Xrdp: An open source RDP server • Hacker News Board

Re: Xrdp: An open source RDP server

#71

Post by znpy » Fri, Jun 12, 2020, 11:40 AM UTC

Cadwhisker wrote: post #30

rudolph9 wrote: post #23

Another option is http://xpra.org/ . It’s a bit more of a commitment as (from what I understand) it replaces you displayManager (e.g. Gnome gdm) and I haven’t gotten around to trying it but I personally prefer Xforwarding over rdp. Is the difference between RDP and xforwarding basically RDP is giving you a video of the remote display and sending the mouse clicks + XY position top? Vs xfowarding which natively renders…

For me, XPRA has been a revelation for how I use Linux remotely. It's the GUI version of the "screen" command. For those who haven't used it and want to try it, you install "xpra" on your Linux box with "yum" or "apt", then fire up an xpra server with "xpra start" (or "nohup xpra start &"), then make a note of which extra display it has added (like ":1"). It's not replacing the display manager (as far as I'm aware).…

I haven't tried xpra specifically, but from your description it reminds me of regular X server running on either windows or mac is (xming and xquartz respectively).

Re: Xrdp: An open source RDP server

#72

Post by m000 » Fri, Jun 12, 2020, 12:18 PM UTC

znpy wrote: post #71

Cadwhisker wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, XPRA has been a revelation for how I use Linux remotely. It's the GUI version of the "screen" command. For those who haven't used it and want to try it, you install "xpra" on your Linux box with "yum" or "apt", then fire up an xpra server with "xpra start" (or "nohup xpra start &"), then make a note of which extra display it has added (like ":1"). It's not replacing the display manager (as far as I'm aware).…

I haven't tried xpra specifically, but from your description it reminds me of regular X server running on either windows or mac is (xming and xquartz respectively).

Nope, completely different. Xpra is resistant to network failures, while X server requires a stable network connection to keep the apps running. Xpra is also completely agnostic to the applications GUI: it just streams video and input events.

Rough X vs Xpra sketch:

                          |                    |
  display  X server    |  | app
                          |                    |
                          |                    |
  display  Xpra client |  | Xpra server  app
                          |                    |
                          |~~~~~~network~~~~~~~|

Re: Xrdp: An open source RDP server

#73

Post by znpy » Fri, Jun 12, 2020, 2:58 PM UTC

m000 wrote: post #72

znpy wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't tried xpra specifically, but from your description it reminds me of regular X server running on either windows or mac is (xming and xquartz respectively).

Nope, completely different. Xpra is resistant to network failures, while X server requires a stable network connection to keep the apps running. Xpra is also completely agnostic to the applications GUI: it just streams video and input events. Rough X vs Xpra sketch: | | display X server | | app | | | | display Xpra client | | Xpra server app | | |~~~~~~network~~~~~~~|

thanks for the explanation!

Re: Xrdp: An open source RDP server

#74

Post by kayfox » Fri, Jun 12, 2020, 9:39 PM UTC

peckrob wrote: post #40

So a long time ago I worked volunteer IT for a fan convention. This is roughly mid to late 2000s. Among many other things, I was constantly looking for ways to speed up the registration line. And rather than have reg workers type things in, one way I hit on was to have terminals there for people to enter their own information. Shoestring doesn't even begin to cover it. Buying computers was definitely out. So I hit on…

Around the same time a number of us working furry conventions on the west coast had about the same idea, but we noted that many of the terminals of the time had a browser session type, so we ended up using that and web based kiosks for terminals.

These days the same software (now used at a number of conventions) is used with mobile devices and the need for having convention-provided kiosks has slowed quite a bit.

People still forget their passwords all the time.

Re: Xrdp: An open source RDP server

#75

Post by reposhub » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 2:34 AM UTC

https://reposhub.com/neutrinolabs-xrdp-cpp-network.html

Re: Xrdp: An open source RDP server

#76

Post by altfredd » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 2:58 AM UTC

thaniri wrote: post #27

I used to maintain some linux remote desktops at my job for specific workflows of certain employees. Wow, using xrdp was a complete gong show to manage. The most common bugs were in the assignment of displays on user logon, as well as a crappy, often buggy, login screen (though GUI logins for linux are fascinatingly weird pretty much universally.) That being said, even in evaluating alternatives there wasn't anything…

If your primary use case is Linux, xpra is very good.

Unlike RDP, xpra defaults to passing over individual windows — it acts as windows manager for it's own Xorg process on server. This can completely side-step the hassle of wrapping and interacting with existing desktop environment, it's login screens etc. Xpra uses unmodified Xorg server from your distribution with xf86-video-dummy driver to achieve this. Mirroring existing Xorg session is also supported (but slower).

Re: Xrdp: An open source RDP server

#77

Post by agapon » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 11:49 AM UTC

Arnavion wrote: post #14

wronglebowski wrote: post #2

Can someone explain to me how Xrdp is so much simpler to use than VNC? I setup a new CentOS workstation the other day and ended up trying to follow long tutorials with config files and services. I gave up, installed the Xrdp package and seconds later I had a remote session going.

>long tutorials with config files and services On the server: x11vnc -display :0 -noxdamage -shared -repeat -forever On the client: ssh -T server 'nc 127.0.0.1 5900' vncviewer 127.0.0.1:5900

x11vnc for the win. A really useful and somewhat underappreciated tool.

Re: Xrdp: An open source RDP server

#78

Post by smooc » Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 6:20 PM UTC

We run over 500 concurrent desktops with Guacamole and XRDP in Kubernetes in non privileged conatiners. This allows us have a secure environment while still having it light weight and not having te resort to Citrix for example.

Anyone comparing VNC to RDP favorably is nuts. RDP is a much more optimized protocol for high latency, low bandwidth. Only Citrix compares favorably from user's point of view. Maybe NoMachine NX as well. Both i cannot get to work over https (nomachine) and kubernetes (citrix).

Not requiring a custom, vague client also helps.

XRDP uses a Xorg driver or is able to use a VNC backend. Even then its faster than VNC. It can use pam for authentication.

Re: Xrdp: An open source RDP server

#79

Post by efreak » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 10:22 AM UTC

dmurray wrote: post #33

anonymousse1234 wrote: post #20

I use RDP multiple times every day. I have tested Linux RDP server implementations and they are very buggy and really not production ready only NX kinda is (yet not as good as MS RDP). VNC is so bad and lacks so many features that it's not even considered a competition - it's old insecure slow protocol that should be forgotten by now.

RDP isn't really meant to be cross platform, right? It's a Windows graphics server telling a Windows client how to draw some Windows widgets. The fact that there are working Linux implementations at all is impressive. By contrast, VNC is pretty close to just sending an image of the screen, with some clever optimization. VNC over SSH should be as secure as you need, but it's never likely to be as performant as RDP.

This is part of why Windows is my main boot OS on my desktop. Remoting into Linux (whether it's my SBCs, laptop, or a VM) from Windows is easier and works better than the opposite.

Re: Xrdp: An open source RDP server

#80

Post by simcop2387 » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

Arnavion wrote: post #32

simcop2387 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ssh -N -L5900:127.0.0.1:5900 user@server is usually cleaner than using nc, it doesn't require running any commands on the remote system and lets you do any port changing that you need to make things work between each side.

Right, I had to use `nc` instead of forwarding the port from SSH itself because I use systemd socket activation for that ssh command, with ExecStart=ssh -T server 'nc 127.0.0.1 5900' StandardInput=socket StandardOutput=socket in the service file and ListenStream=0.0.0.0:5900 in the socket file. The socket has to be connected to stdin/stdout instead of using SSH forwarding since SSH doesn't support fd-based socket act…

Yea that's definitely a bit more of an edge case. and for the downvoted sibling commentor, this is the same kind of setup that previously would be done with inetd or xinetd and the lack of security or monitoring or logging that that usually entails. I'd be surprised if there's not some other way to do it but this seems like a perfectly fine work around otherwise.