How can best I support someone remotely who is on KDE Plasma 6?
I know of TeamViewer, Anydesk and RustDesk. In theory, there’s also the Plasma 6 stuff like krdp / krdc, although the complete lack of responses to my specific question makes me think this is not a real option (yet).
So, how do y’all do it if you need to give tech support to someone else?
Is TeamViewer even available for Linux?
I have the opposite problem. I’m in a very slow process of moving to Linux and I have a couple of family members in a different city who are on Windows and need my help once or twice a year and I use TeamViewer right now.
I tried the KDE RDP implementation over the last two years, few times, and I could never get it to work, just locally, on LAN, both Plasma→Windows and Windows→Plasma. It does not seem to be ready for prime time. Also, it would require opening ports like native Windows RDP so something like TeamViewer will be a better idea.
So, no I have not figured this out yet.
Edit: TeamViewer is indeed available for Linux:
I guess, I’ll give it a shot when I get a chance. I’d prefer it over RDP as it is much simpler for the person on the other end and does not require messing with their routers to open ports.
TeamViewer is an excellent solution, and you could supply EU software by using it, but they are quite strict in terms of their licenses. Support of Person A should be OK, but if you are asked to support B and C, even though it’s only sporadically, they might ban you for abuse of license terms.
This is why I’m asking around. Ideally, someone demonstrates how the KDE only solution works.
True, I’ve heard about their strict license enforcement, a few sessions per year is normally not a problem though.
I recently moved from tethering to my phone to a fiber… err fibre… connection, so now I am connecting through a router. This allowed me to actually use KRDP/KRDC, at least over the local network. My phone was obviously getting in the way.
Just now, I tested this, connecting my laptop to my desktop. The former is connected to my phone’s hotspot, while the latter is connected to my home network. They are definitely on different networks.
The magic sauce here is that I use Tailscale so I can connect to my NAS/Homelab which is currently set up at a family member’s house on the opposite side of the planet.
I just plugged in my Tailscale IP, and it Just Works. Both systems are running identical distros with the latest Plasma.
It seems that using the machine name set up in TS also works…
Tailscale needs minimal setup, and is easy to install. I have done no router adjustments here, nor at my brother’s house.
Some routers have built-in VPN servers to allow remote connections like this as well.
An option to consider.
Good to know, but for a starting point, I would be glad if the two PCs could see each other while in the same local network, connected to the same router.
This is something I can’t get to work with krdp/krdc. My first post with details is here.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this setup needs to work first before bringing another layer like tailscale into the mix.
6.5?
The last time I tried it was 6.3 and it just wouldn’t connect to another system on the same LAN. I will try again when I get a chance with 6.4.5.
BTW, how do you properly enable the RDP server? Maybe I was doing something wrong?
Yes, KDE neon.
It never worked for me in Plasma 6 at all, I assumed it was from using my phone as hotspot and some firewall setting it has that I can’t change.
The PC has an OS install that is about a year old and is well massaged and tweaked, the laptop has a very recent install that is mostly stock.
I don’t recall doing anything on the PC other than making sure it is set to load at startup and have a user set up in system settings.
I haven’t yet tried connecting to the laptop yet. That would probably highlight things I may have forgotten I’d done on the PC.
I’ll look later tomorrow.
OK, so I can connect from Fedora 42 KDE with Plasma 6.4.5 to a Windows 11 PC and the performance is great, basically like native Windows-to-Windows RDP. I can’t comment on stability as I only used it for maybe ten minutes. Both machines are on the same LAN, zero tinkering required, it just worked. This is progress!
Now, I wonder how to set up the RDP server so I can control a Linux PC from a Windows PC or from another Linux PC.
This is the tricky part.
rdesktop and later krdc have worked well for years, the connection is always rock solid. Never encountered any issues here. Client stuff works great.
And we have to admit: RDP is something Microsoft got right. I was always envious about the options it gave, the speed and the seamlessness.
But how do I set up the server part? krdp has almost nothing to fine-tune, allow a user, go. How do we need to do it?
I suspect that there are a couple of requirements listed nowhere and even the program author took stuff for granted which really isn’t. Otherwise — why does it work only for a select lucky few?
Yeah, RDP if one of the top things I would miss if I ever leave Windows behind. Nothing works that well, even Apple Remote Desktop doesn’t. VNC is painful, when it even works, a last resort thing when nothing else is available. Indeed, one of few things that Microsoft got right.
So, krdp is already installed, but how to set it up? Right! I don’t remember what I did last time I played with Linux, but whatever instructions I found back then did not work.
It’s been years since I actually supported someone remotely from my computer, so this might be outdated. Back then I tried TeamViewer and Anydesk. Anydesk had fewer features, but I had no complaints.
TeamViewer on the other hand only worked when their system service was running (yes, even when only using the client). That system service also triggered ~120 interrupts per second, even when idle. That’s a total no-go for me… so I avoid it since then - might have improved though by now.
Same on Windows, it installs a systems service. But, it has a portable mode that does not install anything. The limitation of the portable mode is that it doesn’t keep you logged in, which is not really a problem for me when I need to use it few times per year. But yeah, overall I’d avoid TeamViewer if there was a better option. I made a note of Anydesk.
I have had good results with anydesk, from Linux to Linux, from android to Linux and windows to linux. Favorite with Password setup so I can take over my mother’s laptop without her having to do anything when she has troubles in a few seconds. Am on tumbleweed and anydeks has their own repo without any update issues.