Looking for advice on which distro to try out for what I suspect is not a common use case.
I want to use my personal laptop to connect to my work PC running windows 11. My laptop is a HP probook 440 G8. 11th gen intel with onboard graphics. Plugged in to a couple of 2560x1440 screens via a dock. The company I work for uses Citrix workspace and RDP for this purpose.
So far I have had a go with Mint 22.3 / Cinnamon and had a lot of trouble with Multi monitors. Best I can do is run the remote session windowed and have it dragged over two screens. This is not adequate by any means. Even getting the connection bar to appear in cinnamon is a nightmare of hitting atl and F10 and hoping it happens.
I’ve also added KDE plasma to my mint install. So far it is more reliable at getting RDP window to restore so I can drag it over 2 screens, however still no luck with full screen across all screens.
Does anyone else use citrix workspace from linux over multiple screens in full screen mode successfully?
I’m remoting into my work machine with RDP in a similar way, also using multiple (local) screens. I happen to be on CachyOS (Arch), but I would assume this works on any distro.
I just call xfreerdp3 directly with the appropriate command line options to span my local monitors which I want to use. I only use 2 of the 3 I have, as the 3rd remains for my local stuff.
Zero issues. Just works once setup.
A lot of people keep suggesting Remmina, but I couldn’t get that to work even slightly. Let alone with fine grained control over monitors.
Probably doesn’t need to be said, but make sure doing this won’t get you in trouble at work. Most enterprises would likely consider this a security issue, and most larger ones actively monitor what software is installed on workstations.
Edit: I see now you say this is commonplace where you work.We used to have a different method where by we connected to the company VPN from our home PC, then used a remote connection via that. It worked so well, no lag, full clipboard and drives support. This apparently meant our home PC was a security risk on the company network.
New IT banned that method and switched to Citrix workspace with RDP locked down inside that. Apparently it is much more secure. It is a bug ridden laggy piece of shit to use though and that is on windows. Linux version is no different in terms of lagging.
If this is an expected method of access, maybe just reach out to support about it. Let them solve it for you.
I used citrix workspace on endeavour OS (KDE), multi monitors (full screen across multiple monitors or one screen only), without problems.
I’ve never used Citrix specifically, but isn’t that related to the RDP client rather than the distro or desktop environment?
Sounding good. This was with a RDP session to a remote Windows PC?
remmina is a good option for rdp sessions and citrix runs just fine on fedora and debian with official clients.
I don’t get a choice of remina.
Remmina is a client on your personal laptop, that uses the RDP protocols needed to connect to your windows pc
well, a virtual window desktop on cloud. Also, technically to a Citrix session, not RDP.
Yeah that’s not the same thing that my work uses.
from the remote desktop client perspective there is no difference if the target is a real pc or a virtual desktop. You asked about citrix workspace. But sounds like you actually want an RDP client, not citrix. What @creat said looks like the best option.
My company uses RDP locked down inside Citrix workspace.
You have to use the RDP in the workspace. Not roll your own remote connection. There are no other apps inside our workspace.
Not sure how to explain it better than that.
ah I see, thanks for clarifying! Yeah it’s the same setup as I was using, so it should work fine
Yes
*on Wayland I assume
Linux Mint is old and outdated, installing KDE likely defaults to the X11 session
Most of the stuff I’ve read points to Citrix workspace being equally old and outdated thus being better on x11 than Wayland.
Yeah might well be. Clients are mostly way better off than servers, but multi monitor is fundamentally different between X11 and Wayland
Basically X11 doesnt even know multiple monitors, which is why mixed FPS, scaling, colorspaces etc are not possible. It is basically just one larger display with a weird shape.
Remmina
