Wine Remote Desktop

Deploy a browser-based remote desktop using Apache Guacamole, XRDP, and Wine.

This setup gives you a cloud workstation accessible from your browser, with support for running Windows applications via Wine.

1. Create an instance

Go to:

Menu → Compute → Virtual Machines → Create Instance

Example configuration:

Setting	Value
Name	`wine`
Image	`ubuntu24.04`
Domain	`remotewine.redu.cloud`
Port	`8080`

Steps:

Enter instance name
Select image
Select SSH keypair
Configure domain
Allow port 8080
Open Advanced Settings → Cloud-init
Paste the configuration below

If you don’t have an SSH keypair:

👉 Keypairs Guide

2. Configure access

Guacamole runs on:


port 8080

Make sure your Security Group allows port 8080.

3. Cloud-init configuration

Paste this into the Cloud-init field:


#cloud-config
package_update: true
package_upgrade: true
 
packages:
  - podman
  - podman-compose
  - uidmap
  - curl
  - xfce4
  - xfce4-goodies
  - xrdp
  - xorgxrdp
  - dbus-x11
  - wine64
  - winbind
  - winetricks
  - xvfb
 
chpasswd:
  list: |
    ubuntu:test123
  expire: false
 
write_files:
  - path: /opt/guacamole/podman-compose.yml
    permissions: "0644"
    owner: root:root
    content: |
      version: "3.8"
 
      services:
        guacdb:
          image: docker.io/library/mariadb:11
          container_name: guac-db
          restart: unless-stopped
          environment:
            MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: rootpass
            MARIADB_DATABASE: guacamole_db
            MARIADB_USER: guacamole_user
            MARIADB_PASSWORD: guacpass
          volumes:
            - guac_db_data:/var/lib/mysql
 
        guacd:
          image: docker.io/guacamole/guacd:latest
          container_name: guacd
          restart: unless-stopped
 
        guacamole:
          image: docker.io/guacamole/guacamole:latest
          container_name: guacamole
          restart: unless-stopped
          depends_on:
            - guacdb
            - guacd
          ports:
            - "8080:8080"
          environment:
            GUACD_HOSTNAME: guacd
            MYSQL_HOSTNAME: guacdb
            MYSQL_PORT: 3306
            MYSQL_DATABASE: guacamole_db
            MYSQL_USERNAME: guacamole_user
            MYSQL_PASSWORD: guacpass
 
      volumes:
        guac_db_data:
 
  - path: /usr/local/bin/guacamole_bootstrap.sh
    permissions: "0755"
    owner: root:root
    content: |
      #!/usr/bin/env bash
      set -euo pipefail
 
      cd /opt/guacamole
 
      dpkg --add-architecture i386 || true
      apt-get update -y
      DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y wine32
 
      cat > /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh <<'EOF'
      #!/bin/sh
      unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
      unset XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
      exec startxfce4
      EOF
      chmod +x /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh
 
      echo startxfce4 > /home/ubuntu/.xsession
      chown ubuntu:ubuntu /home/ubuntu/.xsession
 
      systemctl enable xrdp
      systemctl restart xrdp
 
      /usr/bin/podman-compose -f /opt/guacamole/podman-compose.yml up -d
 
runcmd:
  - /usr/local/bin/guacamole_bootstrap.sh > /var/log/guacamole-bootstrap.log 2>&1

4. Optional changes

Before launching, you may want to update:

Password


ubuntu:test123


guacadmin
guacadmin

Change after first login.

5. Wait for setup

After instance becomes ACTIVE, wait a few minutes.

Check:


cloud-init status

Expected:


status: done

6. Open the remote desktop


https://your-domain/guacamole


guacadmin
guacadmin

Open:


Wine Desktop

8. Test Wine


winecfg

or:


wine notepad

Troubleshooting

Cannot access

Check port 8080
Verify domain

Still initializing


sudo cat /var/log/guacamole-bootstrap.log

XRDP issues


sudo systemctl restart xrdp