Remote Desktop using Xrdp

[Slowlemon]

Hi All

For those people who prefer using a graphical user interface to typing commands into an unforgiving black console, I have found a very user friendly way to access Ubuntu 12.04 from a Windows PC. Ubuntu includes a VNC program called Vine, Windows remote desktop uses RDP. A program called Xrdp enables them to talk to each other so you can use Windows remote desktop to access your Linux folding rig.

There is a good guide here. Read the guide because it explains how this works but you do not need to do all the steps in the guide. I did not bother with the VNCserver implementation, I just used Vine. Vine is already installed on Ubuntu 12.04 so the only thing you need to install is Xrdp.

sudo apt-get install xrdp

You will need to check and or change the settings in "desktop sharing" on the Ubuntu machine. The default settings in Xrdp do not work, to change them go into the file system and navigate to /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini, however when I got there I found that there are six pre-configured options. The first option labeled "sesman-Xvnc" had the wrong settings but the second option labeled "console" had the right settings. So when at the Xrdp login screen you just need to pull down the menu and select "console" then log in .

I hope this makes sense.

[tehBoris]

Alternatively you could install the TightVNC client on windows.

[Tattysnuc]

Thanks for the heads up!

[DocJonz]

Originally Posted by tehBoris

Alternatively you could install the TightVNC client on windows.

+1 for for TightVNC - been using it for years - really easy to use when X11vnc is installed under Linux.

[Slowlemon]

Hi All

As I see it Xrdp has two advantages.
1. You don`t need to install any software on the Windows machine. This may be useful for some people, say you want to check on your folding rig from a computer at work.
2. I am told the RDP protocol is better or faster than VNC. This setup uses RDP over the network and only converts to VNC locally.