Along with cockpit and ssh, you can also access the pubnix via RDP. We went with (X)RDP instead of VNC due to it being more performant and secure.

How to connect

To do so, first install an RDP client. You can use Remmina on Linux and BSD. On Windows you can use the builtin Remote Desktop Connection Utility.

You can connect to p.projectsegfau.lt from the Quick Connect menu on Remmina. Once the connection is established, you will be prompted for your login credentials for the pubnix.

For those who recently get their registration approved for the pubnix, a password is generated as part of the onboarding process and they are stored at ~/pass and you can get its content with cat ~/pass.

Once you are logged in, you will be dropped into XFCE. This is our default DE but you can install any X11 DE/WM you like from Nix and use it.

Changing your DE/WM

To specify the DE/WM you want to use, you can use the .xsession file.

# .xsession
exec startxfce4

You can replace startxfce4 with the DE/WM of your choice.

Below is a table of common DE/WMs and their command names. If you're having issues after signing in, try running command -v <startup-command> and use that path to binary in .xession file as mentioned above.

 

DE/WM  Command 
XFCE  startxfce4 
KDE  startplasma-x11 
Cinnamon  cinnamon 
i3  i3 
BSPWM  bspwm 
Qtile  qtile start -b x11