How to configure XRDP to start cinnamon as default desktop session

Found this on the net, on this url: http://sigkillit.com/tag/xrdp

Customize Desktop Environment for xRDP Session

If you do not want to use the default desktop environment, you can customize it by creating a .Xclients file (X is capital!!!) in your home directory to launch the desktop environment you want and making it executable. In order to do this, open a terminal and run one of the following commands

Gnome 3:

echo "gnome-session" > ~/.Xclients
chmod +x ~/.Xclients
sudo systemctl restart xrdp.service

Gnome Fallback:

echo "gnome-fallback" > ~/.Xclients
chmod +x ~/.Xclients
sudo systemctl restart xrdp.service

KDE:

echo "startkde" > ~/.Xclients
chmod +x ~/.Xclients
sudo systemctl restart xrdp.service

MATE:

echo "mate-session" > ~/.Xclients
chmod +x ~/.Xclients
sudo systemctl restart xrdp.service

Cinnamon:

echo "cinnamon" > ~/.Xclients
chmod +x ~/.Xclients
sudo systemctl restart xrdp.service

Xfce4:

echo "startxfce4" > ~/.Xclients
chmod +x ~/.Xclients
sudo systemctl restart xrdp.service

You can start the environment you want only for xrdp (not for local login) in /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh

For example, to start xfce, I use:

#!/bin/sh
if [ -r /etc/default/locale ]; then
  . /etc/default/locale
  export LANG LANGUAGE
fi

# default (= ubuntu)
#. /etc/X11/Xsession

# unity 2d
#echo "gnome-session --session=ubuntu-2d" > ~/.xsession
#. /etc/X11/Xsession

# xfce
startxfce4

exit(0)

Commented out, you can see the commands to start unity (ubuntu session) and unity 2d. You only need to comment out xfce command and add the command to start Cinnamon (I didn't give it because I don't know how to start it manually).

Obs: I agree with you xrdp works better than others remote desktop viewers I tried and it works very well with xfce. I use it from other linux machines too with Remmina client. To use it with xfce, you need to install xubuntu-desktop (sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop)

If you're using Lubuntu Desktop (tested on 12.04 LTS)

1. For lx syntax discovery:

   ps aux | grep lx
   

2. Implementing lx syntax:

   echo "lxsession -s Lubuntu -e LXDE" > ~/.xsession    
   sudo service xrdp restart
   

First you should have cinnamon on your system :)

Second issue the commands

echo "cinnamon" > ~/.xsession    
sudo service xrdp restart

OR if you like to do it hard:) do the following:

1. Edit the file /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh

   sudo -H gedit /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh
   

2. At the end of the file you will find the following lines:

   pre_start
   wm_start
   post_start
   

3. These are calls to functions above. So in order to make cinnamon the default just put # before wm_start to comment it (to stop calling the function which searches for the sessions)

4. Add the following line in front of the above three lines gnome-session --session=cinnamon

5. restart xrdp sudo service xrdp restart

For LXDE:

1. Install lxde-common:

   sudo apt-get install lxde-common
   

2. Make changes in /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh like this:

   #!/bin/sh
   
   if [ -r /etc/default/locale ]; then
     . /etc/default/locale
     export LANG LANGUAGE
   fi
   
   #. /etc/X11/Xsession
   
   startlxde
   

On Kubuntu 20.04 the following worked for me:

echo "startplasma-x11" > ~/.Xsession

I assume similar will work for another desktops, just need to put proper launcher name, as described above.

The systemctl command is specific to Fedora. For Ubuntu, the command should be:

sudo service xrdp restart

This is all too confusing. All you have to do is put the text in a file called .Xclients in your home directory that will specify the default desktop. To see what's installed on your system and find out what they are called do:

ls /usr/share/xsessions

You will see files with an extension .desktop, for example mate.desktop

To make mate your default desktop you can then edit ~/.Xclients in your home folder, if you have such a file, or create one with nothing in it except your chosen desktop type (without the .desktop extension) with a -session appended:

echo mate-session > ~/.Xclients 

should do this just fine. You can then log off and log back in, or if you are connected using xrdp you can restart xrdp, which will log you off and then you can log back in, (just log off and log back in, its stupid to get confused by restarting xrdp etc...)

Forget switchdesk - its broken in Fedora 23.

Forget most of what's on the web for prior Fedora versions, Ubuntu etc... None of it works.

Here is an update As systemd is used by almost all Linux distributions systemctl command works with ubuntu versions like 18,19,20 and 21.

To use xfce4 Desktop, the commands below can be used:

sesman.ini should be updated accordingly if you intend to have multi-user access.

Policy=UBDC

su -l user
    
echo "startxfce4" > ~/.Xclients
    
chmod +x ~/.Xclients

exit 

su -l user2

echo "startxfce4" > ~/.Xclients

chmod +x ~/.Xclients

exit 

su -l user3

echo "startxfce4" > ~/.Xclients

chmod +x ~/.Xclients

exit 

sudo systemctl enable --now xrdp.service

will enable and start the xrdp service.