[Wolves] xrdp

[Kris Douglas]

On Sat, May 17, 2008 at 5:09 PM, Dave Morley <davmor2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 2008-05-17 at 12:38 +0100, Adam Sweet wrote:
>> --- Kevanf1 <kevanf1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > 2008/5/16 Andy Wootton
>> > <andy.wootton at wyrley.demon.co.uk>:
>> > > I noticed today that Ubuntu Hardy Heron has the
>> > xrdp server available as a
>> > > standard package, allowing any standard Windows XP
>> > client to connect to GUI
>> > > apps on a Linux server without any additional
>> > software being installed on
>> > > the client. This strikes me as an incredible
>> > advantage for making useful
>> > > Linux services available in an environment where
>> > you don't have control of
>> > > the desktop.
>> > >
>> > > Woo
>> > >
>> >
>> > I've not heard of the xrdp server before Woo.  Am I
>> > correct in
>> > assuming it allows a standard 'Network Drive'
>> > (Microsoft terminology
>> > for a network connection to a 'share' on a different
>> > machine) to
>> > either an 'app' or a 'share' onto a Linux PC running
>> > the server?  So,
>> > if I wanted I could set up a share from the XP
>> > machine to my Linux
>> > machine and run say GIMP from the Linux PC on the
>> > Win PC?  Or does it
>> > need a folder or something setting up?
>>
>> You're a little bit to cock here. RDP is the protocol
>> used by Windows machines for the built in Windows
>> Remote Desktop in Windows NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003,
>> Vista and Server 2008. There's no network file sharing
>> involved.
>>
>> What you would do (I assume, I've not used xrdp server
>> on Linux but I have used Terminal Server client on
>> Linux to access a Windows XP remote desktop session at
>> work) is use it like VNC to get a remote desktop.
>> Apparently, RDP 6.1 clients (XP SP3, Vista SP1 and
>> Server 2008) with Server 2008 as the server can do
>> individual applications over RDP, packaged as an .rdp
>> file or as an msi installer. I guess there's nothing
>> to stop you having this on a Windows network share.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_Services
>>
>> I think what you're talking about is either XDMCP
>> which is a remote X login and I wasn't able to get
>> working last time I tried:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xdmcp
>>
>> Or you could do X forwarding over SSH, which is dead
>> simple, but not very fast in my experience:
>>
>> ssh -X -C username at xservermachine
>>
>> -X means X forwarding, -C means use compression as
>> it's pretty slow otherwise. Now login on the other
>> machine and run an X application, it's window will
>> display on your local machine. It's pretty slow
>> though. Jittery on a lan and downright painful over a
>> WAN in my experience. Your chosen remote machine has
>> to have SSH server running with 'X11Forwarding yes'
>> set up in the sshd config file. This doesn't support
>> audio. You can also do this from Windows if you have
>> Putty and Cygwin with X installed.
>>
>> http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.60/htmldoc/Chapter3.html#using-x-forwarding
>>
>> Other options include VNC and FreeNX which I believe
>> don't encrypt your traffic (including your key
>> strokes) but are fast over a WAN and can be redirected
>> over SSH for security. Eg for VNC over SSH:
>>
>> Start a VNC server on your remote machine, you might
>> want to preconfigure it, see link below:
>>
>> ssh -C -L 5901:localhost:5901 username at remotehost
>>
>> then in a VNC viewer connect to localhost:5901
>>
>> there are a few wrinkles to this though, a better set
>> of instructions is at:
>>
>> http://wiki.adamsweet.org/doku.php?id=vnc_over_ssh
>>
>> I believe the commercial version of NX does encrypt
>> your traffic.
>>
>> To wrap up, a comparison of options:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_remote_desktop_software
>>
>> Ad - worn out now :)
>>
>
> In more Heron news if any of you have AD at work you could try taking in
> your hardy laptop with LikewiseOpen installed and see if you can login
> to the AD :)  Have a read up on it first though :)
> --
> Seek That Thy Might Know
>

Active Directory is actually more usable in Ubuntu than it is in windows... o__O


-- 
Kris Douglas
 Softdel Limited Hosting Services
 Web: www.softdel.net
 Mail: kris at softdel.net

Company No. 6135915
Registered in England