Share media, desktop, cups printer between Budgie PCs

1

I have 1 PC (Intel core i3-8100/16GB) and 1 laptop (core i5), installed Ubuntu Budgie 19.10 on the laptop and upgraded the PC from 19.04 to 19.10. The IP address of the PC is 192.168.88.10.
The PC had a clean 19.04 install. I did not mess with Firewall as I am really still a noob.

Both are on the same network, connected via LAN to 1 router. I also connected both computers directly to each other with 1 ethernet cable and set IP addresses manually. It didn’t change the following:

On the PC, called FujitsuServer:
I enabled Settings > Sharing: Screen Sharing and Media Sharing.
I installed a Brother printer via USB (works fine) and shared it through CUPS.

On the laptop, I can’t access the PC:

  • I can find the printer, but I am unable to print anything.
  • When I go to 192.168.88.10:631 I expect to see the CUPS webUI of the PC, but it times out.
  • Using Remmina, I can find the vnc server but even when I input the address manually (192.168.88.10:5900) it is forever trying to connect.
  • When I open the Files > Network, I see “FujitsuServer” but clicking on it gives me “Connection Refused”.

Am I missing something?
It looks like some kind of security measure on the PC is preventing a connection to be made, although discovery does work (something with Avahi/mdns doing its job).
But I have no clue how to get more information/debug this issue.

2

Does this help for your vnc issues? https://askubuntu.com/questions/968869/remmina-vnc-hangs-on-connecting-to-headless-mini-pc

3

The driver for the printer needs to be installed on all machines. I know, I have this problem a lot. I have a Brother MFC-J491DW. The biggest surprise I’ve had was to find the driver included in OpenMandriva Lx 4.1. Otherwise I’ve had to go through and install it each time.

4

About vnc …

Since I don’t like vnc at all (and, mostly, often it happens to me to be in need of connecting from home to my job pc - via vpn tunnel - and I’m no more alone in my office, so I’d like my colleague couldn’t see my monitor moving as if I were on my chair) I’ve installed xrdp on every pc, both at home and at job.

First, install xrdp on target pc (you can do it via ssh or locally)
sudo apt install xrdp

then modify /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh by commenting out last two lines and adding budgie-desktop as last line:
sudo vi /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh (use nano or gedit if you’re more familiar)
last three lines will be this way:
#test -x /etc/X11/Xsession && exec /etc/X11/Xsession
#exec /bin/sh /etc/X11/Xsession
budgie-desktop

finally allow rdp through local firewall:
sudo ufw allow 3389/tcp
and give xrdp daemon ssl-certs membership:
sudo adduser xrdp ssl-cert

xrdp works on linux as it does on windows, so if you’re already logged in in target pc, you won’t get access from remote pc.

Sil

2 Likes
5

I’ll try, but should it not work out of the box? If vncserver needs to be installed, why have those options in the Settings?

I know there are plenty of other methods for remote desktop and filesharing, I just wanted to figure out how to successfully use the built in options.

6

not everything in Settings work under budgie - they can be gnome-shell specific. Unfortunately there isnt a way to hide the incompatible options. This problem will disappear eventually when Settings is combined with Budgie Desktop Settings. Basically 95+% work just fine.

I don’t know why your VNC stuff is not working for you - just pointing you towards a potential solution.

7

Ah that makes sense :slight_smile: thanks I will try.

8

It works out of the box.
I forgot I had installed AlgoVPN. I strongly recommend anyone who would like a Wireguard VPN based ‘roadwarrior’ Ubuntu server to not use AlgoVPN. It completely messes up IPtables and other system settings and there is no way to reverse it. I started fresh and the integrated desktop and file sharing works out of the box.

File sharing is SMB based. NFS is most likely a much better choice (especially between Linux devices).
Desktop sharing is VNC based which is not as fast as I would expect (within my LAN). It doesn’t seem to be faster than Teamviewer over the internet. xrdp, as suggested by @puffettacicciottella might be faster? I am going to try.

9

Are you sure those are all required steps for Budgie?
I did that, but when I try to connect, after accepting an SSL message, I get a flickering window, constantly showing this, it doesn’t count the attempts and it does not connect. Tested within my LAN, from Ubuntu Budgie > Ubuntu Budgie (both 19.10), using Remmina to connect.

Screenshot from 2020-03-08 23-29-27
Screenshot from 2020-03-08 23-29-27660×587 35.6 KB

10

Does anyone know how to get xrdp working between UB machines?

11

Unfortunately, it still does not seem to work.

Enabling Screen Sharing via Settings does not allow me to share screen…
Installing tightvncserver and running vncserver helps, I can now connect. But this shows a blank desktop environment, which is NOT screen sharing. It’s probably just the same with xRDP.

Screen sharing = seeing current user desktop, open windows etc. and be able to work as if I am behind my computer.

How can I actually share my screen within local net? Should I just install TeamViewer? I am trying to stick to open source solutions.

12

Do we agree : you tested this but it’s no longer connected like this ( pc to pc ) + ( each pc to router ) ?

Screen sharing as proposed by (gnome-)settings expects vino to be installed, which is normally the default situation in 19.10

I can’t help about xrdp unfortunately.

TeamViewer is a bit of a big beast for screen sharing on a local network - but there is a ( mostly or completely ? ) open-source alternative : dwservice.net

Regarding file sharing ( between devices - not only local ) syncthing is a tremendous piece of software !

13

indeed the pcs are connected via router, now. But I could test again pc to pc.
The 2nd laptop (client) is now a Macbook instead of an HP with Ubuntu running.
I installed tightvncserver but that didn’t change anything.

vino is indeed installed (its a clean 19.10 install). But the Settings>Sharing desktop really doesn’t do much.

TV is indeed overkill for local network screensharing. I will check dwservice.

I am just wondering: it seems like I am the only one trying out the build in Screen Sharing option, does it work for anyone else?

14

For local network screensharing, dwservice will be overkill just the same as TV…

I don’t understand you said everything worked out of the box Share media, desktop, cups printer between Budgie PCs ?

15

I am sorry, I now see I did not share all info in that post: that was Ubuntu 19.04 <-> Ubuntu 19.04.
When I found out AlgoVPN had completely messed up my system, I knew I needed a clean start but wanted to test this functionality first. I used two older systems that were waiting to be updated.

Since 19.10 I have not made this work yet.

I will experiment more with tightvncserver to see if I can get logs when connecting, might help debug what is really happening.

16

Sorry for the late reply.

I just picked this up again because I would love to sit in the sun with my laptop while accessing my shared desktop PC screen.
I installed tightvncserver via apt-get and ran the command tightvncserver which asked me to set a password. Done. Now I open the log file and there are a few errors:

11/04/20 18:24:23 Xvnc version TightVNC-1.3.10
11/04/20 18:24:23 Copyright (C) 2000-2009 TightVNC Group
11/04/20 18:24:23 Copyright (C) 1999 AT&T Laboratories Cambridge
11/04/20 18:24:23 All Rights Reserved.
11/04/20 18:24:23 See http://www.tightvnc.com/ for information on TightVNC
11/04/20 18:24:23 Desktop name 'X' (ServerPC:1)
11/04/20 18:24:23 Protocol versions supported: 3.3, 3.7, 3.8, 3.7t, 3.8t
11/04/20 18:24:23 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901
Font directory '/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/' not found - ignoring
Font directory '/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/' not found - ignoring
xrdb: No such file or directory
xrdb: can't open file '/home/zilexa/.Xresources'

This is after a clean install of Ubuntu Budgie 19.10.
I suppose the feature shown in Settings/Sharing cannot work since tightvncserver is not installed by default (as mentioned already by @fossfreedom Share media, desktop, cups printer between Budgie PCs).

however, when I go to my Macbook, open the build in screensharing and connect to vnc://myip:5901, enter the password, it connects, but I see a gray screen nothing else. Two issues here I believe:

  1. It tries to log me in to the pc as a seperate user. But fails due to the errors in the log.
  2. It should not log me in at all, it should simply show the current active desktop and active open windows etc. of the user that is already logged in.

I wonder if this functionality I am expecting actually exists on Linux?
If not it seems Teamviewer or its fork Anydesk are my only options for screen sharing… because VNC, XRDP etc are only meant for remote login and cannot work when the PC has a logged in user?

EDIT:
I understand tightvncserver can only work with an independent session, it does not capture the current users output to share. To do that there are 3 options:

Which one is closest to Budgie/less dependent on other distributions?

EDIT2:
I ran this command:
gsettings set org.gnome.Vino require-encryption false

Tried the built in Screen Sharing again and this time I could connect from my Macbook!!
But I still see the grey screen only. The PC pops up a message that another computer is controlling my current desktop :frowning: I do believe it is suppose to show my current desktop now…

17

After a reboot, the command to disable encryption was enough to get it working :smiley: I now see the current desktop.

Next step is to tweak compression (as low as possible or disabled) & quality to optimize for a fast LAN. The delay is pretty bad, as if the host is at the other end of the world.

18

It’s part of Gnome and is installed by default on Ubuntu Budgie ( depends on gnome-control-center and gvfs ).
You wouldn’t need to install another vnc-server. Now it’s done and set, keep going :wink:

Installing gsfonts-x11 may solve the Font directory '/usr/share/fonts/X11/*dpi/' not found - ignoring but no dealbreaker here I think.

1 Like
19

Thanks, indeed I removed the stuff I installed myself.

What I find incredibly annoying is the double cursors… I see my own cursor and a delayed cursor running behind my cursor. I checked all gsettings for Vino but there is no way to disable it :frowning:
This makes it feel sluggish.
Also no options to optimise for high bandwidth/low latency connections.

I also tried Nomachine, which has better options to scale the display nicely to the client pc (temporarily changing remote resolution to match fit screen on client) and options to play with quality and codec (VP8, H.264 or MJPEG I choose the latter since I’m on LAN). It feels nearly realtime! And no delayed cursor running behind my cursor.
But text quality is horribly fuzzy no matter what settings I choose, so after a few minutes I switch back to using built in Vino.

20

What do you use as vnc-client ?

There are scales, compression and mouse-cursor ( I think ) options in Remmina.
But that might be a bit tricky at first if server-side the screen is bigger than on client-side.
Once your preferences set and saved, it should be ok.