Install Chrome remote desktop Ubuntu command line

Creating a Compute Engine instance

For the purposes of this tutorial, the default 1 vCPU (n1-standard-1) machine type with Debian Linux boot disk works fine, so you don't need to change the default settings.

1. In the Cloud Console, go to the VM Instances page:

   Go to the VM Instances page

2. Click Create.

3. Set the instance name to crdhost.

4. Optionally, select a region and zone that's close to you.

5. Click Create.

   It takes a few moments to create your instance.

6. After the instance has been created, connect to your new instance by clicking the SSH button in the instance list:

   

Installing Chrome Remote Desktop on the VM instance

The next step is to install Chrome Remote Desktop on the VM instance.

1. In the SSH window connected to your VM instance, update the package manager data and install wget:

   sudo apt update sudo apt install --assume-yes wget tasksel

2. On Debian 9 (stretch), install libgbm1 from the backports repository:

   [[ $(/usr/bin/lsb_release --codename --short) == "stretch" ]] && \ sudo apt install --assume-yes libgbm1/stretch-backports

3. Download and install the Debian Linux Chrome Remote Desktop installation package:

   wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/chrome-remote-desktop_current_amd64.deb sudo apt-get install --assume-yes ./chrome-remote-desktop_current_amd64.deb

Installing an X Windows System desktop environment

You need to install an X Window System desktop environment and window manager for Chrome Remote Desktop to use. Common options are:

• Xfce
• Cinnamon
• Gnome
• Gnome-Classic
• KDE Plasma

You can use other desktop environments, but Chrome Remote Desktop does not support 3D graphics acceleration. If you do choose a desktop environment that uses 3D graphics acceleration, you need to disable that feature, or the remote desktop service won't start.

For remote connections over slower networks we recommended Xfce because it has minimal graphical elements and few animations.

Regardless of which desktop environment you've installed, complete the installation process by following these steps:

1. Disable the display manager service on your instance. There is no display connected to your instance, so the display manager service won't start.

   sudo systemctl disable lightdm.service

2. Optionally, install the Chrome browser on your instance:

   wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb sudo apt install --assume-yes ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

Configuring and starting the Chrome Remote Desktop service

To start the remote desktop server, you need to have an authorization key for the Google account that you want to use to connect to it:

1. In the Cloud Console, go to the VM Instances page:

   Go to the VM Instances page

2. Connect to your instance by clicking the SSH button.

3. On your local computer, using the Chrome browser, go to the Chrome Remote Desktop command line setup page:

   https://remotedesktop.google.com/headless

4. If you're not already signed in, sign in with a Google Account. This is the account that will be used for authorizing remote access.

5. On the Set up another computer page, click Begin.

6. On the Download and install Chrome Remote Desktop page, click Next.

7. Click Authorize.

   You need to allow Chrome Remote Desktop to access your account. If you approve, the page displays a command line for Debian Linux that looks like the following:

   DISPLAY= /opt/google/chrome-remote-desktop/start-host \ --code="4/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \ --redirect-url="https://remotedesktop.google.com/_/oauthredirect" \ --name=$(hostname)

   You use this command to set up and start the Chrome Remote Desktop service on your VM instance, linking it with your Google Account using the authorization code.

   Note: The authorization code in the command line is valid for only a few minutes, and you can use it only once.

8. Copy the command to the SSH window that's connected to your instance, and then run the command.

9. When you're prompted, enter a 6-digit PIN. This number will be used for additional authorization when you connect later.

   You might see errors like No net_fetcher or Failed to read. You can ignore these errors.

10. Verify that the service is running using the following command.

    sudo systemctl status chrome-remote-desktop@$USER

    If the service is running, you see output that includes the state active:

    chrome-remote-desktop.service - LSB: Chrome Remote Desktop service Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since DATE_TIME; ELAPSED_TIME

Connecting to the VM instance

You can connect to the VM instance using the Chrome Remote Desktop web application.

1. On your local computer, go to the Chrome Remote Desktop web site.

2. Click Remote Access

3. If you're not already signed in to Google, sign in with the same Google Account that you used to set up the Chrome Remote Desktop service.

   You see your new VM instance in the Remote Devices list.

   

4. Click the name of the remote desktop instance.

5. When you're prompted, enter the PIN that you created earlier, and then click the arrow button to connect.

   You are now connected to the desktop environment on your remote Compute Engine instance.

If you installed the Xfce desktop, the first time you connect, you are prompted to set up the desktop panels. Click Use Default Config to get the standard taskbar at the top and the quick launch panel at the bottom.

Improving the remote desktop experience

This section provides instructions for changing settings in order to improve the remote desktop experience.

Enable Clipboard Synchronization

Clipboard Synchronization allows the contents of the clipboard to be shared between the local and remote machines. If this feature is not already enabled, do the following:

1. Open the Session Options panel using the button chevron_left that appears when you move the mouse to the side of the window.
2. In the Enable Clipboard Synchronization section, click Begin (this section will only be shown if clipboard synchronization is not yet enabled).
3. Click Allow.

Install the Remote Desktop Chrome app

The Remote Desktop Chrome app gives a separate windowed experience and allows keyboard shortcuts that would normally be intercepted by Chrome to be used on the remote system.

If this app is not installed, do the following:

1. Open the Session Options panel using the button chevron_left that appears when you move the mouse to the side of the window.
2. In the Install App section, click Begin.
3. Click Install.

The remote desktop session reopens in its own application window.

You can move any remote desktop sessions from a Chrome tab to the app window by clicking the Open With open_in_new icon in the URL bar.

Disable animations and effects in Cinnamon

The Cinnamon desktop uses several graphical features and animations, such as semi-transparent windows and menus that fade in and out. Because these animations take more time to render over a remote connection, it can make the user interface feel slow.

To disable these effects:

1. In the Cinnamon desktop, select Menu > Preferences > Effects.

   

2. Disable each of the effects:

   

Set a user password

The user account created by Compute Engine doesn't have a password. However, several desktop environments require one for unlocking screensavers and authorizing administrative actions. It is therefore important to set a password for your user:

1. Connect to the instance using SSH, as you did when you first set up the instance.

2. Create a password for the user:

   sudo passwd $(whoami)

Disable screensavers and lock screens

Because you're accessing your desktop from a remote computer, it's normally not necessary to use a screensaver or screen locker, so you can disable these.

Increase the desktop resolution

If you have an ultra high-resolution monitor, you might find that the default maximum remote desktop size of 1600 x 1200 is too small. If so, you can increase it to the resolution of your monitor.

1. Use SSH to connect to the instance.

2. Set the CHROME_REMOTE_DESKTOP_DEFAULT_DESKTOP_SIZES environment variable to include the resolution of your monitor:

   echo "export CHROME_REMOTE_DESKTOP_DEFAULT_DESKTOP_SIZES=1600x1200,3840x2560" \ >> ~/.profile

3. Restart the service:

   sudo systemctl restart chrome-remote-desktop@$USER

Choose a different desktop environment

In the preceding section, you set a default desktop environment in the global /etc/chrome-remote-desktop-session configuration file. You can also choose a different desktop environment (if it's installed) by specifying it in the .chrome-remote-desktop-session configuration file in your home directory:

After you make this change, restart the service so the change takes effect:

As mentioned before, Chrome Remote Desktop does not support 3D graphics acceleration. Therefore, for any desktop environments that uses these features, you need disable 3D graphics, or the session will not start.

Automating the installation process

When you need to set up multiple machines with Chrome Remote Desktop, the manual installation steps can become repetitive. You can use a custom startup script to automate this process, using the following procedure:

1. In the Cloud Console, go to the VM Instances page:

   Go to the VM Instances page

2. Click Create Instance.

3. Set the instance name to crdhost-autoinstall.

4. Optionally, select a region and zone that's close to you.

5. Copy the following shell script and paste it into the Automation/Startup Script textbox:

   #!/bin/bash -x # # Startup script to install Chrome remote desktop and a desktop environment. # # See environmental variables at then end of the script for configuration # function install_desktop_env { PACKAGES="desktop-base xscreensaver dbus-x11" if [[ "$INSTALL_XFCE" != "yes" && "$INSTALL_CINNAMON" != "yes" ]] ; then # neither XFCE nor cinnamon specified; install both INSTALL_XFCE=yes INSTALL_CINNAMON=yes fi if [[ "$INSTALL_XFCE" = "yes" ]] ; then PACKAGES="$PACKAGES xfce4" echo "exec xfce4-session" > /etc/chrome-remote-desktop-session [[ "$INSTALL_FULL_DESKTOP" = "yes" ]] && \ PACKAGES="$PACKAGES task-xfce-desktop" fi if [[ "$INSTALL_CINNAMON" = "yes" ]] ; then PACKAGES="$PACKAGES cinnamon-core" echo "exec cinnamon-session-cinnamon2d" > /etc/chrome-remote-desktop-session [[ "$INSTALL_FULL_DESKTOP" = "yes" ]] && \ PACKAGES="$PACKAGES task-cinnamon-desktop" fi DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \ apt-get install --assume-yes $PACKAGES $EXTRA_PACKAGES systemctl disable lightdm.service } function download_and_install { # args URL FILENAME curl -L -o "$2" "$1" dpkg --install "$2" apt-get install --assume-yes --fix-broken } function is_installed { # args PACKAGE_NAME dpkg-query --list "$1" | grep -q "^ii" 2>/dev/null return $? } # Configure the following environmental variables as required: INSTALL_XFCE=yes INSTALL_CINNAMON=yes INSTALL_CHROME=yes INSTALL_FULL_DESKTOP=yes # Any additional packages that should be installed on startup can be added here EXTRA_PACKAGES="less bzip2 zip unzip tasksel wget" apt-get update # Install backports version of libgbm1 on Debian 9/stretch [[ $(/usr/bin/lsb_release --codename --short) == "stretch" ]] && \ apt-get install --assume-yes libgbm1/stretch-backports ! is_installed chrome-remote-desktop && \ download_and_install \ https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/chrome-remote-desktop_current_amd64.deb \ /tmp/chrome-remote-desktop_current_amd64.deb install_desktop_env [[ "$INSTALL_CHROME" = "yes" ]] && \ ! is_installed google-chrome-stable && \ download_and_install \ https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb \ /tmp/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb echo "Chrome remote desktop installation completed"

   This script performs the following tasks each time the machine is rebooted:

   • If the remote desktop package is not installed:
     • Downloads and installs the Chrome Remote Desktop package.
     • Installs the dependent packages.
   • Installs the Xfce or Cinnamon desktop environments (depending on the script settings).
   • If the full desktop environment option is enabled, installs the necessary packages.
   • If the Chrome browser option is enabled and is not installed:
     • Downloads and installs the Chrome Remote Desktop package.
     • Installs the dependent packages.
   Note: You can choose which packages to install by using the variables defined near the end of the script.

6. Click Create.

   It takes a few moments to create your instance, and on first run with all the options enabled, the script can take up to 10 minutes to complete the installation.

7. To monitor progress, connect to the VM instance using SSH, and in the terminal of the instance, run the following command:

   sudo journalctl -o cat -f _SYSTEMD_UNIT=google-startup-scripts.service

   This command shows the output from the startup script. When the script has finished, you see the following:

   INFO startup-script: Chrome remote desktop installation completed INFO startup-script: Return code 0. INFO Finished running startup scripts.

This script only installs the required packages; you still need to configure the Remote Desktop Service for your user, as described previously.

There are various ways to specify a startup script when creating a new VM instance:

• Pasting it into the Cloud Console (as shown earlier).
• Storing it as a file on a local machine, and using the --metadata-from-file flag when you create the instance using the gcloud command line tool.
• Storing it in a Cloud Storage bucket and specifying the URL to the objecteither in the console or in the gcloud tool.

For more information on the alternative methods of how to configure the startup script, see Running Startup scripts in the Compute Engine documentation.

Troubleshooting

Check the status of the Chrome Remote Desktop service

If at any point the Chrome Remote Desktop service is not responding, you can check its status by using SSH to connect to the instance and running the following command:

If the service is running, you see output that includes the state active:

To restart the service, use the following command in the SSH window:

Get log and error information

Chrome Remote Desktop writes log information to the system journal:

You can check these log files for error messages.

Re-enable the service

If you have mistakenly disabled connections to the remote instance in the client app, you can reconfigure the service and re-enable it by following the instructions in Configuring and starting the Chrome Remote Desktop service.

Check the global and user-specific session configuration files.

Check the contents of the global /etc/chrome-remote-desktop-session configuration file and the user-specific ~/.chrome-remote-desktop-session configuration file and confirm that the specified desktop environments are installed.