• Linux RDP

    From Dan Clough@1:135/115 to All on Fri Jun 6 19:50:33 2025
    Looking for some suggestions on what works well for RDP/VNC connections
    between two Linux boxes, both running GUI (X). Not interested in
    anything for Windows, just Linux-to-Linux.

    What's your favorite? Thanks for ideas.


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  • From Karel Kral@2:423/39 to Dan Clough on Sat Jun 7 09:13:42 2025
    Hello Dan!

    06 Jun 25 19:50, you wrote to All:

    Looking for some suggestions on what works well for RDP/VNC
    connections between two Linux boxes, both running GUI (X). Not
    interested in anything for Windows, just Linux-to-Linux.

    What's your favorite? Thanks for ideas.

    "both running X" - for that I am using X forwarding via ssh.

    Karel

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20240209
    * Origin: Plast DATA (2:423/39)
  • From Gerrit Kuehn@2:240/12 to Dan Clough on Sat Jun 7 10:46:32 2025
    Hello Dan!

    06 Jun 25 19:50, Dan Clough wrote to All:

    Looking for some suggestions on what works well for RDP/VNC
    connections
    between two Linux boxes, both running GUI (X). Not interested in
    anything for Windows, just Linux-to-Linux.

    What's your favorite? Thanks for ideas.

    Do you want persistent logins? Do you want access to the physical X display (:0), virtual ones, or both? Looking for the client or the server end (or both)?

    If VNC and RDP above are not a requirement (but merely examples): I am using x2go for a couple of years now (and try to avoid the other two, if possible).


    Regards,
    Gerrit

    ... 10:46AM up 182 days, 16:53, 10 users, load averages: 0.96, 0.85, 0.77

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  • From Dan Clough@1:135/115 to Gerrit Kuehn on Sat Jun 7 08:50:48 2025
    Gerrit Kuehn wrote to Dan Clough <=-

    Looking for some suggestions on what works well for RDP/VNC
    connections
    between two Linux boxes, both running GUI (X). Not interested in
    anything for Windows, just Linux-to-Linux.

    What's your favorite? Thanks for ideas.

    Do you want persistent logins? Do you want access to the physical X display (:0), virtual ones, or both? Looking for the client or the
    server end (or both)?

    Don't even know enough about it to answer the first two questions...
    Looking for both client and server.

    If VNC and RDP above are not a requirement (but merely examples): I am using x2go for a couple of years now (and try to avoid the other two,
    if possible).

    I'm assuming you avoid VNC/RDP for security reasons... I've added x2go
    to my list of candidates, and it looks pretty good. Thanks for the
    reply!



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  • From Dan Clough@1:135/115 to Karel Kral on Sat Jun 7 08:50:48 2025
    Karel Kral wrote to Dan Clough <=-

    Looking for some suggestions on what works well for RDP/VNC
    connections between two Linux boxes, both running GUI (X). Not
    interested in anything for Windows, just Linux-to-Linux.

    What's your favorite? Thanks for ideas.

    "both running X" - for that I am using X forwarding via ssh.

    Ahhhh yes, that may be the simplest approach. Thank you.



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  • From Mike Powell@1:2320/105 to DAN CLOUGH on Sat Jun 7 08:08:00 2025
    Looking for some suggestions on what works well for RDP/VNC connections between two Linux boxes, both running GUI (X). Not interested in
    anything for Windows, just Linux-to-Linux.

    What's your favorite? Thanks for ideas.

    Have you tried Remmina? Seems to work well here. It requres that an RDP server be running on the machine you want to make the connection to. I use xrdp for that.

    So far the majority of issues I have had are either user error or a network glitch.

    Mike

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  • From Dan Clough@1:135/115 to Mike Powell on Sat Jun 7 10:07:55 2025
    Mike Powell wrote to DAN CLOUGH <=-

    Looking for some suggestions on what works well for RDP/VNC connections between two Linux boxes, both running GUI (X). Not interested in
    anything for Windows, just Linux-to-Linux.

    What's your favorite? Thanks for ideas.

    Have you tried Remmina? Seems to work well here. It requres that an
    RDP server be running on the machine you want to make the connection
    to. I use xrdp for that.

    So far the majority of issues I have had are either user error or a network glitch.

    That sounds like a good combination, will give it a look. Thanks!



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  • From Gerrit Kuehn@2:240/12 to Dan Clough on Sat Jun 7 17:27:04 2025
    Hello Dan!

    07 Jun 25 08:50, Dan Clough wrote to Gerrit Kuehn:

    Do you want persistent logins? Do you want access to the physical X
    display (:0), virtual ones, or both? Looking for the client or the
    server end (or both)?

    Don't even know enough about it to answer the first two questions...

    There is a difference if you want to share your physical display, i.e., the session that is displayed on the monitor connected to the server, or if you want a "virtual" session that is running on the server with no monitor hardware attached. Some software can do one, some the other, some both.

    Which software you want depends on what you want to achieve: using the physical display remotely is more or less required if you want to give users in front of the machine remote help, i.e., see their screens, move their mouse, type for them.
    OTOH, running virtual session enables you to hook up several remote users to a server, everyone running their own session. This way, you could, for example, use a more powerful server to run several (virtual) desktop environment sessions, each of these being displayed by a less powerful thin client.

    Having "persistent" logins means that your virtual session (with all software running) is not automatically terminated when your client disconnects. Instead, it is waiting on the server until your client reconnects (which could be days later).
    If you are familiar with tools like "screen" or "tmux" on the commandline (or in xterm): persistent virtual X sessions are pretty much the same concept, just using X sessions (including your full desktop if you like) instead of a textmode terminal.

    If VNC and RDP above are not a requirement (but merely examples): I
    am using x2go for a couple of years now (and try to avoid the other
    two, if possible).

    I'm assuming you avoid VNC/RDP for security reasons...

    Well, depends on the actual setup and software you use, I guess. I probably would not recommend the original VNC ("realvnc") to anyone these days. TightVNC or TigerVNC usually perform better, provide more features and better security.
    RDP, on the other hand, was invented by MS. At least for me, especially the server part always felt tedious to set up and clumsy to operate. This is probably caused by its "alien" (from *ix-perspective) origin. Admittedly, I have not used it for quite some time, maybe it improved meanwhile. I am using it on *ix systems as a client (remmina being my default client there) when I have to talk to MS servers. However, I would avoid the server on *ix systems if I have other choices.

    I've added x2go to my list of candidates, and it looks pretty good.

    I have used x2go in various scenarios over the last years, usually running the server on Linux machines to be able to operate their software from Windows, MacOS, *BSD oder other Linux boxes. It is reasonably fast, tunnels over ssh by default, supports using SSH key authentication and SSH jump hosts (so you do not have to mess with firewall rules and port forwarding if you already have an ssh port open), offers session management, persistance, access to the physical X display. On top of that, it is OpenSource and easy to set up, so for me there is not much more to ask for.
    You have to take care a bit when using "fancy" desktop environments that come with compositors, transparency and stuff like that. My default desktop is xfce, x2go usually works fine with it.


    Regards,
    Gerrit

    ... 5:27PM up 182 days, 23:34, 10 users, load averages: 0.59, 0.68, 0.71

    --- msged/fbsd 6.3 2021-12-02
    * Origin: Dry thoughts for the tenant (2:240/12)
  • From Gerrit Kuehn@2:240/12 to Dan Clough on Sat Jun 7 18:00:30 2025
    Hello Dan!

    07 Jun 25 08:50, Dan Clough wrote to Karel Kral:

    "both running X" - for that I am using X forwarding via ssh.

    Ahhhh yes, that may be the simplest approach. Thank you.

    Depends on what you want: for running a single remote window that is not too complex it may be ok, given you have enough bandwidth and low latency on your network. However, X forwarding (nor XDMCP) was never made for the complex displays software nowadays can create (using 3D, lots of acceleration features and so on). Also, this does not offer persistence.


    Regards,
    Gerrit

    ... 6:00PM up 183 days, 7 mins, 10 users, load averages: 0.98, 0.75, 0.71

    --- msged/fbsd 6.3 2021-12-02
    * Origin: Dry thoughts for the tenant (2:240/12)
  • From Dan Clough@1:135/115 to Gerrit Kuehn on Sat Jun 7 19:26:13 2025
    Gerrit Kuehn wrote to Dan Clough <=-

    Hello Dan!

    07 Jun 25 08:50, Dan Clough wrote to Gerrit Kuehn:

    Do you want persistent logins? Do you want access to the physical X
    display (:0), virtual ones, or both? Looking for the client or the
    server end (or both)?

    Don't even know enough about it to answer the first two questions...

    There is a difference if you want to share your physical display, i.e., the session that is displayed on the monitor connected to the server,
    or if you want a "virtual" session that is running on the server with
    no monitor hardware attached. Some software can do one, some the other, some both.

    Which software you want depends on what you want to achieve: using the physical display remotely is more or less required if you want to give users in front of the machine remote help, i.e., see their screens,
    move their mouse, type for them. OTOH, running virtual session enables
    you to hook up several remote users to a server, everyone running their own session. This way, you could, for example, use a more powerful
    server to run several (virtual) desktop environment sessions, each of these being displayed by a less powerful thin client.

    Excellent, sounds like I would just need a virtual session.

    Having "persistent" logins means that your virtual session (with all software running) is not automatically terminated when your client disconnects. Instead, it is waiting on the server until your client reconnects (which could be days later). If you are familiar with tools like "screen" or "tmux" on the commandline (or in xterm): persistent virtual X sessions are pretty much the same concept, just using X
    sessions (including your full desktop if you like) instead of a
    textmode terminal.

    Perfect - I'm very familiar with screen/tmux and use them all the time,
    so the "detach" functionality is known. Not something I'd need in this use-case though.

    If VNC and RDP above are not a requirement (but merely examples): I
    am using x2go for a couple of years now (and try to avoid the other
    two, if possible).

    I'm assuming you avoid VNC/RDP for security reasons...

    Well, depends on the actual setup and software you use, I guess. I probably would not recommend the original VNC ("realvnc") to anyone
    these days. TightVNC or TigerVNC usually perform better, provide more features and better security. RDP, on the other hand, was invented by
    MS. At least for me, especially the server part always felt tedious to
    set up and clumsy to operate. This is probably caused by its "alien"
    (from *ix-perspective) origin. Admittedly, I have not used it for quite some time, maybe it improved meanwhile. I am using it on *ix systems as
    a client (remmina being my default client there) when I have to talk to
    MS servers. However, I would avoid the server on *ix systems if I have other choices.

    OK, that all makes sense and I'm thinking I'll just be using VNC then,
    as there is no MS/Windows around here. ;-)

    I've added x2go to my list of candidates, and it looks pretty good.

    I have used x2go in various scenarios over the last years, usually
    running the server on Linux machines to be able to operate their
    software from Windows, MacOS, *BSD oder other Linux boxes. It is reasonably fast, tunnels over ssh by default, supports using SSH key authentication and SSH jump hosts (so you do not have to mess with firewall rules and port forwarding if you already have an ssh port
    open), offers session management, persistance, access to the physical X display. On top of that, it is OpenSource and easy to set up, so for me there is not much more to ask for. You have to take care a bit when
    using "fancy" desktop environments that come with compositors, transparency and stuff like that. My default desktop is xfce, x2go
    usually works fine with it.

    This is great info, and should be fairly straight forward by the sound
    of it. I also use XFCE and nothing fancy. I'm now side-tracked on
    another project and may not get to this again for a few days, but will
    try to remember to come back and update.

    Regards,
    Gerrit

    Thank you for your VERY informative post - I found it extremely helpful indeed. Appreciate you taking the time to explain all of that.

    Cheers,
    Dan



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  • From Dennis Katsonis@3:633/384 to Karel Kral on Sun Jun 8 10:27:53 2025
    Re: Re: Linux RDP
    By: Karel Kral to Dan Clough on Sat Jun 07 2025 09:13 am

    Hello Dan!

    06 Jun 25 19:50, you wrote to All:

    Looking for some suggestions on what works well for RDP/VNC
    connections between two Linux boxes, both running GUI (X). Not interested in anything for Windows, just Linux-to-Linux.

    What's your favorite? Thanks for ideas.

    "both running X" - for that I am using X forwarding via ssh.

    Karel

    Thats what I do, if required. Either ssh with X forwarding, or telnet with X forwarding, or in some cases, using XNest to get a full login session.

    But X is slow as a protocol, and really only feasible with a network connection. RDP works better over the internet.
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  • From Karel Kral@2:423/39 to Dennis Katsonis on Sun Jun 8 08:41:12 2025
    Hello Dennis!

    08 Jun 25 10:27, you wrote to me:

    But X is slow as a protocol, and really only feasible with a network connection. RDP works better over the internet.

    Agree. Personally I need that only time to time. Using -C of course.

    It is cost (slowness) for nearly no effort to enable that.

    Karel

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  • From Gerrit Kuehn@2:240/12 to Dan Clough on Sun Jun 8 10:06:36 2025
    Hello Dan!

    07 Jun 25 19:26, Dan Clough wrote to Gerrit Kuehn:


    Thank you for your VERY informative post - I found it extremely
    helpful indeed. Appreciate you taking the time to explain all of that.

    You're welcome. That is what FidoNet is made for.


    Regards,
    Gerrit

    ... 10:06AM up 183 days, 16:13, 10 users, load averages: 0.47, 0.62, 0.64

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    * Origin: Ideas of lust and dying (2:240/12)
  • From paul lee@1:105/420 to Gerrit Kuehn on Sun Jun 8 13:20:18 2025
    If VNC and RDP above are not a requirement (but merely examples): I am using x2go for a couple of years now (and try to avoid the other two, if possible).

    I know I suggested a more mainstream option on another FTN, but I also have success using x2go - +1 if you want something lighter and more FOSS.



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