I have a few family members that I help support. For instance, I installed Linux Mint on my grandmother’s PC. She doesn’t know any different and my young cousin doesn’t understand it so he finally stopped giving it viruses. I used to use TeamViewer to take over her PC when she needed support but I got my account banned because they believed I was using it commercially. Oh well!
I have Tailscale installed on the computers. This gives me SSH access. What would you suggest? RDP? Something else?
I also had my TeamViewer account flagged as commercial. I just appealed and they reinstated with no issues. You could try that.
Check out rustdesk, would that suit?
The thing about rustdesk is I don’t see how I could run it unless I am at the computer. Ideally, I’d like to be able to take control without having to walk through like, "look for an app called “rust desk”. Is there a way to open a desktop application through SSH so that it opens on their open desktop?
Alternatively, you could set rustdesk to run on startup/login, so neither you nor the user needs to manually start it.
I believe that Linux Mint supports RDP, built in. You just enable it in the System Settings. Is that not workable?
In my experience, RDP locks the screen for anyone at the physical machine. It sounds like OP is wanting a simultaneous screen sharing.
I think that screen lock is really only the case in Windows. Most linux vnc and rdp servers either run their own completely separate X session or share the console session.
True enough for VNC but we’re specifically talking about RDP, which is supported by Linux Mint.
That’s on me for typing vnc when I meant rdp, but nevertheless it’s true for both.
I see. GP said the same. Thanks for sharing!
VNC over SSH and you should be set.
You can forward the VNC port with a local port forward e.g
ssh -L $yourPort:localhost:$vncPort $grandmasMachine. Then open Remmina (or KRDC, or some other VNC client).I do hope your grandma has good upload speeds though.
Bless you for spreading the word of the penguin and being the support of your family. Props to you.
Thanks for the info and link.
I don’t need any props. I’m not spreading any word. It’s for selfish reasons. My grandparents only use the web browser, so they don’t know/care what an OS is. The reason I did it in the first place (they’ve been running Linux Mint for almost 10 years now) was my cousin kept trying to install Minecraft Mods and giving them viruses. XD
