Was just browsing through Gnome and the Gnome Remote Desktop repositories (looking for a bug that I had come across) when I came across this feature which was merged a few months ago and is apparently in Gnome 42 (I'm on Fedora 36).
This basically allows you to easily set up virtual monitors that you can extend to an RDP-supported display (i.e. most phones and tablets).
Check out this short video I just made demoing this feature (sorry for the crappy quality 🙃)
Two virtual monitors on two different tablets to extend my desktop!
https://youtu.be/_QMkx2C1ATw
How to set this up:
- As a comment by the author of the MR suggests, we need to run this command first:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.remote-desktop.rdp screen-share-mode extend
to enable extendable virtual monitors in the Gnome Remote Desktop App.
- Go to Settings -> Sharing -> Turn on Sharing (top right button) -> Turn on Remote Desktop
- Download an RDP client on your tablet/phone and connect to your computer from the tablet using your local IP.
The best free RDP client I found that works on both Android and iOS is surprisingly the Microsoft RDP client.
Some quirks I noted:
- All resolutions don't work so if your RDP client is stuck in configuration mode change the resolution (perhaps some issue with DMA buffers that I don't fully understand). On my Ipad 8th gen, I have it set to
2048x1536
on my Samsung Tab S4 I have it set to 1728x1080
)
- Following from the above point, if
journalctl -f
shows DMA buffer errors as soon as the RDP client from the tablet connects you need to play around with resolutions.
- On your RDP client a second cursor shows up, right in the center of the tablet screen, you'll have to flick it away on the tablet to one of the corners so that it's not distracting during use (There's already a bug report for this).
- For the best possible experience use this on a 5G network, otherwise, the lag is too annoying, may be okay to keep static content open while you reference it.
- At times your main screen's fractional scaling will revert to 100% and monitor setup will also mess up as soon as a virtual monitor connects. You'll have to just go back in the display settings and set it back to whatever you had it, previously.
- Desktop Animation for windows seems to be broken.
All in all, this is absolutely great and is a cherry on top of the Gnome experience. Huge thanks to the Pascal Nowack the original author of this feature and all those who contribute to the Gnome project 🎉 🎉 🎉 .
Want to add to the discussion?
Post a comment!