General Information

Remote desktop application setup.

Checklist

• Pre-req: Install a GUI desktop on the remote server.

X2Go is “an open source remote desktop software for Linux that uses the NX technology protocol”.

• Official Site: https://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php

Desktop Environment Compatibility

• Compatible, No Workarounds
  • LXDE
  • XFCE
  • MATE
• Compatible, with Workarounds
  • KDE 5 (plasma) → very slow
  • Cinnamon → Buggy, requires fallback mode
• More Details: https://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:de-compat

• CentOS 6 and 7: Install x2go server

  yum install fuse-sshfs x2goserver x2goserver-xsession

  • Note: There is no service to start, as the x2go clients connect via ssh and use the NX protocol to forward the graphical display.

• Download the last client from: https://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/download:start
• Follow online instructions and launch client after install

Configuring x2go.

X2Go config files are located:

• /etc/x2go/

Server: Fix for atom/other text editors crashing connected via X2GoClient

• Edit server side config file (/etc/x2go/x2goagent.options) and append

  #- Fix for Atom Crashing: https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/4360 -#
  X2GO_NXAGENT_DEFAULT_OPTIONS+=" -extension BIG-REQUESTS"

Client: Fix for Windows Firewall Messages Popping Up

• Windows Firewall messages pop up about various features being blocked during connection. To make these go away, some X2GoClient session features can be disabled.
• X2Go Client Window: Session > Session management…
  • Select your saved session > click Session preferences
    • Click the Media tab
      • Uncheck “Enable sound support”
      • Uncheck “Client side printing support”
      • Click “Ok”
    • On Session Management, Click “Exit”

Client: Performance Settings

• Various performance settings in the X2Go Client
  • Session Preferences
    • Connection tab
      • Connection Speed: Adjust to connection speed
      • Compression Method and Quality

xrdp runs on a Linux system and allows for native Windows RDP to connect to it.

Note: xrdp checks only if a session with the same geometry is already opened. It will start a new session if the geometry/resolution doesn't match. This means if you connect using an external monitor initially, and resume with a different monitor with different resolution being sent, you will get a new session. Resolution settings are configurable via the RDP client display settings. (Full screen is the default)

Install xrdp

yum install xrdp

Performance Settings

• Change xrdp bpp to 16 (/etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini)

  sed -i 's/max_bpp=32/max_bpp=16/' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini

• Increase Max Sessions (/etc/xrdp/sesman.ini)

  sed -i 's/MaxSessions=10/MaxSessions=50/' /etc/xrdp/sesman.ini

Security Settings

• Only Allows TLS1.2

  sed -i 's/ssl_protocols=.*/ssl_protocols=TLSv1.2/' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini

• Set Ciphers to AES

  sed -i 's/#*tls_ciphers=.*/tls_ciphers=AES/' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini

Log Settings

• Set logging levels to warning instead of debug

  sed -i 's/LogLevel=.*/LogLevel=WARNING/' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini
  sed -i 's/SyslogLevel=.*/SyslogLevel=WARNING/' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini

PATH Settings

• Add 'source /etc/profile' to xrdp's start script to get login PATH settings

  vim /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh
   
  if [ -f /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ]
  then
      source /etc/profile
      . /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
      exit 0
  fi

Restart and enable xrdp

systemctl restart xrdp
systemctl enable xrdp

Ensure we are still starting the server in multi-user (no gui), change if not

systemctl get-default
systemctl set-default multi-user.target