Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

antis · 2009-01-07 21:29:02

I've been googling abit on this subject but can't find a good answer it seems.

I want to set up a remote desktop on my server where users can connect remotely (starting at gdm, kdm or what ever display manager that works) and log in to their desktop on a session of their own. E.g. the same way that remote desktops in windows works where multiple users can log in and do work simultaneously. Is there a reasonably easy way to do this in Linux?

The closest I've seen is using x11vnc but I'm not sure that it will work the way I want. Or will it?

theringmaster · 2009-01-07 21:31:37

http://blog.lxpages.com/2007/03/13/remo … for-linux/

there's a list of the best linux ones, hope this helps.

antis · 2009-01-07 21:44:50

Thanks for the linke theringmaster. I've been reading about all of them except 2X which sounds really interesting. It's getting late here now so I'll have to continue my studies about this tomorrow.
Thanks again!

Wintervenom · 2009-01-07 23:03:14

One word: FreeNX.

antis · 2009-01-08 07:23:05

I looked briefly at 2X yesterday (which seems to be almost the same as FreeNX?) and it doesn't quite fit the bill.
I want it to be more simple for the user with maybe just a simple vncviewer to install and off you go. Even better would be if you could use the windows terminal server app as is, with some rdp-protocol, but maybe that just isn't possible... I've seen Xrdp but the documentation of that application is just awful.

Wintervenom · 2009-01-08 08:54:23

I thought FreeNX was easy from the perspective of an average user. It only took a few minutes to set up the server, connecting as easy as installing the client (or running it off the USB stick), putting in username/password/server, and, *explosion*, desktop.

Last edited by Wintervenom (2009-08-05 14:57:20)

antis · 2009-01-13 22:02:29

zhiwlin wrote:

Or you can download rdesktop (http://www.rdesktop.org) and compile (./configure, make, make install, make clean), then download tsclient (http://sourceforge.net/projects/tsclient) and compile (./configure, make, make install, make clean). Then run tsclient (I think the default is in /usr/local/bin folder).

But rdesktop is only a client for accessing windows terminal server... isn't it? Or is there a linux server available as well, because that is really what I'm looking for?

mcover · 2009-01-13 22:30:34

antis wrote:

zhiwlin wrote:
Or you can download rdesktop (http://www.rdesktop.org) and compile (./configure, make, make install, make clean), then download tsclient (http://sourceforge.net/projects/tsclient) and compile (./configure, make, make install, make clean). Then run tsclient (I think the default is in /usr/local/bin folder).
But rdesktop is only a client for accessing windows terminal server... isn't it? Or is there a linux server available as well, because that is really what I'm looking for?

xrdp: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=14654

seems strange to me thou. i stick to good old ssh X-forwarding or port-forwarding + vnc.

€: btw you don't need to compile rdesktop, its in the arch repos.

Last edited by mcover (2009-01-13 22:31:18)

rine · 2009-01-14 18:02:59

Somewhat related. I'm trying to use arch at work. As I'm running around between different offices, I often work from a random PC and connect to my machine via Windows Remotedesktop. II have x11vnc running onarch and connect from Windows machines through tightvnc. The only problem is that the windows/meta key is not passed to arch. I need that for awesome (no, I don't want to change the modkey). Does anyone know a vnc client for windows that can do this? (and no, I can't just use ssh. I need a gui for lotus notes )

Ranguvar · 2009-01-14 20:02:07

SSH. PuTTY will connect to Linux from Windows, and Xming will enable remote X11.

rine · 2009-01-14 20:15:19

Ranguvar wrote:

SSH. PuTTY will connect to Linux from Windows, and Xming will enable remote X11.

That looks interesting. Going to try it at work to tomorrow, thanks

edit: Well, I tried it in VirtualBox. It's good when it's working. But sometimes windows just don't get open using XLaunch. There are no error messages or logs or anything unfortunately. I'll try again at work

Last edited by rine (2009-01-14 22:40:36)

Xinix · 2009-01-14 21:14:04

Nice feature of VNC (X11vnc or tightvnc) is that you can run a Java applet against it that allows you to connect to the host via a webbrowser.

antis · 2009-01-15 10:52:48

It seems that there are a lot of ways of doing remote desktop connections to inux, but none that really works in the same fashion as Windows Terminal Server. The clostest I have come is to use x11vnc which allows me to connect to a display manager and log in. The only problem is that I can't get it to create new sessions.
Guess I'll have to work on that.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-01-07 21:29:02

Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

#2 2009-01-07 21:31:37

Re: Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

#3 2009-01-07 21:44:50

Re: Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

#4 2009-01-07 23:03:14

Re: Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

#5 2009-01-08 07:23:05

Re: Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

#6 2009-01-08 08:54:23

Re: Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

#7 2009-01-13 22:02:29

Re: Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

#8 2009-01-13 22:30:34

Re: Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

#9 2009-01-14 18:02:59

Re: Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

#10 2009-01-14 20:02:07

Re: Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

#11 2009-01-14 20:15:19

Re: Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

#12 2009-01-14 21:14:04

Re: Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

#13 2009-01-15 10:52:48

Re: Achieving remote desktop, like in Windows. Is it possible?

Board footer