Guide

How to control a Linux PC from a Windows PC

If your own computer runs Windows and some of the PCs you look after run Linux, you shouldn't need a different tool for each. With the RemoteAccessApp Agent on the Linux PC, it shows up in the RemoteAccessApp Console next to your Windows PCs, and you open it the same way.

You get the desktop, a bash terminal, and the Console's tools for processes, services and logs, end-to-end encrypted between your Windows PC and the Linux one.

  • Same Devices list as your Windows PCs
  • Bash terminal in the session
  • End-to-end encrypted

Updated · Windows 10 and 11 Console, Linux desktops on X11 or Wayland

Connect to the Linux PC

  1. Step 1: Install the Agent on the Linux PC

    Install the .deb or .tar.gz on the Linux PC and set it up with a setup code from Add a PC in the Console. X11 (Xorg) and Wayland desktops both work; on Wayland the PC asks once to approve screen sharing. The install guide has the steps.

  2. Step 2: Find it on the Devices page

    In the RemoteAccessApp Console on your Windows PC, signed in to the same account, the Linux PC is listed on the Devices page with its online status, like your other PCs.

  3. Step 3: Open a session

    Double-click it. Unless unattended access lets your console in, the person at the Linux PC sees Allow remote access? and the session starts when they click Allow.

  4. Step 4: Work as you would on a Windows PC

    The screen, mouse and keyboard work as usual, and the PC can sit in a tab or the live grid next to your Windows PCs. The banner on the Linux PC shows you're there, with an End button for the person at it. The PC stays awake while you're connected.

Keyboard and screen

  • Keys follow the Linux PC's layout. What you press is sent to the Linux PC and mapped to its keyboard layout. Text you type arrives as text, so characters that layout lacks still come through.
  • Several monitors. The free plan shows the PC's main screen. With Pro you can switch between its monitors or see them all, and the mouse lands on the monitor you're viewing.
  • A locked screen. If the Linux PC is locked, type its user's password in the session to unlock it. The system checks it, as it would at the PC. This works in a session the PC allowed, with remote control on.
  • Speed and quality. The picture adapts to your connection, with sharp image tiles or the video codec, as on Windows PCs.

A terminal on the Linux PC

In a session, open the terminal from the session toolbar: on a Linux PC it's bash, in a panel under the screen, running as the person signed in to the desktop, with their rights. Full-screen programs work, and it resizes with the panel.

df -h /
systemctl --user list-units --type=service
journalctl --user -n 50

You don't need a session for a quick command: right-click the PC on the Devices page and choose Open terminal or Run a command…. See running commands on a Linux PC without a session.

Processes, services and logs

The Console's Windows tools page works with Linux PCs too, using their Linux counterparts, so the ideas in how to manage multiple Windows computers remotely carry over to your Linux desktops:

  • Processes, with the option to end one: it's asked to stop first, then stopped.
  • Services from systemd: start, stop and restart, where the signed-in user may. Anything that needs root is refused with a clear message instead of a password prompt on the PC.
  • Sessions: who is signed in.
  • Event logs from the systemd journal, as System and User logs. Reading the system journal needs the signed-in user to be in the adm or systemd-journal group, and the tool tells you how to add it.

Files, clipboard and sound

You can drop files on the session or browse the Linux PC's folders in two panes, and copy text and pictures both ways through the clipboard. With Pro, you can also hear the PC's sound. See transferring files with a Linux PC. Chat works on every plan.

Not on Linux yet

Management (scripts, restarts and updates on many PCs at once or on a schedule) and direct connections on the local network are for Windows PCs only for now. In Management, Linux PCs show Not available on Linux yet.

No Windows PC? Use a browser

From another Linux PC, install RemoteAccessApp for Linux: it includes the Agent (so this PC can be reached) and the Console (to reach your other PCs), with end-to-end encrypted sessions, the terminal and the tools, as on Windows. From a Mac or a Chromebook, sign in at remoteaccessapp.com and open the Linux PC in the browser instead: the screen, control, chat and sending files work there, encrypted but not end to end. The terminal and the tools are in the Console. See access your PC from a browser.

Questions, answered

More on RemoteAccessApp for Linux

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