While I enjoy being productive on my pi over SSH, there are times when I need to access the desktop environment. Rather then be bound to the display on which the Pi is connected (if it is connected to one, some of my Pis have no display) I decided to setup Remote Desktop on the Pi. Most of the computers that I use are Windows machines and already have a remote desktop client. (Note: another option is VNC). I did this for my Jetsons as well. While the same instructions often work on both the Jetson and the Pi, this is not one of the situations where that was the case. I have another entry coming on how to perform the necessary steps on the Jetson.

On the Pi, there are only a few steps needed. Like many installations, start with updating your packages. Open a terminal and enter the following commands.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

This could take a while to run depending on how long it has been since you last ran it and how many packages that there are to install. After it completes, use the following commands to install a remote desktop server to your Pi.

sudo apt-get install xrdp -y
sudo service xrdp restart

Once the installation is done, you need to get your Pi’s IP address.

ifconfig

You should see the addresses for your Pi’s network adapters listed. There will be several. My Pi is connected via ethernet. I need the address from the adapter eth0.

Once you have that information, you are ready co connect. Open the Remote desktop client in your computer and enter your Pi’s IP address as the identifier for the target machine. Once you enter it, you will be greeted with a second login screen that ask you information for the session your wish to start.

Leave the default setting of the Session as Xorg. Enter the user ID and password for your Pi. A few moments later you will see the Pis desktop. Note that while many remote desktop clients will default to using the resolution of your local computer’s display, you also have the option of setting a resolution manually. You may want to do this if you are on a slower network connection, or even if you just do not want your remote session to cover all of your local desktop.

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