FreeRDP 1.0.1 release

From time to time I need to connect to the windows-powered terminal server to do some tasks. Some years ago I didn't know any alternative to rdesktop. But this RDP implementation have several troubles with keyboard-related stuff.

Everything changed when I discovered freerdp - the fork of rdesktop. I liked it from the first time. At that time FreeRDP missed some features compared to rdesktop, but it's keyboard handling works very well. The one feature I really missed - seamless RDP mode. I used this feature to run MS software on my linux box.

After 1.0 release I wish to do some tests, but haven't any free time for this. Today I backported new freerdp release to Debian Squeeze and tryed it.

Firstly I check "Remote Application" - this feature works, but sometimes application windows looks crappy and present refresh lag. Also I get error when I try to use "Remote application" for the first time. Error looks like:

$ xfreerdp -u username --app --plugin rail --data "calc.exe" -- serveraddress
...
RAIL exec error: execResult=RAIL_EXEC_E_NOT_IN_ALLOWLIST NtError=0x15

After googling around I found solution for this problem:

• On windows machine, run regedit and under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT add a key named "Terminal Services"
• Under that, add a DWORD32 value named "fAllowUnlistedRemotePrograms" and set the value to 1

The next thing I tried was "Multimedia redirection".

$ xfreerdp -u username --plugin drdynvc --data tsmf:audio:alsa -- serveraddress

In windows terminal session I run Media Player and try to listen music and to watch videos. Everything works perfectly and smoothly. This feature not really valuable for me since I started to use XBMC at home. As I understand from freerdp wiki - "TSMF" supported only in Windows 7/2008 R2 and only by Windows Media Player.

The last thing I tested was "Device redirection".

$ xfreerdp -u username --plugin cliprdr --plugin rdpdr --data disk:andrey:/home/andrey -- serveraddress

I try to use home directory as a drive attached to terminal session. Everything works as expected.

If you want to try new freerdp release you can grab Debian Squeeze packages from my repository.