Frequently Asked Question

This guide has been tested with Ubuntu MATE 20.04, but should work for other distributions as well.

Advantages of X2Go

• The session remains running even after disconnecting, everything is still there after reconnecting
• The client window can be resized
• It works with the existing SSH daemon, encrypting all traffic between the client and the server while relying on the same well-tested and secure mechanism of authentication
• Supports multiple login sessions, desktops and users logged in to their own separate environments
• The client is available for Windows, macOS and Linux
• Only a single command is required to install and enable the server

Limitations of X2Go

• The server is only compatible with MATE and also LXDE and XFCE, but no more works on the latest Gnome and KDE versions without various tweaks and workarounds
• Although available in the menu, shutdown, reboot and hibernate have no effect via X2Go session. Instead sudo poweroff, sudo reboot or sudo systemctl hibernate have to be executed on the command line (sudo systemctl suspend would also suspend, but this also works via menu).

Server installation

sudo apt-get install x2goserver

Client installation

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt-get install x2goclient

Other systems

See https://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:installation:x2goclient

Connecting with a client

To start a new session, the host, login and session type have to be specified:

To connect to an existing session on the local screen, select Connection to local desktop for a saved connection (the local screen will be mirrored to the X2Go client):