Remote Access to Your TT-QuietBox 2 from macOS

Follow this guide to get headless remote desktop access to your TT-QuietBox^™ 2 from macOS.

One-Time TT-QuietBox 2 Setup

Log in to your TT-QuietBox 2, open a terminal, and run these commands to enable Ubuntu’s remote desktop service:

sudo grdctl --system rdp enable
sudo grdctl --system rdp set-credentials '<rdp-user>' '<rdp-password>'
sudo systemctl enable --now gnome-remote-desktop.service
sudo ufw allow 3389/tcp
sudo grdctl --system status     # expect: RDP enabled, port 3389

You will see some warnings that are safe to ignore. Now get the local IP address of your TT-QuietBox 2 (usually 192.168.1.XXX). You will need this when connecting via RDP:

hostname -I

Note

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials are arbitrary and separate from your <ttuser> login. By design, you authenticate twice (RDP credentials, then Ubuntu login).

Do not reuse a valuable password

The warning Init TPM credentials failed ... using GKeyFile as fallback is benign, but note that the credential is stored on disk under /var/lib/gnome-remote-desktop/, so do not reuse a valuable password.

One-Time macOS Setup

Install FreeRDP, an open source remote desktop client, on your Mac. It can be installed directly from source or via Homebrew:

brew install freerdp

Required on macOS 15+

Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network and enable your terminal app. This can be stubborn, so it is a good idea to toggle it off/on and restart your terminal client. If the following steps still fail, you may need a reboot.

Connect

sdl-freerdp /v:<box-ip> /u:<rdp-user> /p:'<rdp-password>' /cert:tofu /dynamic-resolution

/cert:tofu trusts GNOME’s self-signed certificate on first use. If everything worked correctly, you should see an Ubuntu login screen. If you get a blank screen, close sdl-freerdp and try again. If the problem persists, see the “Debugging” section below. Log in with your QuietBox credentials to begin the session, and quit the sdl-freerdp app to end it.

See the FreeRDP manual for convenient flags and plugins. We often use this alias to begin a remote session with clipboard access and sound turned on:

alias qb2="sdl-freerdp /v:<box-ip> /u:<rdp-user> /p:'<rdp-password>' /cert:tofu /dynamic-resolution /sound +clipboard"

Debugging

On your QuietBox (or via SSH), run the following to tail the RDP logs:

journalctl -u gnome-remote-desktop -f

New lines represent TCP requests reaching the box and should be debugged on the QuietBox. If no new lines are created upon login requests, that points to a network or macOS problem.