X2Go: a really cool remote desktop tool

How many of you have used X2Go? Any useful tips and tricks to share?

  • good with low bandwidth thanks to NoMachine’s NX3 which should be better than VNC
  • sound
  • printing
  • bi-directional clipboard sharing
  • bi-directional file sharing

It can join an existing desktop session on the remote machine (local desktop connection), or start a new session!

There is also a really cool application mode where it launches applications on the remote machine, but displays just the application window (not a whole desktop) on the local machine. This is kind of like VirtualBox’s seamless mode, but even better.

X2Go has lots of great features, but very little recognition or documentation.
https://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:newtox2go
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/X2go

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Any idea if it’s limited to X only or if it also works with Wayland (now that X is being phased out)?

Unfortunately it’s X only.

Does X2Go support Wayland or Mir?

So long as X2Go uses the NX protocol exclusively for remote display and keyboard/pointer input, X2Go cannot support Wayland or Mir. Audio and file/printer sharing are handled by separate protocols. This is because NX works with the X11 protocol, rather than using an entirely separate protocol like SPICE and VNC do. NX improves X11 performance by caching the X11 traffic, compressing it, and eliminating the X11 “round-trips”.

https://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:faq:start

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