Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Using rdesktop for access to Windows PC via RDP

One of my most frequently used application is rdesktop. It currently runs on most UNIX and of course with X Windows. With just a command line and including a few essential parameter, you can have access to your Windows PC very efficiently

$ rdesktop -g (Size of the screen) -u (your AD userid) -d (AD Domain) -r disk:desktop=/home/(your linux account)/ -a (colour depth) (PC Name according to Active Directory)

Some notes:

  1. Just a little explanation of the -r parameter. It is to do a mapping between the file system from the linux box to the Remote desktop. This will allow you to transfer file to and from the system

  2. It seems rdesktop can go to maximum colour depth of 16 only. It is sufficient for a clear windows-like view.

  3. If you get this error "ERROR: getaddrinfo: Name of Service not known" It is due to the DNS of your PC not being able to resolve properly. To resolve it quickly, you may want to modify the /etc/resolv.conf to include the required DNS.

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