This was an adventure for me, working with Linux in ways that I have never done before.
I am an Ubuntu user, most often working with strange video formats, and converting them to something I can use on my Windows PC’s video editor, Corel VideoStudio Pro. I left Sony Vegas due to its high complexity and the huge cost to do updates to get features; VideoStudio Pro is much more friendly in operation, and handles most files perfectly.
My Linux box was unfortunately really outdated, though, and I don’t have the cash to build another new rig (still saving for the FreeNAS server rebuild), and a 2.4Ghz P4 with a gig of memory just got to the point where HD videos processing came up in days to wait, not hours… but it suddenly occurred to me that my Windows system has 8 high-speed cores and is fully capable of virtualization. Windows 8.1 Pro already includes Hyper-V as a virtual machine manager; I’ve used Oracle’s VirtualBox a lot in the past, but I really hated their software bridge, so I decided to get to know Hyper-V.
Installation of Windows XP Pro was seriously brainless. XP locked on and installed like it was made for it. The only issue was a lack of drivers for the software network bridge connection, but within minutes I realized that using the Hyper-V Manager’s interface, there was an included virtual DVD with all the drivers you needed. Just mount, and tag the unloaded devices in Device Manager, point to the DVD, and it was done. XP Pro I really don’t use much anymore except for legacy applications (there are a few old guys, like the Mopy Fish in the screenshot, that simply can’t understand what Windows 8.x is, regardless of the compatibility system… oh, for the record, that fish is 18 years old), but I figured it was a very familiar system as I worked professionally with it for decades. Gave me a nice feel for how the system works.
Linux (Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS, from http://www.ubuntu.com/download) installed FLAWLESSLY, with 8Gb of memory and 4 CPU cores dedicated, and the Ubuntu group has made a point of including all of the Hyper-V drivers in image. I locked the DHCP address via the router (for sanity purposes), installed XRDP from the software library, configured it for VNC (which is the standard remote control software for Debian-based Linux), checked the connection, popped over to Windows, and… perfect login, session start, and then the Linux pointer and a blank black screen. And I nailed down the cause: Unity Desktop.
Unity is Ubuntu’s default GUI, and does not have handles to pick through XRDP. No errors, nothing in the logs, just… nothing.
Reading up on XRDP (at http://xrdp.sourceforge.net) told me to run from Unity. It’s 3D interface is not an optional component, and XRDP can’t handle a 3D to 2D conversion, at all. They pointed me to an old favorite: Gnome.
On the original install, getting Gnome set up and the accounts set to Gnome-fallback (essentially Gnome Classic, 2D) was also a simple matter.
But, well, Unity was on, and it still presented itself before the switch back to 2D Gnome. I tried every which way to block Unity. But the problem persisted. I then forcibly uninstalled Unity, and that, well, pretty much broke the OS entirely. It booted up in classic old Linux text, and after I logged in, I started Gnome, and after 20 minutes it was finally came back with an error. Not going to work… but that’s what you get when you install branded Linux.
The next step was to get Ubuntu with Gnome as a primary GUI. Thankfully, Ubuntu tends to build a gazillion different blends for user needs… which is probably why I like them so much! The Gnome version, still on 14.04.1 LTS, is available at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGNOME/GetUbuntuGNOME.
After the install, I set the accounts to Gnome Classic (built right in!), I installed XRDP, and I had my desktop! Windows Remote Desktop Connection tool properly offered 1920×1080 resolution. But, as I started adding tools, I quickly realize that VNC is SLOW when handling high frame-rate video. And, even worse, I had no sound transfer. The only way to get sound was to use the Hyper-V Manager window, but the resolution was locked to 1152×864. No widescreen, no nothing. So I was in a pinch, as I needed audio cues to trim video files, but I couldn’t properly edit full HD files on a tiny screen. Ugh.
So I started looking, and found X11RDP. And reading further on it, I found that it actually handled a true RDP session, rather than the VNC-to-RDP XRDP offers. I downloaded it, and spent two days BEATING ON IT. It connected to XRDP as the session manager, but I was back to either a black screen again, or connection errors, or half a screen that locked up loading… The fact that I haven’t torn my beard out is a miracle!
I needed a better stable solution. So back to the web.
And then I found someone who has been dealing with this problem for a long time, and fortunately is more of a wiz on Linux than I think I will ever be able to be. A visit to his website at http://scarygliders.net/ provided me with a lot of info that I couldn’t use, solutions to problems I didn’t have, but I knew I was in the right place.
I found his X11RDP-o-Matic, which does a ton of configuration based on simple menus, and gave it a shot. It takes 15 minutes to download and compile custom versions of XRDP (session manager) and X11RDP (desktop server). It installed, I customized it to Gnome and the proper user account, and set it up.
Jumped over to Windows, started the RDC tool, and… errors, errors, errors. Can’t process double layer, can’t can’t can’t… Going back to the site, I found several others who had encountered the same problems. See, even though the user account was set to Gnome Classic, Gnome 3D session still handled the connection as it started, prior to the login. And 3D breaks X11RDP. The 3D needs to be handled at the server, and only 2D passed to the client, and guess what? Gnome 3.x doesn’t offer that capability. AT ALL. In fact, the Gnome project site specifically says that they have zero intention to offer RDP proper compatibility going forward. Gnome 2.x is the last generation that was compatible. And as I need the newer build of Linux, 2.x wasn’t going to happen. Bummer.
But I found it. Finally. That a lot of people who need fast video and audio are moving to XFCE, or further into KDE’s very stable XFCE clone. Back to Ubuntu, and yep, they have a KDE blend, Kubuntu (http://www.kubuntu.org/getkubuntu), still on 14.04.1 LTS, and I grabbed the torrent and download the entire image in under a minute… LOL! My kids were screaming because their computer and XBox360 both started lagging terribly, but my PC has priority (cause I’m the builder and admin, and I need it, OK?), and the torrent was full of seeds. Just awesomely fast!
Install went as the other had, very quick and easy. I then went back to get the tools from http://scarygliders.net/2014/03/19/x11rdp-o-matic-version-3-10-released/, got them set up, ran the full software update (Kubuntu seems to be built a little earlier than Ubuntu or UbuntoGnome, and took a few minutes installing; may be because of the KDE apps). Rebooted, logged in via the Hyper-V Manager, configured XRDP using the tools provided by the X11RDP-o-Matic, and this part went a LOT faster. I logged out, closed the window while leaving the system up in the background, jumped to Windows RDC tool, and BANG, I was logged in, full color, full speed!
Seriously, this was the longest I’ve been stumped in quite a while.
To answer the question before it’s asked: My Windows 8.1 Pro system has a connection manager configured, so one connection point, but three possible PCs (one the 8.1 Pro itself, then the virtual XP and Xubuntu). I have set up a bit of work into building this client/server relationship, so I can connect via my cell phone (Android 4.4.4 with 1920×1080 screen) or my laptop, with easy controls on screen resolution via the RDP system itself. I have had a lot of suggestion to move over to XSession remote desktops, but as I am primarily a Windows user for work, and a Linux/BSD user as support, it doesn’t make sense to me to start a whole new system, more software, more layers, more port triggers, when I can do it all via one tool my main machine has natively.
I am super pleased I beat the incompatibility. Given that pretty much ANY Linux disto has tools to connect to Windows machines to show the RDP session on the Linux screen, it strikes me as odd that working backwards is not an easy thing to do. I know a lot of people who are *nix users exclusively, and HATE Windows; I know a lot of Windows only users; and I know a lot of Apple users who refuse to admit that what’s under the hood is pretty much the same thing as the free OS on the PC side. It’s so hard to be the middle guy who uses EVERYTHING!
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