xrdp provided by APT has a touchpad scrolling issue. How can I get a newer version?
Scenario: Remote desktop connection from Windows laptop to Ubuntu machine with xrdp.
Installing xrdp with APT gives me the version shown below. However, this version has an issue in which touchpad scrolling occurs about 20 times faster than it should, which makes it very difficult to use.
I can build and install a later version of xrdp from source but my desktop never starts and all I see is a black screen. Installing via APT must auto-magically configure everything for me but I don’t know how to replicate that manually.
I suspect the scrolling issue is probably fixed in a later xrdp version. How can I get a later version of xrdp via APT? In general, what does it take for APT to support later versions of packages?
- 20.04.4 LTS (Focal Fossa)
- xorgxrdp/focal,now 1:0.2.12-1 amd64 [installed]
Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) modules for X.org - xrdp/focal,now 0.9.12-1 amd64 [installed]
Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) server
TL;DR: you can’t.
For apt to support later versions of packages, a package maintainer must package the code for Ubuntu, and possibly it will be tested/verified to work before being released on apt. If a newer version of a package is not available on apt, there is nothing you can do to get it on apt (short of becoming a package maintainer yourself). Apt does not always (read: usually doesn’t) contain the latest versions of packages, since it takes volunteers and time and testing and verification to get newer versions packaged. If you really must have a newer version of the package, you will have to build it yourself from source (or find a .deb somewhere, if there is one). You may be able to find a tutorial or instructions for configuring the system to work the way you want.
In general, the reason apt auto-magically configures things is because there are various scripts (preinstall and postinstall scripts) that it runs in order to set up the packages. If you can get a .deb package from somewhere, it will likely have the necessary scripts to set everything up.
The other possibility is that the newer version has bugs, and simply won’t work on your system (which may be one of the reasons it isn’t in apt yet 😉 )