Debian dbus user session package

Using the console and XRDP together in Debian / Ubuntu / Mint

Some users of Debian derivatives have noted that XRDP cannot be used by a user if the same user is logged in to the machine's graphical console.

If your way of working requires this functionality, you will need to remove the package dbus-user-session from your system and replace it with dbus-x11:-

sudo apt remove dbus-user-session
sudo apt install dbus-x11

More information can be found with the command apt show dbus-user-session, which at the time of writing contains the following paragraphs:-

Multiple graphical sessions per user are not currently supported in this mode; as a result, it is particularly suitable for gdm, which responds to requests to open a parallel graphical session by switching to the existing graphical session and unlocking it.

To retain dbus' traditional session semantics, in which login sessions are artificially isolated from each other, remove this package and install dbus-x11 instead.

Note: Currently there are significant limitations with the GNOME/gdm edition of the recently released Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Other editions which use lightdm (e.g. MATE) do not have these limitations. These limitations prevent it being possible to use the same user simultaneously over XRDP and on the console. Further technical information can be found under issue #1565