Ubuntu 20.04 Remote Desktop Access from Windows 10 with xRDP

This tutorial will show you step-by-step and demonstrate how to install and then use the xRDP Remote Desktop software on Ubuntu 20.04 (but any flavour of Linux will be similar) so I can connect to it and use it from my main Windows 10 PC.

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Terminal Commands:
-----------------------------------

# Update the list of packages in the reposity index
# -------------------------------------------------
sudo apt update

# Install the main xrdp package.
# It will bring in all its dependencies
# -------------------------------------
sudo apt install xrdp

# Although xrdp is already started,
# make sure its restarted if the machine reboots
# -------------------------------------------
sudo systemctl enable xrdp

# Open up the RDP port 3389 in the firewall
# -----------------------------------------
sudo ufw allow from any to any port 3389 proto tcp

# show the IP Address of the machine
# ---------------------------------
ip address

Video Transcript:
================

Video : 0 - Final - Combined - The Result
------------------------------------------
Before I show you how to easily install XRDP and use it, I thought I’d first show you the result.
So, on screen you can see my main windows 10 PC, and the insert on the right-hand side is the screen from my ubuntu linux PC, which I have had to move into the garage.
[break time='500ms'/]
However, I still want to use it, even though its difficult to get to. So, I installed XRDP on it.
[break time='1s'/]
Now anytime I want to use it, I just start the remote desktop connection software that comes on all windows PCs, if your main PC is linux you can use tools like reminna to do the same thing.
[break time='2s'/]
Type in its IP address, which I’ll show you how to get, and press connect.
[break time='2s'/]
At the XRDP login screen, I simply use my linux username and password to login.
[break time='2s'/]
The result is that I can work on either my windows PC, or my ubuntu PC.
[break time='1s'/]
So, after the following introduction, I’ll show you how it was installed using only 4 short commands., all of which you will find in the YouTube comments section.

Video : 2 - Final - Installing xRDP on Ubuntu 20.04
----------------------------------------------------
On screen you can see my ubuntu PC, on which I have displayed the 4 installation commands, and a show me its Ip address, information command. I copy each into a terminal window.
[break time='2s'/]
The last command shows the IP addresses assigned to this machine, which are identified by the prefix INET. Just ignore the IP address 127.0.0.1 as that is just the machines loopback address, not its proper IP address.
[break time='2s'/]
When finished just reboot the linux machine so we can guarantee a clean start.

Video : 3 - Final - Combined - RDP Usage
-----------------------------------------
To demonstrate how XRDP is used, on screen you can now see both my windows PC and the linux PC.
[break time='2s'/]
If I stay logged on to my linux pc, you will notice that when I connect to it and logon, from my main windows pc, I am faced with just a black screen, as the username is already in use on the linux PC.
[break time='2s'/]
If I logoff, on the linux machine and try to connect again I should succeed.
[break time='2s'/]
However, it shows me this error, please take a note of it as I expect at some point you will get it too. What it simply means is the username and password entered was not recognised. What has probably happened, like happened to me is a simple misspell or I’ve left caps lock on.
[break time='2s'/]
Anyway, when I retype the username and password more carefully it works.
[break time='2s'/]
Having, for example, started a web browser, I don’t logoff in ubuntu, but instead simply close the windows remote connection window.
[break time='2s'/]
now, when I logon later, I can carry on from where I left off, just make sure that any setting to lock the pc or blank the screen is switched off.
When finished, I do logoff in linux.

[resoluteforce]

Thanks for explaining about the black screen. It was always a mystery for me.

[grenadiadrian]

This. Worked. Perfectly! Thank you so much!!!

[RayLuvsCats]

Thank you! This was very helpful and straight to the point.

For those wondering: This also works on Debian 12.

[sitotaw]

Great and helpful video with clear instructions. Thank you!!

[jsbadhon]

Brother you are a life saver. Love from Bangladesh 🇧🇩

[rushi.modhave]

This video really helped me alot. Thanks :)

[alexwells]

Hi do you know how to get it to work with an AD account, rather than a local account.

[mmus]

my rdp closes immediately after logging in, is there any solution...?

[richmondleo]

finally, you show me the right way to do it! many thanks!

[fantafrags]

how do you copy and paste from one to the other?

[Cinnamon_Shaey]

Does this work without a screen plugged in? So also called hesdless

[piedpiper]

Will this work on different networks?
I want to access my office desktop from home
If anybody can please help and explain

[Duzinho]

thanks so much, does anyone using the RDP connection doesn't see your toolbar? mine is a clear screen, which is not bad but i wish i could see my menu bar

[siddharthaudayakumar]

its not working i have my video out through my GPU card is that a problem I'm not able to see my screen connection are made

[nick-iimd]

It works perfectly after I enabled the CPU virtualiation in my BIOS!

[shahrooz]

i've installed xrdp on my arch laptop but when i try to connect from my windows system after submit the credentials i get the error cant create the session for user 'my_username' x server not started

[NoEggu]

You demonstrated how to use xrdp with a Windows client and a Linux server.
How do you tell a client Linux box to connect to a server Linux box via xrdp?

[kmupncj]

it works but doesn't fully...it shows me the wrong login credentials error even though they are exactly the same (I even tried the ones for remote control that I've setup before) and still doesn't work

[alenjiru]

Hi, thanks for the video. However, when i log in with the correct credentials, the remote desktop session crashes immediately i hit the enter button. Could there be a misconfiguration on my end??

[PaeZone]

I tried all the step above.. But when I tried connecting from my windows, it just kick me back to rdp application