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FAQ.md

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Frequently Asked Questions

Installation

Which version shall I be using?

Always use the latest released version

Should I use the version shipped with my Linux distribution?

Emphatically NO

Which versions are supported? Which ones are compatible with which versions? On which platforms?

See versions and platforms

Why do I get a GPG signature warning when I try to install

You probably forgot to import the GPG key before installing the package.
The key to use is 0x17978FAF, its signature is B499 3B57 3231 48E3 7977 E5D8 7325 4CAD 1797 8FAF.

I get a GPG error: KEYEXPIRED 1273837137

This key had expired. Please use the new key.

Debian's APT says Origin changed, this must be accepted explicitly... when updating

Run apt-get update --allow-releaseinfo-change.

Debian's Aptitude says Some index files failed to download when updating

See above.

I found a security issue

Please tell us


Usage questions

Where is xpra's system tray icon?

Some desktop environments make it impossible to show a system tray icon.

Why does Xpra use any CPU when the session is idle?

Audio forwarding will consume a fairly constant amount of CPU and bandwidth. Turn speaker forwarding off if you don't need it.
Some applications will also repaint their windows unnecessarily. If you don't use them, try minimizing their windows.

Why does the clipboard keep flashing? Why is clipboard synchronization unreliable?

Make sure that no other tool is also doing clipboard synchronization. Avoid clipboard managers at all cost.

I use RDP #696 or x2go #735, and I have clipboard or other problems

These tools will do their own clipboard synchronization which will definitely interfere with xpra's.
Try disabling one of the clipboard synchronization mechanisms, and if possible, do not layer remote desktop protocols on top of each other.

Where is the command output when I use Xpra.exe?

Xpra.exe is a graphical application, the command output will go to a Xpra.log file found in %APPDATA%\Xpra.
Use Xpra_cmd.exe instead.

How can I start gpg-agent, dbus, etc for each session?

The solution is often distribution specific. You may want to add --start=/path/to/Xsession to your server options.
Or you may want to add each application individually using a start option for each application.

VirtualBox won't release mouse

disable auto capture keyboard


Problems

Some gnome applications take a long time to start (ie: gnome-terminal)

Try adding --source-start=gnome-keyring-daemon to your server. (see gnome-terminal takes too long to launch, not supported with older versions so use --start=gnome-keyring-daemon instead)

My xpra seamless or desktop session has crashed! Can I recover it?

Generally yes, as long as the virtual display server (vfb) has not crashed - and it very rarely does. Use xpra recover.
If the xpra server is completely gone, you can start a new one to re-use the existing display.
If the xpra server is still running but unresponsive, you should kill it first (and use kill -9 to prevent the tear down code from also stopping the vfb display)

Application X creates a new tab or window on an existing display, not the display I want to use

If the application does not provide an option to prevent this behaviour, you may need to use a different user account to launch multiple instances of this application on different displays - this is a common issue with some applications, in particular browsers

Why are my applications missing their menu bar on Ubuntu?

Always start your applications with xpra start --start=APP and not DISPLAY=:N APP (see #1419)


Network

How can I allow multiple users to connect through a single port?

Use the proxy server.

How can I use an SSH key with MS Windows clients?

If your SSH key is not detected and used correctly by default, you may want to use pageant: putty FAQ: How do I use public keys and tell xpra to use putty: --ssh=plink.


Warnings and Messages

"cannot create group socket '/run/xpra/USERNAME'", usually followed by [Errno 13] Permission denied

Harmless warning, safe to ignore. Or you can add your user to the xpra group.
The server tries to create a socket in the shared group directory /run/xpra. This is only useful for sharing access to sessions via unix group membership, in combination with the socket-permissions option.

/run/user/$UID does not exist

You probably used su or and ssh login (not all distributions are afflicted by the ssh variant of this bug). See The directory /run/user/ID is not created when the user is switched via su or sudo Use machinectl shell --uid=username instead of su / sudo.

uinput warnings:

uinput is optional, all these warnings are safe to ignore:

  • "Error: cannot query uinput device path" or "cannot access python uinput module: No module named uinput"
  • "cannot use uinput for virtual devices"
  • "cannot access python uinput module: name 'ABS_MAX' is not defined" - your python-uinput package is broken, complain to your distributor
  • "Failed to open the uinput device: Permission denied" - you do not have the permissions required for opening the /dev/uinput device

"found an existing window manager on screen ..."

Xpra is a window manager, you cannot run two window managers on the same X11 display at the same time.
If you want to forward a whole desktop, including its window manager, see desktop mode, otherwise stop the other window manager.

"cannot register our notification forwarder ..."

The xpra server was started from a GUI session which already had a dbus instance and a notification daemon, notifications forwarding cannot be enabled.

"DPI set to NN x NN (wanted MM x MM), you may experience scaling problems, such as huge or small fonts, etc - to fix this issue, try the dpi switch, or use a patched Xorg dummy driver"

The vfb command in use does not preserve DPI settings. You may want to switch to using a patched Xdummy.

"xpra [errno 2] no such file or directory" when connecting via ssh.

Xpra is not installed on the remote host.

X11 keyboard warnings: Unsupported high keycode XXX for name <INNN> ignored

These are harmless and unavoidable, see Bug 1615700 - warning shows up after run "Xvfb :99 &"

  • gtk_window_add_accel_group: assertion 'GTK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed - harmless and unavoidable on MacOS
  • gui.py: Warning: invalid cast from 'GtkMenuBar?' to 'GtkWindow?' - harmless and unavoidable on MacOS

MacOS complains about "damaged application"

sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Xpra.app

gi/overrides/Gtk.py:1632: Warning: g_object_ref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

This is a mostly harmless warning coming from the GTK library. It is completely pointless as it doesn't specify what object is triggering the problem or from where. But unfortunately, we can't silence it either.