Hello World,

As announced recently in our previous post, we will provide the necessary instructions (and tips and tricks) to enable drives redirection and clipboard features while performing a remote desktop to a Linux machine using the xRDP software.

Actually, a lot of people is asking for these functionalities. Based on comments, feedback and requests coming from all sides, we have decided to tackle this topic and to see how difficult it would be to enable these features. We have made a quick video (that can be viewed here) that illustrate what we want to achieve in this post.

Now, you are wondering how difficult it is to enable these features… and how you could implement this too. This post will try to provide some answers to these questions. This post only focuses on drive redirection capabilities. Clipboard feature will be addressed later in a coming post….

So, get ready and let’s go !

Step by Step Instructions

Overview

In this post, we will describe how to include drive redirection feature within the xRDP software solution. The first thing to mention is that the xRDP has support for drive redirections and clipboard feature for some time now. If you check their official web site (see this link), you will see that some information is already provided on how to include this feature in your xRDP installation process.

So, the good news is that xRDP provide support for drive redirection and clipboard options. The bad news (at least some people might think so) is that you will need to compile the xRDP binaries in order to use these features. The really good news is that we already have demonstrated how to perform a custom installation of xRDP and we have provided an easy to use script to do that.

So, basically, most of the work is already done. To introduce drives redirection, we have modified a little bit the original script and included the necessary steps to enable this most wanted features.

To have the drives redirection feature working, you need to have the backend infrastructure that needs to understand the extensions that are used to provide such capabilities. A lot of posts related to xRDP are using the x11RDP backend which provide such functionalities.

Using x11vnc software solution in conjunction with the xRDP software, it’s possible to provide Drives redirection capabilities. The x11vnc does not seems to understand the clipboard extensions. However, this issue will be addressed in the coming post where we are replacing the x11vnc session manager by a new one.

The script provided below will compile all the necessary modules and binaries and perform an automated installation of xRDP that will include drive redirection capability. The script is self explanatory and contains comments explaining actions performed.

So, it’s time to have a look at the script…..

The Custom Installation Script (version 1.6)

Assumptions

Before running this script, be aware of the following assumptions

We have tested the script on Ubuntu 16.04 Beta
We are installing Mate-Desktop as alternative Desktop. If you want to use another, you will have to update the script provided hereafter
We have performed the test on a Virtual Machine running on Hyper-V Server and Virtualbox
Your virtual machine is connected to Internet (so you can download the necessary packages for the installation to occur). If you are not connected to internet, you can still manually download the xrdp package and modify the install-xrdp-1.6.sh script accordingly

The script version 1.6

Important Note :

If you copy/paste the script, you might encounter some issues because font formatting might be not maintained during the copy/paste operation. Please ensure that format is accurate before launching the script.

Version 1.5 included the possibility to configure automatically the keyboard layout to be used during xrdp session (still experimental).

Version 1.6 includes the necessary logic to perform a custom xRDP installation which will include Drives Redirection while using the standard x11vnc session manager.

The script can be downloaded. A link has been made available at the end of this post

Disclaimer : As usual, use this at your own risk !!

################################################################
# Script_Name : xrdp-install.sh
# Description : Perform an automated custom installation of xrdp
# on ubuntu 16.04 when systemd is used
# Date : April 2016
# written by : Griffon
# Web Site :http://www.c-nergy.be - http://www.c-nergy.be/blog
# Version : 1.6
#
# Disclaimer : Script provided AS IS. Use it at your own risk....
#
##################################################################

##################################################################
#Step 1 - Install prereqs for compilation
##################################################################
 
echo "Installing prereqs for compiling xrdp..."
echo "----------------------------------------"


sudo apt-get -y install libx11-dev libxfixes-dev libssl-dev libpam0g-dev libtool libjpeg-dev flex bison gettext autoconf libxml-parser-perl libfuse-dev xsltproc libxrandr-dev python-libxml2 nasm xserver-xorg-dev fuse

#Install git 
echo "Installing git software..."
sudo apt-get -y install git 
 
##################################################################
#Step 2 - Install the desktop of you choice
################################################################## 
 
#Here, we are installing Mate Desktop environment 

echo "Installing alternate desktop to be used with xrdp..."
echo "----------------------------------------------------"
sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y install mate-core mate-desktop-environment mate-notification-daemon --force-yes
echo "Desktop Install Done"
 

##################################################################
#Step 3 - Obtain xrdp packages and xorgxrdp packages
################################################################## 
 
#-Go to your Download folder
echo "Moving to the ~/Download folders..."
echo "-----------------------------------"
cd ~/Downloads

#Download the xrdp latest files
echo "Ready to start the download of xrdp package"
echo "-------------------------------------------"
git clone https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xrdp.git

#move to xorgxrdp folder and download needed packages
cd xrdp/


##################################################################
#Step 4 - using x11vnc sesman
################################################################## 
 
#Install the X11VNC
echo "Installing X11VNC..."
echo "----------------------------------------"
sudo apt-get -y install x11vnc

#Add/Remove Ubuntu xrdp packages (used to create startup service)

echo "Add/Remove xrdp packages..."
echo "---------------------------"
sudo apt-get -y install xrdp
sudo apt-get -y remove xrdp
 
##################################################################
#Step 5 - compiling xrdp packages
################################################################## 
 
#Compile and make xrdp

echo "Installing and compiling xrdp..."
echo "--------------------------------"

# needed because libtool not found in Ubuntu 15.04 and later
# Need to use libtoolize

sudo sed -i.bak 's/which libtool/which libtoolize/g' bootstrap

sudo ./bootstrap
sudo ./configure --enable-fuse --enable-jpeg
sudo make
sudo make install

#Final Post Setup configuration
echo "---------------------------"
echo "Post Setup Configuration..."
echo "---------------------------"

echo "Set Default xVnc-Sesman"
echo "-----------------------"

sudo sed -i.bak '/\[xrdp1\]/i [xrdp0] \nname=Xvnc-Sesman-Griffon \nlib=libvnc.so \nusername=ask \npassword=ask \nip=127.0.0.1 \nport=-1 \ndelay_ms=2000 \n' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini

echo "Symbolic links for xrdp"
echo "-----------------------"

sudo mv /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh.backup
sudo ln -s /etc/X11/Xsession /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh
sudo mkdir /usr/share/doc/xrdp
sudo cp /etc/xrdp/rsakeys.ini /usr/share/doc/xrdp/rsakeys.ini

## Needed in order to have systemd working properly with xrdp
echo "-----------------------"
echo "Modify xrdp.service "
echo "-----------------------"

#Comment the EnvironmentFile - Ubuntu does not have sysconfig folder
sudo sed -i.bak 's/EnvironmentFile/#EnvironmentFile/g' /lib/systemd/system/xrdp.service

#Replace /sbin/xrdp with /sbin/local/xrdp as this is the correct location
sudo sed -i.bak 's/sbin\/xrdp/local\/sbin\/xrdp/g' /lib/systemd/system/xrdp.service
echo "-----------------------"
echo "Modify xrdp-sesman.service "
echo "-----------------------"

#Comment the EnvironmentFile - Ubuntu does not have sysconfig folder
sudo sed -i.bak 's/EnvironmentFile/#EnvironmentFile/g' /lib/systemd/system/xrdp-sesman.service

#Replace /sbin/xrdp with /sbin/local/xrdp as this is the correct location
sudo sed -i.bak 's/sbin\/xrdp/local\/sbin\/xrdp/g' /lib/systemd/system/xrdp-sesman.service

#Issue systemctl command to reflect change and enable the service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable xrdp.service

# Set keyboard layout in xrdp sessions
cd /etc/xrdp 
test=$(setxkbmap -query | awk -F":" '/layout/ {print $2}') 
echo "your current keyboard layout is.." $test
setxkbmap -layout $test
sudo cp /etc/xrdp/km-0409.ini /etc/xrdp/km-0409.ini.bak
sudo xrdp-genkeymap km-0409.ini

## Try configuring multiple users system 
sudo sed -i.bak '/set -e/a mate-session' /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh
 
echo "Restart the Computer"
echo "----------------------------"
sudo shutdown -r now

Note : Check the end of the post, we are providing a link so you can simply download the script.

How to use and execute the script

Step 1 – Make the script executable

You first need to obtain a copy of the script. At the end of this post, we have provided the script as a downloadable file. If you perform a copy/paste from this post, be aware that formatting might be lost and errors might be thrown while running the script. Please review the content of the file as the copy/paste action might change formatting settings. Save the file as xrdp-install-1-6.sh

After downloaded the script (or copy/paste it) to your machine, you will need to mark the script as executable. To mark the script as executable, you can use the command line or the Graphical interface. In our scenario, we have placed the xrdp-install-1.6.sh script in the ~/Downloads/ folder. So to make it executable (based on our path), you can use the command line and issue the following command

chmod +x  ~/Downloads/xrdp-install-1-6.sh  (adapt the path to reflect your situation)

Click on Picture for better resolution

To make the script executable using the GUI, locate the script and right-click on the file, go to properties, then select permissions and tick the box allow executable….

Click on Picture for better resolution

Step 2 – Execute the script

To execute the script, simply open your terminal console and issue the following command

sudo ./xrdp-install-1-6.sh

As mentioned before, we assume that you have internet connection and you will be able to download all the necessary packages needed to perform this configuration.

Note : The script will download the necessary files under the ~/Download folders.

Wait for completion of the script. The machine will reboot automatically when done. The operation can take some time as you will need to install alternate desktop, some dependencies and compiling some new components as well.

Test your xRDP Connection

The final step in this procedure is to check that an rdp connection can be made to the remote Ubuntu machine. To test this, you will first need to obtain either the ip address or hostname or FQDN of the Ubuntu machine. When this information is available, start the remote desktop client on your windows client, type the ip address of the Ubuntu machine and click connect