How To Connect To A Windows Terminal Server From Ubuntu

ubuntulogo.jpgAs a System Administrator or home user, connecting to Windows Computers from Ubuntu with just file sharing is all that may be needed. Other times, there is a need to remotely access Windows Computers to perform more complex tasks. With Windows, you can easily connect to another Windows Computer running Terminal Services with a Terminal Server client. On Ubuntu, you can also access any Windows Computer using tsclient.

tsclient is a GNOME program for remotely accessing Microsoft Windows NT/2000/2003 Terminal Services and XP Remote Desktop Sharing over RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol).

With Ubuntu, tsclient is installed by default. To verify it is installed simply enter the following command in a Terminal window:

dpkg –get-selections | grep tsclient

If tsclient is installed you should see the output of the command as:

tsclient                  installed

If tsclient is not installed, you can install it by executing the following command from a Terminal window:

sudo apt-get install tsclient

Now that tsclient is installed, you can easily open tsclient by typing tsclient at the Terminal prompt (yes it looks exactly as the Terminal Server client on Windows!)

To quickly connect to a Windows Computer, just enter the hostname in the Computer field and click Connect at the bottom of tsclient.

ubuntutsc1.png

Once connected you can logon to the Windows Computer as normal:

ubuntutsc2.png

Just as you can save configuration settings on a Windows Terminal Server Client, the same can done with tsclient by setting options in the Dislpay, Local Resources, Programs, or Performance tabs. Once the settings have been configured, you can save it as a file and open it when you need to connect to the server.

Once you have saved the settings to a file, you can quickly connect to a Windows Computer from a Terminal window instead of running tsclient from the GUI. To see the tsclient command prompt options, type:

tsclient –help

tsclient [OPTIONS]… [FILE]…

FILE                an rdp format file containing options
-h, –help        display this help and exit
-v, –version     output version information and exit
-x FILE            launch rdesktop with options specified in FILE

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Comments on How To Connect To A Windows Terminal Server From Ubuntu »

June 4, 2008

orlando @ 1:38 pm

Buenas tardes,

Tengo un problema con el cliente terminal, la resolución de la pantalla al servidor donde ingreso es un poco deficiente, en comparación a cuando ingreso al mismo servidor desde un pc xp con Xmanager2, si alguien sabe como mejorar la resolución del cliente terminal de ubunto me seria de mucha ayuda.

Nota: ya modifique la resolución sobre el terminal client server y no funciona?.
hay otro terminal cliente para ubuntu que pueda utilizar?

gracias

June 23, 2008

m @ 11:54 pm

Are you able to access a windows computer that is out side of your network with tsclient or does it have to be part of network?

July 7, 2008

Joe @ 12:36 am

Yes you can, just make sure that the certain ports are forwarded on the computer/server networks you are wanting to connect to.

August 11, 2008

Mike @ 12:49 pm

okay, having some issues with TSC, it wont let you use the installed printer on the remote desktop… any help will be appreciated!

September 29, 2008

mark @ 12:04 pm

Works great, definitely slower than MSTSC (Remote Desktop Connection) through Windows. No doubt about it, much slower but still works. Haven´t tried printing but you also can´t easily switch back to Ubuntu without disconnecting from what I can see.

November 4, 2008

Savage @ 2:33 pm

@mark: Really? I just reformatted my Windows XP 64-bit workstation to Hardy, and the first thing I noticed was connecting to our servers through tsclient was a huge improvement over Windows' Remote Desktop. I used to have slow startup/logout times, and when working through those connections there was about a .25-.5 second lag. Now it's as though I'm physically at those machines when I work with them. I think some out-of-date drivers may have been to blame when my workstation was a Windows machine, but I have no complaints now.

March 10, 2009

izulthea @ 9:36 am

dear all,

i try to connect to windows server 2003, on it, i have made a new user called ubuntu. and i try to make connection via tsclient.

but on my ubuntu pc still cannot conncect to windows server. Any explanation?

thanks.

Watching The Net @ 11:11 am

@izulthea

Try connecting to the Windows Server using it's IP Address. The problem may be that your Ubuntu machine cannot resolve the hostname of the Windows Server.

March 11, 2009

rajatconquerer @ 3:51 am

i am able to cnnect to to windows xp from my ubuntu pc but the problem is that i also want to share my disk on the remote computer while connected to it so i can copy files in it from the remote computer.
what should ido?

Tommy @ 6:35 am

I'm using Hamachi and attempting to connect my Ubuntu to my XP machine.
I can browse windows shares with no issues
But when I try to RDP into my XP from Ubuntu using tsclient I get this message:
(tsclient:5962): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.18.2/gobject/gsignal.c:2384: instance `0×86d51e0' has no handler with id `2199'

and I also see this message:
** (tsclient:5962): WARNING **:
X Error of failed request: BadAtom (invalid Atom parameter)
Major opcode of failed request: 23 (X_GetSelectionOwner)
Atom id in failed request: 0×0
Serial number of failed request: 55
Current serial number in output stream: 55

no idea whats going on
I see a screen for a split nanno second (looks like the RDP window, but it will close before I can blink)

Any help would be great :)

March 20, 2009

MaFrei @ 7:27 am

When i want to connect to a Windows 2003 Server or a Windows XP, i got the error:

ERROR: getaddrinfo: Name or service not known

If tried via DNS and IP-Address also. Ive tried with RDP and RDPv5.
If tried with or without keyboard settings.

Anyboy an Idea?

izulthea @ 7:35 am

dear all,

why my ubuntu cannot mount permanently to windows server2003 (like mapping in windows). i`ve tried to make connection, but its lost when computer restart.

any Guru can help me? completly please.

April 10, 2009

John S. @ 12:31 pm

I'm having the same problem. I'm dual booting with XP and Ubuntu. Terminal Server Client works fine (and faster than it does on Windows), but it doesn't recognize printers. If I switch over to the XP side, I can print with no problem.

Telko @ 1:35 pm

I tried using tsclient but it's extremely slow compared to win->win remote desktop connection even though the computers sit in the same local area network. Any suggestion to improve the connection quality?

June 8, 2009

Jochem @ 12:28 pm

works definitely faster than win to win (jaunty to win2003)
:D

June 19, 2009

John Stoutimore @ 9:50 am

Mike: I posted on 4/10/09 with the same issue. (Terminal Server Client doesn't recognize printer). Did you ever find a solution? I hope so, and that you'll share it with me. Thanks.
John

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