Enabling RDP sharing

Question

I want to connect via RDP from an Ubuntu 20.04 laptop to an Ubuntu 22.04 desktop.

I've read in the release notes that the 22.04 release support RDP connections. I enabled Remote Desktop sharing in GNOME Settings. However, when I try to connect from my laptop, the Remmina client gets stuck on "Reconnection attempt 1 of 20" (flicking between attempt 0 and 1).

When I look at tutorials on the web for making RDP connections to 22.04, they say we should install xrdp. Is this right? The 22.04 release notes say "RDP is now available for sharing your desktop remotely." If we really have to install an RDP server, what does it mean that "RDP is now available"? How is 22.04 different from previous versions with xrdp installed?

Answer 1

Short answer: Remmina version is too old on 20.04:

Upgrade your laptop to 22.04

or

uninstall apt remmina and install the flathub version on 20.04

Try connecting with a local RDP client on your 22.04 machine first.

Enter your IP-address and credentials.

Confirmed working here: default app remmina and gnome-connections (apt install gnome-connections)

You should get a connection and an interesting showcase of the Droste-effect

And I had no troubles connecting from another 22.04 machine.

But getting a connection with the same settings from the default 20.04 client is also not working here either, nor from a aFreeRDP Android client

Try the newer flathub remmina version, that is working on 20.04.

sudo apt remove remmina
flatpak install flathub org.remmina.Remmina
flatpak run org.remmina.Remmina

If you get an error that No remote refs found similar to ‘flathub’ you must run flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo before the install command

Answer 2

To quickly provide some info,

Sharing Feature in Ubuntu

Before Ubuntu 22.04,

• Screen sharing feature was using VNC Protocol.

With Ubuntu 22.04,

• Screen sharing feature can use RDP or VNC Protocol

Screen sharing feature allow you to give access remotely to a user in read mode or the user can access it in full control. You can secure the connection via a Password.

As far as we know, the Sharing features works when a user is logged in on the local machine. If no-one is logged on, Sharing the screen will not work

xRDP Package

xRDP is a MS Remote Desktop Services alternative or fork. which will support RDP Protocol

To be able to use this software, you will need to install it first on your ubuntu machine by executing the following command

sudo apt-get install xrdp 

When installation is complete,

• get the hostname or IP Address of your Ubuntu machine.
• Logout from the Ubuntu machine (No user should be logged into Ubuntu)
• Go to another machine (Windows or Linux) and start your favorite RDP Client (mstsc or remmina) and specify the ip address/hostname to connect to
• the xRDP Login page will show up
• Enter the correct credentials
• If everything is working as expected, you will see a gnome Desktop and you will be remotely connect to you Ubuntu machine

Important Points

To have exactly the same look'n feel between local desktop and remote desktop, you need to perform some more post-configuration actions

xRDP can be used when no user is logged on locally.

xRDP and Sharing using RDP Protocol cannot be used at the same time as they will use both same port (i.e. 3389)

Hope this help in answering your question about RDP Support in Ubuntu 22.04

Answer 3

I wanted to add: The RDP server is supported in Gnome since Ubuntu 22.04.

However, an RDP server is not supported by KRFB in KDE. A corresponding feature request is here: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=455238