Hello friends. In this simple post, you will learn how to install XRDP on CentOS 8. This tool will allow Windows clients to remotely connect to CentOS Fundamental for technical support tasks.
Xrdp is an open-source implementation of RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol), the protocol used by Windows Terminal Services for native Windows desktop connectivity. The xrdp package provides RDP functionality, along with a server capable of accepting connections from rdesktop and Windows Terminal Server clients. One of the main advantages of Xrdp is that all of its communications are encrypted by default,
On the other hand, we live in an age where there is a lot of homework and remote assistance is becoming more and more important. And unfortunately, many people still use Windows, and having CentOS 8 compatible with Windows for remote assistance is something that can be useful.
Install XRDP on CentOS 8
Although XRDP is not in the official CentOS 8 repositories, this does not prevent us from installing it easily.
So, open a terminal or connect remotely to the server.
You can then upgrade the system by running the following command:
dnf update
Next, you need to add the EPEL repository.
dnf install epel-release
The XRDP package is available from the EPEL repository we just enabled. So, now you can install it without any problems by running
dnf install xrdp
Once it is installed, we need to enable the service to start with the system. In this same command, we will start the service.
systemctl enable xrdp --now
Next, you should check the status of the xrdp service to see if there are any errors.
systemctl status xrdp
● xrdp.service - xrdp daemon
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/xrdp.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2021-02-22 21:11:01 CET; 3s ago
Docs: man:xrdp(8)
man:xrdp.ini(5)
Main PID: 19140 (xrdp)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 12118)
Memory: 868.0K
CGroup: /system.slice/xrdp.service
└─19140 /usr/sbin/xrdp --nodaemon
Feb 22 21:11:01 osradar systemd[1]: Started xrdp daemon.
Feb 22 21:11:01 osradar xrdp[19140]: [INFO ] starting xrdp with pid 19140
Feb 22 21:11:01 osradar xrdp[19140]: [INFO ] address [0.0.0.0] port [3389] mode 1
Feb 22 21:11:01 osradar xrdp[19140]: [INFO ] listening to port 3389 on 0.0.0.0
Feb 22 21:11:01 osradar xrdp[19140]: [INFO ] xrdp_listen_pp done
As you can see it is working properly but you should make some adjustments before using it.
Configuring XRDP before the first use
The first thing to do is to open the necessary ports in the firewall. This way, there will be no connection problems.
firewall-cmd --add-port=3389/tcp --permanent Success firewall-cmd --reload Success
Also, you should create a new user for the connection:
useadd xrdpuser -G Wheel passwd xrdpuser
Now you have to modify the configuration file:
nano /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini
And add the following parameters
max_bpp=128 crypt_level=low xserverbpp=128
And:
use_compression=yes
Save your changes and close the editor. Then restart the xrpd service.
systemctl restart xrdp
And that’s it. You can now connect via a Windows client.
Testing the installation
Now it is necessary to test the installation, for that you have to do is from a windows client to access the server.
Log in with the username and password we have created.
And you will see the desktop. In this case, it is GNOME but it can be the one you define in the configuration or the default one.
Conclusion
In this post, you learned how to install Xrdp but not only that but you make it ready to start all the remote assistance process including from the Windows system.
