RustDesk connections hanging / reliable alternatives for remote desktop sharing between two devices at home? [SOLVED] (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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Background: I have a laptop in one room on one floor that I'd like to be able to remote into from another laptop in another room on another floor. All spaces are covered by wifi. In general, I always prefer free and open source tools when available, which is why I've been trying RustDesk, and I really want to like it.

Problem: It seems like every 5 to 10 minutes, the connection hangs, and the only way to restore the connection is for me to bring my laptop upstairs and reset the connection on both machines. This is a significant impediment that renders the app basically unusable in my case.

Has anyone else had this issue? If so, how did you resolve it? Or if you use a different tool, which one, and how's that going for you?

On AlternativeTo.net, I'm seeing suggestions such as TigerVNC and HopToDesk, although I haven't tried either of them.

Both laptops are running popular Linux distros w/ graphical desktops (Mint, Fedora, etc).

EDIT: Based on everyone's replies, I'm thinking I'll explore VNC over SSH (will attempt to follow this guide). Thanks for the tips!

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[-] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

afaik correct me if im wrong but rust desk is not really the right tool for that. Rustdesk connects devices by connecting all the way through the internet to the rustdesk servers and then to the other device.

VNC or RDP are the right approaches here, cause you can use them to connect through the local network, never leaving your LAN/intranet. In addition to not needing a connection to the internet it should be more reliable that way.

If you use KDE then I think their krdc gui is pretty good. Otherwise Remmina.

For the server part, tigerVNC is fine.

[-] yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Thanks for the tip. I've installed TigerVNC server on the host machine and connected to it from another laptop. Now my problem is that when I connect, it takes me to a clean session instead of showing me the existing session. A quick internet search and I stumbled upon x0vncserver, but no instructions how to install it. Or is it already installed? When I issue x0vncserver on the host, I get x0vncserver: command not found. Any tips on what I should try or search next?

[-] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Which OS is on each device? Make it clear af. You on wayland or x11? What DE?

If your laptop runs KDE then the easiest is KRDP + KRFB.

[-] yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

I'm running Linux Mint Cinnamon (X11) on a laptop w/ Tiger VNC Server, and I'm connecting to it from another laptop running Fedora Silverblue w/ Gnome (Wayland).

[-] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/tigervnc-scraping-server

so to Install x0vncserver you install tigervnc-scraping-server

[-] ISOmorph@feddit.org 1 points 1 month ago

I'd add to that that we really don't know enough about the use case of OP. Maybe ssh is already enough.

[-] yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Does ssh mean command line only or is there such a thing as graphical remote desktop sharing over ssh?

I'm looking for a graphical remote desktop experience.

EDIT: I may have answered my own question. With some searching, I stumbled upon this guide for remote desktop sharing by establishing a VNC session through an SSH tunnel. In the guide, the author uses TigerVNC. I'll have to explore this some more when I have time later on.