Remote Desktop into Ubuntu

hiyajac · 10 Oct 2011 at 20:55

Hi, I have set up a Ubuntu Server 10.04.03 LTS and installed the ubuntu-desktop on a HP MicroServer. The server is running headless. So I need to way remote connect into the server. What is the best remote desktop server package in Ubuntu? I always need to connect into it from a Windows 7 laptop.

I have tried VNC but it's quite lag especially on the screen refresh. I have also tried xrdp but it seems that there is a bug in the package where I only can connect it ONCE, and I need to reboot the machine before I can connect it again.

SMN · 10 Oct 2011 at 22:01

Do you need the gui? If not just use ssh (silly as it sounds).

hiyajac · 11 Oct 2011 at 10:51

SMN said:
Do you need the gui? If not just use ssh (silly as it sounds).

Yeah I am already using puTTY. But I need gui sometimes.

masterluke · 11 Oct 2011 at 11:19

I've found VNC to be slower than RDP too, but its a lot faster on some clients than others. If you havent already then try tightvnc and fiddle with the quality options to speed it up. Reducing the colours and resolution can help a lot.

EDIT - You could try freenx. I remember that was a bit faster than VNC but not used it in a while as VNC is generally "good enough" and comes out of the box.

hiyajac · 12 Oct 2011 at 00:28

Thanks for the info. Will try the freenx. But I am still looking for similar software like RDP which is much smoother than VNC.

uvarvu · 13 Oct 2011 at 15:18

Another vote for freenx here. You can also go to nomachine.com and download nxserver free edition from there. This is much faster than VNC and RDP as well (IMHO).

staylo · 13 Oct 2011 at 22:16

Bear in mind also that VNC is not a secure protocol. If you're already using putty you can use TCP tunnelling to tunnel the VNC connection through the SSH session for security.

hiyajac · 14 Oct 2011 at 11:19

staylo said:
Bear in mind also that VNC is not a secure protocol. If you're already using putty you can use TCP tunnelling to tunnel the VNC connection through the SSH session for security.

Can you provide more info/guides on how to create the TCP tunnelling?

inSilica · 14 Oct 2011 at 13:05

nxserver + client - it's free upto 5 concurrent connections I think

http://www.nomachine.com/

works a treat -

you need to setup their server, then grab their client (available multiplatform)

staylo · 14 Oct 2011 at 13:44

hiyajac said:
Can you provide more info/guides on how to create the TCP tunnelling?

If you're using PuTTY, edit the connection settings in Connection -> SSH -> Tunnels

Enter source port as eg 5950 and Destination as 127.0.0.1:5900 (assuming you're using the standard VNC port on the Destination PC)

Then open a VNC connection to localhost:5950 and your TCP connection request will be tunnelled through the SSH session to the remote PC and connected to 5900.

One thing I didn't mention is that the VNC server must be set to allow loopback connections.

quackers · 14 Oct 2011 at 19:59

Be careful with VNC, especially if you have upnp enabled on your router. You see a lot of people that get hacked with VNC or badly configured SSH server on the ubuntu forums.

englishpremier · 17 Oct 2011 at 11:48

I use FreeNX server via SSH with private key.

Seems to work well with both the windows and linux client.

No android client though. :-(