Hello World ,
As you probably know by now, Canonical has released the latest version of their Operating system i.e. Ubuntu 26.04. This is an interesting release since it is an LTS (Long term support) one but which introduces many changes. This release is really interesting and shows again that small improvements makes Ubuntu better and feel more and more mature. One of the major changes in Linux world is the adoption of Wayland display Server and x11 server is being deprecated.
This new release is the opportunity for us to issue a new version of our little xrdp-installer script. There is no major changes in the script since XRDP still does not include support for Wayland Display server. This version of the script is mainly a maintenance release and provide a few minor improvements and some fixes as well. We are still maintaining the script because some distribution still offer the possibility to install and use X11 Display Server. As long as the xrdp package is not updated to support Wayland layer, xRDP software solution can be only used with distributions supporting Desktop interfaces allowing X11 Display Server components. The limitation introduced by Wayland support only is not coming from the script itself. Limitation comes from the fact that the xRDP software solution does not support (yet ?) Wayland.
So, today, we are releasing the xrdp-installer script version 1.6. The script add support for Ubuntu 26.04 distribution and includes minor updates, improvements and bug fixing…
So, let’s see…..
Overview
By now, you should know that the xrdp-installer script aim to ease installation and post-configuration actions of xRDP on top of Ubuntu Operating system. xRDP is a piece of software that enable remote desktop services on Linux. This means that windows users can use their Remote desktop client (mstsc) and perform a remote connection to Ubuntu Computer.
What’s new in this release (Version 1.6) ?
Adding Support to Ubuntu 26.04
Since Ubuntu 26.04 has been just released, it makes sense for us to support this new operating system. Our focus is usually Ubuntu operating system and Debian derivatives. So, we have added support for these operating systems.
Important Note :
We have added support for Ubuntu 26.04 because not all the Ubuntu Distro are using Gnome 49 or later as default Desktop Interface. The script will be able to run against any Ubuntu releases but a check will be performed to see if xrdp package can be installed or not
Adding check Gnome Desktop Version
We wanted to still provide xRDP installation script for majority of Ubuntu operating systems. However, since some of them are running Wayland and Gnome Desktop (49 or higher), we have included in the script a function that will check if the xRDP package can be installed or not on your system. So, if the script detect a Gnome Desktop not supporting x11 software, the xRDP package will not be installed.
Adding check KDE Plasma Version
The Kubuntu 26.04 distro is using the latest version of KDE Desktop and has removed the x11 packages. However, it is still possible to re-install them. So, the script will try to detect which plasma desktop version you are running. If you have a recent version (higher that 6.3), the script will install automatically the x11 packages and proceed with the installation. So, normally, Kubuntu 26.04 can still use xRDP as Remote Desktop software solution.
Installation Log file creation
This is probably a long due request for the script. Generate log file during the installation for debugging purposes…. So, we have included really basic logging capability with this version of the script. When you run the script, anything that is displayed on your screen will be recorded in the xrdp-installation log file that will be located under the folder where you run the script (which is usually ~/Downloads)
Adding more parameters in the compilation section (Experimental)
This script version includes much more options when compiling from sources. In the previous versions, we were limiting ourselves to the following options
./configure --enable-fuse --enable-jpeg --enable-rfxcodec \ --enable-mp3lame --enable-vsock --enable-painter --enable-openh264 \ --enable-x264
/configure --with-systemdsystemunitdir=/usr/lib/systemd/system \
--enable-ibus --enable-jpeg --enable-fuse --enable-mp3lame \
--enable-fdkaac --enable-opus --enable-rfxcodec --enable-painter \
--enable-pixman --enable-utmp -with-imlib2 --with-freetype2 \
--enable-x264 --enable-openh264 --enable-vsock
Fixing issue with xrdp-sesman service unit file not created
We have encountered a few time this issue. So, you are running the script which completes but you can see that there is an error that xrdp-sesman service unit file cannot be created. If you try to perform your remote session, it will fail. So, initially, we had use a quick fix. Now, it is time to fix it properly. Reading through the xrdp github repo, we have found out that we should specify an additional parameter during the compilation process. So, the script now includes this parameters (–with-systemdsystemunitdir=/usr/lib/systemd/system) and the xrdp-sesman service unit file should be created accordingly.
How to Use the Script
The xrdp-installer-1.6 script will work in a similar way as the previous versions. The following section will explain how to download, extract, set executable mode and perform the installation using the script. The script provides some switches that can be used to customize the installation process.
So, let’s see how this would be working….
Disclaimer
Prerequisites and assumptions
The following conditions should be met in order to have the best results while using the script
- We assume that your machine is connected to internet while performing the installation. This is needed as additional packages and software needs to be downloaded and installed on your Ubuntu machine
Script version & Supported Ubuntu Version
The xrdp-installer-1.6.sh script will support the following Ubuntu operating system when running Gnome Desktop Interface lower than version 49
- Ubuntu 22.04.x
- Ubuntu 24.04.x
- Debian 11 (only if you select custom mode installation !!!)
- Debian 12 and later
- Zorin OS
The xrdp-installer-1.6.sh script can be run against the following Ubuntu flavors (as long as not using Gnome Desktop Interface) but we cannot guarantee that everything will work as expected (best effort).
- Kubuntu (22.04 and later)
- Ubuntu Budgie (22.04 and later)
- Ubuntu Mate (22.04 and later)
- Xubuntu (22.04 and later)
- Lubuntu (22.04 and later)
- Linux Mint (Experimental at this stage)
- LMDE (Experimental at this stage)
- Pop!_OS 22.04
- Elementary OS
Note : If you are running any of these distributions and you want to help us improving the support on those, please download and test the script. Do no hesitate to share your findings so we can try to incorporate them in the next release
Reminder :
Ubuntu 25.10 with Gnome Desktop 49 or later is not supported because xRDP software lack Wayland support at this stage. However, it is possible to install Ubuntu 25.10 or later Default distro (i.e. with Gnome Desktop) and install an alternate Desktop interface to be used with xRDP. If you go that way, you will need to run the xrdp-installer script within the alternate desktop you are using in order to populate correctly the configuration files for XRDP….
Step 1 – Download the script
To download the script, you have multiple options. You can from a Terminal issue the following command
wget https://www.c-nergy.be/downloads/xRDP/xrdp-installer-1.6.zip
You can also simply use your browser and click on the link to download the script :
Step 2 – unzip the file
After downloading the zip package containing the file, you will need to unzip it first. To unzip the package, you can use the Terminal console and issue the following command
unzip xrdp-installer-1.6.zip
You can also use the GUI and the Nautilus file manager to select the downloaded package, right-click on it and select the option Extract Here
Step 2 – Set Execute Right on the script
Download the xrdp-installer-1.6.sh script to your system, extract content and mark it as executable . To do this, perform the following action in a terminal console
chmod +x ~/Downloads/xrdp-installer-1.6.sh
Note : Adjust the path where the xrdp-Installer-1.6.sh script to reflect your environment
Step 2 – Run as normal user
The script needs to be run as a normal user. The script will start running and will prompt you for password when sudo actions are initiated. If you run the script as root or using sudo command, the Download folder does not exist for the root user and the script fails to run as expected. To overcome this situation, the script also check which user is executing the script. If the script is run under sudo or root accounts, a warning message will be displayed and the script will not execute
Step 3 – Switches and parameters
The xrdp-installer-1.6.sh script can be executed as is (with no parameters or switches). This will perform a standard (and basic) installation of xRDP. No sound or custom xrdp login script will be made available. However, remote desktop, drive redirection and clipboard redirection would be available with this installation mode.
The xrdp-installer-1.6.sh script accept also some additional parameters that will help customize the xrdp installation and enable additional features. The script provides the following parameters
--help or -h => will display a basic help menu --sound or -s => will enable sound redirection --loginscreen or -l => will customize the xRDP login screen --remove or -r => will remove the xrdp package --custom or -c => will perform a custom installation (i.e. compiled from sources) --dev or -d => will perform a custom installation using dev branch (unstable version) --unsupported or -u => will bypass the Check os and will run against unsupported os (use it at your own risk!!) --perm or -p => fix permissions on xrdp files (uncommon situation) --encoding or -e => to add H.264 & x264 protocol based on the openH264 package
Step 4 – Perform xRDP installation using the script
The following sections will provide some examples and scenario on how you can use the script…..
Standard Installation – No Parameter
As mentioned above, you can decide to use the default xrdp package available in the Ubuntu repository and perform a basic installation which will provide you remote desktop capability and will also customize the remote sesssion. The script will ensure that the same look n’ feel will be maintained when the user logs on locally or remotely.
To perform a standard installation, you execute the script with no parameters. Open a Terminal console, browse to the location where the script has been downloaded and issue the following command
./xrdp-installer-1.6.sh
When the xrdp installation package will start, you be requested to enter your password. Provide the password and proceed with the installation. Wait for completion of the script. The machine will not reboot automatically when done so you can review the actions performed by the script….
Standard Installation with Parameters
The script can be used to perform a standard installation and still passes some parameters to get the most of the xRDP packages and their features. For all the Ubuntu versions, we could use the following combination of parameters
./xrdp-installer-1.6.sh -s (this would enable the sound redirection) ./xrdp-installer-1.6.sh -l (this would customize the xrdp login screen -see here)
Obviously, you can combine the switches (any order) to have more features enabled
./xrdp-installer-1.6.sh -s -l (this would enable the sound redirection and customize the xrdp login screen)
Important Notes
The script can be run multiple times on the same machine. If you have run initially the script with no parameters but you decide afterward to enable additional features, the script can be re-executed and the additional features will be enabled.
Custom Installation – Default Installation
Custom installation script is really flexible. Custom installation means that the script will compile the xrdp package from the source binaries. The custom installation script always uses the latest xrdp package version available
To perform a custom installation, you will need at minimum to pass one parameter. The following command line shows you how to perform a custom installation
./xrdp-installer-1.6.sh -c (this would perform a custom installation but will not enabled adv features like sound redirection or custom login screen)
Custom Installation – Additional Options
If a user wants to enable additional features, you will pass some additional parameters as shown in the following examples
./xrdp-installer-1.6.sh -c -s (this would perform a custom install and enable sound redirection) ./xrdp-installer-1.6.sh -c -l (this would perform a custom install and customize xrdp login screen) ./xrdp-installer-1.6.sh -c -l -s (this would perform a custom install, enable sound and customize login screen) ./xrdp-installer-1.6.sh -c -d (this would perform a custom install, using unstable/dev version of xrdp packages -xrdp 0.10.80) ./xrdp-installer-1.6.sh -c -l -s -e (this would perform a custom install, enable sound and customize login screen, add h264 support)
Important Notes
The script can be run multiple times on the same machine. If you have run initially the script with no parameters but you decide afterward to enable additional features, the script can be re-executed and the additional features will be enabled.
Remove Installation option
This version of the script also ship with the option to remove xRDP package. The removal option should be only used if you have uses this version of this script to perform the installation. To remove the xrdp package, you would simply execute the following command
./xrdp-installer-1.6.sh -r (to remove the xrdp packages)
Step 5 – Test your configuration
After the script has run and after the reboot/shutdown and start process, it’s time to test and see if you can indeed perform a smooth remote connection to your Ubuntu machine. Start your favorite rdp client and simply enter your credentials and start testing your installation. If everything is ok, you will see a similar Desktop interface where Gnome Desktop is used and the Dock is visible.
Limitations
Switch between standard and Custom install
This version of the script can be run multiple times on the same machine. However, because of this new behavior, you cannot perform a standard installation and then decide to perform the custom installation. Once you have selected your installation mode, you will have to stick to it. This is kind of checked by the script.
So, if you have performed a standard installation but afterwards you might want to use the custom installation option, the script will ignore the request. If you want to move from standard install mode to custom mode (or vice versa), the correct process is
- remove xrdp (using the xrdp-installer-1.6.sh -r option)
- Reboot
- perform a new installation using your selected installation mode (standard or custom install mode)
- Reboot
Known issues, Fixed Issues and limitations, New Behavior
Known Issues
Black Screen or disconnected immediately after connecting
As mentioned and explained multiple times, this situation 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)
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. We have not tried this on older Ubuntu releases but I think this is because of the gnome-remote-login addition in Gnome 46.
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.
Final Notes
This is it for this post !
The script version has not been tested extensively but it should work in most cases. The script should be seen as a maintenance release version. As more and more distributions are switching to Wayland, xRDP package and the xrdp-installer-script will have probably limited added value in the future. As long as xRDP does not include Wayland support, xrdp package will be less and less used and people should start looking for some alternatives. For Gnome Desktop users, the best alternative so far would be the built-in Gnome Remote Desktop…
We will try to publish an updated post about Gnome Remote Desktop and we will demonstrate how to use it as an alternative solution for xRDP…
Till next time