Administer Windows from Linux with rdesktop

Thomas Nooning CCNA, CCDA Tech Republic

Published: 26 Nov 2002 11:38 GMT

Working in a cross-platform data center is now the rule rather than the exception for the vast majority of administrators, as both Windows and Linux have made inroads into organizations around the world. But because the two operating systems are so different, allowing fluid communication between them can be a challenge. That's where rdesktop comes in.

Rdesktop is a Linux implementation of Remote Display Protocol (RDP). Windows uses RDP to connect to other Windows computers via Terminal Services. With rdesktop, you can open a remote control session on a Windows NT/2000/XP machine from a Linux box.

Rdesktop lets you pull up a Windows desktop remotely and perform any function just as if you were sitting directly in front of it. For instance, you might set up a Web page on a remote Windows 2000 server or add a user to your NT domain in the data center. Rdesktop is like PCAnywhere, but with total control of the remote desktop and much better performance.

Because it's released under the GPL open source license, rdesktop has no licensing fees on the client side. But you still need to keep track of how many Terminal Services client licenses are used from your terminal server.

Getting and installing rdesktop
Rdesktop is widely available and is included in packages for most major distributions, such as Mandrake, Red Hat, and Debian. As always, your best bet is to use your distribution's package manager to find and install rdesktop.

You can obtain and install the source code on most any Linux system. Special GUIs are available for rdesktop. For instance, Mandrake offers RFBdrake, which allows you to graphically start rdesktop sessions. RFBdrake lets you connect Linux machines when run in server mode, as well.

The rdesktop program is available for free at rdesktop.org. The source package is only about 80 KB, so it makes for a quick download.

Once you have rdesktop on your system, you just need to uncompress and install the software. Running the following commands should be enough to get you started:

tar xpfz rdesktop-1.1.0.tar.gz
cd rdesktop-1.1.0
./configure
make
make install

This point of the installation is a good time to configure any firewalls that may be in the path of communication. By default, rdesktop will use TCP port 3389 to connect to a Windows machine. You will need to open this port, but limiting access to specific IP addresses or subnets is a good idea. Since this port allows remote access to your server, you'll want to keep it secured. Always make sure that you have rdesktop prompt for a password, especially if the system in question is connected to the Internet.