rdesktop(1)

NAME
rdesktop - Remote Desktop Protocol client

SYNOPSIS
rdesktop [options] server[:port]

DESCRIPTION
rdesktop is a client for Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), used in a number of Microsoft products including Windows NT Terminal Server, Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server.

OPTIONS

-u <username>
    Username for authentication on the server.

-d <domain>
    Domain for authentication.

-s <shell>
    Startup shell for the user - starts a specific application instead of Explorer.

-c <directory>
    The initial working directory for the user. Often used in combination with -s to set up a fixed login environment.

-p <password>
    The password to authenticate with. Note that this may have no effect if "Always prompt for password" is enabled on the server. WARNING: if you specify a password on the command line it may be visible to other users when they use tools like ps. Use -p - to make rdesktop request a password at startup (from standard input).

-n <hostname>
    Client hostname. Normally rdesktop automatically obtains the hostname of the client.

-k <layout>
    Keyboard layout to emulate. This requires a corresponding keymap file to be installed. The standard keymaps provided with rdesktop follow the RFC1766 naming scheme: a language code followed by a country code if necessary - e.g. en-us, en-gb, de, fr, sv, etc. The default is en-us (a US keyboard).

-g <geometry>
    Desktop geometry (WxH). If geometry is the special word "workarea", the geometry will be fetched from the extended window manager hints property _NET_WORKAREA, from the root window. The geometry can also be specified as a percentage of the whole screen, e.g. "-g 80%".

-f  Enable fullscreen mode. This overrides the window manager and causes the rdesktop window to fully cover the current screen. Fullscreen mode can be toggled at any time using Ctrl-Alt-Enter.

-b  Force the server to send screen updates as bitmaps rather than using higher-level drawing operations.

-e  Disable encryption. This option is only needed (and will only work) if you have a French version of NT TSE.

-E  Disable encryption from client to server. This sends an encrypted login packet, but everything after this is unencrypted (including interactive logins).

-m  Do not send mouse motion events. This saves bandwidth, although some Windows applications may rely on receiving mouse motion.

-C  Use private colourmap. This will improve colour accuracy on an 8-bit display, but rdesktop will appear in false colour when not focused.

-D  Hide window manager decorations, by using MWM hints.

-K  Do not override window manager key bindings. By default rdesktop attempts to grab all keyboard input when it is in focus.

-S <button size>
    Enable single application mode. This option can be used when running a single, maximized application (via -s). When the minimize button of the windows application is pressed, the rdesktop window is minimized instead of the remote application. The maximize/restore button is disabled. For this to work, you must specify the correct button size, in pixels. The special word "standard" means 18 pixels.

-T <title>
    Sets the window title.

-N  Enable numlock syncronization between the Xserver and the remote RDP session. This is useful with applications that looks at the numlock state, but might cause problems with some Xservers like Xvnc.

-a <bpp>
    Sets the colour depth for the connection (8, 15, 16 or 24). More than 8 bpp are only supported when connecting to Windows XP (up to 16 bpp) or newer. Note that the colour depth may also be limited by the server configuration.

-r <device>
    Enable redirection of the specified device on the client, such that it appears on the server. The only device currently supported is "sound" (requires Windows XP or newer). Note that the allowed redirections may be restricted by the server configuration.

-0  Attach to the console of the server (requires Windows Server 2003 or newer).

-4  Use RDP version 4.

-5  Use RDP version 5 (default).

LINKS
Main website of rdesktop
http://www.rdesktop.org/