Subj : Re: Linux RDP
To : Gerrit Kuehn
From : Dan Clough
Date : Sat Jun 07 2025 07:26 pm
-=> Gerrit Kuehn wrote to Dan Clough <=-
GK> Hello Dan!
GK> 07 Jun 25 08:50, Dan Clough wrote to Gerrit Kuehn:
GK>> Do you want persistent logins? Do you want access to the physical X
GK>> display (:0), virtual ones, or both? Looking for the client or the
GK>> server end (or both)?
DC> Don't even know enough about it to answer the first two questions...
GK> There is a difference if you want to share your physical display, i.e.,
GK> the session that is displayed on the monitor connected to the server,
GK> or if you want a "virtual" session that is running on the server with
GK> no monitor hardware attached. Some software can do one, some the other,
GK> some both.
GK> Which software you want depends on what you want to achieve: using the
GK> physical display remotely is more or less required if you want to give
GK> users in front of the machine remote help, i.e., see their screens,
GK> move their mouse, type for them. OTOH, running virtual session enables
GK> you to hook up several remote users to a server, everyone running their
GK> own session. This way, you could, for example, use a more powerful
GK> server to run several (virtual) desktop environment sessions, each of
GK> these being displayed by a less powerful thin client.
Excellent, sounds like I would just need a virtual session.
GK> Having "persistent" logins means that your virtual session (with all
GK> software running) is not automatically terminated when your client
GK> disconnects. Instead, it is waiting on the server until your client
GK> reconnects (which could be days later). If you are familiar with tools
GK> like "screen" or "tmux" on the commandline (or in xterm): persistent
GK> virtual X sessions are pretty much the same concept, just using X
GK> sessions (including your full desktop if you like) instead of a
GK> 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.
GK>> If VNC and RDP above are not a requirement (but merely examples): I
GK>> am using x2go for a couple of years now (and try to avoid the other
GK>> two, if possible).
DC> I'm assuming you avoid VNC/RDP for security reasons...
GK> Well, depends on the actual setup and software you use, I guess. I
GK> probably would not recommend the original VNC ("realvnc") to anyone
GK> these days. TightVNC or TigerVNC usually perform better, provide more
GK> features and better security. RDP, on the other hand, was invented by
GK> MS. At least for me, especially the server part always felt tedious to
GK> set up and clumsy to operate. This is probably caused by its "alien"
GK> (from *ix-perspective) origin. Admittedly, I have not used it for quite
GK> some time, maybe it improved meanwhile. I am using it on *ix systems as
GK> a client (remmina being my default client there) when I have to talk to
GK> MS servers. However, I would avoid the server on *ix systems if I have
GK> 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. ;-)
DC> I've added x2go to my list of candidates, and it looks pretty good.
GK> I have used x2go in various scenarios over the last years, usually
GK> running the server on Linux machines to be able to operate their
GK> software from Windows, MacOS, *BSD oder other Linux boxes. It is
GK> reasonably fast, tunnels over ssh by default, supports using SSH key
GK> authentication and SSH jump hosts (so you do not have to mess with
GK> firewall rules and port forwarding if you already have an ssh port
GK> open), offers session management, persistance, access to the physical X
GK> display. On top of that, it is OpenSource and easy to set up, so for me
GK> there is not much more to ask for. You have to take care a bit when
GK> using "fancy" desktop environments that come with compositors,
GK> transparency and stuff like that. My default desktop is xfce, x2go
GK> 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.
GK> Regards,
GK> Gerrit
Thank you for your VERY informative post - I found it extremely helpful
indeed. Appreciate you taking the time to explain all of that.
