Xrdp - How do I connect remotely to an existing local session?

Question

My OS is Ubuntu 16.04 (Unity), but I am using the Xfce4 (apt get xfce4) interface. I want to connect from a Windows 7 PC (using the standard remote controll) and from a Linux OS via rdesktop.

I want to use xrdp to connect to an existing locally started desktop session.

I looked up the www, but I only found "old" articles or articles which describe how to reconnect to a remote session (but I want to reconnect to a locally started session!):

http://c-nergy.be/blog/?p=4168

How do I set up xrdp session that reuses an existing session?

I tried changing the xrdp.ini file, changing the port from -1 to 5910, but this didn't solve my problem.

Do you have any suggestions?

Solution

xrdp works internally by opening a new X session and controlling it through Xvnc.

Xvnc is the X VNC (Virtual Network Computing) server. It is based on a standard X server, but it has a "virtual" screen rather than a physical one. X applications display themselves on it as if it were a normal X display, but they can only be accessed via a VNC viewer

But this is just the default settings, there are other options that you can use:

In particular the option vnc-any also allows you to connect to any reachable vnc server:

So if you want to connect to an X session running on your regular monitor(s), you can install a regular vnc server and connect to it through xrdp.

Comments

[yms]

Possible duplicate of Use xrdp to connect to desktop session

[Scott]

that is for vnc, the OP was asking about xrdp

[yms]

@Scott read my answer again please, it seems you skipped a few important bits.

[Scott]

yes, I understand. But linux installs have available a number of remote options including various vnc servers and an xrdp daemon. Whether than daemon is a wrapper for vnc or not is irrelevant to the original question which was how to do with with the xrdp daemon.

[Scott]

You are showing using xrdp as a 'client' to connect to another host aren't you? Not the same thing.

[yms]

@Scott "Whether than daemon is a wrapper for vnc or not is irrelevant" no is not, that fact is what enables you to use xrdp service to connect to a vnc server that exports your console session. That's the whole point of my answer.

[yms]

The OP said: "I want to connect from a Windows 7 PC (using the standard remote controll) and from a Linux OS via rdesktop." My answer solves precisely that problem.