Linux equivalent to Microsofts remote desktop

English Network/Internet
1

Hi,

I’m relatively new to Linux and currently I’m messing round with several flavors. I currently have OpenSUSE11.1 on my laptop, but I’ve got some virtual machines set up with Ubuntu, Solaris 10, Fedora etc.

I want to remotely access those other Linux desktops from my openSUSE laptop. I’m familiar with Microsoft’s remote desktop and Exceed software and I’m looking for a direct and easy to use equivalent in openSUSE.

How do I simply get those whole desktops to display on my openSUSE machine ?

Your assistance is appreciated, thanks.

Marc

2

Once you have a vnc server up and running in those other machines, like x11vnc, you simply need to open either konqueror or dolphin in openSUSE 11.1 and type in the address bar: vnc://ip.of.server

3

vnc works but is slow

this is a lot faster
XRDP server
xrdp homepage
TSCLIENT
SourceForge.net: Terminal Server Client [tsclient]: Terminal Server Client [tsclient]

also fast and secure is NoMachine NX
NoMachine NX - Desktop Virtualization and Remote Access Management Software
or Free NX
FreeNX - the free NX

4

So what would be considered the best approach to this and why?

Please could you list the options with pro/cons for each. Ideally I’d like to start using the best method straight away. Something thats’s reliable, easy to set up would be good. Security not an issue really as I’m on a home LAN behind a firewall. Thanks

5

Also, I was in the belief that Linux could support this straight away without any extra software being installed on the target machine. For example: I’ve connected to Ubuntu previously from an WinXP machine running the ‘Exceed XDMCP’ app’ and by running ‘xhost +’ on the Ubuntu machine. Is there an equivalent to Exceed XDMCP built into the openSUSE desktop that I can use?

6

If it being like windows remote desktop without having to install any other software is important to you, take a look at krfb and krdc, found in System, Remote Access

Personally though I would use nx

On my machines I have freenx installed as the server, literally takes a minute or two to install and setup, and nomachine’s nx client which is free on their website

If you get their client rpm package again it’s quick and simple to install

You mentioned speed and I doubt you’ll find any graphical remote access tool that’s quicker

Any machines you want to access with it don’t even have to be booted into a desktop as nx boots it’s own copy

To explain a bit further this is my scenario:

My server machine boots to a console login (runlevel3), so there’s no desktop running, if I want to do any work on it using a gui I just nx in as my user from a desktop machine and up comes a desktop

It also has the added bonus of letting you disconnect your client leaving your session still running on the server so you can resume it later. This allows things like everyone’s downloads, work in progress that I want to continue working with from another location later, couple of irc bots I run etc all running on the one machine in disconnected nx sessions

Whatever you leave running running when you disconnect will still be running when you reconnect, even if you’re reconnecting from another machine

Theres a lot more could be said about the capabilities of nx but this is a forum post not the nx documentation :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Suffice to say it’s secure, as well as faster and more flexible than windows rdp sessions

7

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VNC is also available by default, though maybe not enabled (not
everybody wants people able to even try remote access without them
knowing, which is consistent with every platform with which I’m
familiar) so once enabled that is your other free-already-installed
option. There is a lot of information on remote access in these forums
so search and you’ll probably find.

Good luck.

Ecky wrote:
> If it being like windows remote desktop without having to install any
> other software is important to you, take a look at krfb and krdc, found
> in System, Remote Access
>
> Personally though I would use nx
>
> On my machines I have freenx installed as the server, literally takes a
> minute or two to install and setup, and nomachine’s nx client which is
> free on their website
>
> If you get their client rpm package again it’s quick and simple to
> install
>
>
> You mentioned speed and I doubt you’ll find any graphical remote access
> tool that’s quicker
>
> Any machines you want to access with it don’t even have to be booted
> into a desktop as nx boots it’s own copy
>
> To explain a bit further this is my scenario:
>
> My server machine boots to a console login (runlevel3), so there’s no
> desktop running, if I want to do any work on it using a gui I just nx in
> as my user from a desktop machine and up comes a desktop
>
> It also has the added bonus of letting you disconnect your client
> leaving your session still running on the server so you can resume it
> later. This allows things like everyone’s downloads, work in progress
> that I want to continue working with from another location later, couple
> of irc bots I run etc all running on the one machine in disconnected nx
> sessions
>
> Whatever you leave running running when you disconnect will still be
> running when you reconnect, even if you’re reconnecting from another
> machine
>
> Theres a lot more could be said about the capabilities of nx but this
> is a forum post not the nx documentation :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
>
> Suffice to say it’s secure, as well as faster and more flexible than
> windows rdp sessions
>
>
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8

I know that Linux/Unix often (or always?) supports XDMCP natively, perhaps with some tweaking of files. I have achieved this in the past by using Exceed on an XP machine and by typing XHOST+ in a term on a linux machine (ubuntu) and I could connect great and really easy. Security wasn’t a concern as I’m on a home LAN so no need for SSH. Now what I want to know is: what piece of Linux software does the same role as ‘Exceeds XDMCP X-Server’ running on an openSUSE desktop? Is there nothing that does this as easily as Exceed manages to on Windows? I don’t want to give up that easily on this as I’d prefer to use native commands/software where possible.

Marc

9

On Wed, 2009-01-21 at 16:16 +0000, marccarney wrote:
> I know that Linux/Unix often (or always?) supports XDMCP natively,
> perhaps with some tweaking of files. I have achieved this in the past
> by using Exceed on an XP machine and by typing XHOST+ in a term on a
> linux machine (ubuntu) and I could connect great and really easy.
> Security wasn’t a concern as I’m on a home LAN so no need for SSH. Now
> what I want to know is: what piece of Linux software does the same role
> as ‘Exceeds XDMCP X-Server’ running on an openSUSE desktop? Is there
> nothing that does this as easily as Exceed manages to on Windows? I
> don’t want to give up that easily on this as I’d prefer to use native
> commands/software where possible.

But, because xdmcp is inherently insecure, remote TCP X and xdmcp
are usually disabled on good distros. You CAN enable it all, and
I have done it in the past, but if you don’t understand what it takes
to do that… I’d recommend pursuing VNC (which handled well) or
NX (which is very efficient).

I used to configure our suse boxes for our eXceed folks… but now
that they know how to use PuTTY… it’s no longer needed. They
can just bring up eXceed and use the X11 forwarding option under
PuTTY to bring up remote clients.

If they want something faster… I use NX protocol.

My desktop has VNC enabled… and I do use that… but I prefer
to use NX nowadays.

X11/XDMCP will be SLOW (just fyi).

VNC and X11 forwarding through ssh are NATIVE… NX might
not be if you consider the front end client (you’ll need a client
on the host you’re connecting from). Using XDMCP and remote
X11 (port 6000) is slow, insecure and sort of a pain to
setup (since it’s all disabled by default…YaST and /etc/sysconfig
might do this well now… not sure).

10

Xrdp works just like windows rdp just for linux.

only you will have to compile it of the other disrto’s

NoMachine has packages for rpm and deb based systems ready for download

11

and here is one for solaris
NX+freenx server binary tarball for Solaris 10 x86

looks like NX will be your simplest choice other than VNC

12

Thanks for all your input here chaps.

There’s certainly a few options available to consider here, perhaps confusing the issue to newcomers like me.

When I get chance I’ll take a close look at these, XRDP sounds good, so I’ll need to see if I can enable this on Solaris/Ubuntu so I can connect from OpenSUSE.

But overall, it does seem more tricky to set up than MS RDP but then isn’t everything on Linux. Those who know MS Remote Desktop intimately will appreciate how good it works.

13

Out of my recent experience with Remote Desktop(which i use to connect at work) and NX which I’m using to connect to my machine at home. I can say that NX is fast and I didn’t encounter any issues(so far). The beauty of it is that it can be installed on all the platforms(Windows, Linux and Mac OS). It’s up to you to read about it and decide. Good luck.