1rdesktop(1) General Commands Manual rdesktop(1)
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6 rdesktop - Remote Desktop Protocol client
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9 rdesktop [options] server[:port]
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12 rdesktop is a client for Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), used in a num‐
13 ber of Microsoft products including Windows NT Terminal Server, Windows
14 2000 Server, Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server.
15
18 -u <username>
19 Username for authentication on the server.
20 -d <domain>
22 Domain for authentication.
23 -s <shell>
25 Startup shell for the user - starts a specific application
26 instead of Explore. If SeamlessRDP is enabled this is the
27 application which i started in seamless mode.
28 -c <directory>
30 The initial working directory for the user. Often used in com‐
31 bination with -s to set up a fixed login environment.
32 -p <password>
34 The password to authenticate with. Note that this may have no
35 effect if "Always prompt for password" is enabled on the server.
36 WARNING: if you specify a password on the command line it may be
37 visible to other users when they use tools like ps. Use -p - to
38 make rdesktop request a password at startup (from standard
39 input).
40 -n <hostname>
42 Client hostname. Normally rdesktop automatically obtains the
43 hostname of the client.
44 -k <keyboard-map>
46 Keyboard layout to emulate. This requires a corresponding
47 keymap file to be installed. The standard keymaps provided with
48 rdesktop follow the RFC1766 naming scheme: a language code fol‐
49 lowed by a country code if necessary - e.g. en-us, en-gb, de,
50 fr, sv, etc.
51 The default keyboard map depends on the current locale (LC_* and
53 LANG environment variables). If the current locale is unknown,
54 the default keyboard map is en-us (a US English keyboard).
55 The keyboard maps are file names, which means that they are case
57 sensitive. The standard keymaps are all in lowercase.
58 The keyboard maps are searched relative to the directories
60 $HOME/.rdesktop/keymaps, KEYMAP_PATH (specified at build time),
61 and $CWD/keymaps, in this order. The keyboard-map argument can
62 also be an absolute filename.
63 The special value `none' can be used instead of a keyboard map.
65 In this case, rdesktop will guess the scancodes from the X11
66 event key codes using an internal mapping method. This method
67 only supports the basic alphanumeric keys and may not work prop‐
68 erly on all platforms so its use is discouraged.
69 -g <geometry>
71 Desktop geometry (WxH). If geometry is the special word
72 "workarea", the geometry will be fetched from the extended win‐
73 dow manager hints property _NET_WORKAREA, from the root window.
74 The geometry can also be specified as a percentage of the whole
75 screen, e.g. "-g 80%".
76 If the specified geometry depends on the screen size, and the
78 screen size is changed, rdesktop will automatically reconnect
79 using the new screen size. This requires that rdesktop has been
80 compiled with RandR support.
81 -i Use password as smartcard pin. If a valid user certificate is
83 matched in smart card reader the password passed with p argument
84 is used as pin for the smart card. This feature also requires
85 that smart card redirection is used using r scard argument.
86 -f Enable fullscreen mode. This overrides the window manager and
88 causes the rdesktop window to fully cover the current screen.
89 Fullscreen mode can be toggled at any time using Ctrl-Alt-Enter.
90 -b Force the server to send screen updates as bitmaps rather than
92 using higher-level drawing operations.
93 -t Disable use of remote control. This will disable features like
95 seamless connection sharing.
96 -A <seamlessrdpshell>
98 Enable SeamlessRDP by specifying the path to seamless rdp shell.
99 In this mode, rdesktop creates a X11 window for each window on
100 the server side. This mode requires the SeamlessRDP server side
101 component, which is available from http://www.cendio.com/seam‐
102 lessrdp/.
103 When using this option, you should normally specify a startup
105 shell which launches the desired application through Seamless‐
106 RDP.
107 Example: rdesktop -A 'c:\seamlessrdp\seamlessrdpshell.exe' -s
109 'notepad' mywts.domain.com
110 Any subsequential call to the above commandline example will
112 make use of the seamless connection sharing feature which spawns
113 another notepad in the current connection to the specified
114 server and then exit.
115 -B Use the BackingStore of the Xserver instead of the integrated
118 one in rdesktop.
119 -e Disable encryption. This option is only needed (and will only
121 work) if you have a French version of NT TSE.
122 -E Disable encryption from client to server. This sends an
124 encrypted login packet, but everything after this is unencrypted
125 (including interactive logins).
126 -m Do not send mouse motion events. This saves bandwidth, although
128 some Windows applications may rely on receiving mouse motion.
129 -C Use private colourmap. This will improve colour accuracy on an
131 8-bit display, but rdesktop will appear in false colour when not
132 focused.
133 -D Hide window manager decorations, by using MWM hints.
135 -K Do not override window manager key bindings. By default rdesk‐
137 top attempts to grab all keyboard input when it is in focus.
138 -S <button size>
140 Enable single application mode. This option can be used when
141 running a single, maximized application (via -s). When the mini‐
142 mize button of the windows application is pressed, the rdesktop
143 window is minimized instead of the remote application. The maxi‐
144 mize/restore button is disabled. For this to work, you must
145 specify the correct button size, in pixels. The special word
146 "standard" means 18 pixels.
147 -T <title>
149 Sets the window title. The title must be specified using an
150 UTF-8 string.
151 -N Enable numlock syncronization between the Xserver and the remote
153 RDP session. This is useful with applications that looks at the
154 numlock state, but might cause problems with some Xservers like
155 Xvnc.
156 -X <windowid>
158 Embed rdesktop-window in another window. The windowid is
159 expected to be decimal or hexadecimal (prefixed by 0x).
160 -a <bpp>
162 Sets the colour depth for the connection (8, 15, 16, 24 or 32).
163 More than 8 bpp are only supported when connecting to Windows XP
164 (up to 16 bpp) or newer. Note that the colour depth may also be
165 limited by the server configuration. The default value is the
166 depth of the root window.
167 -z Enable compression of the RDP datastream.
169 -x <experience>
171 Changes default bandwidth performance behaviour for RDP5. By
172 default only theming is enabled, and all other options are dis‐
173 abled (corresponding to modem (56 Kbps)). Setting experience to
174 b[roadband] enables menu animations and full window dragging.
175 Setting experience to l[an] will also enable the desktop wallpa‐
176 per. Setting experience to m[odem] disables all (including
177 themes). Experience can also be a hexidecimal number containing
178 the flags.
179 -P Enable caching of bitmaps to disk (persistent bitmap caching).
181 This generally improves performance (especially on low bandwidth
182 connections) and reduces network traffic at the cost of slightly
183 longer startup and some disk space. (10MB for 8-bit colour,
184 20MB for 15/16-bit colour, 30MB for 24-bit colour and 40MB for
185 32-bit colour sessions)
186 -r <device>
188 Enable redirection of the specified device on the client, such
189 that it appears on the server. Note that the allowed redirec‐
190 tions may be restricted by the server configuration.
191 Following devices are currently supported:
193 -r comport:<comport>=<device>,...
195 Redirects serial devices on your client to the server. Note that
196 if you need to change any settings on the serial device(s), do
197 so with an appropriate tool before starting rdesktop. In most
198 OSes you would use stty. Bidirectional/Read support requires
199 Windows XP or newer. In Windows 2000 it will create a port, but
200 it's not seamless, most shell programs will not work with it.
201 -r disk:<sharename>=<path>,...
203 Redirects a path to the share \\tsclient\<sharename> on the
204 server (requires Windows XP or newer). The share name is limited
205 to 8 characters.
206 -r lptport:<lptport>=<device>,...
208 Redirects parallel devices on your client to the server. Bidi‐
209 rectional/Read support requires Windows XP or newer. In Windows
210 2000 it will create a port, but it's not seamless, most shell
211 programs will not work with it.
212 -r printer:<printername>[=<driver>],...
214 Redirects a printer queue on the client to the server. The
215 <printername> is the name of the queue in your local system.
216 <driver> defaults to a simple PS-driver unless you specify one.
217 Keep in mind that you need a 100% match in the server environ‐
218 ment, or the driver will fail. The first printer on the command
219 line will be set as your default printer.
220 -r sound:[local|off|remote]
222 Redirects sound generated on the server to the client. "remote"
223 only has any effect when you connect to the console with the -0
224 option. (Requires Windows XP or newer).
225 -r lspci
227 Activates the lspci channel, which allows the server to enumer‐
228 ate the clients PCI devices. See the file lspci-channel.txt in
229 the documentation for more information.
230 -r scard[:<Scard Name>=<Alias Name>[;<Vendor Name>][,...]]
232 Enables redirection of one or more smart-cards. You can provide
233 static name binding between linux and windows. To do this you
234 can use optional parameters as described: <Scard Name> - device
235 name in Linux/Unix enviroment, <Alias Name> - device name shown
236 in Windows enviroment <Vendor Name> - optional device vendor
237 name. For list of examples run rdesktop without parameters.
238 -0 Attach to the console of the server (requires Windows Server
240 2003 or newer).
241 -4 Use RDP version 4.
243 -5 Use RDP version 5 (default).
245
247 --sc-csp-name <name>
248 Specify the CSP (Crypto Service Provider) to use on the windows
249 side for the smartcard authentication. CSP is the driver for
250 your smartcard and it seems like this is required to be speci‐
251 fied for CredSSP authentication. For swedish NetID the following
252 CSP name is used; "Net iD - CSP".
253 --sc-container-name <name>
255 Specify the container name, usally this is the username for
256 default container and it seems like this is required to be spec‐
257 ified for CredSSP authentication.
258 --sc-reader-name <name>
260 Specify the reader name to be used to prevent the pin code being
261 sent to wrong card if there are several readers.
262 --sc-card-name <name>
264 Specify the card name for example; "Telia EID IP5a".
265
267 0 RDP session terminated normally
268 1 Server initiated disconnect (also returned for logoff by XP
270 joined to a domain)
271 2 Server initiated logoff
273 3 Server idle timeout reached
275 4 Server logon timeout reached
277 5 The session was replaced
279 6 The server is out of memory
281 7 The server denied the connection
283 8 The server denied the connection for security reason
285 9 The user cannot connect to the server due to insufficient access
287 privileges
288 10 The server does not accept saved user credentials and requires
290 that the user enter their credentials for each connection
291 11 Disconnect initiated by administration tool
293 12 Disconnect initiated by user
295 16 Internal licensing error
297 17 No license server available
299 18 No valid license available
301 19 Invalid licensing message
303 20 Hardware id doesn't match software license
305 21 Client license error
307 22 Network error during licensing protocol
309 23 Licensing protocol was not completed
311 24 Incorrect client license enryption
313 25 Can't upgrade license
315 26 The server is not licensed to accept remote connections
317 62 The local client window was closed
319 63 Some other, unknown error occured
321 64 Command line usage error
323 69 A service or resource (such as memory) is unavailable
325 70 An internal software error has been detected
327 71 Operating system error
329 76 Protocol error or unable to connect to remote host.
331
334 Main website of rdesktop
335 http://www.rdesktop.org/
336 November 2005 rdesktop(1)