Windows Remote Desktop on Linux

How to Connect windows remote desktop on Linux  using ‘rdesktop’

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Are you using Linux and trying to connect your Windows server or desktop ? Then this tool is very helpful for you.

rdesktop is a client for Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) which is very handy for making remote connections to windows machine while you are working on Linux and it is available on UNIX and Linux based systems.

rdesktop is commonly used to connect Microsoft based operation systems including

-Windows 2000 Terminal Server
-Windows XP Professional
-Windows Server 2003
-Windows Server 2008 & R2
-Windows Vista
-Windows 7, Windows 8

Installation of rdesktop on RHEL/Centos 6.x

Step-1 installation using ‘yum install’ command.

yum install rdesktop

Step-2 connect your windows ‘RDP’ via rdesktop from linux machine.

#rdesktop 192.168.0.204 

        OR

#rdesktop -g 80% -u admin 192.168.0.204

rdesktop flags

-g ( remote windows display resolution ) as i set 80% of my current windows size
-u ( username of targeted remote pc for authentications ) in my case it is ‘h.ali’
-f ( for full screen display of remote pc )

Connecting to windows.

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Offline method

rdesktop Setup Installation, Configuration and Usage on linux

Download rdesktop:

Download the compressed  rdesktop -1.1.0.tar.gz from

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http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/rdesktop/rdesktop-1.1.0.tar.gz

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Or

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#yum –y install rdesktop (for internet download)

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Configure and Install rdesktop

Uncompress the downloaded file by typing "tar -xzvf rdesktop-1.1.0.tar.gz" (no quotes).

After extraction, change in to the newly extracted directory by entering "cd rdesktop-1.1.0" (no quotes). Then, enter "./configure" (again, no quotes) to set up the installation.

Next, we'll compile the software. To acomplish this, enter "make" and press return - the compiler will spew it's usual gibberish at you - this is valuable to a programmer, but beyond the scope of this document. Only be worried if you see an error.

Okay, so it compiled - to install rdesktop on your system, type "make install" (no quotes - do you see a pattern?) and it'll do it's thing. 

Test It

This test assumes that you have a running terminal server on your network. To test the functionality of your newly installed software, type ./rdesktop "server", where "server" is the terminal server's hostname or IP address. The software should open a client session with your Terminal Server.

rdesktop Command Options

The following are available options for use with rdesktop:

Usage: ./rdesktop [options] server

-u: user name
-d: domain
-s: shell
-c: working directory
-p: password (autologin)
-n: client hostname
-k: keyboard layout (hex)
-g: desktop geometry (WxH)
-f: full-screen mode
-b: force bitmap updates
-e: disable encryption (French TS)
-m: do not sendmotion events
-l: do not request license