Openbox: Minimal Remote Desktop Environment

Setup a private remote desktop environment with Openbox, XRDP, Kitty, Diodon, and Tailscale for secure remote access.

Note: Gitpod and OpenShift currently use raw scripts. Contributions to update these to packaged solutions are welcome.

Open in OpenShift (Currently not stable)

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Free Remote Desktop Hours

• GitHub Codespaces: 60 hours/month (2 cores) = 120 CPU hours
• Gitpod: 50 hours/month

Total: 110 hours/month (~15.7 working days at 7 hours/day)

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Sample installation for customizing your private dev container

{
  "name": "Openbox",
  "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:ubuntu",
  "runArgs": [
    "--device=/dev/net/tun", // needed for Tailscale
    "--shm-size=2g" // needed for browsers
  ],
  "features": {
    "ghcr.io/tailscale/codespace/tailscale:latest": {},
    "ghcr.io/rahuldhole/openbox/xrdp:latest": {},
    "ghcr.io/rahuldhole/openbox/google-chrome:latest": {},
    "ghcr.io/rahuldhole/openbox/microsoft-edge:latest": {},
    "ghcr.io/rahuldhole/openbox/vscode:latest": {}
  },
  "postCreateCommand": "/bin/bash -c 'echo \"vscode:vscode\" | sudo chpasswd'",
  "postStartCommand": "/usr/local/sbin/xrdp-entrypoint",
  "remoteUser": "vscode"
}

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Steps to Connect via RDP

1. Verify Status

sudo service xrdp status
sudo tailscale status

2. Log In and Connect to Tailscale

sudo tailscale up

3. Connect Using RDP Client

• Use the Tailscale VPN IP of the Codespaces or Gitpod instance.
• RDP User Credentials:
  • Codespaces: vscode:vscode
  • Gitpod: gitpod:gitpod

4. Openbox Navigation

• Right-click on the blue screen to access more options.

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Openbox Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Alt + T	Switch between windows in the current workspace
Alt + D	Show or hide the desktop
Alt + <Left/Right Arrow>	Switch between adjacent workspaces
Alt + Shift + <Left/Right>	Move current window to adjacent workspaces
Alt + <Number>	Jump to the nth workspace (non-numpad keys)

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Application Shortcuts

Shortcut	Application
Alt + Ctrl + K	Open Kitty terminal (kitty)
Alt + Ctrl + G	Open Google Chrome (--no-sandbox)
Alt + Ctrl + E	Open Microsoft Edge (--no-sandbox)
Alt + Ctrl + V	Open VS Code (code --no-sandbox .)
Alt + V	Open Diodon clipboard manager

Note: Customize shortcuts in ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml.

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Warnings

1. Do not open the Codespaces repository inside RDP.
   • This may trigger excessive network traffic and system hangs.
2. Resource Usage:
   • 2 cores are sufficient for most development tasks.

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Troubleshooting

1. In Gitpod, if Tailscale is not started:

   sudo tailscaled
   sudo -E tailscale up --hostname "gitpod-${GITPOD_GIT_USER_NAME// /-}-$(echo ${GITPOD_WORKSPACE_CONTEXT} | jq -r .repository.name)"

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to submit pull requests to enhance functionality or improve documentation.