How to diagnose xrdp blank or black screen?

LawrenceK – 2011-12-14i) We have had issues with the bit depth of the client, try setting the rdp client to 16 bits before connecting.ii) try running xrdp manually
i.e.

sudo /etc/init.d/xrdp stop
sudo xrdp

you may need to enter a path for xrdp, cannot remember where installed by Ubuntu I suspect /sbin

Dale E. Moore – 2011-12-22Thanks Lawrence!256, 15-bit, 16-bit and 24-bit all go to black screen.root@Crackers:~# /etc/init.d/xrdp stop
Stopping RDP Session manager
   …done.
root@Crackers:~# which xrdp
/usr/sbin/xrdp
root@Crackers:~# xrdp
root@Crackers:~# cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=11.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=oneiric
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION=”Ubuntu 11.10″
still goes to black screen.top shows nothing happening.

root@Crackers:/var/log# ll -tr
…
-rw—– 1 root              root    4852 2011-12-21 22:43 xrdp-sesman.log
-rw-r— 1 syslog            adm    22890 2011-12-21 22:45 syslog
-rw-r— 1 syslog            adm   750662 2011-12-21 22:50 auth.logauth.log shows the ssh login and exit.
syslog shows nothing recognizableroot@Crackers:/var/log# tail xrdp-sesman.log …
  listening…
  shutting down sesman 1Is there any way I can get more detail out of what’s hanging and why? Can I expand the verbosity of the logging? Can I look in other log files?I appreciate your help,
Dale

Dale E. Moore – 2012-01-06Does anyone have any suggestions about how to diagnose this problem?

david marron – 2012-02-23I didn’t write this, but changed it a bit-it worked for meat first boot, login as root
aptitude install tightvncserver
aptitude install xrdp
reboot computer
aptitude install xorg
aptitude install nano

reboot computer

attempt remote login to desktop using the Windoze Remote Desktop & the remote computer’s ip address (not the computer name)
script for finding your ip address: ifconfig
If you cannot login remotely at this point, then login locally.
Again try the Remote Desktop. If you cannot get in remotely at this point-You might try editing the following:

Editing of xrdp.ini (optional)

sudo nano /etc/xrdp/xrdp.iniEdit xrdp.ini to

read:bitmap_cache=yes
bitmap_compression=yes
port=3389
crypt_level=low
channel_code=1name=RDP_To_TightVNC
lib=libvnc.so
username=ask
password=ask
ip=127.0.0.1
port=-1

Reboot & try remote login again. If you still cannot login remotely, then do this:
Create a new user on the machine. Make this user “auto login” so that the machine boots directly to his Desktop. Change his desktop settings so that he goes to screensaver in one minute. Reboot the machine.
You should now be able to use another computer to access your desktop on this machine. If not, I do not know what is wrong.

To setup for a headless operation:
Create the xorg.conf in /etc/X11Create the xorg.conf file by in this manner:

In Root Terminal

sudo nano /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config

Use “File/ Save As” and name the new file xorg.conf
Delete all that is inside the new xorg.conf file.
Copy & pasted the following into the empty xorg.conf file:Section “Device”

Identifier "VNC Device"
Driver "vesa"
EndSectionSection "Screen"
Identifier "VNC Screen"
Device "VNC Device"
Monitor "VNC Monitor"
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSectionSection "Monitor"
Identifier "VNC Monitor"
HorizSync 30-70
VertRefresh 50-75
EndSection

Save & Close.

Ready to Reboot Headless & without a monitor!

Anonymous – 2012-05-29I had the same issue. For me it was because I was passing in the domain to logon to. Removing that fixed the issue!

hank roberts – 2012-09-28>  it was because I was passing in the domainThank you Josh, removing the Domain fixed the black screen for me also

Florian Wagner – 2013-04-30Hey Josh,can you specify what you removed from which file?Thanks a lot!

Jackson – 2013-12-05Hi,Saving the domain in the form of “mydomain\username” in your client login details causes the black screen.
If I don’t save the domain portion and type it in to the username field manually, it works fine.My linux machines authenticate against our AD server, therefore I am required to enter the domain in the username field.Does anyone know a way of saving the credentials with the domain, without causing the black screen? Thanks!

Jasen Webster – 2020-04-25The above posts helped me resolve the blank/black screen when logging into XRDP from W10. But I only had the issue from my W10 work laptop and not my 2 home W10 computers, so I knew the issue was not the install. I resolved the issue by removing the domain name from the login credentials.

The solution to include the domain name in the credential is to name the connection to the domain name you want, so you can login as “mydomain\username”.[mydomain]

name=Xorg
lib=libxup.so
username=ask
password=ask
ip=127.0.0.1
port=-1
code=20

I did not find this solution anywhere and the only clue I had was in the manpages for xrdp.ini.
https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/xrdp/xrdp.ini.5.en.htmlautorun=session_name
Section name for automatic login. If set and the client supplies valid username and password, the user will be logged in automatically using the connection specified by session_name.

If session_name is empty, the LOGIN DOMAIN from the client with be used to select the section. If no domain name is supplied, the first suitable section will be used for automatic login.I already had “autorun=” set to blank. It took some trial and error to figure out what the “session_name” was. Since this page led me to the solution, this seemd to be the best place to post the solucion.Last edit: Jasen Webster 2020-04-25

Henk Meij – 2021-02-19Excellent! That solved my xrdp black screen issue too. I created a generic account in centos8 then with these settings in xrdp.ini the problem was fixed coming from Win10 Education or Home editions to CentOS 8.3.autorun=mydomain[mydomain]

name=mydomain
lib=libxup.so
username=hmeij07
password=ask
ip=127.0.0.1
port=-1
code=20

Took many tries with other suggested solutions, none of which worked. But this post above solved the issue of “xrdp black screen”. Thanks!-Henk

_{This article was first published here}

Published on Forum:  xrdp Creator:  Dale E. Moore Created:  2011-12-13Updated:  2021-02-19