Whenever I try to remote into my Linux machines I get an image that looks like attached the. Remotings into Windows works fine. Do u have to use another application? What do y’all recommend?
So far any use case I’ve solved with just SSH.
What specifically do you need to rdp in for?
The remote access game is just completely different in Windows versus Linux. Windows has excellent graphical remote control options (RDP, Quick Access) and Linux has a hodgepodge of options that all only half work. Linux has excellent remote terminal capabilities (SSH), whereas remote Windows terminals are a joke. Both of these facts are very fitting, because the Linux terminal is powerful, while on Windows you need the GUI to do anything.
I just install openssh on my Windows machines and then I can use RDP or SSH for whatever I need.
The question then is, how much can you actually do in the shell.
Good luck setting up many programs that way when they soley rely on the GUI and documentation about configs or their database structure is nonexistant.I’m a sysadmin and do most everything in Powershell, there’s very few things that I need a GUI for.
If it’s something not documented, I usually run the program on a test bench while using procmon, that will show me which registry key or config file needs to be modified, which can then be done from the command line.
What CLI tools do you find have install problems on Powershell?
Everything I’ve used can be installed “headless”, often using
wingetnow.But powershell just sucks and windows file system is cumbersome, so limux is still better.
I find many programs meant for servers and businesses have no problem being CLI installed, though the install is most often installed silently through intune or group policy when that’s the case.
Yeah MS has actually gotten a lot better with what can be done headless and even just remote PowerShell commands can do a lot these days.
Heck, you can install PowerShell on Linux to manage windows boxen if you’re so inclined
Xfreerdp and gnome work really well together for me. Extremely reliable and very quick. My only complaint is lack of multi monitor support.
Not the OP, but I’ll add my 2c
I’ve got various components on my server that do have CLI counterparts, but functionality is limited or annoying at best.
For example, managing stuff under KVM can be done with “virsh”, editing a bunch of XML, and configuring SSH from the master to every underlying system… Or I could just RDP/X11-forward from my other device and do it in a couple clicks.
That said, SSH (or a VPN) is still partly the answer as I don’t like exposing RDP/VNC services to the internet, but XRDP or x11vnc etc with port forwarding through SSH work nicely.
If one is connecting from Android then ConnectBot supports port forwarding and can also be used with an X server application (i.e X11 XSDL) if you wanted to just go with just SSH+X-Forwarding
You can use virtual manager to do remote access over ssh.
Yeah I’m using it with X-Forwarding currently for that but I have found that RDP/VNC are a bit more responsive for some stuff.
That and there’s one Debian host I’ve got which periodically crashes back to lightdm when accessed via virt-manager, but works fine via xRDP.
That’s not what I meant. The virtual manager application on your device can connect to a remote instance of libvirtd over ssh. The effect is you get a local desktop app that can manage remote virtualization.
So virt-manager binary run locally but connecting to the remote host. I’ve done that before on Linux but haven’t seen a binary/client available for other OS’s
Oh, I just assumed you were on Linux
Linux Desktop, Android Phone, sometimes Windows if I’m hitting something from work etc
ssh only works for X11, not for Wayland
Works for Wayland as well, it’s just a bit different with Waypipe.
Cooool! Have to try.
KASM VNC supports Wayland only for single window apps. But that is fancy fast VNC, not SSH.
Rustdesk
+1 for rustdesk same here, also great for cross platform including mobile
Yep. It’s nice to know you’re in control of it. Not like bloody AnyDesk which decided one day out of the blue to remove the TCP Tunneling feature I was using.
How good is its Wayland support these days?
I self host rustdesk privately via tailscale and strongly recommend it. I don’t always need a desktop but when I do, I’m glad I can use rustdesk.
I’ll add a requirement. That supports remotes running Wayland.
Honestly don’t use RDP to access Linux unless its built into the desktop. I personally use Rustdesk and Moonlight/sunshine
AFAIK, Rustdesk is only for X11, so there’s that limitation which is getting more relevant as time goes on.
True but wayland support is experimental but semi usable
I just SSH
I use “aRDP free”. I had to enable the advanced option “RDP Gfx”, and set the resolution manually in the app to the resolution of my monitor, and everything works. Pc is wayland, gnome, arch.
Cheers thanks this works like a charm.
I use sunshine and moonlight. It’s designed for games but works far better because of it, as in if it’s good enough for games, the latency will be far better than other RDP protocols.
It doesn’t do clipboard sharing though.
Moonlight isn’t RDP
Nomachine (NX) might help: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NX_technology
Is it still alive? X2go is its FOSS alternative (fork).
Thanks!
Yep, this is what I use too. The display quality can drop if you’ve got a slow connection, but it works well.
The downsides are, I don’t think it’s FOSS, but it is free for home use, and if a machine has been off for long enough to drop off the connection list, you have to wait for NoMachine to detect it again. It needs a way to force it to check for systems instead of waiting.
It is indeed not FOSS. I should have asked OP how important that is - some people need a robust, ready-to-roll solution, preferably non-Microsoft, others a full FOSS license and figure stuff out on their own. Someone else mentioned X2Go, I have no experience with it but it is worth a look.
Will give both a look thanks
VNC
GUI:
kvm/qemu hypervisor (Debian Bookworm with GNOME in my case) with a real GPU - Sunshine server (https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine ) and Moonlight client (https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt ), requires a powered on monitor or a hdmi dummy plug though.
VM Server - Libvirt virt-manager from the kvm/qemu hypervisor.Terminal:
I know I can just SSH but I usually use Cockpit (cockpit-project.org) for all my administrative/maintenance.I will give moonlight/sunshine another go I tried to get it working for another Linux laptop just to try but couldn’t get drivers or something to work.
The logs from Sunshine (found here https://localhost:47990/troubleshooting) and Cockpit (found here: http://localhost:9090/system/logs) are a godsend for troubleshooting. Cockpit for more than just Sunshine, having all logs collected and filterable in a webui is splendid.
I use sunshine and moon light too, great set of applications!
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SSH
Honestly yes
You dont want to use rdp
And you dont want to give keys to access your machines from a device as insecure as a handy
You should replace ‘You…’’ in your response with ‘From an ideal security standpoint one…’.
OP obviously does want to RDP to their machine, they stated as such. For most people, accessing a desktop-class machine from a mobile device isn’t a significant issue.
It’s this kind of gatekeeping that keeps newcomers away from Linux.
