Is there an equivalent of Windows' Remote Desktop?

34,801

Solution 1

In general, xrdp will do what you want. And is compatible with many RDP clients out there.

The drawback is that Unity, the default WM in Ubuntu, no longer supports it. I believe, although I've never tried it, that it works with GNOME.

For my personal use, I just installed MATE desktop (as it has less "flair" then GNOME) and configured Ubuntu to use that whenever remotely logging in.

See here for information on setting it up (This answer uses XFCE for remote-desktop. You may choose something else):

https://askubuntu.com/a/592544/595510

Solution 2

I would recommend X2go. It's very similar to RDP and highly efficient even over low-bandwidth, high-latency connections. Clients for all systems, including a plugin for Firefox, etc. It works over ssh and integrates with PulseAudio so you can use VoIP, for instance. Read more on http://www.x2go.org

The x2go client requires a session command to execute upon logging in. For example, to use Unity 2D, use the session command: gnome-session --session=ubuntu-2d. This was found by looking in the file (on the host) /usr/share/xsessions/ubuntu-2d.desktop and copying value of the Exec=... line. If you want to use some other session, you can use the value from another file in /usr/share/xsessions/, but it seems that anything requiring 3D acceleration will not work.

Solution 3

Chrome Remote Desktop BETA

★★★★½

This is a Chrome extension by google, which installs a plugin in chrome for enabling remote desktop sharing. The sharing is much simpler compared to other solutions, and is easy to setup.

Screenshot

Chrome Remote Desktop BETA allows users to remotely access another computer through Chrome browser or a Chromebook. Computers can be made available on an short-term basis for scenarios such as ad hoc remote support, or on a more long-term basis for remote access to your applications and files. All connections are fully secured.

Solution 4

I use NoMachine's free client (and server). They have repos which makes it easy to install. It works like a charm.

Solution 5

There is a linux RDP-server http://www.xrdp.org/

I used it some time ago. It worked flawlessly.

View more solutions

34,801

detly

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

detly over 1 year
I would like to be able to graphically log in to another Ubuntu machine (the server) from my Ubuntu desktop machine (the client), much like with Windows' Remote Desktop.

The "Desktop Sharing" settings that come installed by default seem to use VNC. VNC is a bit of a bandwidth hog, can only work at the resolution of whatever screen is attached to the host, requires you to log in at the machine itself, and mirrors every action on the host.

I know about X tunnelling, but that's annoying to use and doesn't always work properly (or, more accurately, some apps don't work properly).

Is there any kind of tool in between the two, similar to Remote Desktop used for Windows? Specifically, something with the following features:
- can run at a different resolution to the host screen (if there is one)
- can run at full screen
- has adjustable quality settings for different bandwidths
- doesn't require a user to be logged in locally
- saves credentials or uses SSH keys
- starts automatically on the server
- client works under Gnome 3 and Unity
- can be restricted to work with non-compositing DEs on the server (eg. XFCE)
I've been using X2go for a while, but unfortunately it no longer works fullscreen on Gnome 3 due to a couple of bugs (#1072 and #982), so if there's a better solution out there I'd like to try it.
- Takkat over 12 years
  
  possible duplicate of Remote Desktop similar to Teamviewer?
- Rinzwind over 12 years
  
  rdesktop is what's used afaik and it uses RDP. rdesktop.org VNC should be a seperate install (and is not the default)(someome correct me if I am wrong).
- detly over 12 years
  
  @Rinzwind - that appears to be a viewer, not a server.
- detly over 12 years
  
  While I don't entirely disagree with the close votes, it's worth noting that x2go is a great solution to this problem, but does not appear as an answer to the duplicate or in the Wikipedia list linked to therein. But the answers to the other questions are probably close enough (if outdated) that I would not have posted a bounty to get new answers.
detly over 12 years

Are you sure? I see nothing other than information about VNC on the website, package description and man page.
detly over 12 years

xrdp seems to have some problems on Ubuntu 11.10, alas. You can only see the background (ie. wallpaper).
detly over 12 years

That seems to be a problem with Unity — maybe, like with x2go, if you could set the session command it would work.
Takkat over 12 years

x11vnc is not vnc-server
detly almost 7 years

I use XFCE on the server, and Gnome 3 on the client. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
Admin almost 7 years

@detly Great! Then you have no need to change the instructions of the answer I linked to. Maybe that will solve your problem.
detly almost 7 years

Ah wonderful. It works. I have my whole screen back. I didn't actually need to do the ~/.xsession etc. stuff — since I'm using Remmina on the client, I can enter startxfce4 as the "Startup program" and it just works automatically. Only drawbacks are: no resizing resolution on the fly (I don't care about it, and it's a known feature request, and disconnecting means a full logout (rather than being able to resume a session later). Also, it seems to be using VNC under the hood, but bandwidth usage seems to be okay.
detly almost 7 years

I see there are workarounds for resuming sessions documented in various places too, I'll try them out soon.
Admin almost 7 years

@detly "Disconnecting means a full logout" Something isn't configured right then, I can close a session with Remmina and resume it.
detly almost 7 years

Yes, it was an old version of xrdp, because I was running an older distro. I've upgraded and it works perfectly now.
detly almost 7 years

Alright, sorry for the gripe. For some reason it worked fine for a day and then ran up against this silliness. Probably old state from before upgrade.
detly over 6 years

Have to unaccept, because this answer is no longer current. X2Go is dropping support or otherwise ignoring current desktop environments in both their client and server.
SDsolar about 6 years

I have 10 systems that would all have to be updated to use this. They all run the xrdp server. This requires having NoMachine (NX) on both ends. But upvote for the fact that it looks good.
user68186 about 6 years

Remmina works as an ssh client as well. There is no need for putty in Ubuntu.
SDsolar about 6 years

I agree with the second part of what you said. ssh -Y systemname works even better than either one. I tolerate remmina and can work with it, but only use it for the RDP connections where I need to open several windows on the same system, within a single session.
SDsolar about 6 years

From real Chrome they made this work. However, it is not available for Chromium. So in other words, my Windows machines could do this, but it pales in comparison to the real Windows Remote Desktop. Thus my Ubuntu 16.04 machines don't have this available. So remmina is my choice for the Ubuntu laptop.