Chrome Remote Desktop connects from your Android device to Linux

Google recently announced the beta release of the Chrome Remote Desktop for Linux. It allows you to remotely connect to a Linux machine from within the Chrome browser. Judging from the early comments in the Google product help forum, setting up the Chrome Remote Desktop on a Linux machine is still rather quirky for certain configurations. This post details my experience of successfully installing and setting up Chrome Remote Desktop to connect from an Android device to a Debian Wheezy machine.

First, install and setup Chrome Remote Desktop on the Debian machine. Then, install the Chrome Remote Desktop app on the Android device.

Install on Debian

1. Install Google Chrome.

   The official Debian Wheezy repository includes the Chromium browser, which is the unbranded, open-sourced version of Chrome. To avoid any compatibility issues, download the official Google Chrome browser package directly from the Google product page. Then, install it as follows:

   
   $ dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb 
   

2. Add Chrome Remote Desktop to Chrome.
   • Open the Chrome browser.
   • Visit the Chrome Remote Desktop app on the Chrome Web Store.
   • Click the +Free button, then Add.
     
3. Configure virtual desktop.
   • Create script to start virtual desktop.

     Create the file ~/.chrome-remote-desktop-session, which contains the command to start your preferred desktop environment. You may look up the command in the corresponding desktop file located in the /usr/share/xsessions directory. For instance, if the desktop is GNOME, look up the Exec command in /usr/share/xsessions/gnome.desktop.

     
     $ grep '^Exec=' /usr/share/xsessions/gnome.desktop
     Exec=gnome-session
     

     Note that gnome-session - the text after 'Exec=' - is the command to start the virtual session. Insert the command to ~/.chrome-remote-desktop-session as follows:

     
     $ cat > ~/.chrome-remote-desktop-session
     exec gnome-session
     

   • Change screen resolution (optional).

     By default, the screen resolution of the remotely-connected virtual desktop is 1600 x 1200 pixels. To modify the default resolution, append a line to ~/.profile. For instance, to make it 1024 x 768,

     
     $ cat >> ~/.profile
     export CHROME_REMOTE_DESKTOP_DEFAULT_DESKTOP_SIZES=1024x768
     

4. Install Chrome Remote Desktop daemon.
   • Download the 64-bit Debian package for Chrome Remote Desktop from the Google Chrome Remote Desktop app page.
   • Install the Debian package.

     My first attempt failed due to dependency problems: some required packages were not pre-installed.

     
     $ sudo dpkg -i chrome-remote-desktop_current_amd64.deb 
     ...
     dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of chrome-remote-desktop:
      chrome-remote-desktop depends on xvfb-randr | xvfb; however:
       Package xvfb-randr is not installed.
       Package xvfb is not installed.
      chrome-remote-desktop depends on xbase-clients; however:
       Package xbase-clients is not installed.
      chrome-remote-desktop depends on python-psutil; however:
       Package python-psutil is not installed.
     ...
     

     To resolve the dependency problems, run apt-get -f install and then re-install the package:

     
     $ sudo apt-get -f install
     Reading package lists... Done
     Building dependency tree       
     Reading state information... Done
     Correcting dependencies... Done
     The following extra packages will be installed:
       python-psutil xbase-clients xvfb
     The following NEW packages will be installed:
       python-psutil xbase-clients xvfb
     ...
     $ sudo dpkg -i chrome-remote-desktop_current_amd64.deb 
     

     A daemon named chrome-remote-desktop is created.

     
     $ sudo chkconfig --list |grep chrome
     chrome-remote-desktop  0:off  1:off  2:on  3:on  4:on  5:on  6:off
     

5. Authorize Chrome Remote Desktop.

   When you run the Chrome Remote Desktop app for the first time, you will be asked to grant permission for the app to do its job.

   • Open a new tab in Chrome, and enter chrome://apps/.
     
   • Click Chrome Remote Desktop icon.
     
   • Click Continue, then Accept.
     
   
   
6. Enable remote connections.
   • Click the Get started button in the My Computers box.
     
   • Click Enable remote connections.

     If the Enable remote connections button does not appear on the screen, make sure that the ~/.chrome-remote-desktop-session file is created.
     

   • Enter a PIN.
     

   The Debian machine is now ready to accept remote connections. You should see its hostname - panther - listed in the My Computers box.
   

   If you encounter any connection error, please examine the log file - /tmp/chrome_remote_desktop_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_xxxxxx - for clues on what might have gone wrong.

Install and connect from Android

1. Install the Chrome Remote Desktop app from Google Play onto your Android device.
   
2. Open the app on the Android device.
   
3. Click the hostname - panther - to remotely connect to it.
   
4. Enter the PIN for authentication to the remote host.

   A virtual session is created.