# How to configure services.xrdp.defaultWindowManager for Remote Desktop?

**URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-configure-services-xrdp-defaultwindowmanager-for-remote-desktop/9575
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [October 21, 2020, 11:08am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-configure-services-xrdp-defaultwindowmanager-for-remote-desktop/9575 "2020-10-21T11:08:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![luochen1990](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/luochen1990/32/3092_2.png) [@luochen1990](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/luochen1990)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2020, 11:08am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-configure-services-xrdp-defaultwindowmanager-for-remote-desktop/9575/1 "2020-10-21T11:08:36Z")

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Hello, guys, I have read [this Wiki page](https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Remote_Desktop), and find out the GUI for the remote desktop is too ugly, I want it looks the same as my local desktop.

The following trail doesn’t work sinse pkgs.plasma5 is a set …

```auto
  services.xrdp.enable = true;
  services.xrdp.defaultWindowManager = "${pkgs.plasma5}/bin/plasmashell";
  networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [3389];

```

So, any suggestion?

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### Author: ![luochen1990](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/luochen1990/32/3092_2.png) [@luochen1990](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/luochen1990)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2020, 12:28pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-configure-services-xrdp-defaultwindowmanager-for-remote-desktop/9575/2 "2020-10-21T12:28:43Z")

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I changed my configuration as follow and it works well now:

```auto
  services.xrdp.enable = true;
  services.xrdp.defaultWindowManager = "plasmashell";
  networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [3389];

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Shou](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/shou/32/2174_2.png) [@Shou](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/Shou)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2020, 5:32pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-configure-services-xrdp-defaultwindowmanager-for-remote-desktop/9575/3 "2020-10-21T17:32:21Z")

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Just in case you’re curious, if you want to find out where a binary is placed in the future, you can use `nix-locate` (from the `nix-index` package) like `nix-locate bin/plasmashell` and it’ll tell you which package it belongs to. In this case, it’s `plasma-workspace`, so if you want to make the dependency on that package explicit in `services.xrdp.defaultWindowManager` you were close: you just need to change it to `${pkgs.plasma-workspace}/bin/plasmashell` – and `pkgs.plasma5.plasma-workspace` should work too. You can also use `nix repl "<nixpkgs>"` and type `plasma5` to see what it prints, or even just tab-complete it if you don’t want to evaluate it fully.

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### Author: ![Pa3](https://discourse.nixos.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/b5a626/32.png) [@Pa3](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/Pa3)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2021, 8:58pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-configure-services-xrdp-defaultwindowmanager-for-remote-desktop/9575/4 "2021-02-16T20:58:57Z")

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this works for me

```auto
services.xserver.desktopManager.xfce.enable = true;
services.xrdp.enable = true;
services.xrdp.defaultWindowManager = "${pkgs.xfce4-14.xfce4-session}/bin/xfce4-session";

```

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### Author: ![gemstraam](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/gemstraam/32/7361_2.png) [@gemstraam](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/gemstraam)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2022, 5:35am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-configure-services-xrdp-defaultwindowmanager-for-remote-desktop/9575/5 "2022-10-12T05:35:52Z")

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This did not work for me! I checked the version of xce4 with `nix-locate` and `xfce4-14` seems to be the correct version. Whatever I try it’s always xrdp comming up. And xrdp crashes with Remmina when loggin in. Does it have to do that I run NixOS on a virtual machine?  
Plus the PC I try to connect from runs wayland?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![luochen1990](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/luochen1990/32/3092_2.png) [@luochen1990](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/luochen1990)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 9:53am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-configure-services-xrdp-defaultwindowmanager-for-remote-desktop/9575/6 "2022-10-13T09:53:55Z")

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Maybe try x11 instead of wayland?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![gemstraam](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/gemstraam/32/7361_2.png) [@gemstraam](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/gemstraam)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 6:09pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-configure-services-xrdp-defaultwindowmanager-for-remote-desktop/9575/7 "2022-10-13T18:09:04Z")

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thank you luochen for your answer!

But moving to x11 on the machine that is connecting to the server is a no go for me. I have an old Nvidia card that is only working (very)well on wayland with nuveau driver.  
The NixOS PC I want to connect to has x11 with Xfce desktop.