Jacco's rdesktop page:
RPMs and OS/2 port

rdesktop is a free client for the RDP protocol. It works as a "thin client" which you use to connect to Windows NT4TS/2000/2003/XP. rdesktop was created by Samba team member Matthew Chapman and released under the GNU Public License. It runs on many operating systems: several flavours of Unix/Linux, Acorn, Amiga, Mac OS X, OS/2 etc. (see "Related ports and binaries"). It has even been ported to Win32 and Java.

My contribution consists of creating RPMS (packaged executables) for RPM based Linux distributions (e.g. RedHat and Mandrake). This could save time for people who just want to use the program and prefer to not go through the trouble of compiling the source code. This is mainly for older distributions, since recent ones are now shipping with rdesktop. I have also made an OS/2 port of rdesktop.

• Binary RPMS
• Source RPMS
• Security of these RPMS
• OS/2 port of rdesktop
• Related ports and binaries
• Some rdesktop related links
• Revision history

I have made a range of rdesktop RPM packages for your convenience. See the list below. These can be installed on Linux distributions using the RedHat Package Manager (RPM). Testing has been done mostly on RedHat 6.2/7.2 (x86), Mandrake 8.1 (x86) and Mandrake 8.0 (PPC).

So, which RPM do you need? What are the differences?

• version 1.2.0 or higher:
  Recent Linux distributions already contain a version of rdesktop, mostly 1.2.0. You may prefer to use that one. If none is included with your distribution, you might want to try an RPM from me (see below).
  
  
• version 1.1.0� versus version 1.1.0 plus unified patch:
v1.1.0 is of course the 'official' version of rdesktop, made by Matthew Chapman. This is probably the highest quality version and the most stable. However, there have been only two releases of the official rdesktop. In the meantime, several people on the rdesktop mailinglist have contributed new features and bugfixes. Peter Bystr�m has combined these into the so-called 'unified patch' which he releases once in a while. This is probably the most useful version. I suggest trying this one first, and should you have great difficulties with it, fall back to plain v1.1.0. The unified patch version contains important features such as support for non-PC keyboards (e.g. Sparc or PPC hardware) and non-English keyboards. The patch also has a very handy option called --built-in-license, which emulates a Windows 2000 Professional license. Naturally you still need a Terminal Server CAL if you want to play by the book, but at least you don't have the hassle of (expiring) temporary licenses (rdesktop 1.1.0 cannot store TS CAL licenses to disk, but the CVS version rdesktop can; most distributions do not ship with the CVS�version, however).
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• X Windows version versus SVGAlib version:
In most cases you would use the X Windows version. However, you might be interested to know that a patch was contributed by Donald Gordon which allows rdesktop to use SVGAlib (included with many x86 Linux distributions). That means with the SVGAlib version you don't have to run X, i.e. it even runs on low-end computers with little RAM. But note that this code is fairly new and is a bit rough around the edges. It's a bit slower than the X Windows version and I had to switch off mouse acceleration in /etc/vga/libvga.config. The SVGAlib version also needs root permissions to access the graphics card.
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• OpenSSL static version versus non-static version:
Normally you would choose the non-static version. The static version is compiled statically against the OpenSSL cryptographic libraries (that's because RDP packets are encrypted). I believe it is better to use the non-static version because of security, speed and size. The non-static RPM will use the OpenSSL libraries on your system. OpenSSL is included with most (recent) distributions, but not always, due to export and patent issues. In most cases an update is available from your vendor or from third parties. Updates for RedHat 6.2, for instance, can be downloaded from the RedHat website or one of its mirrors. LinuxPPC 2000 or earlier does not come with OpenSSL: check out the LinuxPPC.org website or Rich West's website. Alex de Joode has a vast FTP site with cryptographic software (sed quis custodiet ipsem Alex? :-).
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• RedHat 6.2 executable:
This is not an RPM but only the executable, with OpenSSL statically compiled in. No bells or whistles. Basically, this one should work on any Linux system unless we're talking about RedHat 4.2 or so. Only use this executable if none of RPMS work and you can't be bothered to install a compiler yourself...

Install the RPM of your choice from the commandline using "rpm -Uvh rdesktop*.rpm", or use your favourite graphical RPM manager. Should you get complaints about missing packages, get those from your distribution's CDs or download them, and try again. When you got rdesktop installed, congratulations! Check out rdesktop's options (man rdesktop) and read the included documentation (for a list of docs, use "rpm -ql rdesktop"). In most cases you should be able to fire up rdesktop with a command as simple as:
rdesktop <server-hostname>

You would like to give rdesktop a spin but you don't have a Windows Terminal Server available? Try this one: scylla.odyssey.securewave.com� (194.7.94.93 at the time of this writing). This is a demo server made available by security company SecureWave. The usual stuff (Internet Explorer, Office etc.) has been installed on it. The server is protected with SecureEXE, a product which allows only authorised software to run on a Windows server ('white list'). For each file that is authorized, SecureEXE creates a cryptographic hash signature which is later used to identify this file at execution time.

List of available RPMs

Note: You may need to hold 'shift' while clicking on a link below! Recommended files are indicated with ->. The files are fairly small, generally less than 200 KB.

Binary RPMS for x86:

-> Mandrake 9.x� (already contains rdesktop 1.2.0 RPM)
�� Mandrake 8.1� X Windows,� 1.1.0 pl19.9.0-jdl1
�� Mandrake 8.1� X Windows,� 1.1.0 pl19.8.5-jdl1
�� Mandrake 8.1� X Windows,� 1.1.0 pl19.8.4-jdl1
�� Mandrake 8.1� X Windows,� 1.1.0 jdl1
�� Mandrake 8.1� SVGAlib,��� 1.1.0 pl19.9.0-jdl1
�� Mandrake 8.1� SVGAlib,��� 1.1.0 pl19.8.4-jdl1

-> RedHat 9.0��� (already contains rdesktop 1.2.0 RPM)
�� RedHat 9.0��� X Windows,� 1.3.0-jdl1 (modified original, built-in licence)
�� RedHat 8.0��� (already contains rdesktop 1.2.0 RPM)
� �� RedHat 8.0��� X Windows,� 1.2.0-jdl1 (modified original, built-in licence)
�� RedHat 8.0��� X Windows,� 1.1.0 pl19.9.0-jdl2
�� RedHat 7.3��� X Windows,� 1.1.0 pl19.9.0-jdl1
�� RedHat 7.2��� X Windows,� 1.1.0 pl19.8.4-jdl1
�� RedHat 7.2��� X Windows,� 1.1.0 jdl1
�� (RedHat 7.x does not ship with SVGAlib)

-> RedHat 6.2��� X Windows,� 1.1.0 pl19.9.0-jdl1
�� RedHat 6.2��� X Windows,� 1.1.0 pl19.8.5-jdl1
�� RedHat 6.2��� X Windows,� 1.1.0 pl19.8.4-jdl1
�� RedHat 6.2��� X Windows,� 1.1.0 jdl1
�� RedHat 6.2��� SVGAlib,��� 1.1.0 pl19.9.0-jdl1
�� RedHat 6.2��� SVGAlib,��� 1.1.0 pl19.8.5-jdl1
�� RedHat 6.2��� SVGAlib,��� 1.1.0 pl19.8.4-jdl1

Binary RPM for PowerPC:
(Sponsored by HCC Amsterdam user group)

-> Mandrake 8.0� X Windows,� 1.0.0pl19.8.4-jdl1

Single executables:
(After downloading: tar xfvz rdesktop*.tar.gz ; chmod +x rdesktop
�or tar xfvz srdesktop*.tar.gz ; chmod +x srdesktop)
(Verify GPG signatures with my GPG public key, e.g.:
gpg --verify rdesktop-1.1.0pl19.9.0-rhl6.tar.gz.sig)

-> RedHat 6.2 X Windows, 1.1.0 pl19.9.0-jdl1, static OpenSSL (GPG sig)
�� RedHat 6.2 SVGAlib,�� 1.1.0 pl19.9.0-jdl1, static OpenSSL (GPG sig)

(Old versions, not recommended:)

�� RedHat 7.0���������� 1.0.0-pl19_6_5, my release: 1
�� RedHat 6.2���������� 1.0.0-pl19_6_5, my release: 1
�� RedHat 6.2 (static)� 1.0.0-pl19_6_5, my release: 1
�� Mandrake 7.2�������� 1.0.0-pl19_6_5, my release: 1
�� Mandrake 8.0�������� 1.0.0-pl19_6_5, my release: 1
�� LinuxPPC 2000 Q4���� 1.0.0-pl19_6_4, my release: 1

Although I've made ready-to-run binary packages, you might prefer to get the source RPM and build the binary RPM yourself ("trust is good, control is better"). It should not be much more difficult to do than installing a binary RPM.

If you have a RPM based Linux distribution not yet listed, or if you use another architecture than x86 or PPC, you might want to download the source RPM anyway and build the binary RPM yourself. If that doesn't work, please let me know. If you don't want to build an RPM yourself (you don't have a compiler installed or you just don't want to bother) and you're using the x86 platform, try the RedHat 6.2 static RPM, or if all else fails, the RedHat 6.2 executable.

Final note: I haven't built RPMS which do not make sense, such as an SVGAlib version for PPC (doesn't have SVGAlib) or the plain v1.1.0 version for PPC (keyboard won't work).

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Source files

(You can skip this if you are not interested in recompiling the RPM).

M4 template for SPEC file (rdesktop.spec.in from rdesktop-1.1.0pl19.9.0-jdl2)
Source RPM��������������� (rdesktop-1.3.0-jdl1 modified original with built-in licence patch)
Source RPM��������������� (rdesktop-1.2.0-jdl1 modified original with built-in licence patch)
Source RPM��������������� (rdesktop-1.1.0pl19.9.0-jdl2.src.rpm)
Source RPM��������������� (rdesktop-1.1.0pl19.9.0-jdl1.src.rpm)
Source RPM��������������� (rdesktop-1.1.0pl19.8.5-jdl1.src.rpm)
Source RPM��������������� (rdesktop-1.1.0pl19.8.4-jdl2.src.rpm)
Source RPM��������������� (rdesktop-1.1.0pl19.8.4-jdl1.src.rpm)

(Old source files, not recommended):
SPEC file 1.0.0pl19-7-4
SPEC file 1.1.0 with OpenSSL
SPEC file 1.1.0 with OpenSSL
initial 1.1.0 Source RPM
old SPEC file
1.0.0pl19-7-4 Source RPM
1.0.0-pl19_6_5 Source RPM

If you wish to rebuild the source RPM, you'll need the GCC compiler and some standard GNU development utilities such as patch and the macro processor M4. The main file is called rdesktop.spec.in. When you install the source RPM, this file will be in your SOURCES directory. If you run this script, it will call M4 and generate a rdesktop.spec tailored to your system. You can then use this spec file (located in the current directory) to build the RPM. Note that rebuilding the SRPM with rpm --rebuild rdesktop-1.1.0-jdl1.src.rpm will probably not work and neither will the included rdesktop.spec: in most cases you will have to generate a new one with rdesktop.spec.in

For instructions on how to create a configuration for rebuilding SRPMS, I learnt a lot from the Mandrake RPM Howto. Note that it's better to rebuild not as root but as a normal user. Basically, once you've set up the RPM environment (see this Howto), it should be as simple as the following commands:

[download source RPM file to your SRPMS directory]
cd SRPMS
rpm --checksig rdesktop*.src.rpm
rpm -ivh rdesktop*.src.rpm
cd ../SOURCES
./rdesktop.spec.in
rpm -ba rdesktop.spec
cd ../RPMS/i386
rpm -Uvh rdesktop*.rpm

rdesktop.spec.in can take optional parameters: -NOUNIFIEDPATCH,-SVGA and -STATICOPENSSL. What these options do should be obvious, if not, see the discussion above about the different types of RPMS.

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I have signed the RPMS with my PGP key. For more information on the security of my RPMs, read this. I've checked the rdesktop source and I can honestly say that I can't find a backdoor. Any security risks would rather exist in the RDP protocol itself than in rdesktop, an implementation of the protocol.

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OS/2 port of rdesktop

(last update: Apr 21, 2003)

I've have made a quick (proof of concept) port of rdesktop to OS/2. It's not a native PM port. You'll need EMX and XFree86/OS2. Rdesktop version 1.2.0 requires OpenSSL 0.9.7 or higher as well. I will not help you configure these. Sorry.

(BTW, if you want to connect to a Windows Terminal Server under OS/2 then there are the following alternatives to this approach: running Microsoft's Windows 3.x Terminal Server client under WinOS/2 [reported to be slow], or using the Java RDP client by HOB. And then there's also Citrix, but that'll cost more).

Download OS/2 executable

Several versions are available, in probable order of preference:

rdesktp3.zip (rdesktop-1.2.0-CVS-20030419)������������� (GPG sig)
rdesktp2.zip (rdesktop-1.1.0 with unified patch 19-8-5) (GPG sig)
rdp110.zip�� (rdesktop-1.1.0)
rdp110u.zip� (rdesktop-1.1.0 with unified patch 19-8-2)
rdesktop.zip (rdesktop-1.0.0 with unified patch 19-5-10)

The executables were built against EMX 0.9d, with emxfix04 and an older version of XFree86/OS2 I had lying around on CD. If that doesn't work for you, trying rebuilding the binary yourself (see below).

Once you have unzipped the zipfile, check out the documentation. Generally, you want to run the executable and specify a Windows Terminal Server hostname on the commandline.

Depending on the version you want, you will need some of the following pieces of software:

• rdesktop v1.2.0-CVS-20030419
• rdesktop v1.1.0
• rdesktop v1.0.0
• unified patch 19-8-5
• unified patch 19-8-2
• unified patch 19-5-10
• my OS/2 patch for rdesktop 1.2.0-CVS-20030419
• my OS/2 patch for rdesktop 1.1.0 + unified patch 19-8-5
• my OS/2 patch for rdesktop 1.1.0 without unified patch
• my OS/2 patch for rdesktop 1.1.0 + unified patch 19-8-2
• my OS/2 patch for rdesktop 1.0.0 + unified patch 19-5-10
• bzip2 (to unzip the unified patch)
• Eberhard Mattes' EMX (available from from Leo, Hobbes etc.)
• Holger Veit's XFree86OS/2 (idem)
• OpenSSL 0.9.7+ (idem)
• OS/2 ports of GNU make, patch, diff, gzip and any others you like (idem)

• Alexander Mai's Un*x to OS/2-EMX porting guide
• Arnd H. Hanses' UNIX/POSIX to emx-OS/2 Porting Guide
• TOKORO Kyosuke's OS/2 port of vncviewer

People have ported rdesktop to several operating systems. Others are simply making available rdesktop binaries. You can find a list below.

• Acorn RISC OS
  
• !RDPClient by Andrew Sellors.
• port by Peter Naulls.
• port by eQ lab / eQ R&D. (Disappeared?)
• Amiga 3.x/4.x port by Martin Blom, Darren Eveland and J�rg Strohmayer.
• Amiga port by Martin Blom (older port, older rdesktop).
• FreeBSD port by Chris Knight.
• Irix binary by Roger Brown.
• Java: a Java port means instant support for a whole slew of platforms (not unlike Hob JWT, I should add).
• properJavaRDP by Phil Carmalt. It is an open source Java RDP client, based on rdesktop. properJavaRDP runs on Java 1.1 and up (optimised for 1.4), and works on Linux, Windows and Mac.
• Several people were reported to be working on a Java port but nothing much seems to have materialised.� You will have to search the rdesktop mailinglist archive if you are interested.
• Linux
• Debian .deb packages by Sam Johnston. Retrieve the package from the unstable, non-US, main tree.
• Mandrake Cooker RPM
• Alternative RedHat RPM by Dominik Mierzejewski.
• Other RPMS on rpmfind.net
• iPaq (Linux) by Philippe Beau
• Mac OS X port by Sam Johnston. Note that this port depends on the Fink environment, which is the Debian package management tools ported to Mac OS X. Currently, there is no native Quartz port for Mac OS X, such as there are for VNC.� Quartz is the native windowing system of Mac OS X. If you don't want to install fink, a standalone binary was made available by Andrew M. Miller, but it still requires X Windows (now included with Panther).
• MorphOS port by Martin Blom and Darren Eveland.
  
• NetBSD package.
• OpenBSD package by Joshua Stein.
• OpenVMS/alpha port by Bryan Clingman.
• OS/2 port by myself.
• Solaris Sparc binary by Max Southall.
• SCO users: please contact your local representative and tell them to stop threatening Linux users and vendors with legal steps.
• Win32 port by Paul Bludov. It is included as a compile target in the unified patch. You will need a X server for Win32.
• Sharp Zaurus port by Jay Sorg (other ports discussed here and here)

• MacOS X remote desktop client released by Microsoft. Note: this client can make only one RDP connection at a time. Rdesktop for Mac does not have this limitation.
• Windows remote desktop clients released by Microsoft. There are Windows Installer (MSI), ActiveX (webbased) and standalone clients.
• WinConnect by ThinSoft for Linux. This client costs money (USD 50 per copy) and you don't get the source code. And you can only hope that the binary will run on later Linux versions. On the plus side, it looks like a fairly complete implementation with support for sound, printer redirection, 24-bit screen depths etc. I have no idea whether the binary will run on non-Linux operating systems with run-time support for Linux binaries. Note that they use some kind of obnoxious copy protection which is tied to the Ethernet (MAC) address of the network card. Reminds me of someone else's copy protection...
• DOS RDP client by Terminal-Services.net. Also uses a MAC address based copy protection scheme.
• easyRDP: DOS RDP client by Easy Networks (seems to violate the GPL).
  

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• rdesktop homepage
• unified patch by Peter Bystr�m
• rdesktop has moved to Sourceforge, so check out the Sourceforge project page
• rdesktop mailinglist archive
• Netstation, a thin Linux distribution (floppy, PXE, bootrom etc.) that contains rdesktop
• Thinstation, a fork of Netstation
• 2 floppy Linux based X distribution with rdesktop
• RCon (connection manager GUI similar to the original client supplied with Terminal Server)
• tsclient (graphical front-end for rdesktop and VNC)

• Jan 29, 2005: Added links to Amiga and MorphOS ports.
• May 27, 2004: New RISC OS port available. Previous ports do not exist anymore.
• Mar 14, 2004: Added link to Thinkstation.
• Jan 8, 2004: Added link to tsclient.
• Nov 10, 2003: Added RPMS for 1.3.0 with built-in licence patch.
• Nov 4, 2003: Add link to easyRDP.
• Sep 30, 2003: Added link to rdesktop Java port.
• Apr 25, 2003: uploaded RH8.0 binaries for 1.1.0-pl19-9-0 and 1.2.0.
• Apr 21, 2003: uploaded new OS/2 binary (rdesktop v1.2.0).
• Apr 17, 2003: fixed some links.
• Sep 26, 2002: added link to new Acorn port by eQ lab.
• Aug 11, 2002: updated to patch 19-9-0. Fixes keyboard problem with Gnome. Adds toggling between full-screen and windowed. Security bug found in OpenSSL, but fortunately I had removed most of the static versions on March 30. Updated the remaining static executables, linking against a patched version of OpenSSL. Removed old static executables.
• Jul 21, 2002: adding related links. Added reference to Microsoft MacOS X client.
• Mar 30, 2002: adding new packages and a new OS/2 port based on v1.1.0 with patch 19-8-5. I also decided to pull the static OpenSSL versions. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but the zlib case shows that statically linking can lead to problems. Most Linux distributions have OpenSSL these days. I am only maintaining the RedHat 6.2 statically linked single executables because they are a last ditch option anyway.
• Mar 4, 2002: Adding French and Brazilian Portuguese translations by Vincent Callede and Silverio Wagner Silva, respectively. Moving the compiler flags patch to configure, not Makefile. Only source RPM at the moment. Adding references to related binaries.
• Feb 18, 2002: added reference to SecureWave's demo server (with permission), for those who do not have a Terminal Server readily available.
• Feb 10, 2002: fairly large overhaul: new RPMS created; SPEC file is now generated by M4 macro processor. RPMS should be better tailored to different distributions.
• Jan 2002: The font caching bug in rdesktop 1.0.0 has been fixed in 1.1.0, but unfortunately popped up again in the unified patch. (Note that this bug only occurs in some very exotic setups, e.g. when you log in from x86 to PPC using SSH X forwarding, or using an X server on Windows).

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