How to access remote desktop from a Windows PC to Ubuntu?

Question

How to access a ubuntu system remotely from a windows pc without teamviewer? Is there any other option.

Answer 1

Well, there are several options to access Ubuntu GUI from a Windows machine...

• Teamviewer is pretty good, secure and user-friendly but it takes HUGE amounts of RAM on the Windows Machine (never bothered to look on the linux part but I guess it's not much better).
• VNC (real, tight, tiger...) is incredibly lightweight, fast and easy to use but, because of it's pretty weak security, it should only be used within well-secured LANs
• X2go is, IMHO, a pretty good compromise and my personnal favorite (thought it does NOT work correctly with Unity, but LXDE, MATE or XFCE will work perfectly, please make sure you install one before you continue).
  Note that the Windows client is 32bit and won't work on 64bit-only architecture (Itanium...) but that's kinda specific.

Here is a small Howto deal with the somewhat tricky installation of X2go for Ubuntu Trusty (14.04 LTS), based on my own experience (ymmv)

Before even starting, check your /etc/apt/sources.list file with your favorite text editor (sudo it, of course).
Make sure that, among the deb http://whatever.ubuntu.something/ubuntu trusty lines, at least ONE must end with main universe.
If you're not sure, or if no line seems to match and you freak at the idea of messing up , just add the following line:
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty main universe
Save and sudo apt-get update

Now, let's start
First, make sure you can add the repository:
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
(this should tell you last version is already installed but better be sure than sorry)
Now add the repository
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:x2go/stable sudo apt-get update
Now, let's install X2go:
sudo apt-get install x2goserver x2goserver-xsession
If you have installed LXDE, you may add the x2golxdebindings package (there is also a x2gomatebindings for MATE, but not yet for XFCE, which is not a very big deal anyways).

The X2go Windows client installer can be downloaded here (there's also clients for Mac OS X if you need it):
http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/download:start

Configuring the client is easy: server address, username and session type (LXDE, XFCE or MATE ar recommended: others are note working proprely, as said before).
You will probably have to accept a SSH key on your first connection.

NOTE: upon connection your client may get an error stating stdin is not a valid TTY.
In that case, get on the server and sudo edit your root's .profile and locate a single line stating mesg n.
Delete that line and replace it with the following:
if 'tty -s'; then mesg n TTY="tty" else TTY='not a tty' fi Save, exit and
sudo /etc/init.d/sshd restart
to apply changes.
Should work

Answer 2

Install x11vnc. Here is an installation guide for it:

It is possible to share your X desktop, in a Windows way with x11vnc: install it with `sudo apt-get install x11vnc and run it with

x11vnc -display :0

x11vnc will print something like

The VNC desktop is:      escher:0
PORT=5900

Now you can simply connect to your desktop with vncviewer on port 5900.

It is even possible to connect the viewer automatically (very useful for bypassing firewalls) with:

x11vnc -display :0 -connect host:port

where host has a listening viewer on port, for example ultraVNC supports this feature.

Notice that it is important to deactivate any 3D software on your desktop as x11vnc obviously cannot transport OpenGL graphics.

It even has a graphical interface.

x11vnc -gui

Also notice that it would be very easy to make an automatic remote control script for assisting people on Linux. On your side, open a port in your firewall and run vncviewer in listen mode. On the client side, send him a shell script that checks if x11vnc is installed and runs x11vnc -display :0 -connect you:your-port.