8 ms·
RDP Clients for Debian: An incomplete review
- desktopninja 5y agoGive this one a shot: https://apps.kde.org/krdc/ https://apps.kde.org/krdc/ I've been pleasantly impressed coming from Remmina
- phillnom 5y agoThis is what I use on Manjaro and it works well.
- 8K832d7tNmiQ 5y agolast time I tried a few months ago, It simply crashed on my wayland kde fedora machine. I wonder if they've fixed that issue for me.
- COGlory 5y agoOn openSUSE Tumbleweed, Wayland now works with the package `freerdp-wayland`, but integration is not complete (some resolution scaling doesn't work, the viewer window doesn't dock in KRDC like it does with X11).
- swills 5y agoAnother vote for krdc, works great for me.
- shmerl 5y agoI tried krdc, but it's messed up in the Wayland session. I tried the more barebones freerdp directly and it works fine.
- GekkePrutser 5y agoKrdc doesn't scale RDP connections strange enough. So I can't zoom a 1920x1080 remote to my 4k screen :( Very weird because it can do it just fine when it's using the VNC protocol. Never understood why the same app can't do it when it's RDP. Other than this it's great (like most apps from the KDE world) but I really need the scaling. 1:1 scaling is just too small on 4k 24". I really need to zoom it in. PS I use it on FreeBSD, never tried it on Linux so perhaps that's the reason but I doubt it.
- geofft 5y agoThere's also FreeRDP (xfreerdp/wlfreerdp) and rdesktop. Looks like all of the ones in the article (Vinagre, Remmina, Boxes) use libfreerdp as a backend. I was very happy with xfreerdp on Debian 10, but something on Debian 11 is making it crash/disconnect from my work computer every so often. Haven't yet figured out what it is.
- romeoblade 5y agordesktop lost its maintainer[1] 2 years ago, and it looks like it just recently started having activity[2] again. I run xfreerdp nightly builds for everything, and I rarely have issues, might be worth looking into for your crashing issue. [1] https://groups.google.com/g/rdesktop-announce/c/AddglSNxK90 https://groups.google.com/g/rdesktop-announce/c/AddglSNxK90 [2] https://github.com/rdesktop/rdesktop/commits/master https://github.com/rdesktop/rdesktop/commits/master
- infocollector 5y agoIt seems TeamViewer and Anydesk also work on Debian. Has anyone any thoughts on these commercial solutions? (They both have free versions)
- smackeyacky 5y agoI don't care much for TeamViewer, largely because you can't just install the "viewer" and also have to install the client. It doesn't work on Wayland either. Before you start setting up connections, it insists on you making an account, which also sucks. The good news is that it's an easy install (they supply a .deb). Even better news is that uninstalling it is just as fast. Not sure about Anydesk.
- smackeyacky 5y agoJust tried AnyDesk. It's crippled without creating an account (fair enough I guess), also has the annoying feature of installing the AnyDesk server software like TeamViewer. It does share the great feature with TeamViewer that it can be uninstalled quickly.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y agoTeamViewer at least is basically just a commercial wrapper over a slightly enhanced (Ultra) VNC. Which makes it great for remote support sessions, but I wouldn't use it for the same purposes as RDP.
- XzAeRosho 5y agoI've been using a paid Teamviewer license to manage a fleet of Raspberry Pi 3b+ (50+ devices installed, 50+ incoming), doing some monitoring behind either a 3G/4G router or behind a firewalled enterprise NAT. So far, it has been the most reliable way to connect. I've tried multiple VNC and RDP clients, and when dealing with "hidden behind a network" systems, Teamviewer works very well, with little to no overhead. Specially since they have an special client for RPi monitoring, which works fantastic in my opinion. If you don't have the option to pay for those licenses (which I did for several months), and no direct SSH access is possible to the machines, you can setup a cloud gateway SSH server or a VPN network.
- warner_of_doom 5y agoWhat's a good RDP Server on Linux?
- axiolite 5y agoOnly one I know of is xrdp. It usually works.
- pedro2 5y agoA volunteer has programmed and glued all the pieces together for Gnome's session sharing using RDP: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-remote-desktop/-/issues/26 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-remote-desktop/-/issues...
- wynemo 5y agoxrdp https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xrdp https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xrdp
- BLKNSLVR 5y agoNoMachine has been the nicest option I've found. I've previously tried x2go and xrdp, and whilst they worked, I kept looking for something better until I found NoMachine.
- warner_of_doom 5y agoFunny. NoMachine is exactly what I use right now. Decent functionality. Reputable company. Etc. But, RDP's bandwidth efficiency on Windows is unbeatable AFAIK. I wish the Linux and macOS world had something like that.
- aeries 5y agoThe best alternative I've found for macOS is Jump Desktop's Fluid protocol.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- 5y ago
- shmerl 5y agofreerdp is a good option. Works well both with X11 and Wayland. https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/freerdp2 https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/freerdp2
- BLKNSLVR 5y agoI would like an RDP server for Debian / Linux. I currently use NoMachine as an adequate replacement, and to be honest it enables me to do the limited amount I need to do with minimal "getting in the way" and I've been using it satisfactorily for a few years. But it's just not the same smooth experience that I remember from using RDP; feeling like you're actually sitting at the machine (pending network bandwidth and conditions). NoMachine is brilliant, however, given how much I paid for it. The "Enterprise client" is a free and no-install-necessary executable client, which I've found useful for allowing remote administration from a machine on which I don't have admin / install privileges.
- pabs3 5y agoSome discussion of this downthread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30694601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30694601
- GekkePrutser 5y agoYeah I wonder why RDP on Windows is just so efficient. It is another block pusher as far as I understand. But it performs so well. I've even used it over a 9600 baud dialup connection (a long time ago from a 2G mobile that didn't have GPRS) and it was usable to my suprise.
- Underphil 5y agoAre you sure on that first statement? I always thought it was akin to 'X' in that it simplified the connection based on an understanding of the windowing system. I guess I could have just made that up though.
- GekkePrutser 5y agoNo, I was wrong.. I've looked at the code of a Linux RDP server before (to identify an issue), and it was block pushing so I assumed this was also the case on Windows. But magicalhippo above corrected me. I didn't know about the GDI calls thing.
- 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- arrakeen 5y agothough it wont work for the author's usecase, if anyone is looking for a good remote X11 solution, take a look at xpra.
- sandreas 5y agoI also experimented a lot with remote desktop solutions. # For client, I use: - Remmina - https://remmina.org/ https://remmina.org/ - Apache Guacamole (HTML5, browser based) - https://guacamole.apache.org/ https://guacamole.apache.org/ # For server on Linux I use: - X11: xrdp - for a KDE guide, see https://pilabor.com/blog/2021/05/remote-desktop-with-xrdp-and-kubuntu/ https://pilabor.com/blog/2021/05/remote-desktop-with-xrdp-an... - Wayland / GNOME: Already integrated (alpha state, some caveats) - for a guide, see https://gitlab.gnome.org/-/snippets/1778 https://gitlab.gnome.org/-/snippets/1778 (read the comments first, there is some good additional info and I think someone has crafted a script) # Further notes: - RDP Server on Linux is very fiddly to get working reliable, while on X11 systems I found xrdp pretty straight forward - this link was pretty helpful: http://c-nergy.be/blog/?cat=79 http://c-nergy.be/blog/?cat=79 - On modern GNOME systems the RDP server is already integrated, but there is a lot of missing stuff and I did not find a solution for a working RDP after reboot - Remmina as RDP client is good, but it takes some fiddling, if you are using HiDPI - Guacamole is not as good, but I use it as backup, which works in the browser
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- pipeline_peak 5y agoI’m surprised no one’s mentioned bare rdesktop.
- mobilio 5y agoI also find this amushing. Almost 15+ years ago i contributing some code to rdesktop linked to libsvga
- yakubin 5y agoRegarding remoting, I've found that running firefox through ssh -X makes sshd on the server max out the CPU and cause a very slow repaint. But eliminate ssh from the equation (use X11 forwarding without ssh, just let the remote firefox talk directly to your local X11 server) and firefox performance is indistinguishable from running it locally. Of course, for insecure network it's a bit of a hazard, but my usecase is forwarding a firefox instance running in a local virtual machine, so it's fine. Firefox over ssh -X brought me to the edge of sanity. I recommend trying direct X11 forwarding if someone has a similar problem and usecase (security-wise).
- albertzeyer 5y agoMaybe you have compression enabled by default in SSH?
- yakubin 5y agoNo changing of compression settings affected the issue in any way.
- Liquid_Fire 5y agoObviously it depends on your use case whether this is useful, but I recommend just using your local Firefox and configuring it to tunnel connections over the SSH connection as a SOCKS proxy using "ssh -D".
- fsh 5y agoIn my experience, remote desktop solutions that use hardware accelerated encoding (Parsec, Nvidia GameStream, Steam Remote Play) are virtually indistinguishable from a local session when using wired Gigabit Ethernet. Even over the internet, the delay is only really noticeable in fast games. Would be great if RDP or VNC could catch up with this technology.
- vetinari 5y agoGnome-remote-desktop in Gnome 42 (to be released soon) uses NVENC for H.264 encoding, if available. Of course, the client must support that too (many do, if the user left everything at 'auto').
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y agoRDP at least is probably vastly more efficient as it doesn't encode the entire screen as a video every frame. This is what gives it the flexibility to have the remote display resolution and DPI be independent of the local settings, for one. It's actually quite sophisticated, unlike VNC and its ilk, but it isn't optimized for gaming.
- R0b0t1 5y agoNot true anymore. RDP encodes the entire desktop as it is more efficient than relaying the draw commands. You will notice compression artifacts on a poor network connection as RDP reduces the bitrate to compensate.
- theelix 5y agoSpeaking of this, I make a shameless plug. I'm a contributor for the Sunshine project: https://github.com/SunshineStream/Sunshine https://github.com/SunshineStream/Sunshine project, which allows Nvidia GameStream to be used on Linux systems with Moonlight clients. I haven't tested the Linux side of things, but it has many ways to both encode the screen or acquire it (via KMS, Pipewire or x11grab IIRC).
- nisegami 5y agoI would love for Parsec to support Linux as servers.
- edmcnulty101 5y agoWhy is RDP so much better than VNC?
- rkangel 5y agoTo oversimplify a bit, VNC sends a sequence of images of the screen that are then painted. It optimises this pretty well - only sending the fragments of the screen that change, allowing translation of blocks (e.g. for window dragging), but it's a pretty simple way of transmitting screen information. That's also a good thing because it is completely agnostic to the UI and the client and server. RDP has a much more complex set of window painting commands - instead of sending 'this block of image goes here' it sends 'draw a window here with this decoration'. It's much more complex but also more performant as a result.
- edmcnulty101 5y agoThanks for the info! I hate both Windows and VNC. Is there any solution for me on Linux with RDP level performance?
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y agoVNC handles the display as, essentially, just a stream of screenshots. RDP is actually quite sophisticated and has knowledge of a lot of the underlying windowing system information it can work with. It also treats the remote client as a completely separate display from the local, allowing it to have different resolution and DPI settings and even use multiple monitors appropriately. That's without even getting into that Windows can have multiple logged-in user sessions and RDP will correctly take over the right one regardless of who is using the local terminal and forward the running session instead of whatever happens to be on the attached monitor. Basically, VNC is a cheap hack and RDP is a well thought-out remote graphical terminal.
- edmcnulty101 5y agoThanks for the info! I hate both Windows and VNC. Is there any solution for me on Linux with RDP level performance?