Platform Compatibility
Features vary by distribution, desktop environment, and installation method
Real test results from production systems. Lamco RDP Server automatically detects your platform and adapts its capabilities using the Service Advertisement Registry.
Desktop Environment Support Matrix
Lamco RDP Server works with any Wayland compositor that supports XDG Desktop Portals. Support status varies by compositor and installation method.
| Desktop Environment | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GNOME 40 / 42 / 46 | Production | Ubuntu 24.04, RHEL 9, Fedora 40+. Full Portal support, Mutter Direct API for unattended access. |
| KDE Plasma 6.3+ | Production | Clipboard via Klipper workaround. Bug 515465 fix expected Plasma 6.6 (Feb 17). SelectionOwnerChanged D-Bus signals for reliable clipboard. |
| Sway / River / Hyprland (native) | Production | wlr-direct protocols, AVC444 encoding. Zero permission dialogs with native package. |
| Sway / River / Hyprland (Flatpak) | Video-only | Input blocked pending portal-wlr PR #325. Screen capture works, keyboard/mouse input requires native package. |
| Budgie 10.10 + labwc | Expected | wlr-direct ready. labwc is wlroots-based, so native protocols should work out of the box. |
| COSMIC | Video-only | COSMIC provides ScreenCast (video capture) but RemoteDesktop is not yet implemented. No input injection or clipboard. Blocked on Smithay PR #1388. |
| Niri | Expected | Needs testing. Uses GNOME portal backend (xdg-desktop-portal-gnome), so GNOME behavior expected. |
Platform Compatibility Matrix
Real test results from production systems. Features vary by the combination of distribution + desktop environment + installation method.
Encounter an issue? Report it on GitHub
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS + GNOME 46
Portal v5 | RemoteDesktop v2 | xdg-desktop-portal-gnome | Tested 2026-01-15
- ✓ H.264/AVC444v2 encoding (4:4:4 chroma)
- ✓ Adaptive FPS: 5-60 FPS, ~10ms latency
- ✓ Full keyboard & mouse via Portal RemoteDesktop v2
- ✓ Damage tracking with 90%+ bandwidth savings
- ✓ Multi-monitor coordinate mapping
- • Video: AVC444
- • Input: Portal + libei
- • Clipboard: Portal (text/image, stability varies with data complexity)
- • Session persistence: Portal tokens rejected by GNOME policy
- ✓ Mutter Direct API (zero-dialog sessions)
- ✓ Hardware acceleration (NVENC/VA-API)
- ✓ Direct D-Bus integration
RHEL 9.7 / AlmaLinux 9 / Rocky 9 + GNOME 40
Portal v4 | RemoteDesktop v1 | Tested 2026-01-15
- ✓ H.264/AVC420 encoding (4:2:0 chroma)
- ✓ Full keyboard & mouse input
- ✓ Damage tracking with bandwidth optimization
- ✓ Multi-monitor support
- × Clipboard synchronization (Portal RemoteDesktop v1 lacks clipboard interface)
- × AVC444 codec (Mesa 22.x blur issue)
- • Video: AVC444 N/A (Mesa 22.x)
- • Input: Portal + libei
- • Clipboard: N/A (Portal v1)
- • RHEL 10 expected to include Portal v5
openSUSE Tumbleweed + KDE Plasma 6.3.90
Portal v5 | xdg-desktop-portal-kde | Native package via OBS
- ✓ Video: AVC444
- ✓ Input: Portal RemoteDesktop v2
- ✓ Clipboard: Klipper workaround
- • SelectionOwnerChanged D-Bus signals
- • Portal token persistence (not rejected)
- • DMA-BUF zero-copy buffer paths
Uses Klipper D-Bus workaround for clipboard sync. Native Portal clipboard has Bug 515465; fix expected in Plasma 6.6 (Feb 17).
Debian 13 (Trixie) + KDE Plasma 6.3.0
Portal v5+ | xdg-desktop-portal-kde | Native package via OBS | Rust 1.79
- ✓ Video: AVC444
- ✓ Input: Portal RemoteDesktop v2
- ✓ Clipboard: Klipper workaround
- • Behaves similar to openSUSE TW + KDE
- • Same Klipper clipboard workaround applies
- • Native packages building from OBS
Plasma 6.0+ explicit sync support available. Strong DMA-BUF implementation for zero-copy video with lower CPU usage.
EndeavourOS + Sway
wlr-direct protocols | Native package | Rolling release
- ✓ Video: AVC444
- ✓ Input: wlr-direct (zero dialogs)
- ✓ Clipboard: wl-clipboard
- • wlr-screencopy-v1 (screen capture)
- • wlr-virtual-keyboard-v1
- • wlr-virtual-pointer-v1
Zero permission dialogs with native protocols. Multi-monitor coordinate transformation. Best unattended access experience on wlroots compositors.
Fedora 40+ + GNOME 46
Portal v5 | xdg-desktop-portal-gnome | Native package via OBS
Native package available via OBS. Expected to behave similar to Ubuntu 24.04 (GNOME 46).
Fedora + Sway (Flatpak)
Portal + xdg-desktop-portal-wlr | Flatpak sandbox
- ✓ Screen capture via Portal ScreenCast
- ✓ Video streaming (H.264 encoding)
- ! Input injection requires portal-wlr PR #325
- ! Use native package for full functionality
wlroots-based Compositor Support
Sway, Hyprland, River, and Wayfire get dual-strategy support: native wlr-direct protocols for maximum performance, and Portal fallback for Flatpak deployments.
Native Package (Recommended)
Direct wlroots protocol support (1,050 lines)
- ✓ wlr-screencopy-v1 (screen capture)
- ✓ wlr-virtual-keyboard-v1 (keyboard input)
- ✓ wlr-virtual-pointer-v1 (mouse input)
- ✓ Zero permission dialogs (native protocols)
- ✓ Multi-monitor coordinate transformation
- ✓ Hardware acceleration (NVENC/VA-API)
Compositors: Sway, Hyprland, River, Wayfire
Flatpak (Video-only on wlroots)
Portal + libei/EIS integration (480 lines)
- ✓ Portal ScreenCast (video streaming)
- ! ConnectToEIS for input: blocked pending portal-wlr PR #325
- • Session token persistence (when available)
- • Sandboxed security model
Recommendation: Use native package for wlroots compositors until portal-wlr PR #325 and xdg-desktop-portal-wlr #359 merge.
COSMIC Desktop
Pop!_OS 24.04 | cosmic-comp | Portal v5 (partial)
Current Status
- ✓ ScreenCast: Working (video capture via Portal)
- × Input: Not available (RemoteDesktop not yet implemented)
- × Clipboard: Not available (pending Smithay PR #1388)
- ✓ View-only mode: Works (ScreenCast-only strategy)
Development Outlook
- • Capabilities improving with each COSMIC release
- • Smithay libei/Ei integration in progress
- • Full RDP support expected as Smithay completes
Native Package vs Flatpak
Your installation method significantly impacts available features. Choose based on your deployment requirements.
| Feature | Flatpak | Native Package |
|---|---|---|
| Universal compatibility | Any distro | Specific distro + DE |
| Hardware acceleration (NVENC/VA-API) | Software encoding | Full GPU support |
| Session persistence | Varies by DE | Direct APIs available |
| Systemd integration | Basic support | Full integration |
| File clipboard | Configuration-dependent | Direct filesystem access |
| Sandboxed security | Yes | System-level access |
| Automatic updates | Via Flathub | Via distro repos |
| wlroots input support | Blocked (portal-wlr PR #325) | wlr-direct protocols |
Community Edition (Flatpak) — Free:
Desktop use, workstations, sandboxed environments, universal compatibility. Free to use under BUSL-1.1 Additional Use Grant. Clipboard: Windows → Linux only.
Available: Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 and all distros via Flathub
Native Package Best For:
Production servers, unattended access, GPU acceleration, advanced desktop environment integration, systemd services.
Available: Fedora, RHEL, openSUSE, Debian 13
Clipboard Availability by Platform
Clipboard synchronization availability depends on your Linux distribution's Portal RemoteDesktop version and desktop environment.
| Platform | Portal Version | Clipboard Status | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 24.04 + GNOME | Portal v5 (RemoteDesktop v2) | Available | Full bidirectional clipboard (text, images, files) |
| Fedora 40+ + GNOME | Portal v5 (RemoteDesktop v2) | Available | Full bidirectional clipboard |
| Debian 13 + GNOME | Portal v5 (RemoteDesktop v2) | Available | Full bidirectional clipboard |
| openSUSE TW + GNOME | Portal v5 (RemoteDesktop v2) | Available | Full bidirectional clipboard |
| KDE Plasma 6.3+ (any distro) | Portal v5 | Klipper Workaround | Via Klipper D-Bus integration. Native Portal clipboard has Bug 515465; fix expected Plasma 6.6 (Feb 17). |
| wlroots (native package) | N/A (direct) | Available | Via wl-clipboard and direct protocols. Zero Portal dependency. |
| wlroots (Flatpak) | Portal v5 (varies) | Pending | Blocked alongside input (portal-wlr PR #325) |
| RHEL 9 / AlmaLinux 9 / Rocky 9 | Portal v4 (RemoteDesktop v1) | Not Available | Portal v1 lacks clipboard interface. Wait for RHEL 10. |
| COSMIC | Portal v5 (partial) | Video-only | RemoteDesktop not yet implemented. Blocked on Smithay PR #1388. |
KDE Klipper Clipboard Workaround
KDE Plasma's Portal clipboard implementation has a known issue (Bug 515465) that prevents
reliable clipboard synchronization via the standard Portal RemoteDesktop clipboard interface. Lamco RDP Server
implements a workaround using Klipper's D-Bus API (SelectionOwnerChanged signals)
to provide bidirectional clipboard support.
Current Workaround
- ✓ Monitors Klipper D-Bus signals
- ✓ Bidirectional text clipboard
- ✓ Works on KDE 6.3+ (all distros)
Upstream Fix Timeline
- • Bug 515465 fix expected in Plasma 6.6
- • Release date: February 17
- • Klipper workaround will remain as fallback
Technical Background
The XDG Desktop Portal's RemoteDesktop interface added clipboard support in version 2, which ships with Portal v5 on modern distributions. Older distributions like RHEL 9 use Portal v4 with RemoteDesktop v1, which predates clipboard functionality.
Why Portal v1 lacks clipboard: The org.freedesktop.portal.RemoteDesktop interface in v1 (circa 2020-2022)
focused exclusively on screen capture and input injection. Clipboard synchronization was added in RemoteDesktop v2 (2023+)
to support bidirectional data transfer between remote client and Linux host.
Workarounds for RHEL 9
- → Wait for RHEL 10: Expected to ship Portal v5 with RemoteDesktop v2 (clipboard support)
- → File transfer alternatives: Use RDP file transfer when implemented (roadmap feature)
- → Native package deployment: Future releases may include alternative clipboard methods for Portal v1 platforms
System Requirements
Minimum and recommended configurations for running Lamco RDP Server.
Server (Linux Host)
Operating System
- ✓ Linux with Wayland session
- ✓ XDG Desktop Portal support
- ✓ PipeWire media framework
Hardware (Minimum)
- • CPU: 2 cores (4 recommended for GPU-less encoding)
- • RAM: 2 GB (4 GB recommended)
- • GPU: Optional (NVIDIA NVENC or Intel/AMD VA-API for hardware acceleration)
- • Network: 5 Mbps+ recommended
Supported Distributions
Compatible RDP Clients
Windows
- ✓ Remote Desktop Connection (mstsc.exe) - built into Windows
- ✓ FreeRDP (winpr)
macOS
- ✓ Microsoft Remote Desktop (App Store)
- ✓ FreeRDP (Homebrew)
Linux
- ✓ Remmina (with FreeRDP plugin)
- ✓ FreeRDP (command line)
- ✓ KRDC (KDE Remote Desktop Client)
Mobile
- ✓ Microsoft Remote Desktop (iOS / Android)
- ✓ aFreeRDP (Android)
Ready to Get Started?
Download Lamco RDP Server and start accessing your Linux desktop remotely. Community Edition (Flatpak/Snap) free to use. Also available as native packages.