Hello World,

We are back on Ubuntu and xrdp topic.  Since Ubuntu 15.04,  the operating system has replaced the Upstart components with the Systemd component.   Systemd can manage Ubuntu services.  This change in the operating system can affect the way your system is working.  Previous instructions on how to have a service starting at boot up might not be valid anymore since the way the operating system is handling this in a different way.

A good example of such situation is when you perform a custom installation of xrdp.  Prior to Ubuntu 15.04, you could use the instructions and the script provided at this location. Since Ubuntu 15.04, if you perform a custom installation of xrdp, this procedure will fail and you will not be able to use xrdp accordingly.

However, in our previous post, we have quickly described a workaround in order to have xrdp software working if you have performed a custom installation.  The workaround is quite simple. You simply need to delete the xrdp.service and xrdp-sesman.service file used by the systemd software and you should be able to connect again to your ubuntu machine via XRDP.

In this post, given that Ubuntu 15.04 is now using Systemd solution, we have decided to update the install-xrdp.sh script.  Using this script, you will be able to perform a custom installation and have xrdp running perfectly fine.  Moreover, we have updated the xrdp.service and xrdp-sesman.service Units files used by systemd in order for to have the xrdp service managed and controlled properly by systemd.

Let’s do this….

Why a custom installation ?

We are performing and testing custom installation because we can use the bleeding edge version of xrdp. Ubuntu is using package 0.6.xx which is fully supported by the team behind xrdp.  With the custom installation, we will be using the package 0.9.xx. We wanna see the progress made by the team and see how the solution is evolving.

The custom installation will also configure the system to always reconnect to the same session. This element is of less importance since Ubuntu has updated the xrdp package and since you can reconnect to the same session with no additional configuration.

The Updated Script (version 1.4)

If you want to understand what the script does, you can have a look at this location (Ubuntu 14.04 – Perform a custom XRDP Install (using X11VNC). We have updated the script to take into account the introduction of systemd component in Ubuntu 15.04.   In this updated version of the script, we are modifying the xrdp.service and xrdp-sesman service so they reflect the correct path of the executable files for the xrdp service.

The script

In this script, we are installing the MATE-Desktop which is our favourite desktop environment.  If you want to use another, you will have to update the script provided hereafter

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.

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

################################################################
# Script_Name : xrdp-install.sh
# Description : Perform an automated custom installat of xrdp
# on ubuntu 15.04 when systemd is used
# Date : May 2015
# written by : Griffon
# Web Site :http://www.c-nergy.be – http://www.c-nergy.be/blog
# Version : 1.4
#
# Disclaimer : Script provided AS IS. Use it at your own risk….
#
##################################################################

#-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 “——————————————-”

wget https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xrdp/archive/master.zip

#Unzip xrdp package

echo “Extracting content of xrdp package…”
echo “———————————–”
unzip master.zip

#Install prereqs for compilation

echo “Installing prereqs for compiling xrdp…”
echo “—————————————-”
sudo apt-get -y install autoconf libtool libpam0g-dev libx11-dev libxfixes-dev libssl-dev libxrandr-dev

#Install the desktop of you choice – I’m Using Mate Desktop

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”
#Configure the Xsession file
echo mate-session> ~/.xsession

#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

#Compile and make xrdp

echo “Installing and compiling xrdp…”
echo “——————————–”

cd xrdp-master
# needed because libtool not found in Ubuntu 15.04
# Need to use libtoolize

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

sudo ./bootstrap
sudo ./configure
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’ /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 dameon-reload
sudo systemctl enable xrdp.service

echo “Restart the Computer”
echo “—————————-”
sudo shutdown -r now

Set Execute rights on the script

You can copy/paste the script into a text file in your home directory and save it as xrdp-install.sh.  In order to be able to run this script, you will need to make the script executable.  Right-click on the file, go to properties, then select permissions and tick the box allow executable….

Click on Picture for better resolution 

or you can use the command line to perform the same action. Open your Terminal console and issue the following command

chmod +x  ~/Downloads/install-xrdp.sh  

(if the file is located in your home directory in the Download Directory. Adapt the path accordingly…)

Click on Picture for better resolution 

Execute the script

You are now ready to execute the script.   we assume that you have internet connection available.  The script needs to download the xrdp package (the latest version from the xrdp community) from internet.  When you are ready, you can execute the script by issuing the following command in the command prompt.

Click on Picture for better resolution 

We assume that you have downloaded or created the file in the your home folder under the Download folders.  If this is not the case, browse to the location and execute the script from there.

Wait for completion of the script.  The machine will reboot automatically when done.

Configuring your xRDP keyboard layout

Manual Configuration

As in the past, the xRDP login screen will use by default an en-us keyboard layout. You remote session will also be using the en-us keyboard layout.  This can be changed.  In my case, I’m using a Belgian French keyboard, so I had to tell xrdp to use the belgian french keyboard as well.  To do that, you need to perform the following actions :

Step 1 : You go to the /etc/xrdp directory

Step 2 : you issue the command setxkbmap -layout <%your layout%> to define which keyboard map/layout to use

Click on Picutre for better Resolution 

Step 3 : create a copy of the km-0409.ini file into the same directory. It seems that this is the default file used by xrdp to define the keyboard layout. You will need to use sudo in order to be able to write into the directory

Step 4 : Check that you have a backup of your file by typing the dir or ls command

Step 5 : update the file by issuing the following command sudo xrdp-genkeymap km-0409.ini

Click on Picutre for better Resolution 

Test your xRDP Connection

Here, what you want to test is that you can effectively reconnect to the same session.  To test that, you will connect a first time to your remote Ubuntu machine, open some applications and then disconnect.  If the xrdp installation completed successfully, you should see the xRDP login screen (see screenshot)

Click on Picture for better resolution

Check also your keyboard layout in the xRDP login and check that the layout has been set correctly. Remember that by default, xRDP login screen will use EN-US keyboard layout if you do not have configured any other additonal keyboard layout (see section above).

Final Notes

This is it for this post.  The process to perform a custom xrdp installation remains basically the same.  The only thing we had to change was path of the executable file for xrdp in the /lib/systemd/system/xrdp.service and /lib/systemd/system/xrdp-sesman.service to reflect the correct location in Ubuntu.  After that, we were able to have xrdp running properly.  You can now use the systemctl start xrdp or systemctl stop xrdp or even systemctl status xrdp commands to check and manage the xrdp service.

Till next time

See ya