You must have heard about the Windows app “Remote Desktop Connection“. This application comes with default windows installation and allows you to access another PC or server remotely. It uses remote desktop protocol to establish remote desktop connection sessions.
Some of the Linux distributions may provide you RDP clients to connect to the Windows system. However, for some linux distributions you may need to install RDP clients to establish remote desktop connection.
As a Linux user there are some rdp tools available which you can install and use for windows remote connection. In this article we are going to explain how to install RDP clients on Ubuntu linux and use them to access (or connect) remote windows desktop.
Reminna
Reminna is a free,open source and powerful remote desktop client for remote desktop sharing. As it provides useful features most of the Linux and UNIX users adopt reminna client to connect remote desktop.
You can install reminna on your linux system by using the following command.
On Ubuntu,
$ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install -y remmina remmina-plugin-vnc
Once remmina is installed on your system, you can access gui for remote desktop connection.
Enter your windows system IP address and press enter. You will be prompted for username and password details. Submit all the details and control your remote desktop.
Vinagre
Vinagre is an ssh, vnc and rdp client for the Gnome desktop environment. It has advanced features like connecting multiple servers simultaneously and switching between them using tab. Vinagre also supports copy/paste between client and server.
To install Vinagre on Ubuntu, use the following command.
$ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install -y vinagre
After completing installation go to your application list and search for a remote desktop.
Click on the application as shown in the below image.
Click on Connect , select RDP from the drop down menu. Enter your remote desktop credentials and click connect.
KRDC
KRDC is a remote desktop tool designed for the KDE desktop environment. Installation of KRDC comes with two protocols VNC and RDP which gives you hassle free access to your remote desktop.
To install and configure KRDC in your system follow the commands:
$ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install -y krdc
Once the installation is completed you are now good to use the KRDC client. You can type krdc in the command line which opens the new gui tool. You can also search krdc in your application list and launch
Click on the KRDC application and you will get the following gui on your screen.
Select RDP protocol from the drop down menu, enter your remote desktop IP address and click Enter.
You can customize your configuration and once you are done with customization, click on ok. You will be asked to enter your username and password in the next prompt as :
Enter your username and password as asked and you are ready to use your remote desktop.
FreeRDP
FreeRDP is a free and open-source client for the remote desktop protocol. FreeRDP is a portable rdp protocol released under Apache license. To install and configure freeRDP in Ubuntu use the following command. freerdp2-x11 performs installation of freeRdp client in Ubuntu.
$ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install -y freerdp2-x11
Once the installation is complete, you can use following command to access your remote desktop
$ sudo xfreerdp /u:remote_user /p:remote_password /v:remote_host_ip
Once you run this command, you may get warning to accept certificates. Enter “yes” to the warning and now you will be able to access your remote desktop as:
Conclusion
From this article, you have learned how to access remote windows desktop from your linux machine. Also you got to know about different tools available for RDP connection, how to configure these tools and use for remote connection.
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