Tombuntu

Remmina: A Better Remote Desktop Client

I regularly use remote access with SSH, VNC, and RDP. Ubuntu comes with “Remote Desktop Viewer” (vinagre) for VNC/SSH, and “Terminal Server Client” (tsclient) for RDP. Remmina is a remote desktop client that does a better job supporting all three protocols.

The main window is a simple list of your remote hosts, which can be grouped into a tree.

Remmina main

New RDP, SFTP, SSH, VNC, and VNC server connections can all be configured using a graphical dialog, complete with advanced options and SSH tunnel support.

Remmina new connection

Besides having my RDP and VNC/SSH connections saved in the same place, my other favourite feature is the Grab all keyboard events button. When I was using rdesktop to RDP to Windows systems, I couldn’t switch workspaces on Ubuntu because the remote system would grab the key combination. In Remmina, unless I select Grab all keyboard events, workspace switching works fine.

Install Remmina by finding it in the Ubuntu Software Center, or by installing the package remmina:

sudo apt-get install remmina

Archived Comments

goodchild

I love Remmina’s tabbed interface! It is the best Remote Desktop Client!

maxolasersquad

Thanks for the tip. tsclient is not available in 11.10, and I’ve been looking for a worthy replacement and have so far come up short. Remmina looks to be a winner.

Matthew

Coincidentally I stumbled across Remmina the other day when I migrated my work laptop from Windows XP to Ubuntu and I wanted a replacement for mRemote. I regularly access several Ubuntu servers, as well as a Windows 2008 server, and occasionally I need to remote into several Windows XP desktops that have RealVNC installed, so I needed an application that handled SSH, RDP and VNC, and Remmina does all of that. Remmina does a great job of it.

Scaine

I’ve been using Remmina since its “grdc” days and agree that it’s a cracking RDP and VNC client.

One thing it appears to be lacking, however, is tsclient’s support for local mappings in an RDP session. To that end, can anyone help with this question on AskUbuntu :

http://askubuntu.com/questions/69502/which-rdp-client-have-possibility-to-mount-disks-from-client-pc

Thanks!

Gollum

I used Remmina in Natty for a few months. I liked it but but it was very buggy (connections blocked from time to time, have to kill the whole process).

I can see that the version has not changed in Oneiric so it should still be the same :-(

ian

Remmina is very poor in my opinion. The old ts client in Natty was far superior as you could have multiple sessions open at different resolutions in different windows across 2 monitors. Just what I needed - now I have this Remmina junk where I am restricted to a tabbed layout on one monitor - and the worst of it - buggy so it drops out completely from time to time killing all the open sessions that you have in the tabs.

Utter Junk.

Scaine

@ian - tsclient is still there in Natty and if it’s not in Oneric, then you’re an apt-get away from it. However, as a counterpoint to your argument, I find tsclient to be “utter junk” since it doesn’t support VNC connections and its interface harks back to 20 years ago. Horses for courses, I reckon, but I’d rather talk up than talk down, personally.

Scaine

Whoops - I’ll correct myself… tsclient is history in Oneiric. Apparently it /does/ hark back to the darkages, because it’s not GTK3 compatible! Bad news.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ugr-meta/+bug/799068

Perhaps @ian can try Vinagre instead…

mike

Great tip. I use ssh and vinagre also a lot and one of these things that was bugging me was that I couldn’t switch workspaces.

t3lbos

Well, I don’t know what the hell any of you are talking about because all of the rdp clients I have tried, including those mentioned here, totally bomb out and drop all connections and windows open.

SilkBC

I tried Remmina and it sucks compared to KRDC. It has a tabbed interface but is COMPLETELY USELESS. I usually have a number of RDP and VNC connections open at once and when I open them in Remmina, it opens each one in a NEW WINDOWS. WTF??? Why even show it in a tab.

KRDC on the other does tabbing properly.

Idocinthbox

The problem I have with remmina is it does not sense the local monitor resolutions properly in KDE plasma workspace using Kubuntu 11.10 or 11.04. I have this with other apps as well as KDE seems to treat both monitors as one desktop with Nvidia cards even though the system clearly knows there are two desktops and two monitors. I have to minimize and maximize several times and some combination of that along with full screen and then maximized again finally lets me see the window otherwise it is black!

Maxwell

Boy, I loved it!! Remmina is just fantastic! Simple usability features that make ALL the difference!
Thank you very much for the help.

Quick question: is there a keyboard shortcut or any other way to remove the toolbar from the session windows?

D

Remmina sucks. It crashes about 200 times per day (at which point I have to pkill), and the code is just scary.

Robin

Hi everyone,

You can switch off the tab feature in the preference menu. I have disabled mine and I can swap between them and have them spread out on multiple monitors.

Regards.

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