I setup Sunshine on my Kubuntu machine last night. Took me fucking AGES to figure it out. Recently set it up on my M1 Mac mini, which took me a couple of minutes.
…and just to be clear, this is a multiplatform problem. There’s a single mediocre ‘easy’ option in windows land and a very tinkery option in linux land.
Doesn’t seem like any OS has caught up to the idea of fast streaming desktops quite yet. I’m convinced it’s the future of computing though. Way better than old VDI options from days of yore.
It creates virtual displays on the fly and runs completely in the background. Requires a little bit of setup as well as Docker running but it’s pretty neat.
I’ve seen this but I don’t really want the docker part.
I think it could be phenomenal for some kind of beefy VDI implementation for low demanding games or some kind of monster server with multiple GPUs, but it just feels wrong for an individual who wants to remotely stream their desktop on demand and has no plans on having others share the host.
Maybe i’m overthinking it, or haven’t thought it through enough - but my gut says this has more drawbacks than i’m realizing.
It cannot generate a virtual display. It only uses attached displays which by default are real powered on monitors.
I’ve gotten around this on windows with parsec and a virtual display adapter that someone keeps updated on GitHub which can spawn backup displays if none are present, but I find still sometimes fails to spawn them. Parsec is fairly reliable at spawning them when the windows solution fails but it’s not perfect either.
A hack job virtual display on Linux will be more difficult to work with. It’s going to eat my desktop and be fairly hidden.
Dummy plugs exist, but I specifically don’t want to put dummy plugs in all my remote hosts. Seems like an unga bunga solution to something which should be software.
Something with VNC or simply ssh with some scripting could be the workaround I use to get back in when a virtual display fails to work as expected, but I am lazy and want something effectively bulletproof.
Well, dummy plugs are also kinda useful on windows - can’t seamlessly switch to client’s resolution without setting up the resolution profiles first, and that requires a device to apply the profiles to.
Also, you can create virtual displays fairly easy on Xorg, but yes, the entire sunshine setup is infinitely easier on windows.
non-arm-Windows client to Windows host you can use something like parsec where you can adjust resolution on the fly. You can install a fallback virtual display for when the display is off from right inside the app in a single click + UAC prompt. I really don’t like parsec though because I know the enshittification will come, and I don’t really trust them to be secure or to not abuse their backdoor accesses.
This project allows you to create virtual displays that are persistent, and you can configure them so that when the primary monitor is off the backup one is enabled in windows, just by using the default windows display manager options. You can change the resolution freely… because this is using the same vd driver parsec created https://github.com/nomi-san/parsec-vdd - this works pretty well overall with Sunshine
Ultimately though, Sunshine and Parsec are the only two things i’m aware of with great low latency and high fidelity remote capabilities, aside from niche implementations like what the PS5 has. If something like Xorg had similar quality and latency parity i’d be interested, but i’m under the impression everything is like old school vnc or rdp where it is functional when necessary but not very pleasant overall.
Year of the Linux download!
Switching to linux has been the best decision i’ve made all year.
Just wish there was a good one-click-setup virtual display option for Sunshine that “just works.” It’s my white whale of features.
I setup Sunshine on my Kubuntu machine last night. Took me fucking AGES to figure it out. Recently set it up on my M1 Mac mini, which took me a couple of minutes.
I went through the same on Fedora, and it was never quite right. On Bazzite it was preinstalled and worked perfectly, just fyi.
You want one off us go to windows again ?
Why? for a feature that doesn’t exist consistently or comfortably on windows?
No, to develop a tool to help windowsers to migrate in oneclick.
…and just to be clear, this is a multiplatform problem. There’s a single mediocre ‘easy’ option in windows land and a very tinkery option in linux land.
Doesn’t seem like any OS has caught up to the idea of fast streaming desktops quite yet. I’m convinced it’s the future of computing though. Way better than old VDI options from days of yore.
Speaking of whales, you might like https://games-on-whales.github.io/
It creates virtual displays on the fly and runs completely in the background. Requires a little bit of setup as well as Docker running but it’s pretty neat.
I’ve seen this but I don’t really want the docker part.
I think it could be phenomenal for some kind of beefy VDI implementation for low demanding games or some kind of monster server with multiple GPUs, but it just feels wrong for an individual who wants to remotely stream their desktop on demand and has no plans on having others share the host.
Maybe i’m overthinking it, or haven’t thought it through enough - but my gut says this has more drawbacks than i’m realizing.
I need my Omnissa Remote Client (VMWare) to work on Wayland with multiple monitors and I’d be good to go.
As it is, I have to use Windows for work.
Ubuntu didn’t work, but PopOS with Nvidia drivers built in works great.
Is sunshine not compatible with Linux? Or is it just the virtual display feature?
It cannot generate a virtual display. It only uses attached displays which by default are real powered on monitors.
I’ve gotten around this on windows with parsec and a virtual display adapter that someone keeps updated on GitHub which can spawn backup displays if none are present, but I find still sometimes fails to spawn them. Parsec is fairly reliable at spawning them when the windows solution fails but it’s not perfect either.
A hack job virtual display on Linux will be more difficult to work with. It’s going to eat my desktop and be fairly hidden.
Dummy plugs exist, but I specifically don’t want to put dummy plugs in all my remote hosts. Seems like an unga bunga solution to something which should be software.
Something with VNC or simply ssh with some scripting could be the workaround I use to get back in when a virtual display fails to work as expected, but I am lazy and want something effectively bulletproof.
Well, dummy plugs are also kinda useful on windows - can’t seamlessly switch to client’s resolution without setting up the resolution profiles first, and that requires a device to apply the profiles to.
Also, you can create virtual displays fairly easy on Xorg, but yes, the entire sunshine setup is infinitely easier on windows.
non-arm-Windows client to Windows host you can use something like parsec where you can adjust resolution on the fly. You can install a fallback virtual display for when the display is off from right inside the app in a single click + UAC prompt. I really don’t like parsec though because I know the enshittification will come, and I don’t really trust them to be secure or to not abuse their backdoor accesses.
This project allows you to create virtual displays that are persistent, and you can configure them so that when the primary monitor is off the backup one is enabled in windows, just by using the default windows display manager options. You can change the resolution freely… because this is using the same vd driver parsec created https://github.com/nomi-san/parsec-vdd - this works pretty well overall with Sunshine
Ultimately though, Sunshine and Parsec are the only two things i’m aware of with great low latency and high fidelity remote capabilities, aside from niche implementations like what the PS5 has. If something like Xorg had similar quality and latency parity i’d be interested, but i’m under the impression everything is like old school vnc or rdp where it is functional when necessary but not very pleasant overall.