GNOME's own remote-desktop stack (GNOME Remote Desktop) is GNOME-only. lamco-rdp-server speaks standard RDP on GNOME/Mutter through the freedesktop RemoteDesktop portal and Mutter's Direct API, and the same server also runs on KDE, sway, Hyprland, and COSMIC. This guide is the concrete GNOME setup: install, grant permission once, connect, and fix the GNOME-specific things that trip people up.

Install

Community Edition (any distro): Lamco's own self-hosted Flatpak repository (recommended, auto-updates), the Flatpak bundle attached to the GitHub release, or the Snap Store.

# recommended: one-click install, updates automatically
flatpak install --from https://flatpak.lamco.ai/io.lamco.rdp-server.flatpakref

# equivalent, in two steps
flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists lamco https://flatpak.lamco.ai/lamco.flatpakrepo
flatpak install --user lamco io.lamco.rdp-server

# or: install the downloaded bundle once, no auto-updates
flatpak install <downloaded>.flatpak
flatpak run io.lamco.rdp-server # launches the GUI

# or: snap install lamco-rdp-server

Native (Ubuntu 24.04 / Fedora / Arch): use the distribution package (see the Installation page). GNOME/Mutter needs PipeWire and xdg-desktop-portal-gnome, which ship by default on a GNOME desktop.

Verify the environment before connecting:

lamco-rdp-server --show-capabilities

Look for Portal (RemoteDesktop + ScreenCast) available and an Encoding backend.

Grant permission once (unattended access)

GNOME shows a portal permission dialog the first time a remote session starts. For unattended or headless use, grant it once and store a restore token:

lamco-rdp-server --grant-permission

This triggers the portal dialog, obtains a restore token, and stores it so future connections start without a prompt. Re-run it if you revoke access or change users.

Minimal config

~/.config/lamco-rdp-server/config.toml:

[server]
# Dual-stack by default: "[::]:3389" listens on IPv6 and, on a standard Linux
# host, also accepts IPv4 clients. Use "0.0.0.0:3389" only to force IPv4-only.
listen_addr = "[::]:3389"

[security]
tls = true # self-signed by default; see Security for your own cert

[video]
codec = "auto" # AVC444/AVC420 via EGFX where the client supports it

Start it:

lamco-rdp-server # native; binds dual-stack by default
# or: flatpak run io.lamco.rdp-server

Connect

The server listens dual-stack by default, so IPv4 and IPv6 clients both work. Use the host's name (it resolves to whichever family the client prefers) or an explicit address; IPv6 literals go in brackets.

Windows: built-in Remote Desktop Connection (mstsc.exe) → host:3389, or an IPv6 literal in brackets: [2001:db8::10]:3389.
Linux: Remmina, or FreeRDP: xfreerdp /v:host:3389 /u:USER (IPv6 literal: xfreerdp /v:[2001:db8::10]:3389 /u:USER).
macOS: Microsoft Remote Desktop.

Input uses libei by default on GNOME, which is the supported modern path.

GNOME-specific behavior (current in 1.4.4)

Many sequential sessions, no restart. On GNOME/Mutter the server now uses a per-connection session: it creates a fresh RemoteDesktop/ScreenCast session on each connect and releases it on disconnect. You can connect, disconnect, and reconnect all day. (Earlier versions kept one long-lived session that Mutter's idle timeout reaped a few seconds after a client left, which looked like "it only works once.")
GNOME 49 input works via a lazy Mutter EIS lifecycle with a kept-alive connection.
PAM authentication works under the hardened system service (the unit joins the shadow group and keeps full seccomp hardening).

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Connects, then black screen (mouse/audio work)	No working H.264 encoder, or portal capture not started	Run `--show-capabilities`; ensure an Encoding backend is present. On CPU-only systems install Cisco's OpenH264 (see Video Encoding); prefer a GPU for hardware VA-API
Works once, then every reconnect fails until restart	Old persistent-session model reaped by Mutter idle timeout	Update to 1.4.4 (per-connection lifecycle)
Input does nothing on GNOME 49	EIS lifecycle regression	Fixed in 1.4.4
Portal dialog on every connect	No stored restore token	Run `lamco-rdp-server --grant-permission` once
PAM login always fails on the packaged system service	Hardened unit blocked the PAM helper	Fixed in 1.4.4 (unit joins `shadow`); or use the recommended auth method the server reports at startup

See also: Installation, Configuration, Security, Video Encoding, the Platform Compatibility matrix, and the sibling guides for KDE/KWin, sway/wlroots, Hyprland, and COSMIC.