Can FreeRDP be used as server?

remote-desktop rdp

37,531

Solution 1

Listed are the steps to install xfreerdp as a server in a linux machine. Using this, you can remotely connect to your linux machine. NOTE: freerdp server is still in experimental stage and has several bugs once you get connected. It is no where near production.

Download the latest git master. Stable 1.1 has bugs related to freerdp-server.

git clone https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP.git
Install suggested dependencies: sudo apt-get install build-essential git-core cmake libssl-dev libx11-dev libxext-dev libxinerama-dev \ libxcursor-dev libxdamage-dev libxv-dev libxkbfile-dev libasound2-dev libcups2-dev libxml2 libxml2-dev \ libxrandr-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev libxi-dev
cd FreeRDP
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DWITH_SSE2=ON -DWITH_SERVER=ON (see https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/wiki/Build-Options for additional build options)
make
sudo make install
Go to linux home directory
cd etc/ld.conf.d
create a file called freerdp.conf and insert in it: usr/local/lib/freerdp depending on OS dist may also have to add: /usr/local/lib
sudo ldconfig
cd ~/Desktop/FreeRDP
sudo /sbin/ldconfig
check installation using which xfreerdp NOTE: A file of known hosts is located at ~/.config/freerdp ABOVE STEPS ALSO APPLY FOR INSTALLING freerdp client
copy server/X11/server.crt and server.key to ~/.config/freerdp/server/
Now you need to generate a hash of the User account of your computer in which the freerdp-server will run. freerdp contains a hash tool to do this.
cd ~/Desktop/FreeRDP/winpr/tools/hash if your account username is USER and password is PASSWD and domain is DOMAIN (omit
domain if N/A), then run the hash script as: ./winpr-hash -d DOMAIN -u USER -p PASSWD The script will output a hash value
cd /etc/winpr (if dir does not exist then mkdir /etc/winpr) NOTE: you will need to have admin rights to access /etc
In /etc/winpr create a file named SAM and copy the generated hash value in it
run freerdp server with command xfreerdp-server

NOTE: If you get an error and freerdp stops, saying bind: address already in use it means another
TCP/IP process is using the same port address that freerdp-server is trying to access. Check running processes with command netstat-tulpn. NOTE: Connect to server using a client which has RemoteFX enabled, otherwise connection fails

Solution 2

Yes, I can confirm, there are no xfreerdp-server sources in the repository now. From xfreerdp wiki:

-DWITH_SERVER=ON : When on, it creates make files for server libs

Server libs are built successfully, but how to use them? There is also a sample server included - sfreerdp-server ( -DWITH_SAMPLE=ON ) but it produces no output. I suppose you have to look into code to understand what it does as I didn't found any documentation.

37,531

Arkantos

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Arkantos over 1 year

Can FreeRDP be configured as a server? That is can I install freeRDP in my Ubunutu VM running on a server and remotely connect to it from my windows Remote Desktop client?

Thank you
- Panther almost 10 years
  
  Not that I know of. I highly advise FreeNX, it is fast and secure. There are cross platform servers and clients.
- Arkantos almost 10 years
  
  @bodhi.zazen I know about alternatives such as xrdp, FreeNX, VNC etc. However, I want to specifically know whether FreeRDP can be used as a server.
- Panther almost 10 years
  
  The FreeRDP package is a client only.
- Arkantos almost 10 years
  
  @bodhi.zazen I did a lot of snooping around on freerdp github repo, and it turns out that FreeRDP can be used as a server, however, it is still experimental and has several issues. However, I got their latest master code up and running, and can connect from a standard windows mstsc to an ubuntu VM running on a server.
practice2perfect about 9 years

I just followed the exact steps as you mentioned, As the last step says to start the server, what is the exact command to start the server. When I try xfreerdp-server or xfreerdp -server, neither works for me.
Alek_A over 8 years

freerdp-shadow didn't work for me either, it logs errors when I try to connect from Windows Server 2003, maybe the client in ws2003 is too old
Michael Johnston almost 8 years

In the current version of FreeRDP, the CLI changed from xfreerdp-server to freerdp-shadow-cli