packages icon



 rdesktop(1)                                                     rdesktop(1)
                                November 2005



 NAME
      rdesktop - Remote Desktop Protocol client

 SYNOPSIS
      rdesktop [options] server[:port]

 DESCRIPTION
      rdesktop is a client for Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), used in a
      number of Microsoft products including Windows NT Terminal Server,
      Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server.


 OPTIONS
      -u <username>
           Username for authentication on the server.

      -d <domain>
           Domain for authentication.

      -s <shell>
           Startup shell for the user - starts a specific application
           instead of Explore.  If SeamlessRDP is enabled this is the
           application which i started in seamless mode.

      -c <directory>
           The initial working directory for the user.  Often used in
           combination with -s to set up a fixed login environment.

      -p <password>
           The password to authenticate with.  Note that this may have no
           effect if "Always prompt for password" is enabled on the server.
           WARNING: if you specify a password on the command line it may be
           visible to other users when they use tools like ps.  Use -p - to
           make rdesktop request a password at startup (from standard
           input).

      -n <hostname>
           Client hostname.  Normally rdesktop automatically obtains the
           hostname of the client.

      -k <keyboard-map>
           Keyboard layout to emulate.  This requires a corresponding keymap
           file to be installed.  The standard keymaps provided with
           rdesktop follow the RFC1766 naming scheme: a language code
           followed by a country code if necessary - e.g.  en-us, en-gb, de,
           fr, sv, etc.

           The default keyboard map depends on the current locale (LC_* and
           LANG environment variables). If the current locale is unknown,
           the default keyboard map is en-us (a US English keyboard).




                                    - 1 -      Formatted:  December 26, 2024






 rdesktop(1)                                                     rdesktop(1)
                                November 2005



           The keyboard maps are file names, which means that they are case
           sensitive. The standard keymaps are all in lowercase.

           The keyboard maps are searched relative to the directories
           $HOME/.rdesktop/keymaps, KEYMAP_PATH (specified at build time),
           and $CWD/keymaps, in this order. The keyboard-map argument can
           also be an absolute filename.

           The special value `none' can be used instead of a keyboard map.
           In this case, rdesktop will guess the scancodes from the X11
           event key codes using an internal mapping method. This method
           only supports the basic alphanumeric keys and may not work
           properly on all platforms so its use is discouraged.

      -g <geometry>
           Desktop geometry (WxH). If geometry is the special word
           "workarea", the geometry will be fetched from the extended window
           manager hints property _NET_WORKAREA, from the root window. The
           geometry can also be specified as a percentage of the whole
           screen, e.g. "-g 80%".

           If the specified geometry depends on the screen size, and the
           screen size is changed, rdesktop will automatically reconnect
           using the new screen size. This requires that rdesktop has been
           compiled with RandR support.

      -i   Use password as smartcard pin. If a valid user certificate is
           matched in smart card reader the password passed with p argument
           is used as pin for the smart card.  This feature also requires
           that smart card redirection is used using r scard argument.

      -f   Enable fullscreen mode.  This overrides the window manager and
           causes the rdesktop window to fully cover the current screen.
           Fullscreen mode can be toggled at any time using Ctrl-Alt-Enter.

      -b   Force the server to send screen updates as bitmaps rather than
           using higher-level drawing operations.

      -t   Disable use of remote control. This will disable features like
           seamless connection sharing.

      -A <seamlessrdpshell>
           Enable SeamlessRDP by specifying the path to seamless rdp shell.
           In this mode, rdesktop creates a X11 window for each window on
           the server side. This mode requires the SeamlessRDP server side
           component, which is available from
           http://www.cendio.com/seamlessrdp/.

           When using this option, you should normally specify a startup
           shell which launches the desired application through SeamlessRDP.




                                    - 2 -      Formatted:  December 26, 2024






 rdesktop(1)                                                     rdesktop(1)
                                November 2005



           Example: rdesktop -A 'c:\seamlessrdp\seamlessrdpshell.exe' -s
           'notepad' mywts.domain.com

           Any subsequential call to the above commandline example will make
           use of the seamless connection sharing feature which spawns
           another notepad in the current connection to the specified server
           and then exit.


      -B   Use the BackingStore of the Xserver instead of the integrated one
           in rdesktop.

      -e   Disable encryption.  This option is only needed (and will only
           work) if you have a French version of NT TSE.

      -E   Disable encryption from client to server.  This sends an
           encrypted login packet, but everything after this is unencrypted
           (including interactive logins).

      -m   Do not send mouse motion events.  This saves bandwidth, although
           some Windows applications may rely on receiving mouse motion.

      -C   Use private colourmap.  This will improve colour accuracy on an
           8-bit display, but rdesktop will appear in false colour when not
           focused.

      -D   Hide window manager decorations, by using MWM hints.

      -K   Do not override window manager key bindings.  By default rdesktop
           attempts to grab all keyboard input when it is in focus.

      -S <button size>
           Enable single application mode. This option can be used when
           running a single, maximized application (via -s). When the
           minimize button of the windows application is pressed, the
           rdesktop window is minimized instead of the remote application.
           The maximize/restore button is disabled. For this to work, you
           must specify the correct button size, in pixels. The special word
           "standard" means 18 pixels.

      -T <title>
           Sets the window title. The title must be specified using an UTF-8
           string.

      -N   Enable numlock syncronization between the Xserver and the remote
           RDP session.  This is useful with applications that looks at the
           numlock state, but might cause problems with some Xservers like
           Xvnc.

      -X <windowid>
           Embed rdesktop-window in another window. The windowid is expected



                                    - 3 -      Formatted:  December 26, 2024






 rdesktop(1)                                                     rdesktop(1)
                                November 2005



           to be decimal or hexadecimal (prefixed by 0x).

      -a <bpp>
           Sets the colour depth for the connection (8, 15, 16, 24 or 32).
           More than 8 bpp are only supported when connecting to Windows XP
           (up to 16 bpp) or newer.  Note that the colour depth may also be
           limited by the server configuration. The default value is the
           depth of the root window.

      -z   Enable compression of the RDP datastream.

      -x <experience>
           Changes default bandwidth performance behaviour for RDP5. By
           default only theming is enabled, and all other options are
           disabled (corresponding to modem (56 Kbps)). Setting experience
           to b[roadband] enables menu animations and full window dragging.
           Setting experience to l[an] will also enable the desktop
           wallpaper. Setting experience to m[odem] disables all (including
           themes). Experience can also be a hexidecimal number containing
           the flags.

      -P   Enable caching of bitmaps to disk (persistent bitmap caching).
           This generally improves performance (especially on low bandwidth
           connections) and reduces network traffic at the cost of slightly
           longer startup and some disk space.  (10MB for 8-bit colour, 20MB
           for 15/16-bit colour, 30MB for 24-bit colour and 40MB for 32-bit
           colour sessions)

      -r <device>
           Enable redirection of the specified device on the client, such
           that it appears on the server. Note that the allowed redirections
           may be restricted by the server configuration.

           Following devices are currently supported:

      -r comport:<comport>=<device>,...
           Redirects serial devices on your client to the server. Note that
           if you need to change any settings on the serial device(s), do so
           with an appropriate tool before starting rdesktop. In most OSes
           you would use stty. Bidirectional/Read support requires Windows
           XP or newer.  In Windows 2000 it will create a port, but it's not
           seamless, most shell programs will not work with it.

      -r disk:<sharename>=<path>,...
           Redirects a path to the share \\tsclient\<sharename> on the
           server (requires Windows XP or newer). The share name is limited
           to 8 characters.

      -r lptport:<lptport>=<device>,...
           Redirects parallel devices on your client to the server.
           Bidirectional/Read support requires Windows XP or newer. In



                                    - 4 -      Formatted:  December 26, 2024






 rdesktop(1)                                                     rdesktop(1)
                                November 2005



           Windows 2000 it will create a port, but it's not seamless, most
           shell programs will not work with it.

      -r printer:<printername>[=<driver>],...
           Redirects a printer queue on the client to the server. The
           <printername> is the name of the queue in your local system.
           <driver> defaults to a simple PS-driver unless you specify one.
           Keep in mind that you need a 100% match in the server
           environment, or the driver will fail. The first printer on the
           command line will be set as your default printer.

      -r sound:[local|off|remote]
           Redirects sound generated on the server to the client. "remote"
           only has any effect when you connect to the console with the -0
           option. (Requires Windows XP or newer).

      -r lspci
           Activates the lspci channel, which allows the server to enumerate
           the clients PCI devices. See the file lspci-channel.txt in the
           documentation for more information.

      -r scard[:<Scard Name>=<Alias Name>[;<Vendor Name>][,...]]
           Enables redirection of one or more smart-cards. You can provide
           static name binding between linux and windows. To do this you can
           use optional parameters as described: <Scard Name> - device name
           in Linux/Unix enviroment, <Alias Name> - device name shown in
           Windows enviroment <Vendor Name> - optional device vendor name.
           For list of examples run rdesktop without parameters.

      -0   Attach to the console of the server (requires Windows Server 2003
           or newer).

      -4   Use RDP version 4.

      -5   Use RDP version 5 (default).

 CredSSP Smartcard options
      --sc-csp-name <name>
           Specify the CSP (Crypto Service Provider) to use on the windows
           side for the smartcard authentication. CSP is the driver for your
           smartcard and it seems like this is required to be specified for
           CredSSP authentication. For swedish NetID the following CSP name
           is used; "Net iD - CSP".

      --sc-container-name <name>
           Specify the container name, usally this is the username for
           default container and it seems like this is required to be
           specified for CredSSP authentication.

      --sc-reader-name <name>
           Specify the reader name to be used to prevent the pin code being



                                    - 5 -      Formatted:  December 26, 2024






 rdesktop(1)                                                     rdesktop(1)
                                November 2005



           sent to wrong card if there are several readers.

      --sc-card-name <name>
           Specify the card name for example; "Telia EID IP5a".

 EXIT VALUES
      0    RDP session terminated normally

      1    Server initiated disconnect (also returned for logoff by XP
           joined to a domain)

      2    Server initiated logoff

      3    Server idle timeout reached

      4    Server logon timeout reached

      5    The session was replaced

      6    The server is out of memory

      7    The server denied the connection

      8    The server denied the connection for security reason

      9    The user cannot connect to the server due to insufficient access
           privileges

      10   The server does not accept saved user credentials and requires
           that the user enter their credentials for each connection

      11   Disconnect initiated by administration tool

      12   Disconnect initiated by user

      16   Internal licensing error

      17   No license server available

      18   No valid license available

      19   Invalid licensing message

      20   Hardware id doesn't match software license

      21   Client license error

      22   Network error during licensing protocol

      23   Licensing protocol was not completed




                                    - 6 -      Formatted:  December 26, 2024






 rdesktop(1)                                                     rdesktop(1)
                                November 2005



      24   Incorrect client license enryption

      25   Can't upgrade license

      26   The server is not licensed to accept remote connections

      62   The local client window was closed

      63   Some other, unknown error occured

      64   Command line usage error

      69   A service or resource (such as memory) is unavailable

      70   An internal software error has been detected

      71   Operating system error

      76   Protocol error or unable to connect to remote host.


 LINKS
      Main website of rdesktop
      http://www.rdesktop.org/



























                                    - 7 -      Formatted:  December 26, 2024