Installing and Configuring XRDP on Ubuntu 22.04 with GNOME or LXDE

XRDP is a free and open-source implementation of the Microsoft RDP server that enables operating systems other than Microsoft Windows to provide a fully functional RDP-compatible remote desktop experience. In this article, we are going to learn how to install Xrdp on Ubuntu 22.04 with two popular desktop environments: GNOME and LXDE.

GNOME and LXDE are two popular desktop environments for Linux-based systems. GNOME is a modern, feature-rich, and visually appealing desktop environment but is resource-intensive. LXDE is lightweight, efficient, and ideal for older hardware, offering a traditional desktop experience with minimal resource usage.

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Pre-requisites :

A system with Ubuntu 22.04 installed and running.
Root access to the system.

Update your System

First, update your system with the latest packages:

apt update -y && apt upgrade -y

There are two options to install a GUI desktop: GNOME and LXDE

Option 1: XRDP with GNOME Desktop

If you want to use the GNOME Desktop, click here to expand the steps.

Installing Gnome GUI

1. You can install Gnome GUI using the following command.

apt install ubuntu-gnome-desktop -y

2. To enable the GUI as default and boot into graphical mode, create or modify the .xsession file in your home directory

echo gnome-session > ~/.xsession

Option 2: XRDP with LXDE Desktop

If you want to use the LXDE Desktop, click here to expand the steps.

Installing LXDE GUI

1. You can install LXDE GUI using the following command.

apt install lxde -y

2. To enable the GUI as default and boot into graphical mode, create or modify the .xsession file in your home directory.

echo "startlxde" > ~/.xsession

Install XRDP

Let's install and enable XRDP using the below commands:

apt install xrdp
systemctl start xrdp
systemctl enable xrdp

Allow XRDP Through Firewall

If the Firewall is Enbled on your server, open the necessary port for XRDP through the firewall:

ufw allow 3389/tcp
ufw reload

Configure Polkit Rules

To prevent authentication issues, set up Polkit rules by creating the file /etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/02-allow-colord.conf

nano /etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/02-allow-colord.conf

Add the following content,

polkit.addRule(function(action, subject) {
    if (action.id == "org.freedesktop.color-manager.create-device" ||
        action.id == "org.freedesktop.color-manager.create-profile" ||
        action.id == "org.freedesktop.color-manager.delete-device" ||
        action.id == "org.freedesktop.color-manager.delete-profile" ||
        action.id == "org.freedesktop.color-manager.modify-device" ||
        action.id == "org.freedesktop.color-manager.modify-profile") {
        return polkit.Result.YES;
    }
});