix) in AWS somewhere, then from there I run rdp to connect to our Linux hosts running xrdp behind a massive firewall. It all works well enough for system administration tasks. Regards, Lew
On Fri, 28 Oct 2022 at 18:52, Lew Wolfgang <wolfgang@sweet-haven.com> wrote:
then run Win-10 in VirtualBox to connect to a virtual Win-10 instance (Citrix) in AWS somewhere
Can't you connect to the remote instance using Remmina or some other Linux MS RDP client? It's about 10Y ago now but I worked at a company that used remote desktops for everything. I used my laptop with Ubuntu at first, until my local thin client was fully updated. Nobody knew. As I was connected to a full-screen Windows VM in a datacentre somewhere, once I'd logged in, my Linux laptop looked just like a Windows machine unless you looked at the mouse pointer very closely. There are lots: Remmina, XRDP, rdesktop, Vinagre, and more. https://www.helpwire.app/blog/remote-desktop-client-linux/ -- Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven@cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lproven@gmail.com Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven UK: (+44) 7939-087884 ~ Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053
On 10/28/22 10:00, Liam Proven wrote:
On Fri, 28 Oct 2022 at 18:52, Lew Wolfgang <wolfgang@sweet-haven.com> wrote:
then run Win-10 in VirtualBox to connect to a virtual Win-10 instance (Citrix) in AWS somewhere Can't you connect to the remote instance using Remmina or some other Linux MS RDP client?
It's about 10Y ago now but I worked at a company that used remote desktops for everything. I used my laptop with Ubuntu at first, until my local thin client was fully updated. Nobody knew. As I was connected to a full-screen Windows VM in a datacentre somewhere, once I'd logged in, my Linux laptop looked just like a Windows machine unless you looked at the mouse pointer very closely.
There are lots: Remmina, XRDP, rdesktop, Vinagre, and more.
Thanks for the pointers! But my situation is rather restrictive. The only way into my enclave is through Amazon Win-10 virtual machines, and the only way to connect to them is by using Citrix Workspace, which isn't available for Linux. Citrix has a browser-based thing called Receiver that would work, but access requires two-factor smartcards, which isn't compatible with a Linux browser running Receiver. So I need to be running on Windows to connect to virtual AWS Windows to allow me to run rdp to get to my Linux hosts. It's amazing that it works at all. Regards, Lew
On Sat, 29 Oct 2022 at 17:06, Lew Wolfgang <wolfgang@sweet-haven.com> wrote:
The only way into my enclave is through Amazon Win-10 virtual machines, and the only way to connect to them is by using Citrix Workspace, which isn't available for Linux.
Why didn't you say so in the first place, then? https://www.citrix.com/downloads/workspace-app/linux/workspace-app-for-linux... -- Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven@cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lproven@gmail.com Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven UK: (+44) 7939-087884 ~ Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053
On 10/30/22 03:57, Liam Proven wrote:
On Sat, 29 Oct 2022 at 17:06, Lew Wolfgang <wolfgang@sweet-haven.com> wrote:
The only way into my enclave is through Amazon Win-10 virtual machines, and the only way to connect to them is by using Citrix Workspace, which isn't available for Linux. Why didn't you say so in the first place, then?
https://www.citrix.com/downloads/workspace-app/linux/workspace-app-for-linux...
I thought I did mention Citrix. But I did try that a a couple of years ago and it didn't work. It had problems with the smartcard certs. But it has been a while, I'll try it again. Regards, Lew
On Fri, Oct 28, 2022 at 7:00 PM Liam Proven <lproven@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, 28 Oct 2022 at 18:52, Lew Wolfgang <wolfgang@sweet-haven.com> wrote:
then run Win-10 in VirtualBox to connect to a virtual Win-10 instance (Citrix) in AWS somewhere
Can't you connect to the remote instance using Remmina or some other Linux MS RDP client?
It's about 10Y ago now but I worked at a company that used remote desktops for everything. I used my laptop with Ubuntu at first, until my local thin client was fully updated. Nobody knew. As I was connected to a full-screen Windows VM in a datacentre somewhere, once I'd logged in, my Linux laptop looked just like a Windows machine unless you looked at the mouse pointer very closely.
There are lots: Remmina, XRDP, rdesktop, Vinagre, and more.
I think these are Linux clients to access a Windows desktop. I want the opposite: Windows client to access a Linux desktop. -- Roger Oberholtzer
On Fri, Oct 28, 2022 at 6:52 PM Lew Wolfgang <wolfgang@sweet-haven.com> wrote:
For kde, edit /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh and make SESSION=plasma. Then login again.
That's what I tried in my first step. I have verified that my Linux desktop is X11 (/usr/bin/Xorg.bin is running). Xrdp does not want to start plasma (or the Windows RDP client doesn't recognize it). And I don't see anything useful in a log to help find out why it is not working. I'm not expecting display :0 here. Just any KDE/plasma desktop.
I don't know about the display:0 issue, but could it be that the Windows client needs to have an X server? A good free one is Xming.
It should not need a server as I am not wanting to run the desktop on the Windows client. I want it to access a desktop running on the Linux remote. tightvnc allows this. I guess it is a VNC ability. -- Roger Oberholtzer
On 10/31/22 06:42, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
On Fri, Oct 28, 2022 at 6:52 PM Lew Wolfgang<wolfgang@sweet-haven.com> wrote:
For kde, edit /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh and make SESSION=plasma. Then login again.
Roger, I've always done it similar to the following using display:1: https://www.linuxtopia.org/HowToGuides/VNC_setup_Linux_Windows.html I use fluxbox as the remote desktop (blisteringly fast regardless), then it doesn't matter whether I connect from Linux using or Windows using vncviewer, you get the desktop of your choice. I know you have discussed this a bit in your thread, but I've had good luck with it. You don't need X actually running on the server box, starting vncserver will set that up and make it available. I pretty much followed these steps exactly. When you start vncserver on the box you want to provide the desktop from, it will create a default config. (e.g. systemctl start vncserver@:1) Kill the server then edit it and your .xinitrc to taste. You can set the ssh tunnel up to any box you have handy (see link). I start the vncserver over the same ssh connection and then just connect to the desktop. The vnc server config I use is: $ cat .vnc/config ## Supported server options to pass to vncserver upon invocation can be listed ## in this file. See the following manpages for more: vncserver(1) Xvnc(1). ## Several common ones are shown below. Uncomment and modify to your liking. ## securitytypes=vncauth,tlsvnc desktop=stpdsktop geometry=1440x864 localhost alwaysshared And my .xinitrc cat .xinitrc #!/bin/sh userresources=$HOME/.Xresources usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap # merge in defaults and keymaps if [ -f $sysresources ]; then xrdb -merge $sysresources fi if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then xmodmap $sysmodmap fi if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then xrdb -merge "$userresources" fi if [ -f "$usermodmap" ]; then xmodmap "$usermodmap" fi # start some nice programs if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ] ; then for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/?*.sh ; do [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f" done unset f fi # twm & # xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1 & # xterm -geometry 80x50+494+51 & # xterm -geometry 80x20+494-0 & # exec xterm -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login ## source xprofile for pc speaker off and keyboard setup [ -f ~/.xprofile ] && . ~/.xprofile ## some applications that should be run in the background # xscreensaver & xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr & # exec startfluxbox session=${1:-fluxbox} case $session in fluxbox ) xscreensaver & exec startfluxbox;; i3 ) exec i3;; * ) exec $1;; esac -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
On Fri, 28 Oct 2022 at 09:08, Roger Oberholtzer <roger.oberholtzer@gmail.com> wrote:
2. I cannot get it to share display:0
Could it be that you are running KDE under Wayland? If so there is no X server to connect to. It is a ticky-box on the login screen, whether you start KDE with Wayland or KDE with X.org. IceWM, OTOH, is X11-only. -- Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven@cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lproven@gmail.com Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven UK: (+44) 7939-087884 ~ Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053
On 28.10.2022 10:08, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
2. I cannot get it to share display:0. In fact, that's what I really want. It is running the desktop I am really after. I have tried things like making my own definition in Xrdp that should access display:0, based on various suggestions. No go.
What made you think it was possible? Xrdp does not support it. https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xrdp/issues/960
On 28.10.2022 20:35, Andrei Borzenkov wrote:
On 28.10.2022 10:08, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
2. I cannot get it to share display:0. In fact, that's what I really want. It is running the desktop I am really after. I have tried things like making my own definition in Xrdp that should access display:0, based on various suggestions. No go.
What made you think it was possible? Xrdp does not support it.
Apparently it is supported by freerdp via freerdp-shadow-x11 (or freerdp-shadow-cli) as long as I can trust the manual page. You can give it a try.
On Fri, Oct 28, 2022 at 7:35 PM Andrei Borzenkov <arvidjaar@gmail.com> wrote:
On 28.10.2022 10:08, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
2. I cannot get it to share display:0. In fact, that's what I really want. It is running the desktop I am really after. I have tried things like making my own definition in Xrdp that should access display:0, based on various suggestions. No go.
What made you think it was possible? Xrdp does not support it.
There are many discussions (like your link) where people describe how they have done specifically this with Xrdp server. If the results are available to the standard Windows RDP client is unclear. Others in the same thread make opposite claims. So that to me means it is unclear what people think they are doing. I am guessing that it might be easier to just install a Windows client that can connect to the Linux desktop as I do with my Linux vncviewer client. The tightvnc Windows client seems to be working. -- Roger Oberholtzer
participants (5)
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Andrei Borzenkov -
David C. Rankin -
Lew Wolfgang -
Liam Proven -
Roger Oberholtzer