Remote Desktop for Linux

Wayland-native RDP — server, clients, open-source foundations, and the research that informs the work

FOCUS AREA

RDP on Linux, built for Wayland

RDP is the best-understood remote-desktop protocol in the industry — well-documented, multi-vendor, supported by every Windows install and most thin clients. On Linux, the story has been weaker. The dominant server (xrdp) is an X11-era bridge: good enough for legacy desktops, but it can’t run on Wayland, can’t use hardware encoding cleanly, and can’t share clipboard formats or files.

Lamco Development LLC’s RDP focus area is the alternative: an RDP server built for Wayland, open-source Rust foundations published for the whole ecosystem to use, and a growing set of client and automation tools. The anchor product is Lamco RDP Server; everything else in this focus area either builds toward it, alongside it, or on top of it.

RDP on Linux is separately a prerequisite for Proxmox integration and the upcoming VDI work — those are co-equal focus areas that reuse this foundation. See the Proxmox focus area for the VM-access integration story.

WHY WAYLAND-NATIVE

Legacy Linux RDP vs. Lamco RDP Server

The short technical version. The deeper one lives on the Features page.

X11 + xrdp (legacy stack)

— Requires an X11 session; won’t run on modern Wayland-only distros
— Software-only encoding, CPU-bound, no GPU path
— Text-only clipboard; no file transfer, no image paste
— No HDR, no 10-bit color, single monitor
— Capture via X SHM — incompatible with Wayland security model

Lamco RDP Server (Wayland-native)

— Runs natively on GNOME, KDE, sway, Hyprland, and every wlroots compositor
— VA-API / NVENC hardware encoding; H.264, H.265, AV1
— File clipboard via XDG Desktop Portal; image and text both work
— 10-bit HDR, multi-monitor, per-output DPI
— Capture via PipeWire screencast — the sanctioned Wayland path

LAYER STACK

How the pieces stack up

Each layer is independently useful. The crates are MIT/Apache-2.0; the server is BSL 1.1 (Apache-2.0 on 2029-06-01).

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Application layer                                                 │
│   • Lamco RDP Server            (BSL 1.1 → Apache-2.0 2029)       │
│   • lamco-rdp-tools (CLI)       (MIT/Apache-2.0, v1.1.1)          │
│   • lamco-rdp-console (PVE)     (coming soon — Proxmox focus)     │
│   • lamco-qemu-rdp (per-VM)     (coming soon — Proxmox focus)     │
└─────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
      │
┌─────▼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Protocol layer — lamco-rdp meta-crate                             │
│   • lamco-rdp-input             (scancode, coordinates)           │
│   • lamco-clipboard-core        (protocol-agnostic utilities)     │
│   • lamco-rdp-clipboard         (IronRDP CliprdrBackend)          │
│   on top of: ironrdp-cliprdr, ironrdp-core (Devolutions)          │
└─────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
      │
┌─────▼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Capture layer — lamco-wayland meta-crate                          │
│   • lamco-portal                (XDG Desktop Portal)              │
│   • lamco-pipewire              (PipeWire capture + DMA-BUF)      │
│   • lamco-video                 (frame pipeline, RDP bitmaps)     │
└─────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
      │
┌─────▼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ OS layer                                                          │
│   Wayland compositor  ·  xdg-desktop-portal  ·  PipeWire          │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

ANCHOR PRODUCT

Lamco RDP Server

The production Wayland-native RDP server — v1.4.4 shipping on Flatpak, Snap, deb, rpm, and source. Every other item in this focus area either feeds into or consumes it.

Wayland Native

XDG Portals

GPU Accel

NVENC, VA-API

Audio

OPUS, PCM

Written in Rust

Memory safe

Product page → Features Platforms Download

SUPPORTING CAST

Clients, automation, and tooling

A growing portfolio alongside the server. Some public, some in development.

lamco-rdp-tools

v1.1.1

Two RDP command-line tools for Linux and Windows: rdpsee inspects a server (pre-auth scan, certificate, fingerprint, capabilities, screenshot) and rdpdo drives one, the way vncdotool drives VNC, with visual matching, audio verification, and CI output. The same team tests Lamco RDP Server with these tools, and they work against any standards-compliant RDP server. MIT OR Apache-2.0.

View product →

RDP GUI client

IN DEVELOPMENT

A standard RDP desktop client. Primary role today: backbone for downstream releases (tools, console, tests). Later: may ship as a separately-released end-user client.

lamco-probe

IN DEVELOPMENT

A diagnostic for the Wayland stack beneath remote desktop. It inspects the local substrate an RDP server runs on (EIS input injection, PipeWire capture, the XDG Desktop Portal, and the Wayland protocol extensions) and reports health, compatibility, and timing on a given compositor and version. Where rdpsee and rdpdo work over the RDP protocol against a server, lamco-probe looks at the layer underneath. A free companion, in development; dedicated page when it’s ready.

RDP test client

INTERNAL

Private integration-testing client used against the server in CI. Not a distributed product; mentioned for completeness.

OPEN SOURCE FOUNDATIONS

Published Rust crate families

The layers under every Lamco RDP product. MIT/Apache-2.0. Usable independently.

lamco-wayland

meta v0.6.3 · portal / pipewire / video

Wayland screen capture, XDG Portal integration, frame pipeline, and RDP bitmap conversion.

Browse crates →

lamco-rdp

meta v0.6.3 · input / clipboard-core / clipboard-rdp

RDP protocol extensions on top of IronRDP — input translation, clipboard interoperability, file transfer.

Browse crates →

TECHNOLOGY DEEP-DIVES

How the work gets done

Longer-form explanations of the hard parts.

Wayland

Why Wayland-native matters and how we talk to compositors

Video encoding

H.264, H.265, AV1 and the multi-codec story

Color management

10-bit, HDR, and getting color through RDP intact

Performance

Latency, framerate, and where the budgets go

Service discovery

How RDP endpoints announce themselves on a network

Research whitepapers

Multi-codec pipeline, capture timing, and ongoing research

Related focus areas & pages

Proxmox focus area

Where the RDP foundation is integrated with Proxmox VE — browser console, per-VM RDP, host health.

Open source index

The full set of published Lamco libraries — Rust crates, NetKit on Maven Central, Laminate.

Downloads

Flatpak, Snap, native deb/rpm, source tarball — the distribution surface for the server.