You can remotely control a Linux Mint machine just like you can control a Windows machine. But first you need to give your machine a static IP address so you know how to connect to it. Unfortunately, if you haven’t spent a lot of time using Linux Mint, then you may find configuring a static IP address frustrating (to say the least). It’s nice they have a graphical UI to set it up, but it’s not very intuitive, and manually configuring configuration files in a text editor, as many people advise online, also doesn’t always work. So here’s what works for me.
- First, to set a static IP address, open Control Center and click on Network Connections.
- Then, click the Add button.
- Under IPv4 Settings, change “Method” to “Manual”
- Click the Add button, and in the Address field, enter your static IP address, then hit the tab key on your keyboard to allow the subnet mask to remain at “24” (which translates to 255.255.255.0), then tab again and enter the default gateway IP address.
- Enter your DNS server(s) in the “DNS servers” field below that, and click Save.
- Now open your old connection (often “Wired Connection 1”), and in the General tab, uncheck the first box: “Automatically connect to this network when it is available.”
In Windows, you control other computers using Remote Desktop Connection, but in Linux they call it “Desktop Sharing.” To enable it, go into Control Center again, and scroll down until you find Desktop Sharing. You can turn it on there.
If you want to easily access your Linux Mint machine from Windows, you may find that the default settings of using encryption are too aggressive. To fix this, install “dconf-editor” by typing this in a terminal window:
sudo apt install dconf-editor
Then, in the dconf editor that you just installed, go to org -> gnome -> desktop -> remote access and uncheck “require-encryption“. (Reboot.)
(I prefer to connect using a VNC client like TightVNC Viewer.)
For extra security, you should turn on the built-in Firewall, so that the only traffic allowed to access your machine is for Desktop Sharing (a.k.a. VNC). This can also be found in the Control Center.
- Change “Status” to “On” and then click on the “Rules” button.
- Click the “+” button at the bottom.
- Set “Category” to “Network.”
- Set “Subcategory” to “Remote Access.”
- Set “Application” to “VNC.”
- Click the Add button.
Happy networking,