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Thread: 21.10 XRDP Remote Access Resolution with Remmina

  1. #1
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    21.10 XRDP Remote Access Resolution with Remmina

    Hello,

    I have two computers running Ubuntu 21.10 Desktop (Clean Installation) without any modifications to the default installations.

    1. Core i3 Laptop
    2. Ryzen 5 Desktop Computer

    I wanted to take remote access to my desktop (Ubuntu - xrdp) from laptop (Ubuntu - Remmina). Therefore went ahead with xrdp installation in Desktop and used Remmina on laptop for getting the remote session.

    Now the issue is, remote access works but desktop is stuck with 5xx by 4xx type low resolution. "Toggle dynamic resolution update" option of Remmina is grayed out and I can't change the resolution from settings (Desktop PC under remote session) too.

    Just to be clear, there is no resolution issue when I am physically logging into my Desktop PC, its just when I am remotely accessing it (XRDP) via another Ubuntu Machine (my laptop) using Remmina, the low resolution issue is happening.

    How can I solve this issue to get better resolution on my Desktop when accessing it via remote session?

    Thanks.

  2. #2
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    Re: 21.10 XRDP Remote Access Resolution with Remmina

    What are you doing on the remote system that needs the full desktop session? There may be a sleeker solution to what you want to achieve

  3. #3
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    Re: 21.10 XRDP Remote Access Resolution with Remmina

    Quote Originally Posted by ActionParsnip View Post
    What are you doing on the remote system that needs the full desktop session? There may be a sleeker solution to what you want to achieve
    There are many front end applications I wish to use while on remote which is tough to get around without higher resolution.

    Can you please let me know those sleeker solutions you are talking about?

    Thanks.

  4. #4
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    Re: 21.10 XRDP Remote Access Resolution with Remmina

    Quote Originally Posted by naxal View Post
    There are many front end applications I wish to use while on remote which is tough to get around without higher resolution.

    Can you please let me know those sleeker solutions you are talking about?

    Thanks.
    Well, what are these front end applications? Are they GUI apps you run on the desktop? If so, what are they? Do you open a web browser to access them? If so, why not use the browser on the client PC or setup an SSH tunnel that you can use a SOCKS proxy through the remote PC to access the same websites.

    This is why I ask. People pretty much automatically think "I'm accessing a remote PC in some way so I need the full desktop session" and a lot of the time it's simply not needed. I've seen users posting on here who were VNCing to a system to then open a web browser to http://localhost or to use the terminal on the system. You can use the remote system's name or IP from a remote system to do the former, and use an SSH client to connect to the remote system for the latter (in these examples). Much better and VNC isn't needed.

  5. #5
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    Re: 21.10 XRDP Remote Access Resolution with Remmina

    Quote Originally Posted by ActionParsnip
    Well, what are these front end applications? Are they GUI apps you run on the desktop? If so, what are they? Do you open a web browser to access them? If so, why not use the browser on the client PC or setup an SSH tunnel that you can use a SOCKS proxy through the remote PC to access the same websites.
    You are helping me out, so I should not be questioning your methods but sir, please don't mind, this is irrelevant in the sense of the specific question.

    Just to be clear, the PC I am trying to access via Remmina is running Ubuntu Desktop 21.10. Its a clean installation so desktop environment is what Ubuntu shipped with. To access remote desktop, I have installed XRDP and my issue is very specific, I am in need to access my Remote PC with proper resolution since under remmina, the remote PC resolution is stuck at an unchangeable 5xx by 4xx.

    I am new to Ubuntu and I am trying to figure out various stuff as I am trying to see if I can shift out from Windows to Ubuntu for my work. It's not server side stuff, as I have one running ubuntu 20 LTS server and you are right, there I don't even need GUI, everything is done via SSH on remote.

    So if one may help me to figure this out as how to solve this resolution issue?

    Thanks.

  6. #6
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    Re: 21.10 XRDP Remote Access Resolution with Remmina

    Yes but what would you do on the desktop? Why connect to the desktop session? What activities would you do on the desktop?

  7. #7
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    Re: 21.10 XRDP Remote Access Resolution with Remmina

    Quote Originally Posted by ActionParsnip View Post
    Yes but what would you do on the desktop? Why connect to the desktop session? What activities would you do on the desktop?
    Trying out different Video Editing / Photo Editing software (learning things to try and move away from Adobe CC)
    Using Virtual Machines (Various Test Environments), mainly virtualbox (will send VMs back and forth between many of my peers)
    General Productivity apps
    and many such..

    Basically I am trying to see how much I can shift without compromising the working experience of my Windows 10 work environment

    Many such tasks are problematic if xrdp stays locked to such 5xx by 4xx type resolution under remmina

    Thanks.

  8. #8
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    Re: 21.10 XRDP Remote Access Resolution with Remmina

    Even if you do get the resolution issue worked out, trying to do something like video editing over an RDP session is bound to be a significantly frustrating exercise for you. RDP is very slow. Very, very slow. You might not even be able work through the latency.

    For that sort of thing, you'd probably be better off using the other desktop directly to avoid that.

    I think you may have some misconceptions from a Windows-centric viewpoint.

    You don't need a GUI on the machine hosting the VM. You only need the GUI on one you will be working from. For instance, VMs help keep business costs down by allowing one capable machine without the overhead of a GUI to serve any number of very low-spec machines on desktops throughout the enterprise. The VMs have a desktop. The server doesn't need one.

    I know you think we are not addressing your question, but we are. You want to learn and we get that. But we think you may be approaching this from a foreign perspective, when a Linux perspective is what you need.

    To answer your question directly: The ability to set the resolution, particularly to make sure it matches the remote computer, the options of the RDP software have to be set to allow changes or simply to take on the remote machine's resolution. I run the commands to start up FreeRDP sessions from the command line. It is there that I set the resolution -- which doesn't have to be limited to the other machine's resolution. For instance, my machine at one of my clients has two 1920x1080 monitors. I use three from home. So I set the /multimon option to allow me to have three running at home at the resolution of my monitors. But it may be that I have more control than xrdp.
    Last edited by QIII; October 28th, 2021 at 09:34 AM.
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  9. #9
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    Re: 21.10 XRDP Remote Access Resolution with Remmina

    Quote Originally Posted by QIII
    I know you think we are not addressing your question, but we are. You want to learn and we get that. But we think you may be approaching this from a foreign perspective, when a Linux perspective is what you need.
    First of all, thanks for the reply. Actually you have pin pointed the dilemma here. Indeed feeling bit frustrated or rather somewhat confused.

    * I am not complaining about how slow my RDP is.
    * I am not complaining about how frustrating my video ending experience with remote session is. I am well aware how impossible it is to actually edit video over remote but rather for me, as I said, its spending time with different tools to check them out and learn.

    I think you may have some misconceptions from a Windows-centric viewpoint.
    To be honest, I have no view point at all. I am walking the way OS is suggesting me to walk.

    I didn't install Remmina -> infact is the tool available in Ubuntu release by default for remote sessions. Matter of fact, this same setup worked fine with Ubuntu 20 LTS. There are no documentation suggesting to ditch GUI over CLI, rather Ubuntu Desktop comes with a GUI.

    GUI feels way easy and intuitive over CLI.

    Matter of fact, as I wrote earlier, I already run my NextCloud home backup server with Ubuntu 20 LTS Server and indeed, the entire operation is CLI based as Ubuntu 20 LTS server min install didn't come with GUI. Perfectly ok with me on CLI to perform the needed operation there.

    Quote Originally Posted by QIII
    To answer your question directly: The ability to set the resolution, particularly to make sure it matches the remote computer, the options of the RDP software have to be set to allow changes or simply to take on the remote machine's resolution. I run the commands to start up FreeRDP sessions from the command line. It is there that I set the resolution -- which doesn't have to be limited to the other machine's resolution. For instance, my machine at one of my clients has two 1920x1080 monitors. I use three from home. So I set the /multimon option to allow me to have three running at home at the resolution of my monitors. But it may be that I have more control than xrdp.
    To be honest, this is somewhat right direction I feel my "very specific" quarry required.

    Now, I shall try to read more about FreeRDP (Tutorials, Videos etc) and I shall try to do what you have written here to achieve my desired operation by removing XRDP and installing FreeRDP.

    Please do excuse me for being new or rather noob since for people like me, Linux is has no exact set path of doing things. Unlike Windows, there are multiple ways to perform a desired operation. I may find something easier and better suited for me with my level of understanding and knowledge. Things that I (personally) am comfortable with. Its good for me to know there are other ways but finding help on my exact issue helps a ton with this learning curve. Once comfortable with it, then I can proceed exploring those "easier" options.

    Thanks.

  10. #10
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    Re: 21.10 XRDP Remote Access Resolution with Remmina

    We are trying to help you avoid pitfalls of the Ubuntu solution offers. VNC or RDP really are terrible on many levels. There are better solutions that are in the Canonical repos.
    Video editing just can't be done over remote connections. But almost any other "productivity" program can be run easily over the LAN from another system.

    It is only the new people who try to use VNC or RDP. I really wish they'd stop acting like those are options. They are not. The Gnome project does some excellent work, but not this stuff. Perhaps in another 2-5 yrs, it will be ready for production use, but not today. Gnome has a habit of inflicting their ideals on the world - at the cost of terrible performance and bloat. IMHO.

    On the LAN, using remote X forwarding through X11 is the easiest, most likely answer to running remote programs. I do it all day, everyday. Right now, I have about 20 windows open. 3 of those are local. All the others are into remote systems - using X11 forwarding through ssh. That includes this browser window, my password manager, fat email program and shells.

    When ever I see RHEL training show how to setup vnc-server between Linux/Unix systems, I want to puke. They should spend that time on ssh and ssh techniques instead. THAT would be more useful.

    By using remote X11 forwarding, you don't care what the resolution of the remote system is. Each window appears like a local window and uses the resolution of the local system.
    Humor me for 10 seconds. Try this:
    Code:
    $ ssh -X {userid}@{remote IP} {name of terminal program}
    Change the stuff for your setup as needed. I'd use:
    Code:
    $ ssh -X thefu@172.22.22.66 xterm -sb &
    If my username on both systems is the same, that part isn't needed. If your system doesn't come with the xterm program, use whatever terminal you like or install xterm.
    Should take 1-2 seconds and an xterm window from the other system should be displayed. 99.9% of the programs on that remote system can be run from this terminal window and each will be displayed as a new window where you sit.

    Because my remote desktop system is known via DNS, I can use:
    Code:
    $ ssh -X regulus libreoffice &
    to have LibreOffice run on a remote system, but displayed locally. On the LAN, I don't notice any slowness. But video editing is problematic and is a bad test for remote programs. I can control and move that window between the different monitors on my local workstation. It behaves like a local program. If the LAN is fast enough, watching 1080p video works as well, though that's a not-so-great idea. It is smarter to share the storage over the network using NFS and run the video stuff locally. Use NFS for Unix-to-Unix file sharing.

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