XRDP is an easy-to-install and configurable service for Ubuntu systems. But you can also use a VNC server to access the remote desktop of the Ubuntu systems. Find a tutorial to install a VNC server on Ubuntu systems.

In this article, we will show you how to install and configure XRDP on Ubuntu 22.04. We will also walk you through a few common configuration tasks.

Prerequsities

You need an X server (Desktop Environment) that is installed on your server and running. You also need to install the xrdp (X Remote Desktop Protocol) client software on your client computer.

Step 1 – Installing XRDP on Ubuntu

The installation of XRDP on Ubuntu 22.04 is straightforward. The package is available in the official repositories, so we can simply install it with the apt package manager.

sudo apt update 
sudo apt install xrdp -y 

Once the installation is successfully finished, the XRDP service will be started automatically. You can check the status by executing the following command:

sudo systemctl status xrdp 

The above output shows the Xrdp service is up and running.

Step 2 – Configuring XRDP

The installer will create a new account named “xrdp”. The xrdp session uses a certificate key file “/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key”, which plays an important role with remote desktops.

In order to work it properly, add the xrdp user to the “ssl-cert” group with the following command.

 sudo usermod -a -G ssl-cert xrdp 

Restart the Xrdp service by running the command given below:

sudo systemctl restart xrdp 

Step 3 – Configure System Firewall

The XRDP service listens on standard remote desktop port 3389. You need to adjust the firewall to allow access to port 3389 for the remote systems.

Systems running with a UFW firewall, use the following command to open port 3389 for the LAN network.

sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port 3389 

Reload the UFW to apply the new rules.

sudo ufw reload 

All right, Your system is ready to access over RDP protocol.

Step 4 – Connect to Remote Desktop

The Xrdp service is successfully installed and ready to connect. On your Windows client, open the RDP client and enter the IP address of the Ubuntu system.

On the Windows system launch the RDP client:

Once connected successfully, the remote system prompt for authentication. Enter the login credentials of the remote Ubuntu system to get remote desktop access.

On successful authentication, you’ll get access to Ubuntu remote desktop.

Now, you can manage your remote Ubuntu system graphically.

Conclusion

This article shows you how to install and configure a lightweight and secure remote desktop client and access program on a variety of Linux distributions. You can use XRDP as a replacement for PPP (Point-to-Point), SSH, and VNC remote desktop clients. As with most Linux applications, XRDP is available via the official package management system of your distribution. With a few tweaks, you can have XRDP up and running in less than 15 minutes.

The post How To Install XRDP on Ubuntu 22.04 appeared first on TecAdmin.

The XRDP allows two-way clipboard transfer, audio and microphone voice redirection and allows us to mount local drives on the remote machines.

This tutorial helps you to Install XRDP Server (Remote Desktop) on the Debian 10 Linux system.

Prerequisities

You must have shell access with a sudo privilege user to the Debian 10 system

Step 1 – Installing Desktop Environment

By default, Debian Servers doesn’t have an installed Desktop Environment. XRDP server is designed to controls only desktop systems. So you will need to add a desktop environment to your system.

Open a terminal and upgrade all installed packages with the following command:

sudo apt update && apt install tasksel -y 

After installing Tasksel, launch the Tasksel utility with the following command:

sudo tasksel 

You should see the following interface:

Use the arrow key to scroll down the list and find Debian Desktop Environment. Next, press the Space key to select it, also choose the Dekstop type, then press the Tab key to select OK then hit Enter to install the desktop environment.

Once all the packages are installed, you will need to set your system boots into the graphical target. You can set it with the following command:

sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target 

Next, restart your system to apply the changes.

Step 2 – Installing XRDP on Debian 10

The Xrdp Debian packages are available under the default system repositories. You can install a remote desktop on your Debian system by executing the following command.

sudo apt install xrdp -y 

Once the xrdp installation finished successfully, its service will be started automatically. To verify the service status run the command:

sudo systemctl status xrdp 

The above output shows the Xrdp service is up and listening on port 3389.

Step 3 – Configuring Xrdp Service

The installation process creates a user named xrdp in your system. The XRDP sessions uses a certificate key file “/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key”, which plays an important role with remote desktop. This key file is owned by root and the group owner is “ssl-cert”

So we need to allow xrdp user to access this key file. To do this, add the xrdp user to the “ssl-cert” group with the following command.

sudo usermod -a -G ssl-cert xrdp 

Sometimes user faces issue with black screen appears in background. So, that I ahave included steps to resolve black screen issue in background. Edit the xrdp file /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh in a text editor:

sudo nano /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh 

Add these commands before the commands that test & execute Xsession as shown below:

Unset DBUS_SESSION_ADDRESS
Unset XDG_RUNTIME_DIR

Press CTRL+O to write out and then CTRL+X to exit from the editor.

Restart the Xrdp service by running the command given below:

sudo systemctl restart xrdp 

Step 4 – Adjust Firewall

The Xrdp listens on port 3389, which is the default port for the RDP protocol. You need to adjust the firewall to allow access to port 3389 for remote systems.

Systems running with UFW firewall, use the following command to open port 3389 for the LAN network.

sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port 3389 

You can change 192.168.1.0/24 with 0.0.0.0/0 to open for all.

Reload the UFW to apply the new rules.

sudo ufw reload 

All right, Your system is ready to access over RDP protocol.

Step 5 – Connect to Remote Desktop

The Xrdp service is successfully installed and ready to connect. On your Windows client, open the RDP client and enter the IP address of the Debian system.

You can launch the RDP client by typing "mstsc" in the run window or command line.

The first time, it will prompt a warning message due to the remote system is unknown for your system. Check the box in front of “Don’t ask me again for connection to this computer” and click Yes to continue.

Once connected successfully, the remote system prompt for authentication. Enter the login credentials of the remote Debian system to get remote desktop access.

On successful authentication, you’ll get remote desktop access.

That’s it. Now, you can manage your remote Debian system with a graphical interface.

Conclusion

This tutorial helped you to set up XRDP Server (Remote Desktop) service on Debian 10 Linux system. Additionally provides you the steps to install Desktop Environment on a Debian Linux system.

The post How To Install XRDP (Remote Desktop) on Debian 10 appeared first on TecAdmin.

This tutorial helps you to Install XRDP Server (Remote Desktop) on a Fedora Linux system. Also provides the instructions to install a Desktop environment on your system.

Step 1 – Install Desktop Environment

Fedora workstation comes with a default desktop environment. In case you have installed Fedora minimal version or server edition will not have desktop installed. The XRDP server is designed to controls only desktop systems. So you will need to add a desktop environment to your system.

Open a terminal and upgrade all installed packages with the following command:

sudo dnf upgrade 

Once your system is updated, install search for the available Desktop environment for your system.

sudo dnf grouplist -v 

Choose a desktop environment to be installed on your system. The below command will install KDE Plasma desktop on your Fedora system.

sudo dnf install @kde-desktop-environment 

Make sure to use “@” before the package name as you are going to install a group of packages.

Once the installation finished, restart your system to apply the changes.

Step 2 – Install Xrdp (Remote Desktop) on Fedora

The Xrdp packages are available under the default system repositories. You can install the remote desktop service (xrdp) on your Fedora system by executing the following command.

sudo dnf install xrdp -y 

Once the packages installed successfully, start the xrdp service and enable it to auto-start with system boots.

sudo systemctl enable xrdp 
sudo systemctl start xrdp 

Verify the service is started successfully.

sudo systemctl status xrdp 

The above output shows the Xrdp service is up and running.

Step 3 – Adjust Firewall

The XRDP service uses a standard remote desktop protocol port ie 3389. The fedora systems come with the active FireallD service. So you need to allow access on port 3389 in the firewall for the remote systems.

Execute the following command to open firewall access:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=3389/tcp 

Reload the new rules.

sudo firewall-cmd --reload 

All right, Your system is ready to access over RDP protocol.

Step 4 – Manage SELinux

The systems have SELinux enforcing required to apply SELinux context on xrdp binaries. The following commands will allow the XRDP service to be accessible for remote users.

sudo chcon --type=bin_t /usr/sbin/xrdp 
sudo chcon --type=bin_t /usr/sbin/xrdp-sesman 

At this stage, your system is ready with Remote desktop service. Now connect to your system using any RDP client.

Step 5 – Connect to Remote Desktop

The Xrdp service is successfully installed and ready to connect. On your Windows client, open the RDP client and enter the IP address of the Fedora system.

You can launch the RDP client by typing "mstsc" in the run window or command line.

The first time, it will prompt a warning message due to the remote system is unknown for your system. Check the box in front of “Don’t ask me again for connection to this computer” and click Yes to continue.

Once connected successfully, the remote system prompt for authentication. Enter the login credentials of the remote Fedora system to get remote desktop access.

On successful authentication, you’ll get remote desktop access.

Hurrey, Now you can manage your remote Fedora system using the graphical interface.

Conclusion

This tutorial helped you to set up a remote desktop service on Fedora Linux using the Xrdp server. The tutorial also includes steps to install Desktop Environment on your Fedora system.

The post How To Install XRDP (Remote Desktop) on Fedora appeared first on TecAdmin.

XRDP is an easy-to-install and configurable service for Ubuntu systems. But you can also use a VNC server to access the remote desktop of the Ubuntu systems. Find a tutorial to install a VNC server on Ubuntu 20.04 systems.

This tutorial helps you to Install Remote Desktop (XRDP) on Ubuntu 20.04 Linux system. Also provides the instructions to install a Desktop environment on your system.

Step 1 – Install Desktop Environment

By default, Ubuntu Server does not have an installed Desktop Environment. XRDP server is designed to control only desktop systems. So you will need to add a desktop environment to your system.

Open a terminal and upgrade all installed packages with the following command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade 

Once your system is updated, install the Tasksel utility to install a desktop environment:

apt install tasksel -y 

After installing Tasksel, launch the Tasksel utility with the following command:

tasksel 

You should see the following interface:

Use the arrow key to scroll down the list and find Ubuntu desktop. Next, press the Space key to select it then press the Tab key to select OK then hit Enter to install the Ubuntu desktop.

Once all the packages are installed, you will need to set your system boots into the graphical target. You can set it with the following command:

systemctl set-default graphical.target 

Next, restart your system to apply the changes.

Step 2 – Installing XRDP on Ubuntu

The Xrdp packages are available under the default system repositories. You can install a remote desktop on your Ubuntu system by executing the following command.

sudo apt install xrdp -y 

Once the xrdp installation finished successfully, its service will be started automatically. To verify the service status run the command:

sudo systemctl status xrdp 

The above output shows the Xrdp service is up and running.

Step 3 – Configuring Xrdp

During the installation, xrdp added a user in your system named “xrdp”. The xrdp session uses a certificate key file “/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key”, which plays an important role with remote desktop.

In order to work it properly, add the xrdp user to the “ssl-cert” group with the following command.

 sudo usermod -a -G ssl-cert xrdp 

Sometimes user faces issue with black screen appears in background. So, that I ahave included steps to resolve black screen issue in background. Edit the xrdp file /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh in a text editor:

sudo nano /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh 

Add these commands before the commands that test & execute Xsession as shown below:

unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
unset XDG_RUNTIME_DIR

Press CTRL+O to write out and then CTRL+X to exit from the editor.

Restart the Xrdp service by running the command given below:

sudo systemctl restart xrdp 

Step 4 – Adjust Firewall

The Xrdp listens on port 3389, which is the default port for the RDP protocol. You need to adjust the firewall to allow access to port 3389 for remote systems.

Systems running with UFW firewall, use the following command to open port 3389 for the LAN network.

sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port 3389 

Reload the UFW to apply the new rules.

sudo ufw reload 

All right, Your system is ready to access over RDP protocol.

Step 5 – Connect to Remote Desktop

The Xrdp service is successfully installed and ready to connect. On your Windows client, open the RDP client and enter the IP address of the Ubuntu system.

You can launch the RDP client by typing "mstsc" in the run window or command line.

The first time, it will prompt a warning message due to the remote system being unknown to your system. Check the box in front of “Don’t ask me again for connection to this computer” and click Yes to continue.

Once connected successfully, the remote system prompt for authentication. Enter the login credentials of the remote Ubuntu system to get remote desktop access.

On successful authentication, you’ll get remote desktop access.

Now, you can manage your remote Ubuntu system graphically.

Conclusion

This tutorial helped you to set up a remote desktop service on Ubuntu 20.04 system with Xrdp. The tutorial also includes steps to install Desktop Environment on a Ubuntu system.

The post How To Install XRDP (Remote Desktop) on Ubuntu 20.04 appeared first on TecAdmin.