Linux Remote Desktop - How-to, the safe way

TechnoJunky

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2018
Messages
501
Reaction score
400
Credits
398
I just saw another thread about this on the forum that was locked. The OP posted something that appeared to be not a good idea, but Remote Desktoping into your Linux box IS a good idea, especially if you run a headless node, or are just too lazy to get up and go over to the other computer. I just set this up on my home server so I thought I'd contribute by starting my own thread.

You can securely remote desktop into your other Linux computers on your home (or office) computers by installing a couple utilities that are in the Ubuntu repository. I did this many years ago on Fedora, so it's most likely in other Distro's repositories as well, but may be named differently. When I did it then, it was at work and allowed me to remote desktop into Windows servers that I administered, from my Linux desktop. There are likely other client/server apps for this and this one is a KDE app, but runs just fine in non-KDE desktops.

You need to install 2 components, 1 on your 'server' and one on your 'client'. The server component is xrdp and the client component is krdc. If your server is headless or too far away, ssh into it and run 'sudo apt-get install xrdp'. No configuring needs to be done. Once it's installed it's listening. Then on your local computer run 'sudo apt-get install krdc'. This app should show up in your Internet menu. Now that it's installed run it. By default the 'connect to:' protocol is "vnc", change it to "rdp" and enter the address/name of your server and click the >. You'll get a configuration (options) window where you select the resolution and other options. You'll be asked for your password. And then you'll be asked for the encryption type. If you don't have GPG encryption keys, you'll need to select Classic. You'll be asked to setup the KDE wallet with a password, you can click Cancel to bypass this if you aren't running KDE and/or just don't want to. After you've made a connection to your server, it'll show up in a list in the left pane of the KRDP window where you can just double click it future sessions. That's it, it's that easy. (you may need to open a port in the firewall for this)

I know there are Gnome based apps for this. I tried installing Vinagre, on a Gnome VM I have, for this posting but couldn't get it to work, but krdc did.
 
Last edited:

Members online


Latest posts

Top