Ubuntu Mate 20.04 XRDP setup

README.md

Ubuntu Mate 20.04 XRDP setup

Documenting XRDP setup which worked for me on Ubuntu Mate 20.04.

Some parts are taken from: http://c-nergy.be/blog/?p=14093.

Install xrdp

sudo apt install xrdp

Allow console access

sudo sed -i 's/allowed_users=console/allowed_users=anybody/' /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config

Create policies

The following policies are needed in order to get rid of Authorization popup which spawns after successfull login.

Create color manager policy

Create a file: /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/45-allow.colord.pkla

Paste the following content:

[Allow Colord all Users]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.color-manager.create-device;org.freedesktop.color-manager.create-profile;org.freedesktop.color-manager.delete-device;org.freedesktop.color-manager.delete-profile;org.freedesktop.color-manager.modify-device;org.freedesktop.color-manager.modify-profile
ResultAny=no
ResultInactive=no
ResultActive=yes

Create package manager policy

Create a file: /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/46-allow-update-repo.pkla

Paste the following content:

[Allow Package Management all Users]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.packagekit.system-sources-refresh
ResultAny=yes
ResultInactive=yes
ResultActive=yes

Create Network manager Wifi Scan policy

Create a file: /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/47-allow-wifi-scan.pkla

Paste the following content:

[Allow WiFi Scan all Users]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.wifi.scan
ResultAny=no
ResultInactive=no
ResultActive=yes

Configure Xorg

Configure the Xorg session

Create a file: ~/.xsession

Paste the following content:

mate-session

Configure the Xorg session remote connection settings

Create a file: ~/.xsessionrc

Paste the following content:

export XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=mate
export XDG_DATA_DIRS=${XDG_DATA_DIRS}
export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/etc/xdg/xdg-mate:/etc/xdg

Fix missing environment variables

Edit the following file: /etc/pam.d/xrdp-sesman

And add the following line at the beginning:

session required pam_env.so readenv=1 user_readenv=0

Example:

#%PAM-1.0
session required pam_env.so readenv=1 user_readenv=0
@include common-auth
@include common-account
@include common-session
@include common-password

Fix local .profile not being sourced

Copy /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh to ~/startwm.sh and add the following code:

if test -r /home/${USER}/.profile; then
	. /home/${USER}/.profile
fi

Example:

#!/bin/sh
# xrdp X session start script (c) 2015, 2017 mirabilos
# published under The MirOS Licence

if test -r /etc/profile; then
	. /etc/profile
fi

if test -r /home/${USER}/.profile; then
	. /home/${USER}/.profile
fi

if test -r /etc/default/locale; then
	. /etc/default/locale
	test -z "${LANG+x}" || export LANG
	test -z "${LANGUAGE+x}" || export LANGUAGE
	test -z "${LC_ADDRESS+x}" || export LC_ADDRESS
	test -z "${LC_ALL+x}" || export LC_ALL
	test -z "${LC_COLLATE+x}" || export LC_COLLATE
	test -z "${LC_CTYPE+x}" || export LC_CTYPE
	test -z "${LC_IDENTIFICATION+x}" || export LC_IDENTIFICATION
	test -z "${LC_MEASUREMENT+x}" || export LC_MEASUREMENT
	test -z "${LC_MESSAGES+x}" || export LC_MESSAGES
	test -z "${LC_MONETARY+x}" || export LC_MONETARY
	test -z "${LC_NAME+x}" || export LC_NAME
	test -z "${LC_NUMERIC+x}" || export LC_NUMERIC
	test -z "${LC_PAPER+x}" || export LC_PAPER
	test -z "${LC_TELEPHONE+x}" || export LC_TELEPHONE
	test -z "${LC_TIME+x}" || export LC_TIME
	test -z "${LOCPATH+x}" || export LOCPATH
fi

test -x /etc/X11/Xsession && exec /etc/X11/Xsession
exec /bin/sh /etc/X11/Xsession

@cscashby I had a problem with MATE panel being absent on an Ubuntu 24.04 system. I fixed it by deleting ~/.config then logging into a MATE session from the server's graphical console, which did create the initial panel for me. The I logged in using XRDP and the panel was still there. So there's a bug in MATE starting up for the first time in a XRDP session.