[RESPONDED] Gnome RDP Screen Share resolution quirk

Framework Laptop 13 Linux
1

As I’m migrating my daily desktop from my dual boot PC (Win11/Mint) to my new F13 running Silverblue 39, I’ve been trying to work out my F13’s appearance on the Win11 RDP Client.

See, there’s a quirk. I suspect this is likely a generic enough issue it could affect any user regardless of Framework model or Linux distro – but one of Gnome’s Desktop Screenshare (RDP) dealing with the 3:2 resolutions (or some other portion of Gnome due to my Steam’s Backgammon Blitz symptom.)

Symptom: Using Gnome’s Desktop Screenshare, your RDP Session shows a corrupted mouse cursor.

Solution: Set your framework’s display resolution to 1920x1080 to match your 1080P monitor (in my case). You might need to try other resolutions if your monitor is not 1080P.

At first I thought it was because I was using a slightly larger mouse cursor ( Accessibility > Seeing > Cursor Size > Medium ) - nope. Small had the same effect.

I then thought maybe my Gnome’s “fractional scaling” of 125% was doing it. Tested with 100% & 200% - nope. Same cursor image splitting.

Next, maybe the 3:2 ratio or resolution was the problem. (My Steam’s Backgammon Blitz 1600x900 window is borked taking on a 3:2 vertical stretch ratio under Proton.)
Yup – winner winner chicken dinner.

Changing the Framework’s Display resolution to 1920x1080 (which is the size of my second monitor) fixed the mouse cursor bitmap corruption. I’m now able to set the fractional scaling back to 125% with a Medium cursor and all is fine.

And I just tested my Backgammon Blitz via RDP and its window is now properly proportioned.

Cheers, Mark S.

2 Likes
2

Thanks for the tips Mark, this would come in handy for those using Gnome Desktop Screenshare. :slight_smile:

3

Additional follow-up.

Another thing to watch out for is Scaling. Even though the screenshare issue is associated with the Display’s resolution, when using Steam for Linux, if you have any Scaling turned on (i.e. not at 100%), that is will also mess with your game’s resolution.

Note: I’m surprised Fractional Scaling isn’t a Scaling toggle to enable that option. For Silverblue (Atomic Desktop), you must use CLI command to enable Fractional Scaling.

For example, I installed Adventure Quest 3D, my casual Windows/Android MMO using Proton. It would only let me window at most 1280x768. I was set to 125%. But dropping it back to 100% scaling, I could then adjust the window to 1600x900.

I was looking for a Gnome extension that allows for on-the-fly Display settings (scaling, resolution, and mirror/extending). There’s a couple of separate ones, but none that shows up like ‘ddterm’ or the control area (wifi, bt, volume, etc.) Hrm. Oh well.

We’ll see how many months I go with Super > settings > display before fed up and attempt to write one.