Installing xRDP for remote communication with CentOS 7 server

CentOS Linux 7 reached end of life on June 30, 2024. This historical guide may no longer work as written. This notice concerns CentOS Linux, not the RHEL lifecycle. Read the CentOS lifecycle information.

- In this educational article, we will discuss how to install xRDP on a CentOS 7 remote system. How to connect to it with Remote Desktop Connection . We will also show you how to install and connect to different desktop environments to CentOS 7 remote system.
  xRDP is a free and open source Remote Desktop Protocol server that allows operating systems other than Windows to have a full remote desktop experience.
  
  xRDP is fully compatible with rdesktop, FreeRDP and Microsoft’s Remote Desktop client.
  
  prerequisites
  
  It is recommended that you use a non-root sudo user for any major system changes. Of course, this is not necessary to complete the steps of this tutorial.
  
  A CentOS 7 based system with at least 2GB of RAM.
  
  Step 1) Install xRDP on CentOS 7
  
  Update your packages first.
  
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  sudo yum -y update
  
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  $ sudo yum install -y epel-release
  
  $ sudo yum install -y xrdp
  
  $ sudo systemctl enable xrdp
  
  $ sudo systemctl start xrdp
  
  If you are using FirewallD, open port number 3389/tcp for RDP.
  
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  $ sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=3389/tcp --permanent
  
  $ sudo firewall-cmd --reload
  
  Step 2) Install the preferred desktop environment
  
  Now you can install the desktop environment that we want to use. Here we try the XFCE, MATE and GNOME options.
  
  If you are looking for a light and compatible tool with different resources, XFCE will be the right choice for you.
  
  Note: If you cannot connect with Remote Desktop Connection after installing the desktop environment, be sure to open port 3389/tcp using the method mentioned above.
  
  1) Installing the XFCE desktop environment
  
  XFCE is one of the lightest desktop environments. This environment is very fast and uses little system resources. Meanwhile, it still has its visual appeal. Additionally, there is a very active community behind it. So there are many customization options available for it.
  
  Run the following commands to install XFCE.
  
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  $ sudo yum install -y epel-release
  
  $ sudo yum groupinstall -y "Xfce"
  
  $ sudo reboot
  
  Then you need to create the .Xclients file in the corresponding Kberber directory.
  
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  $ echo "xfce4-session" > ~/.Xclients
  
  $ chmod a+x ~/.Xclients
  
  Now you can connect to the server using Remote Desktop Connection.
  
  Below is an example of what XFCE looks like.
  
  XFCE sample space
  
  Uninstall XFCE
  
  In order to uninstall XFCE from a CentOS 7 based system, use the following commands.
  
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  $ sudo yum groupremove -y "Xfce"
  
  $ sudo yum remove -y libxfce4*
  
  2) Installing the MATE desktop environment
  
  The following commands will help you to install MATE.
  
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  $ sudo yum install -y epel-release
  
  $ sudo yum groupinstall -y "MATE Desktop"
  
  $ sudo reboot
  
  Now create the .Xclients file in the directory of the user you are connected to.
  
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  $ echo "mate-session" > ~/.Xclients
  
  $ chmod a+x ~/.Xclients
  
  You can now connect to the server using the Remote Desktop Connection application.
  
  This is what you will see as the MATE desktop environment.
  
  MATE desktop environment
  
  Uninstall MATE
  
  To remove MATE environment from CentOS 7 system, run the following commands.
  
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  $ sudo yum groupremove -y "MATE Desktop"
  
  $ sudo yum autoremove -y
  
  3) Installing the GNOME desktop environment
  
  We are currently installing the GNOME 3 version.
  
  For this purpose, it is enough to install the GNOME Desktop package group. As a result, everything necessary for the installation of the graphical user interface will be installed.
  
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  $ sudo yum groupinstall "GNOME DESKTOP" -y
  
  This may take a few minutes. About a thousand packages are installed in a minimal version of CentOS 7.
  
  Setting up a graphical user interface or GUI
  
  Although we have installed the GNOME Desktop package, it does not mean that the GUI will automatically run on system startup.
  
  To check this issue, we can use the following command.
  
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  $ systemctl get-default
  
  output
  
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  multi-user.target
  
  If your default target is multi-user.target, displaying this message means that the GUI will not run. What we need to do is set the default target to graphical.target.
  
  For this purpose, type the following commands.
  
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  $ sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
  
  output
  
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  Removed symlink /etc/systemd/system/default.target.
  
  Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/default.target to /usr/lib/systemd/system/graphical.target.
  
  After this step, run the following command to change the GUI immediately.
  
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  $ sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target
  
  You can now connect to a CentOS 7 system using GNOME after installing xRDP.
  
  Here’s how GNOME 3 looks the first time after installing and connecting. All you have to do is make the initial settings.
  
  GNOME 3 appearance
  
  Uninstall GNOME
  
  Run the following commands to remove GNOME.
  
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  $ sudo yum groupremove -y "GNOME Desktop"
  
  $ sudo yum autoremove -y
  
  Step 3) Connecting to the system using Remote Desktop Connection
  
  With xRDP and the desktop environment installed, you can now connect to the remote system with your local system. How to do this will depend on your operating system.
  
  Communication through Windows
  
  To connect to the server through Microsoft Windows, just search for and run the Remote Desktop Connection program. Then you have to enter the host or IP address.
  
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  input_hostname_or_ip_in_remote_desktop_connection
  
  If this is your first connection, you will receive some security warnings. Make sure that this server belongs to you and is safe. Then proceed and confirm the conditions.
  
  Acknowledgment of security warnings
  
  Communication through Linux
  
  To connect through a Linux system, Remmina would be the right choice for this purpose. Remmina is a free and open source remote desktop client that supports Remote Desktop Protocol, VNC, NX, XDMCP, SPICE and SSH.
  
  To use Remmina to communicate from Linux to a remote system, just run this program after installation. Then you must click on the plus sign (+) in the upper left corner and enter the IP address or host name, username and password of the remote system.
  
  If you use one of Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS or Fedora Linux distributions on your local system, use the following commands to install Remmina.
  
  Debian/Ubuntu
  
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  $ sudo apt-get install remmina remmina-plugin-*
  
  CentOS/RHEL
  
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  $ yum install remmina remmina-plugins-*
  
  Fedora 22
  
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  $ sudo dnf copr enable hubbitus/remmina-next
  
  $ sudo dnf upgrade --refresh 'remmina*' 'freerdp*'
  
  If you notice, we have also installed `remmina-plugins-*` here. Because our main goal is to install the Remmina RDP plugin, it is not installed by default. For more information about Remmina, you can visit its website .
  
  Communication via OSX
  
  To connect through a Mac, you must first download the Microsoft Remote Desktop application from the App Store.
  
  After running the app for the first time, you must first create a new connection. To do this, click on the “+” sign in the upper left corner.
  
  The basic information you need here is computer name, username and password. Fill in these 3 blanks as follows.
  
  PC Name
  
  The IP address or host of your remote system. Usually the IP address is used here
  
  User name
  
  the username you used when installing xRDP and the desktop environment in the remote system; Either with root or sudo user.
  
  Password
  
  Your user password on CentOS system
  
  After these steps, your connection should be saved and you should be able to communicate with the remote system.
  
  For more information and support, you can read the instructions for using Remote Desktop on Mac on Microsoft’s website.
  
  Conclusion
  
  In this article, you learned how to install xRDP on a CentOS 7 system and with three different handcap environments for remote desktop communication. We hope that this article has also been of interest to you.

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