Learn how to - How To Setup TigerVNC Server on CentOS 8 for RDP

Felix Williams Desktop How to Linux Tutorials January 22, 2023

Learn how to – How To Setup TigerVNC Server on CentOS 8 for RDP.

In this tutorial we’ll cover the steps to install TigerVNC Server on your remote CentOS 8 machine with GNOME desktop environment, and how to connect to it via Remote Desktop Connection. Once TigerVNC is installed, configured and service running you’ll be able to connect to the server remotely from an RDP session.

TigerVNC is a high-performance, platform-neutral implementation of VNC (Virtual Network Computing), a client/server application that allows users to launch and interact with graphical applications on remote machines.

Below are the steps required to install TigerVNC on a CentOS 8 server:

1. Update your server:

sudo dnf update

2. Install the gnome GUI components using the following command:

sudo dnf groupinstall -y "Server with GUI"

3. Set the default terget to GUI:

sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo systemctl default

With a graphical user interface installed, the next step is to install xrdp components to enable RDP access to the server:

4. Add the xrdp repository to your server:

sudo rpm -Uvh http://li.nux.ro/download/nux/dextop/el7/x86_64/nux-dextop-release-0-1.el7.nux.noarch.rpm

5. Install TigerVNC server:

sudo dnf install -y xrdp tigervnc-server

6. Configure SELinux to allow rdp connections:

sudo chcon --type=bin_t /usr/sbin/xrdp
sudo chcon --type=bin_t /usr/sbin/xrdp-sesman

7. Start and enable xrdp service:

sudo systemctl start xrdp
sudo systemctl enable xrdp

8. Configure firewall to allow RDP:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=3389/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Connecting to the server with RDP client

The next phase covers how to access the server that we configured using RDP client.

Windows OS has RDP client preinstalled, to access it, search for ‘Remote Desktop Connection’

This will open the application that lets you connect to the remote sever.

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Input the IP address and the username of the remote server then connect. You will be prompted by a warning on about the identity of the remote server, click yes.

You will be prompted to input the password for your user:

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You will now have successfully accessed your remote server with RDP and you can now use graphical applications like video applications and many others.