Linux: Install XRDP for remote desktop server

This article will describe installing on Fedora 26, CentOS 7, Debian 9, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04 and OpenSUSE Leap 42.

1 XRDP

XRDP is an open source implementation of RDP protocol server. You can connect to Linux desktop environment with XRDP from remote machine.

1.1 Connect to XRDP

You can connect to XRDP with "Remote Desktop Connect" on Windows, "Microsoft Remote Desktop" on MacOS and "rdesktop" on Linux.

1.2 VNC server

XRDP uses VNC server as a backend.

There are TightVNC and TigerVNC for VNC server. But GNOME3 and Unity needs TigerVNC.

Fedora 26, CentOS 7, Debian 9, Ubuntu 17.04 and OpenSUSE Leap 42 have TigerVNC in their repository.

But Ubuntu 16.04 does not have TigerVNC in the repository. You need to build and install TigerVNC.

1.3 3389/tcp

If you runs firewall, you need to open 3389/tcp on XRDP server.

1.4 ~/.xsession and ~/.Xclients

Depending on the combination of Linux distribution and desktop environment, you need to use ~/.xsession or ~/.Xclients for calling startup program. Xfce desktop environment is xfce4-session.

You need to create ~/.Xclients on Fedora 26 and CentOS 7.

$ echo "xfce4-session" > ~/.Xclients
$ chmod a+x ~/.Xclients

You need to create ~/.xsession on Debian 9, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04 and OpenSUSE Leap 42.

$ echo "xfce4-session" > ~/.xsession

2 Install XRDP

Please check the following links.

2.1 Fedora 26

3389/tcp is opend by default.

2.2 CentOS 7

You need to install XRDP from EPEL repository and open 3389/tcp.

2.3 Debian 9

You need to install tigervnc-standalone-server and use Xvnc for XRDP session type.

2.4 Ubuntu 16.04

You need to build and install TigerVNC.

2.5 Ubuntu 17.04