Getting help for Ubuntu Core?

[turrican32]

Hey there, I'm experiencing a very annoying issue with Ubuntu Core, but I can't see it mentioned here (unless I'm missing something very obvious, that is)

So where exactly do I ask for help?

Sorry if the question has been answered a few thousand times, Google isn't helping either unfortunately...

[ian-weisser]

All official Ubuntu support venues (including this one) handle all currently-supported releases of Ubuntu.

While we may not have too may Core users here, we will still do our best to help.

Describe the version of Ubuntu Core and your issue.

[turrican32]

Thank you so much for the quick reply, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be way much off-topic, or something like that.

I'm currently evaluating Ubuntu Core for a kiosk-like use case; basically, the one and only thing that this PC is going to do is launching a remote desktop.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to run remmina (tried both regular and edge release channel) to achieve my goal until now, I only get a blank grey ubuntu frame screen.

What I did:

- downloaded and installed a pre-built Ubuntu Core 24 x86 image from the official website (specifically, this one), linking my Ubuntu One account, ssh keys, etc.
- tried and successfully deployed the docs-suggested Internet Web Kiosk so that I was at least sure the basics were ok (had to fiddle a bit with this one because I tried with a Proxmox-based virtualization, that didn't work so I had to switch to a local, vmware-based VM... not Ubuntu's fault by the way, just to give the whole picture)
- removed the aforementioned web browser and installed remmina via snap install (as I said, I tried both the default and the edge versions), set the "server" option to the IP I need to connect to, but nothing happens

All I get is a blank (grey) screen, plus the following messages when I issue the

snap logs remmina

command:

2024-09-16T07:20:13Z systemd[1]: Started snap.remmina.ssh-agent.service - Service for snap application remmina.ssh-agent.
2024-09-16T07:20:13Z remmina.ssh-agent[55772]: SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/var/snap/remmina/6672/ssh-agent.socket; export SSH_AUTH_SOCK;
2024-09-16T07:20:13Z remmina.ssh-agent[55772]: echo Agent pid 55772;
2024-09-16T07:26:16Z systemd[1]: Stopping snap.remmina.ssh-agent.service - Service for snap application remmina.ssh-agent...
2024-09-16T07:26:16Z systemd[1]: snap.remmina.ssh-agent.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
2024-09-16T07:26:16Z systemd[1]: snap.remmina.ssh-agent.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
2024-09-16T07:26:16Z systemd[1]: Stopped snap.remmina.ssh-agent.service - Service for snap application remmina.ssh-agent.
2024-09-16T07:26:41Z systemd[1]: Started snap.remmina.ssh-agent.service - Service for snap application remmina.ssh-agent.
2024-09-16T07:26:41Z remmina.ssh-agent[57435]: SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/var/snap/remmina/6672/ssh-agent.socket; export SSH_AUTH_SOCK;
2024-09-16T07:26:41Z remmina.ssh-agent[57435]: echo Agent pid 57435;

Any suggestions?

Feel free to ask any further info that I may have unintentionally omitted.

[Holger_Gehrke]

What kind of connection are you trying to establish ? remmina can work with multiple protocols (according to 'apt show remmina': "Currently RDP, VNC, SPICE, WWW, X2Go, EXEC and SSH are supported."). At least with vnc what you're describing is normal if you haven't set up the session on the server side (vnc will just start a new X session with no programs - not even a window manager - running; meaning you get a grey screen and a mouse cursor shaped like a diagonal crosshair).

Holger

[turrican32]

I'm trying to setup an RDP connection to a Windows 10 machine.

I am able to connect via Windows own Remote Desktop application so I believe everything is correctly setup on the receiver end.

I also have added a

snap set server="rdp://username@ip_address"

option to the Ubuntu Core configuration, but I'm not sure this is enough (nor if it is correct!)

[ian-weisser]

Ubuntu Core is not currently designed to host a desktop GUI.
It lacks the entire graphical stack: Display Manager, compositor, window manager, etc. Ubuntu Core has none of them.

The kiosk snap has just enough of that stack to run the web browser, but nothing else.

The Reminna snap is intended for use with an existing Ubuntu Desktop system. That snap does not contain the entire missing GUI stack.

Your design is clever, but it won't work with the current releases of Ubuntu Core.

There is in development, slowly, for several years, a desktop version of Ubuntu Core. When released (no known proposed date), the Reminna snap should work with it.

[turrican32]

Oh now I see why this isn't working, thanks for the explanation!

Unfortunately I have a relatively little understanding of the whole "under the hood" (for a lack of a better working) Ubuntu/Linux architecture, that's why I mistakenly thought that as web snap was working, surely the RDP client would too. I found out I was wrong the hard way.

Any suggestion the achieve the desired goal? (i.e. a mostly immutable configuration that can run a Windows remote desktop client)

Switching distro isn't an issue by the way, if I need to (and I guess I really do? I mean I assume you just can't add the missing components and call it a day, otherwise you would have told me)

[grahammechanical]

Canonical is working on a version of Ubuntu Core with a desktop environment. I am downloading the ISO image right now. Consider it experimental.

https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/experimen...able/20240209/

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubunt...eep-dive/37740

Regards

[grahammechanical]

I downloaded the Ubuntu Core Desktop ISO image and burnt it to USB stick. Not happy with the result. The Try Ubuntu session loaded to a purple screen with a white cursor and got no further. Loading the session in safe mode did not even get to the purple screen. It seemed to be detecting the hardware and then stopped at this message:

finished casper-md5check.service - casper -md5check verify live iso checksum

CTRL + ALT + DEL shuts it down with a remove medium and press ENTER message.

So, this Ubuntu Core Desktop ISO image is truly an experimental project at this time. I will see how it develops over time.

Regards

[1fallen2]

I downloaded the Ubuntu Core Desktop ISO image and burnt it to USB stick. Not happy with the result. The Try Ubuntu session loaded to a purple screen with a white cursor and got no further. Loading the session in safe mode did not even get to the purple screen. It seemed to be detecting the hardware and then stopped at this message:

I was going to warn you first, but then I hoped just maybe you would have had a better outcome.