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I'm currently trying to set up chrome remote desktop on a new computer with Ubuntu 18.04. But whenever I try to follow the instructions on https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/1649523#linux-crd, it skips the setup stage and goes straight to "Set up another device for remote access".

To clarify, the steps are:

  1. Install chrome extension
  2. Install Debian file https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/chrome-remote-desktop_current_amd64.deb
  3. Checked that it was successful using systemctl status chrome-remote-desktop
  4. The blue setup button on https://remotedesktop.google.com/access/ gets stuck forever
  5. If I try to open it up in a new tab or refresh, the only option I have is to "Set up another device for remote access" or remote into a device I've setup already.

I've gotten this to work on a virtual machine earlier this year and it works fine on my windows computer. But it seems to only fail on my Ubuntu 18.04 computer. I've also tried reinstalling google-chrome, chrome-remote-desktop chrome extension and chrome-remote-desktop Debian file installation.

Does anyone have suggestions on what might be going on?

dionode
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4 Answers4

33

If anyone else has this issue, try this:

mkdir ~/.config/chrome-remote-desktop
MikeV
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  • This helped me. Thank you – Gabriel Fair Jan 10 '21 at 14:54
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    Works like a charm, thanks a lot! – Roger Gomez Nieto Jan 16 '21 at 22:04
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    Worked for me in that session to add this computer to my Google Remote Devices, and it remains functional that way. BUT, a few days later, now I want to share this computer's "access code" so that someone else can take control, and that box at the bottom went back to prompting me to set up remote access. Same in the "Remote Support" tab: "To let someone else access and control this computer, click the download button." As if I no longer have remote desktop set up. Running the mkdir command again returns error cannot create directory ..... File already exists. – Larry Cai Mar 10 '21 at 05:47
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    This should be the accepted answer. – Outsider Apr 19 '21 at 06:45
  • Did the trick! Thank you! – Yorbjörn Nov 08 '21 at 08:46
  • Thank you. It worked perfectly. – le hien Apr 25 '22 at 12:12
0

Just checked again and looks like they've fixed it so it works again! If anyone else has this issue, an update should do!

dionode
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0

Happened to me with Ubuntu 20+:

I installed Google Chrome and, then, tried to install Chrome Remote Desktop.

Google Chrome tries to open chrome-remote-desktop_current_amd64.deb with Snap Store and then fails.

Solution: install gdebi, make it the default application to open .deb files and try again to install Chrome Remote Desktop.

Márcio Siena
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  • Thank you for your contribution - for future documentation purposes, please edit your answer and add your full Ubuntu version, not "Ubuntu 20+". – Pizza Mar 22 '21 at 08:41
  • had this already done -- not working – jjrr Aug 08 '23 at 12:31
0

I had the same problem on Ubuntu 21.04, so:

  1. Try installing the .deb package with dpkg and look at the errors. Mine for example listed this:
$ sudo dpkg -i "./path/to/file.deb"
[sudo] password for user:

...


dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of chrome-remote-desktop:
chrome-remote-desktop depends on xvfb; however:
  Package xvfb is not installed.
chrome-remote-desktop depends on xbase-clients; however:
  Package xbase-clients is not installed.
chrome-remote-desktop depends on python3-psutil; however:
  Package python3-psutil is not installed.

If the output is similar to this, try installing them. Like:

$ sudo apt install xvfb xbase-clients python3-psutil

Hope this helped.

Paper Luigi
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