xRDP File Transfer And CAC Passthrough Limitations

Many users have been switching from VNC to xRDP for a GUI interface connection on linux based machines. xRDP seems to be a little more stable and works better with GPU in particular. However, there are some limitations on xRDP that users have come across:

xRDP File Transfer

First and foremost is file transfer. Normally for xRDP on Linux this should work just fine, as a mount point will get added to the user’s home directory at /home/<loggedinusername>/thinclient_drives/GUACFS. This is the landing point for any files dragged and dropped into the system for retrieval. There is a known issue with Ubuntu 20 specifically which does not allow for this drive to be used. All other Linux types should work as designed, barring any STIG type controls preventing it. One should still be able to file transfer in via an ssh connection to the system, however, even if xRDP file transfer is not working.

CAC Passthrough

The second known issue is surrounding CAC passthrough for xRDP, and other USB device passthrough. xRDP simply does not support this type of forwarding to the remote machine. You can check out more information or put in an enhancement request on their GitHub page here.