• Created by Unknown User (tvrdymar), last modified on Mar 24, 2017

Remote desktop clients

What desktop remote access client do you recommend?

Currently X2GO is the only supported client for Linux servers. Download X2GO client here.

To connect to Windows server please use Microsoft Remote Desktop or Remmina.

What operation system is supported by X2GO desktop remote access client?

Client X2GO is supported by Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Ubuntu/Debian, Raspbian, Fedora, Redhat and FreeBSD. Download sources for manual installation here.

How to use X2GO client?

For user manual please use documents on a X2Go website.

Can I use Microsoft Remote Desktop?

Yes, but only for Windows-based virtual servers.

How to connect to Windows server from a Linux workstation?

You can use Remmina remote desktop application for Linux and other Unixes. For more information please visit a product website.

What is Remmina client?

Remmina is a free and open-source remote desktop client written in GTK+ and supports multiple network protocols in an integrated and consistent user interface. Currently RDP, VNC, NX, XDMCP and SSH are supported. For more information please visit product website.

Frequently asked questions

Supported browsers

  • Google Chrome version 100+ is recommended.
  • Mozilla Firefox version 100+ is recommended.
  • Microsoft Edge version 112+ is recommended.
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer is NOT supported anymore.
  • Other browsers are not supported officially, but usually work without issues - Brave, Opera, Vivaldi - user report that TDS portal or applications seem to work OK also in those.

Supported resolution

  • XGA (1024 × 768) and HD (1280 × 720) on projectors
  • WXGA (1280 × 800 and 1366 × 768) on laptops
  • All common desktop resolutions including WSXGA+ (1680 × 1050), UXGA (1600 × 1200), FullHD (1920 × 1080) and higher

Supported operating systems

Usually TDS portal and related applications depend on compatible browser.

We have a good experience with following operating systems:

  • Windows 10 + 11 - any latest LTS or higher version usually works without issues
  • Ubuntu - any latest LTS or higher version usually works without issues
  • Fedora  - any latest 2 supported releases usually work without issues
  • RHEL and clones - EL7 and any higher version usually works without issues
  • macOS - any supported version usually works OK

Older versions or other OS also tend to work without issues if they are not very old or not missing important technologies.

In general for any OS it is required to have recent updates on any workstations, laptops or servers integrating with TDS platform and its services, for example:

  • OS shall use some recent versions of OpenSSL or other implementations in order to support TLS 1.2+ and relevant secure ciphers
  • OS shall have recent CA certificates stores distributed to avoid certificate exceptions in tools or/and browsers
  • OS shall have recent versions of tools like docker, git, subversion and other similar client side technologies applicable for end user use cases

Not meeting requirements mentioned above leads to unexpected surprises when new versions of applications are coming.

TDS cannot be responsible for any issues occurring to users that are utilising significantly outdated OS or browsers on their workstations, laptops and servers not meeting criteria for usage of recent versions of tools.

Virtual Environment Ubuntu screen is freezing randomly while using X2Go

Besides possible performance issues this can by caused by incompatibility of sound card. It can be solved by disabling audio support in X2Go - Session > Preferences > Media > Sound support

Closed remote proxy connection

It may happen that you can get following message when trying to connect to remote desktop. 

The remote proxy closed the connection while negotiating
the session. This may be due to the wrong authentication
credentials passed to the server.

Workaround 1

Initial workaround is to remove all opened sessions from your local ~/.x2go directory:

rm -f ~/.x2go/S-*

When connecting to server remember to terminate old session(s) and start a new session.

Workaround 2

If workaround 1 did not help:

  • repeat workaround 1 to avoid sessions mess

  • login to your x2go remote server and remove .Xauthority file in your home directory on the remote server:

    rm -f ~/.Xauthority
  • try X2go again

Workaround 3

If workaround 1+2 did not help:

  • repeat workaround 1+2 to avoid sessions mess

  • login to your x2go remote server and remove .ICEauthority file in your home directory on the remote server:

    rm -f ~/.ICEauthority
  • try X2go again

Wrong version or invalid session authentication cookie

Symptoms

Message in x2go log while connecting to server:

Loop: PANIC! The remote NX proxy closed the connection.
Error: The remote NX proxy closed the connection.
Loop: PANIC! Failure negotiating the session in stage '7'.
Error: Failure negotiating the session in stage '7'.
Loop: PANIC! Wrong version or invalid session authentication cookie.
Error: Wrong version or invalid session authentication cookie.

This seems to occur sometimes after reboot of server while some users were still connected.

Workaround

  • login to your x2go remote server via ssh and remove +re-create x2go sessions database file in your home directory on the remote server:

    rm -f /var/lib/x2go/x2go_sessions
x2godbadmin --createdb
  • try X2go again

Inspired by https://bugs.x2go.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=323

How to solve cygwin unprotected key problem?

I can't connect to server using SSH key from Cygwin. I found, that I can't change ssh key file permission.

WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE!
To resolve this copy your SSH key to /tmp/mysshkey:
mkdir /tmp/fermin
cp ~/.ssh/id_rsa /tmp/fermin
chmod 600 /tmp/fermin/id_rsa
ssh -l fermin -i /tmp/fermin/id_rsa localhost

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