Unable to interact with ubuntu 20.04 using xrdp

I am not able to interact with the remote desktop in any way.

Here is what I see: Remote Desktop window

Even when I hover over the "activities" it does not highlight which leads me to believe that inputs are not being sent from the windows computer to ubuntu. The cursor although changes.

The time is updated to be the current time so the system is sending information to windows but I cant seem to use it.

I removed the Authentication window, reinstalled linux, reinstalled tightvncserver and xrdp double checked the sharing page where it is allowed to control, and now I am out of options. Kindly help me with this

Out of the box, if you simply install the xrdp pakcage provided by Canonical (i.e. sudo apt-get install xrdp), you will need to perform some additional customizations in order to have a workable rdp session.

When you install xrdp pacakge, you do not need to have any vnc server running (this was needed in previous version of xrdp)

after installing xrdp package, you have to create a file in your directory by issuing the following command

touch ~./xsessionrc 

In this file, you have to copy/paste the following content (assuming you want touse Ubuntu Desktop Interface)

export GNOME_SHELL_SESSION_MODE=ubuntu
export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=ubuntu:GNOME
export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/etc/xdg/xdg-ubuntu:/etc/xdg

You will also need to create some other files to avoid annoying authentication popup. so you will need to issue the following command as well

#All Ubuntu versions,Debian Version, Pop OS version
sudo bash -c "cat >/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/45-allow-colord.pkla" <<EOF
[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
EOF

After that, you should be good to go and have something similar to the your desktop

An important point- you cannot have the same user connecting at the same time locally on the machine and remotely. So, if you need to remote connect with userA, ensure that userA is not locally connected on Ubuntu machine

Finally, please note that we have developed a small script that ease installation and configuration of xrdp on Ubuntu. If you want to give it a try, you can have a look at our blog and test it (see this post for all instructions)

Hope this help Till next time