war story: preliminary adventures with RDP / Remmina / Flatpak
We use Windows for tax programs. Linux doesn't have these programs. So we need to run Windows once in a while. Dual-booting works fine but it isn't the most convenient setup. Running Window in a VM would be great but I haven't figured out how to do that. Licencing is part of the issue. So: Remote Desktop (RDP) would seem to be a solution. The RDP server (i.e. the computer running Windows, backwards from X) has to be running Win 11 Pro. We have a computer that can do that. There are several Linux RDP clients. Remmina gets the best press. So that's what I chose. Remmina comes pre-installed on Fedora 39 (at least I don't remember installing it)/ My adventures so far are documented here: <https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/rdp-client-remmina-fails-to-connect-but-gnome-connections-does/103600/4> Summary: - Remmina didn't work - Gnome Connections did work (but people recommend against it as a client) - Remmina was installed as a flatpak - when I replaced it with normal packages, it worked $ flatpack remove org.remmina.Remmina $ sudo dnf install remmina If I were on Team Flatpak I'd debug why the flatpack version didn't work. My hunch is that it may be because I'm not using the systemd-resolver. More to learn. Like what these diagnostics mean: [11:08:55:918] [51240:52086] [ERROR][com.freerdp.common.settings] - [freerdp_settings_get_bool] Invalid key index 131 [11:08:55:918] [51240:52086] [ERROR][com.freerdp.common.settings] - [freerdp_settings_get_bool] Invalid key index 0 [11:08:55:114] [51240:52086] [WARN][com.freerdp.crypto] - Certificate verification failure 'self-signed certificate (18)' at stack position 0 [11:09:36:154] [51240:52086] [WARN][com.freerdp.core.rdp] - pduType PDU_TYPE_DATA not properly parsed, 562 bytes remaining unhandled. Skipping.
On Tue, Jan 30, 2024 at 6:47 PM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
Running Window in a VM would be great but I haven't figured out how to do that. Licencing is part of the issue.
I've been doing this in one form or another using Boxes (from the rpm) for over ten years (I started playing with it in 2011). I used Windows 7 in a box for part time work, installed from a purchased DVD. About seven years ago I needed to start using it full time, so I bought a Windows 10 Pro license and an SSD. I downloaded the ISO from Microsoft (I think you can do this without the license key), and used Boxes to install it onto the SSD where it is still running. My understanding is your ThinkPad should store the Windows license key that came with it in a folder in Linux. I've seen mine but I haven't tried using it. Mike
| From: Michael Hill via talk <talk@gtalug.org> Thanks for this information. | On Tue, Jan 30, 2024 at 6:47 PM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk | <talk@gtalug.org> wrote: | | > Running Window in a VM would be great but I haven't figured out how to do | > that. Licensing is part of the issue. | About seven years ago I needed to start using it full time, so I | bought a Windows 10 Pro license and an SSD. Yeah. It is a matter of pride/stubbornness that I don't want to buy a second Windows license for the machine. I already involuntarily paid for one. | My understanding is your ThinkPad should store the Windows license key | that came with it in a folder in Linux. I've seen mine but I haven't | tried using it. At one point, licenses were stored (partly) in the firmware. These days, once you've initialized Windows, Microsoft records your "entitlement" in its cloud. If you change enough things, Windows won't consider it the same computer and you have to buy a new license or argue with humans at Microsoft. The VM doesn't look at all like the real machine to Windows. Starting from the fact that the firmware is quite different.
participants (2)
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D. Hugh Redelmeier -
Michael Hill