Connect to Ubuntu with Windows Remote Desktop (RDP)

In this short tutorial, we'll show you how to access your Ubuntu 20.04 LTS computer using Windows Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) in a way that avoids the RDP black screen of death.

1. From a Windows command prompt, connect to your remote Ubuntu computer as root (i.e., the administrator) using the SSH command:

ssh root@your-ip-number

Replace your-ip-number with the IP number of your remote Ubuntu computer. For example:

2. Update Ubuntu and reboot:

apt update
apt upgrade
reboot

3. SSH back into the remote Ubuntu computer:

ssh root@your-ip-number

4. If necessary, install an Ubuntu desktop environment. For example, the following installs GNOME:

apt install ubuntu-desktop

This could take several minutes.

5. Install XRDP (an open-source Remote Desktop Protocol server) and reboot a second time:

apt install xrdp
adduser xrdp ssl-cert
apt install xorgxrdp
reboot

6. Wait a minute or two, then access your remote Ubuntu computer using Windows Remote Desktop Connection. For example:

Wait about 60 seconds or so and you should see an Ubuntu desktop, GNOME in this case: