Worked with linux servers plenty with a development job but new to running at home and using a desktop interface. I’m using RDP to access the machine and have run into a few issues I’m not sure how to solve.
First, I’m using Mate and I’ve noticed issues with have the panel/task bar disappearing. When the machine first boots my user account is logged in and if I then RDP into the machine, the panel doesn’t show. If I go to the machine physically and logout, then when I RDP in I can see the panel, but that’s a hassle. Seems only one instance of the panel with run. Do I need to create a different user to use with RDP to avoid this? Other options?
Second, physically working on the machine I can go into the network settings and make changes. However when I RDP into the machine - using the same user account - the widget to let me see and edit the details of the network interface is disabled. Why is it that a physical session seems to have sudo access through the UI but an RDP session doesn’t? Can I change this too?
I have tried and used various remote display solutions to access my Linux boxes remotely over the years - mostly VNC, Xpra, NX / NoMachine and RDP, and I’ve settled on RDP because it Just Works™.
Seriously, I NEVER have any problem. Xrdp on the remote server. Remmina for the client. The refresh rate is faster than all the other solutions I’ve tried, it works perfectly over SSH and I never have any sort of compatibility issues when upgrading to the next version of either Xrdp or FreeRDP / Remmina. And of course, as a bonus, RDP is usable to access Windows boxes 🙂
As for the other solutions I’ve tried:
VNC: old, clunky, slower but universal. Also - if that’s important to you - it lets you view the local logging screen: Xrdp presents its own display manager that’s totally separate from the local Xorg server
NoMachine: fast, proprietary
NX: NoMachine before NoMachine went proprietary. More and more deprecated. Slower than RDP.
Xpra: nice and fast, but a complete versioning nightmare. You need to have both client and server versions completely identical almost all the time, otherwise there’s a good chance that they’ll be incompatible with one another. Also, there’s a good chance some configuration file syntax will change at the next version and your server will crap out when restarting after an upgrade. Xpra has been around for years, yet it’s still as unstable as the most alpha software coded last weekend. I just don’t get it. But it sure makes the whole project a complete non-starter for serious reliable use. And goodness knows I really tried to make it work for me.
X over SSH: HORRENDOUSLY laggy. Only vaguely usable on LAN or ultra-fast WAN. But if you abolutely need a local X server display for some reason (regression testing of X application, most probably), there’s nothing else.
Teamviewer: fast, proprietary and super sketchy, like any software solution generously offered by a for-profit for free. I’m not touching it with a 10-ft pole.
It’s been 20 years since I last used it, but X over SSH was amazing. I wonder if it’s bad now because they deprecated the low bandwidth extension for X.