XRDP stopped seeing my remote keyboard!

Support & Help Requests
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#1

My first post. Usually I like to introduce myself, but I don't see the place to do so, so I'm jumping right in.

I just moved to Ubuntu MATE 20.04 LTS from LXLE (based on 18.04) on a Dell R710 server I acquired. The old OS was working, but after installing additional drives and a new H700 RAID controller, I had to wipe the disks, and this was a chance to move to a newer Ubuntu.

My server sits in a back room/office in my home, and I've been using xrdp to connect to it from my (usually) Mac laptop. I've been running a file restore from backup, and I came to check on it only to find the screensaver/lock running. Usually, no problem (although a bit sluggish), but all of a sudden, I find it see the mouse, but doesn't see keyboard input. Obviously, I can enter my password. I can click the "Leave Message," "Cancel" and "Unlock" buttons, but since it sees no password, it rejects my login.

When I've had issues with xrdp before, I could ssh into the machine, and restart it, but I lose all my session information. Similarly, I can log in on the console, but it's a different session, so I can't "see" the other processes running.

Is there a way I can reset my Mac keyboard bindings at the xrdp login screen? Tangentially, is a VNC viewer a better way to go, and if so, which?

Thanks, and I've come this far. I intend to stick around!

#2

Have you tried ps -A?

#3

Yes, but that doesn't let me take ownership of them. I may have found a solution in xrpa, but it may not solve my immediate problem. Still, by reading about it, it seems this is the solution going forward...

#4

GREMLINS!

Poking around today, adding a new user so I could remote in again, and having some similar issues with DBUS_SESSION_BUS_MANAGER and such, I accidentally connected as my original self and ALL OF A SUDDEN MY KEYBOARD WAS RECOGNIZED AGAIN!

Until I figure out what's up with this, I immediately went to my screensaver settings and disabled the lock on activation setting. At least I can once again keep tabs on my running process without having to ssh in an run a shell query.

Weird.