Hello World, 

In one of our previous posts, we have released the latest version of our famous xrdp-installer script (version 1.5).  Version 1.5 was suppose to add support for Ubuntu 24.04 the latest Ubuntu LTS release.  We have marked the script version 1.5 as pre-release version.  We decided to move that way because

• Ubuntu 24.04 has introduced a significant number of changes that could affect xRDP.  
• At the same time, the team behind xRDP software package has also made a significant number of changes.  

So, we were expecting to find some issues, inconsistencies, behavior changes with this combination of changes.  A few weeks later, we can confirm that there are a few number of issues with the latest xRDP package and/or Ubuntu 24.04 and Gnome 46 release. 

The xrdp-installer script is still usable but you might encounter some of these issues. 

So, let’s check these issues…. 

xRDP & Black Screen situation(s) 

Expected Black Screen

Usually, when using xRDP software, black screen symptoms will happen (or can happen) when the same user account is used concurrently locally and remotely.  In other words,  the problem is related to the fact that the same user account is already logged in locally and a remote connection is attempted at the same time.  With xRDP software solution, a specific user account can be logged on either locally or remotely but not both….  

Ubuntu 24.04 seems to have introduced a small change when such situation would happen.  If the user is remotely logged on via xRDP software and if the same user tries to login locally, he will be presented with the following popup (see screenshot).  This is a nice improvement.  

Click on Picture for better Resolution

The only problem is that if you click Force Stop button, it seems not to work.  The remote session is not killed.  If a user is logged on locally and if the same user tries to perform a remote connection to the machine, the user will get informed about an existing session already running as shown in the screenshot below

Click on Picture for better Resolution

Again, here there is no way to stop the existing session.  You will need to logout locally from the session or you will need to find other ways (such as ssh or another user account) that can be used to disconnect the existing session.

New Black Screen Scenario

Some users have reported that they ended up with black screen scenario while being logged only in one session (either local or remote). These users are following the recommended way to perform the remote connection and the connection should go through.  

The black screen issue can occur when using Ubuntu 24.04 and Gnome 46.   We have tested the scenario with xrdp package 0.9.24 and 0.10 and the issue can occur when Ubuntu 24.04 and Gnome 46 are used.  Hiero has been investigating this issue and also found out that the black screen issue can occur even in local desktop (rare situation but seems to exists).  

These software are quite new and the next iteration or updates might improve and fix this situation.   The next release of the xrdp-installer script will introduce a quick and dirty workaround that seems to fix the issue.  Again, this would be mainly a workaround while waiting for a proper fix from software maintainer. 

xRDP & Gnome Remote Login  

Conflicting Software ?

xRDP and Gnome Remote login might conflict with each other because they are using the same ports (i.3389).  Because they are using the same ports, it might be possible that xRDP software solution (or gnome remote login) would not be working as expected and your connection might not go through.    The next release of the xrdp-installer script will take this situation into account and it would be possible fix this.

xRDP & Clipboard Bugs & Issues

Bug Copying image through xRDP Clipboard

Some users have contacted us to investigate a possible bug (which has been confirmed by xRDP team) when trying to copy/paste images through clipboard.   The bug affect xrdp version 0.9.24 and later.   Previous version does not seems to be affected and the functionality is working as expected.     

So, if you are using the latest version of the xrdp installer script (in custom mode), you will download and install xrdp 0.10.   If you are using standard mode on Ubuntu 24.04, you will end up with version 0.9.24 which will also be affected by the bug.  

So, if you try to copy an image from windows (e.g. a screenshot), go to your Linux machine via xRDP software, and try to paste the image in Libre Office application, nothing will be inserted. The xRDP Team is looking into this issue right now and  we have to wait for a fix that will be shipped in the next release or possibly in the dev branch version.

Note :

If you really need this feature, you will need to install xrdp 0.9.23.1 on your system. We have prepared a special version of the script to perform that.  If you need it, please contact us 

Text Formatting lost when Copy/paste through xRDP Clipboard 

This is another small issue/annoyance reported by some users recently.  So, if you are using the Windows RDP Client, and you decide to copy/paste formatted text between your session, formatted text will be kept 

Click on Picture for better Resolution

If you do the same operation, through xRDP software,  the text formatting is lost.   

Click on Picture for better Resolution

The expected behavior should be that the text formatting would be kept during the copy/paste operation. 

This xrdp issue is not considered as a bug but it has been classified as possible enhancement.  The team behind xRDP software are looking into this request.  At this stage, we can only wait for the team to release a new version of the software that would take into account text formatting issue. 

Final Notes 

This is it for this short post ! 

As you can see, we have been working a little bit on our famous xrdp-installer script.  Users feedback have helped us identify some issues and/or bugs in Ubuntu or xRDP software.  We are finalizing the next release of the xrdp-installer  script that will try to bring some few enhancements and would try to tackle some of the issues detected. 

Stay tune since we will release quite soon a new version of our famous script   🙂 

Till next time 

See ya