How To Install rdesktop on CentOS 8

rdesktop is X client for remote desktop into Windows Terminal Server

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install rdesktop on CentOS 8.

What is `rdesktop`

rdesktop is an open source client for Windows NT Terminal Server and Windows 2000 & 2003 Terminal Services, capable of natively speaking Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) in order to present the user’s NT desktop. Unlike Citrix ICA, no server extensions are required.

We can use yum or dnf to install rdesktop on CentOS 8. In this tutorial we discuss both methods but you only need to choose one of method to install rdesktop.

Install rdesktop on CentOS 8 Using dnf

Update yum database with dnf using the following command.

sudo dnf makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install rdesktop using dnf by running the following command:

sudo dnf -y install rdesktop

Install rdesktop on CentOS 8 Using yum

Update yum database with yum using the following command.

sudo yum makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install rdesktop using yum by running the following command:

sudo yum -y install rdesktop

How To Uninstall rdesktop on CentOS 8

To uninstall only the rdesktop package we can use the following command:

sudo dnf remove rdesktop

rdesktop Package Contents on CentOS 8

/usr/bin/rdesktop
/usr/lib/.build-id
/usr/lib/.build-id/7d
/usr/lib/.build-id/7d/e4c0501bfc0b1244a9ad534f07440ed56ae55d
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop/AUTHORS
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop/COPYING
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop/ChangeLog
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop/HACKING
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop/README.md
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop/TODO
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop/ipv6.txt
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop/keymap-names.txt
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop/keymapping.txt
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop/licensing.txt
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop/patches.txt
/usr/share/doc/rdesktop/redirection.txt
/usr/share/man/man1/rdesktop.1.gz
/usr/share/rdesktop
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/ar
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/common
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/cs
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/da
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/de
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/de-ch
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/en-dv
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/en-gb
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/en-us
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/en-us-intl
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/es
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/et
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/fi
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/fo
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/fr
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/fr-be
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/fr-ca
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/fr-ch
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/he
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/hr
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/hu
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/is
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/it
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/ja
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/ko
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/lt
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/lv
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/mk
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/modifiers
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/nl
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/nl-be
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/no
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/pl
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/pt
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/pt-br
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/ru
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/sk
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/sl
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/sv
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/th
/usr/share/rdesktop/keymaps/tr

References

rdesktop website

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install rdesktop on CentOS 8 using yum and dnf.