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 Explorer.
27 -c <directory>
29 The initial working directory for the user. Often used in com‐
30 bination with -s to set up a fixed login environment.
31 -p <password>
33 The password to authenticate with. Note that this may have no
34 effect if "Always prompt for password" is enabled on the server.
35 WARNING: if you specify a password on the command line it may be
36 visible to other users when they use tools like ps. Use -p - to
37 make rdesktop request a password at startup (from standard
38 input).
39 -n <hostname>
41 Client hostname. Normally rdesktop automatically obtains the
42 hostname of the client.
43 -k <keyboard-map>
45 Keyboard layout to emulate. This requires a corresponding
46 keymap file to be installed. The standard keymaps provided with
47 rdesktop follow the RFC1766 naming scheme: a language code fol‐
48 lowed by a country code if necessary - e.g. en-us, en-gb, de,
49 fr, sv, etc.
50 The default keyboard map depends on the current locale (LC_* and
52 LANG environment variables). If the current locale is unknown,
53 the default keyboard map is en-us (a US English keyboard).
54 The keyboard maps are file names, which means that they are case
56 sensitive. The standard keymaps are all in lowercase.
57 The keyboard maps are searched relative to the directories
59 $HOME/.rdesktop/keymaps, KEYMAP_PATH (specified at build time),
60 and $CWD/keymaps, in this order. The keyboard-map argument can
61 also be an absolute filename.
62 The special value `none' can be used instead of a keyboard map.
64 In this case, rdesktop will guess the scancodes from the X11
65 event key codes using an internal mapping method. This method
66 only supports the basic alphanumeric keys and may not work prop‐
67 erly on all platforms so its use is discouraged.
68 -g <geometry>
70 Desktop geometry (WxH). If geometry is the special word
71 "workarea", the geometry will be fetched from the extended win‐
72 dow manager hints property _NET_WORKAREA, from the root window.
73 The geometry can also be specified as a percentage of the whole
74 screen, e.g. "-g 80%".
75 -f Enable fullscreen mode. This overrides the window manager and
77 causes the rdesktop window to fully cover the current screen.
78 Fullscreen mode can be toggled at any time using Ctrl-Alt-Enter.
79 -b Force the server to send screen updates as bitmaps rather than
81 using higher-level drawing operations.
82 -A Enable SeamlessRDP. In this mode, rdesktop creates a X11 window
84 for each window on the server side. This mode requires the Seam‐
85 lessRDP server side component, which is available from
86 http://www.cendio.com/seamlessrdp/. When using this option, you
87 should specify a startup shell which launches the desired appli‐
88 cation through SeamlessRDP.
89 Example: rdesktop -A -s 'seamlessrdpshell notepad'.
91 -B Use the BackingStore of the Xserver instead of the integrated
93 one in rdesktop.
94 -e Disable encryption. This option is only needed (and will only
96 work) if you have a French version of NT TSE.
97 -E Disable encryption from client to server. This sends an
99 encrypted login packet, but everything after this is unencrypted
100 (including interactive logins).
101 -m Do not send mouse motion events. This saves bandwidth, although
103 some Windows applications may rely on receiving mouse motion.
104 -C Use private colourmap. This will improve colour accuracy on an
106 8-bit display, but rdesktop will appear in false colour when not
107 focused.
108 -D Hide window manager decorations, by using MWM hints.
110 -K Do not override window manager key bindings. By default rdesk‐
112 top attempts to grab all keyboard input when it is in focus.
113 -S <button size>
115 Enable single application mode. This option can be used when
116 running a single, maximized application (via -s). When the mini‐
117 mize button of the windows application is pressed, the rdesktop
118 window is minimized instead of the remote application. The maxi‐
119 mize/restore button is disabled. For this to work, you must
120 specify the correct button size, in pixels. The special word
121 "standard" means 18 pixels.
122 -T <title>
124 Sets the window title. The title must be specified using an
125 UTF-8 string.
126 -N Enable numlock syncronization between the Xserver and the remote
128 RDP session. This is useful with applications that looks at the
129 numlock state, but might cause problems with some Xservers like
130 Xvnc.
131 -X <windowid>
133 Embed rdesktop-window in another window. The windowid is
134 expected to be decimal or hexadecimal (prefixed by 0x).
135 -a <bpp>
137 Sets the colour depth for the connection (8, 15, 16 or 24).
138 More than 8 bpp are only supported when connecting to Windows XP
139 (up to 16 bpp) or newer. Note that the colour depth may also be
140 limited by the server configuration. The default value is the
141 depth of the root window.
142 -z Enable compression of the RDP datastream.
144 -x <experience>
146 Changes default bandwidth performance behaviour for RDP5. By
147 default only theming is enabled, and all other options are dis‐
148 abled (corresponding to modem (56 Kbps)). Setting experience to
149 b[roadband] enables menu animations and full window dragging.
150 Setting experience to l[an] will also enable the desktop wallpa‐
151 per. Setting experience to m[odem] disables all (including
152 themes). Experience can also be a hexidecimal number containing
153 the flags.
154 -P Enable caching of bitmaps to disk (persistent bitmap caching).
156 This generally improves performance (especially on low bandwidth
157 connections) and reduces network traffic at the cost of slightly
158 longer startup and some disk space. (10MB for 8-bit colour,
159 20MB for 15/16-bit colour and 30MB for 24-bit colour sessions)
160 -r <device>
162 Enable redirection of the specified device on the client, such
163 that it appears on the server. Note that the allowed redirec‐
164 tions may be restricted by the server configuration.
165 Following devices are currently supported:
167 -r comport:<comport>=<device>,...
169 Redirects serial devices on your client to the server. Note that
170 if you need to change any settings on the serial device(s), do
171 so with an appropriate tool before starting rdesktop. In most
172 OSes you would use stty. Bidirectional/Read support requires
173 Windows XP or newer. In Windows 2000 it will create a port, but
174 it's not seamless, most shell programs will not work with it.
175 -r disk:<sharename>=<path>,...
177 Redirects a path to the share \\tsclient\<sharename> on the
178 server (requires Windows XP or newer). The share name is limited
179 to 8 characters.
180 -r lptport:<lptport>=<device>,...
182 Redirects parallel devices on your client to the server. Bidi‐
183 rectional/Read support requires Windows XP or newer. In Windows
184 2000 it will create a port, but it's not seamless, most shell
185 programs will not work with it.
186 -r printer:<printername>[=<driver>],...
188 Redirects a printer queue on the client to the server. The
189 <printername> is the name of the queue in your local system.
190 <driver> defaults to a simple PS-driver unless you specify one.
191 Keep in mind that you need a 100% match in the server environ‐
192 ment, or the driver will fail. The first printer on the command
193 line will be set as your default printer.
194 -r sound:[local|off|remote]
196 Redirects sound generated on the server to the client. "remote"
197 only has any effect when you connect to the console with the -0
198 option. (Requires Windows XP or newer).
199 -r lspci
201 Activates the lspci channel, which allows the server to enumer‐
202 ate the clients PCI devices. See the file lspci-channel.txt in
203 the documentation for more information.
204 -r scard[:<Scard Name>=<Alias Name>[;<Vendor Name>][,...]]
206 Enables redirection of one or more smart-cards. You can provide
207 static name binding between linux and windows. To do this you
208 can use optional parameters as described: <Scard Name> - device
209 name in Linux/Unix enviroment, <Alias Name> - device name shown
210 in Windows enviroment <Vendor Name> - optional device vendor
211 name. For list of examples run rdesktop without parameters.
212 -0 Attach to the console of the server (requires Windows Server
214 2003 or newer).
215 -4 Use RDP version 4.
217 -5 Use RDP version 5 (default).
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221 Main website of rdesktop
222 http://www.rdesktop.org/
223 November 2005 rdesktop(1)