How to Use Remote Desktop (rdesktop) in Redhat/Fedora/CentOS

rdesktop is an open source software that enables you to connect and manage your remote Windows desktop from your Linux computer using RDP – Remote Desktop Protocol. In other words, while you are sitting in front of your Linux system at home or office, and access your Windows desktop as if you’re sitting in front of the Windows machine.

Read Also: 11 Best Tools to Access Remote Linux Desktop

In this article, we will explain how to install rdesktop in Linux system to access the remote desktop of Windows computer using the Hostname and IP Address.

Windows Settings

To enable rdesktop to connect to any given Windows machine, you need to make few following changes on the Windows box itself.

1. Enable RDP port no. 3389 in Firewall.
2. Enable remote desktop under Windows Operating System.
3. Require at least one user with a password.

Once you make all of the above Windows configuration settings, you can now move further to install rdesktop on your Linux system to access your Windows desktop.

Install rdesktop (Remote Desktop) in Linux

It is always preferable to use a default package manager such as yum, dnf or apt to install software to handle dependencies automatically during installation.

# yum install rdesktop   [On CentOS/RHEL 7]
# dnf install rdesktop   [On CentOS/RHEL 8 and Fedora]
# apt install rdesktop   [On Debian/Ubuntu]

If rdesktop is not available to install from the default repositories, you can download the tarball from Github here or use the following wget command to download and install it as shown.

# wget https://github.com/rdesktop/rdesktop/releases/download/v1.8.6/rdesktop-1.8.6.tar.gz
# tar xvzf rdesktop-1.8.6.tar.gz
# cd rdesktop-1.8.6/
# ./configure --disable-credssp --disable-smartcard
# make 
# make install

Connecting to Windows Desktop Using Hostname

To connect Windows host from Linux desktop type following command using -u parameter as username (narad) and (ft2) as the hostname of my Windows host. To resolve hostname make an entry at /etc/hosts file if you don’t have DNS Server in your environment.

# rdesktop -u narad ft2

Use rdesktop using hostname Connecting to Windows Desktop Using IP Address

To connect Windows host from Linux machine, use username as (narad) and IP Address as (192.168.50.5) of my windows host, the command would be as.

# rdesktop -u narad 192.168.50.5

Use rdesktop using IP Address

Please execute man rdesktop in command prompt If you would like to know more about it or visit rdesktop project website. Kindly share it and let us know your comments through our comment box below.