[Fwd: Terminal Server On Linux]

[George Toft]

Something from another LUG - pretty interesting.

George


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Terminal Server On Linux
Resent-Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 16:31:11 -0500
Resent-From: jaxlug-list@jaxlug.org
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 13:37:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Chris de Vidal <cdevidal@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: chris@devidal.tv
To: jaxlug-list@jaxlug.org

This comes courtesey of my MIS and good friend Steve Lester.  I think
he got it from W2KNews.com.

CD

=====================================
Terminal Server On Linux? Yes And No.

In the last issue of W2Knews there was made mention of running MS
Terminal Server on a Red Hat box. I have received MANY questions
about that particular setup and have made a few clarifications as
well. Here is a little background data: I had heard rumors that there
was a Terminal Server client that ran well on Linux so I went to have
a look. It was an amazingly short search to find the client, which is
aptly named "rdesktop". The developer is a fellow in Australia named
Matt Chapman. Nice piece of software. Download at the end of this
article. 

First of all, the setup is a Dell Optiplex GX110 with an Intel 933MHz
processor with 512 MB of RAM. This setup is much more than is
necessary to run Linux, but what can I say. :-) The version of Linux
is Red Hat 7.2 (Enigma) and an out-of-the-box install (I know, I know
but it was just to test the client). The client itself is a 48 KB
download, 216 KB uncompressed. Once installed, the client is called
from the command line and all parameters can be entered in the
command. The client can be totally configured to do all of the basic
option of the RDP client. The options are as follows: 

Usage: rdesktop [options] server
-u: user name
-d: domain
-s: shell
-c: working directory
-p: password (autologon)
-n: client hostname
-k: keyboard layout (hex)
-g: desktop geometry (WxH)
-f: full-screen mode
-b: force bitmap updates
-e: disable encryption (French TS)
-m: do not send motion events
-l: do not request license

The -l option is interesting, in that it doesn't request a license
from the terminal server itself. With the use of some scripting, you
could have the Red Hat box boot up, logon and start the rdesktop
client all without the user doing anything. Once the client is
started in full screen mode you really can't tell that your aren't on
a Windows machine; even Ctrl-Alt-Del works. It really is a slick
client and could potentially save you quite a bit of money. 

If you run rdesktop, you will, at a minimum, save on one Windows
license. Potentially more if you also used Sun's StarOffice. In
either case, rdesktop is a pretty good implementation of the terminal
server client and if you are using Linux, it will give you a way to
connect to your MS server. We have mirrored the download here:

http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=020214TB-rdesktop 

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