Remotely Accessing Wayland-based Applications using RDP client in Yocto Image

Get more detailed information of this topic on our official website with working demo

Remote access to graphical applications running on embedded systems can be a valuable tool for developers and administrators. In this article, we’ll explore how to remotely access Wayland applications in a Yocto image using RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol). This method leverages the Wayland display server, specifically Weston, and the FreeRDP library to achieve remote access.

Before you begin, ensure that:

1. Your Yocto image must includes Weston with RDP compositor and screen sharing enabled. You can find it here
2. Also FreeRDP is a dependency of the RDP compositor and should be included in your Yocto image.
3. On your target device, make sure the FreeRDP package is installed, and TLS certificates and keys (server.crt and server.key) are in the /etc/freerdp/keys directory.

Generating TLS Certificates:

To generate TLS certificates for RDP, use the winpr-makecert tool in /etc/freerdp/keys dir:

$ winpr-makecert -rdp -path $PWD

Configuring Weston:

Add below lines inweston.ini configuration file:

[core]
modules=systemd-notify.so

[screen-share]
command=/usr/bin64/weston --backend=rdp-backend.so --shell=fullscreen-shell.so --rdp-tls-cert=/etc/freerdp/keys/server.crt --rdp-tls-key=/etc/freerdp/keys/server.key --no-clients-resize
start-on-startup=true

Launching Weston:

Start Weston with this command to enable RDP access:

weston --debug --ttty=1 --backend=fbdev-backend.so --modules=systemd-notify.so,screen-share.so --use-gl=1 --log=${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/weston.log $OPTARGS

Accessing the Target Remotely:

To remotely access Wayland applications, launch the RDP client on your host machine:

For Wayland:

wlfreerdp /v:<target_ip> /log-level:TRACE

For X11:

xfreerdp /v:<target_ip>

Additionally using remmina as well we can access.

Weston-desktop-shell-RDP-connection

As shown in above image we can control the remote device and pass the commands from host machine.

Configuring Weston with the RDP compositor and FreeRDP allows for easy access to Wayland applications on Yocto-based systems. Remote access enhances the flexibility and utility of embedded systems for a wide range of applications. This method is a powerful tool for development and troubleshooting headless device in Yocto Project-based environments.

Reference-

To integrate this in yocto image, I already did it in meta-sirius layer

http://thepenguintech.com/

GitHub - prashantdivate/meta-sirius: Yocto BSP layer for custom builds