If you want to connect with Remote Desktop to your Ubuntu 18.04 Server, a good way to do so is by using XRDP. If you are like me and run a server with very little RAM you also want to use a Desktop Environment that uses as little memory as possible. LXDE is a very lightweight Desktop Environment, so I will be using that one.

Install required packages

First of all update the package lists with this command

sudo apt update

Then install LXDE

sudo apt install lxde

This might take a while as LXDE is quite big to install if you don’t already have a desktop environment installed.

Then install XRDP

sudo apt install xrdp

Configure XRDP to use LXDE

Open up /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh. I use the nano text editor here

sudo nano /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh

Then add this all the way at the end of the file

lxsession -s LXDE -e LXDE

Press ctrl+x, y and enter to save.

Disable GUI on boot

If you run a headless server you might want to disable booting into the graphical login screen, to make sure it does not use any extra memory. You can disable the GUI on boot this with this command.

sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

And use this command to enable it again if you want to.

sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target

Disable the GUI if you run a headless server.

Connect with RDP

Open up Windows Remote Desktop Connection and enter the address of the computer you’re trying to connect to.

Enter the IP or name of the computer you are trying to connect to.

Connect and a screen will show where you need to enter your login credentials. Select Xorg from the list and enter your username and password, press OK and you should be seeing the LXDE desktop environment.

Enter your login details and press OK

Successfully connected!