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dionode
Asked: 2020-08-04 23:53:41 +0800 CST

Chrome Remote Desktop host setup instructions not showing for Ubuntu 18.04

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I'm currently trying to set up chrome remote desktop on a new computer with Ubuntu 18.04. But whenever I try to follow the instructions on https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/1649523#linux-crd, it skips the setup stage and goes straight to "Set up another device for remote access".

To clarify, the steps are:

  1. Install chrome extension
  2. Install Debian file https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/chrome-remote-desktop_current_amd64.deb
  3. Checked that it was successful using systemctl status chrome-remote-desktop
  4. The blue setup button on https://remotedesktop.google.com/access/ gets stuck forever
  5. If I try to open it up in a new tab or refresh, the only option I have is to "Set up another device for remote access" or remote into a device I've setup already.

I've gotten this to work on a virtual machine earlier this year and it works fine on my windows computer. But it seems to only fail on my Ubuntu 18.04 computer. I've also tried reinstalling google-chrome, chrome-remote-desktop chrome extension and chrome-remote-desktop Debian file installation.

Does anyone have suggestions on what might be going on?

google-chrome remote-desktop chrome-extension

4 Answers

  1. If anyone else has this issue, try this:

    mkdir ~/.config/chrome-remote-desktop
    • 29
  2. Best Answer

    Just checked again and looks like they've fixed it so it works again! If anyone else has this issue, an update should do!

    • 0

  3. Happened to me with Ubuntu 20+:

    I installed Google Chrome and, then, tried to install Chrome Remote Desktop.

    Google Chrome tries to open chrome-remote-desktop_current_amd64.deb with Snap Store and then fails.

    Solution: install gdebi, make it the default application to open .deb files and try again to install Chrome Remote Desktop.

    • 0

  4. I had the same problem on Ubuntu 21.04, so:

    1. Try installing the .deb package with dpkg and look at the errors. Mine for example listed this:
    $ sudo dpkg -i "./path/to/file.deb"
[sudo] password for user: 

...

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of chrome-remote-desktop:
chrome-remote-desktop depends on xvfb; however:
  Package xvfb is not installed.
chrome-remote-desktop depends on xbase-clients; however:
  Package xbase-clients is not installed.
chrome-remote-desktop depends on python3-psutil; however:
  Package python3-psutil is not installed.

    If the output is similar to this, try installing them. Like:

    $ sudo apt install xvfb xbase-clients python3-psutil

    Hope this helped.

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