OneClickDesktop v0.4

A one-click script that installs a remote desktop environment on a Linux server with browser/VNC/RDP access.

Features of this script

Build Guacamole Server from source.
Set up Guacamole Web APP.
Install Tomcat 9, XRDP (or TigerVNC), XFCE4 Desktop, Firefox.
One-click free SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt
You can access your remote desktop from browsers, no need for RDP or VNC software.

System requirement

A freshly installed server, with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 64 bit or Debian 12 64 bit system
Do NOT install any web server programs (e.g., Apache, Nginx, LiteSpeed, Caddy). Do NOT install LAMP or LEMP stack. Do NOT install any admin panels (e.g., cPanel, DirectAdmin, BTcn, VestaCP). They are NOT compatible with this script.
1 IPv4
At least 1.0 GB RAM is required; 1.5+ GB is recommended.
Root access, or sudo user

How to use

Firstly, you need to find a spare VPS with at least 1 IPv4, and install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 64 bit or Debian 12 64 bit OS.
You need a domain name (can be a subdomain) which points to the IP address of your server.
Then, please run the following command as a sudo user in SSH.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Har-Kuun/OneClickDesktop/master/OneClickDesktop.sh && sudo bash OneClickDesktop.sh

The script will guide you through the installation process.
If you encounter any errors, please check the OneClickDesktop.log file that's located within the same directory where you download this script.
Please consider reporting the error log at https://github.com/Har-Kuun/OneClickDesktop/issues so that I can fix any underlying issues.
Copy/paste between client and server should have been enabled by default. If you have any problems with copy/paste when using VNC method, please try to run the EnableCopyPaste.sh file on your Desktop.

Plugins

There is a few plugin scripts/addons available.

A very simple guide to install Chrome browser. Check out https://github.com/Har-Kuun/OneClickDesktop/blob/master/plugins/chrome/readme.md
One-click change Guacamole login password. Check out https://github.com/Har-Kuun/OneClickDesktop/blob/master/plugins/change-Guacamole-password.sh
Tutorial to install Baiduyun Net Disk client. Check out https://github.com/Har-Kuun/OneClickDesktop/blob/master/plugins/baiduyun.md
A script to set up sound. Check out https://github.com/Har-Kuun/OneClickDesktop/blob/master/plugins/Audio/readme.md

Please submit an issue if you want more plugins to be written.

Contact me

You can open an issue here if there is any problem/bug when you use it, or would like a new feature to be implemented. For faster response, you can leave a message on this project webpage https://qing.su/article/oneclick-desktop.html

中文支持请访问 https://qing.su/article/oneclick-desktop.html

Thank you!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

General

Q: Should I choose RDP or VNC?

A: Forget about VNC. The new version only supports RDP, which provices faster speed and more stable connections.

Q: Which OS should I use?

A: As of this point, this script supports Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Debian 12 only. It may run properly on Debian 11 or Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, but there's no guarantee.

Q: Should I use my root user or a non-root user to use my desktop?

A: For RDP, you should always use a non-root user, unless you wish to install some certain software on your desktop. To create a non-root user, simply run adduser USERNAME in your terminal or SSH.

Q: Should I choose to set up Nginx reverse proxy and Let's Encrypt SSL?

A: Unless you are installing your desktop environment alongside a production environment (which is highly discouraged), you should always choose to set up Nginx reverse proxy and Let's Encrypt SSL. Please note that unless you enable SSL for your desktop access, your browser probably won't let you copy-paste between the remote desktop and your local computer. If you are installing this desktop environment alongside a production environment, you should set up your current webserver software (Apache, Nginx, Litespeed, Caddy, etc.) as a reverse proxy of http://127.0.0.1:8080/guacamole and set up SSL for it.

Installation

Q: My installation failed; why?

A: I am not able to anwser this question unless you provide more details. Please check the OneClickDesktop.log file which is located in the same folder where you run this script, and check for any errors. Please then check the following questions for an anwser or report these errors/logs by opening an Iuuse in this repository, and I can then respond accordingly.

Q: My Nginx installation failed, why?

A: This is most likely due to you have another webserver installed and running (for example, Apache2). You need to uninstall all other webserver programs before running this script, or skip the Nginx reverse proxy part of the installation and set up reverse proxy manually after the installation.

Q: My Let's Encrypt SSL installation failed, why?

A: One possibility is that you did not enter a valid e-mail address when you asked you to; but most likely, this problem is because the domain name you are using is not (yet) pointing to the IP address of your server. Note that it may take up to 48 hours for DNS changes to propagate throughout the world. If you are using Cloudflare DNS, you will need to use the "DNS Only" mode in order to provision a Let's Encrypt SSL; you can otherwise use the free SSL from Cloudflare, and skip the SSL step here instead. A very rare case is that if you have provisioned too many Let's Encrypt SSL certificates recently for this domain name, the Let's Encrypt SSL installation may also fail; in this case, please use another domain instead, or wait a couple of days.

Q: My Tomcat server fails to start, why?

A: This usually happens on CentOS when Selinux is enabled. Selinux might prohibit Tomcat from running. If this happens, you should consider disabling Selinux or changing its rules, then start Tomcat9 server manually by running service tomcat9 start.

Q: The script tells me that I am missing dependencies. Shouldn't dependencies be handled already in the script?

A: This happens frequently to Chinese users. Please try other mirror sources, then run this script again.

Q: The script got killed during compilation; what happened?

A: This is very unusual, but may happen if your server does not have enough RAM; please add some SWAP and run the script again.

Post-Installation

Q: Can I change my Guacamole username and password?

A: Yes, please check out the password-update script here. https://github.com/Har-Kuun/OneClickDesktop/blob/master/plugins/change-Guacamole-password.sh

Q: My desktop is laggy; can I improve the user experience?

A: Yes, to some extent. Firstly, if you are still using VNC, I'd recommend you reinstall your server and run the script again using the RDP mode; it makes your life easier. Secondly, if you are using CentOS, switching to Ubuntu or Debian might help, because the desktop of CentOS is fancier and renders slower. Thirdly, you can decrease the screen resolution by editting /etc/guacamole/user-mapping.xml file. Of course, if you are able to use a server that's nearer to you physically, that will help a lot.

Q: I cannot copy-paste between my server's desktop and my own computer, why?

A: As mentioned before, you have to set up SSL for your Guacamole; otherwise your browser will not allow you to copy-paste between the two servers.

Q: I cannot hear anything when I use my server desktop to watch videos, why?

A: Please check the plugin section here for sound setup. https://github.com/Har-Kuun/OneClickDesktop/blob/master/plugins/Audio/readme.md

Q: Can I install Software XXX/YYY/ZZZ on this desktop?

A: Most likely, yes. If you are using CentOS, there is an APP store on your desktop, and you can search for the software you want; if you are using Debian/Ubuntu, you can simply google "How to install XXX on ubuntu 20" and you can usually find a dozen tutorials.

Q: Is there a clean way to uninstall everything installed by this script?

A: Not at this moment. I'd recommend a reinstallation of your server. I might write an uninstallation script in the future though.

References

Guacamole documentation: https://guacamole.apache.org/doc/gug/installing-guacamole.html
The author thanks LinuxBabe for providing a detailed Guacamole/VNC setup tutorial for Debian/Ubuntu.

Update log

Current version: v0.4.0

Date	Version	Changes
08/02/2020	v0.0.1	Script created
08/03/2020	v0.0.2	Enable copy/paste; add Asian characters support.
09/25/2020	v0.1.0	Add RDP feature; improve installation experience.
09/29/2020	v0.2.0	Add CentOS 7/8 support.
02/14/2025	v0.3.0	Deprecated old OS; added Ubuntu 22 and Debian 11 support.
05/04/2025	v0.4.0	Deprecated old OS; added Ubuntu 24 and Debian 12 support.

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