Remote Desktop for the Songhay Studio

Using Remote Desktop with my virtual machines was not possible because their network adapters were set to NAT instead of Bridged. I’m sure I made this setting because some version of VMware Workstation <=7 did not properly support Bridged networking.

Ubuntu’s supposed support for Remote Desktop begins at version 10. So I spent most of the day yesterday upgrading to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. This turns out to be great idea in general because it seems to run faster within the same memory limits as the previous LTS version of Ubuntu. As a Microsoft guy, this revelation is quite impressive!

However, there was one VMware-related bug with this upgrade. The keyboard was not recognized by Ubuntu 10.04—this is documented in “Ubuntu 10.04 doesn’t accept keyboard input when running under VMware on Windows 7.” What worked for me was logging into Ubuntu from putty and installing the VMware client tools (before I could do this I had to make sure the appropriate Linux headers were installed, sudo apt-get install cpp gcc build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)).

Multiple Monitors and Remote Desktop

The use of VMware and Remote Desktop among two or more computers is a quantum leap toward “extreme” flexibility for working in the Songhay Studio. I have a few situations right off the top:

• Using Remote Desktop against VMware on the host machine is a prudent work habit that allows me to move to another machine without having to log out of my session.

• Using Remote Desktop against the host machine from another machine with a bigger monitor simply allows me to work on another machine with a bigger monitor. Here in my studio living room, the bigger monitor is connected to my Mini-ITX “media center.” I can take advantage of the larger screen without having to install a bunch of crap on the “media center.”

• Using Remote Desktop (or just VMware) on the host machine and using a web browser connecting to the VM web server on another machine with a bigger monitor. Because my work with jQuery or Silverlight is usually accessible from a server, I effectively have a dual monitor experience without having to connect two monitors to the host machine—which is just a notebook. This is now possible because of Bridged networking working.### Relevant Links

• “Remote Desktop Connection against Ubuntu 10.10”

• “Connect to Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat via Windows Remote Desktop”

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