Sunday, December 28, 2014

Chrome Remote Desktop on Fedora Linux

Chrome Remote Desktop is a very easy way to manage your laptop from another laptop, or even from a smartphone. I have managed my laptop from my Android smartphone.

I also think it's the easiest way for most people to set up Remote desktop, despite it not being straightforward for non-Ubuntu/Debian Linux versions.

For Ubuntu, the guide is here https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/1649523?hl=en. 

For Fedora, follow the below steps:

  1. Get and install the Chrome Remote Desktop app (assuming you have Chrome/Chromium browser)
  2. You can now access other computers, but to access your computer, you need a native app, as shown in the next steps.
  3. Download the Ubuntu native app depending on your Linux version, 32 bit or 64 bit 
  4. Convert the .deb package to a Fedora .rpm package. Instructions here 
  5. Try installing and run into the error detailed here, with a solution given here too. Note, although the same error seems to be gotten from the Google Earth package, the Chrome Remote Desktop app has a similar problem and solution.
    1. If you are looking for ways of editing your files as described above, you can use vi, with the tutorial here describing that
    2. Using "vi path/to/file" should enable you edit and save a file. If a permissions issue arises, use "su vi /path/to/file" to have root permissions
  6. The converted .rpm package should now install and you should be able to use Chrome Remote Desktop from your Fedora installation
It has taken  me a while to write this guide and I may have forgotten or overlooked some items. For any issues or observations, please do not hesistate to hit the comments below. 

Thanks.