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How Do You Run a Desktop Linux from a VPS Remotely?
There was a recent thread about what people do with idle VPSs. It occurred to me to setup a VPS as a headless desktop computer and bring back the display over the internet. Possibly slow, but we'll see.
**Do you have a headless Linux desktop computer on a VPS or other network or internet server? **
-> How do you have it configured?
-> What works for you?
-> What doesn't work?
-> What advice can you share with others who want to try it?
Comments
I use x2go.
I have used "NoMachine" in the past, and it has been pretty snappy, can even watch videos without much (or any) lag (all depends on latency between you and the host obviously).
i just run xrdp, but it is sometimes slow(might be my ping)
Sharing my limited experience so far, still working on it:
Accomplishments so far:
Historical Observation:
ISSUES to solve, a work in progress:
How: install XFCE/LXDE/KDE/... and install VNC server. Run VNC server at 127.0.0.1:5901 and use SSH port forwarding to get the traffic encrypted.
Advice: be ready for crappy performance
Does it work? Yes it works but it's virtually impossible to use the browser smoothly in a 100ms connection. Maybe other protocols will work better though.
That's what I am doing, at least so far. See my detailed notes, above.
P.S. Thanks to everyone for their quick and helpful responses so far. I am looking at the alternatives that you are using, too.
Imma test Teamviewer and let you know of performance!
AnyDesk works great
1- install a desktop on your vps, preferably a lightweight one. Xubuntu will work.
If provider does not offer full desktop images. for example install ubuntu lts minimal then install desktop with $ sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop
2- install a service that allows remoting to that vps, there are some services you can choose.
a- vnc - a legacy and slow solution
b- xrdp - working over vnc or like legacy and slow
c- x2go pretty easy to install but somewhat poor performance to use as an exact replacement of desktop but works wonders if you only check this remote vps as your remote thunderbird appliance for example.
d- https://www.cendio.com/ thinlinc. I tested this for some time and works wonders. youtube etc desktop browsing etc even works but needs a full pipe at least 100 mbits download speed from your vps.
e- if you can afford a proxmox server- install your own vps's and use built in spice client. very fast and very secure. works easily with nat and anything because you are basically proxying everything form you host node.
at the end nothing is perfect. even nospice have it's limitations using a vps as a full daily desktop.
on windows side basic rdp is veyr much perfect for everything and you have tons of other options.
but this is what it is,
there are also some other stuff like nomachine etc but i will not add these other stuff to my list because these are the easiest them all..
so in conclusion:
use nospice and virtviewer or if you dont care about foss use thinlinc if you have a fast pipe between you and your vps.
x11vnc on backend and vncviewer on client. Sometimes I use chrome remote desktop but too much delay.
lxde+xrdp , use with normal rdp client.
Step 1: find a VPS that has single digit latency. Rest of it doesn’t really matter as there are many options.
I'm lame - I use VNC.
https://lowendbox.com/blog/how-to-setup-secure-remote-desktops-with-vnc-on-your-vps/
this is exactly how i do it too. Picked a VPS thats in my area less that ~50 miles away. No issues.
I have used xrdp on different VPS and it was slow. Plus if I just disconnect without logging off then I cannot login next time unless VPS is restarted. Found some solutions on different forums and sites for this problem but none of them worked.
I've used xrdp multiple times and it was unusable. Very laggy.
Installed NoMachine and didnt looked back. Very snappy. Try it out and be ready to be blown away by difference. Also clipboard copy, drag n drop file transfers work flawlessly
I run xrdp with guacamole
Love having a full desktop on any web browser from work.
NoMachine FTW!!
NoMachine is the best no lag
I have been busy all day, but following the posts in this thread. There are lots of new ideas to try here - thanks and keep them coming.
-> I want to add that in general, I would prefer self-managed, self-contained solutions rather than relying on third-party servers, management, or coordination services.
Example: TeamViewer is popular, but you must have an account, and it relies on their servers for management.
I use xpra for everything. https://github.com/Xpra-org/xpra
It can efficiently forward a whole desktop to your xpra client through ssh or within a web browser, but you can also run single programs without the overhead of installing and running a whole desktop.
For example this initiates a :100 screen and starts a firefox in it
and xpra attaches to it through ssh
Then you will see the firefox on your desktop like being any another local window, although it runs on the server
If you kill the xpra connection, the firefox will stay running.
That was never the case with VNC. You're mixing it up with X. In there, yes, the local display is the X server, and the actual applications, some of which may be running remotely, are X clients.
I second this
Is xpra html5 client fully usable on Android smartphone browsers?
I used it years ago, back then it was nice on desktops but terrible on Android. Maybe times has changed...
nomachine vs x2go, any experience which one better?
xrdp was too slow for me
You are right. Thanks for the correction.
xrdp+pulseaudio+guacamole (for browser access).Slow but it works and most importantly it has sound as RDP protocol has native sound support,VNC have to use an alternative channel.
https://github.com/m1k1o/neko may be a choice if you simply want cloud browser for entertainment purposes,I think they have other choices like shared desktop but I haven't tried those.
I had tried all x2go, vnc (novnc, tigervnc); but now using xrdp with either xorg or xvnc for remote Linux, and mstsc for client (Windows). xrdp built from source with advanced features for audio and video compression works pretty well, making possible mic and cam to remote. Through xrdp server, I can also use mstsc to work with VMs using vnc connection provided by VMs' providers. Will try !machine sometime
I started on this well-written blog entry, but got stuck at the step with the command "apt-get install vnc4server". The error message in my Debian 11 installation reads, "Package vnc4server is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source".
I searched on the web, and there is surprisingly little info about "vnc4server". One person ran into the same issue. Their suggestion was to add an old Ubuntu package source to the sources.list. That seems like a poor choice.
In the web searches, I found references to other available VNC server packages. It would help me to understand the differences, how to choose between them, and how to modify @raindog308's tutorial to match an alternate VNC server.
-> Hints or suggestions, anyone?
please try: apt-get install tigervnc-standalone-server tigervnc-common