Desktop Portals

Desktop portals

Applications use desktop portals to request screen sharing, screenshots, wallpaper changes and other desktop services. Ferese supplies themed consent dialogs, while GTK handles file, print and other standard dialogs.

Install xdg-desktop-portal, xdg-desktop-portal-gtk, and Ferese's backend through Installation. The session launcher starts the services with the correct display environment.

Supported services

Service	Behavior
Settings	Color scheme, accent, contrast, and reduced-motion preferences
Screenshot	Screen, area, window, active-window capture, and color picking
Wallpaper	Preview and approval for desktop, lock screen, or both
ScreenCast	Display and window sharing through PipeWire
Background	Permission to run in the background and startup integration
USB	Device information and approval for requested access
GlobalShortcuts	App shortcut selection, conflict checks, and activation
Inhibit	App requests to delay logout, suspend, or idle actions
InputCapture	Approved keyboard/pointer capture for input-sharing applications
Lockdown	Administrator restrictions on printing, saving, handlers, location, camera, microphone, and sound
FileChooser, Print, Access, Account, AppChooser, DynamicLauncher, Notification	GTK backend

RemoteDesktop and its session Clipboard integration are not implemented. This does not affect ordinary application clipboard use.

Consent and capture

Screenshot and screen-sharing requests need approval. Display-sharing permissions can be remembered when the application requests it and the user opts in. Window sharing always asks again. See Screen sharing. Window captures contain the selected app and its subsurfaces; separate popups, other apps, shell layers, and compositor decorations are excluded.

InputCapture starts at an approved barrier at the edge of a display. Press Ctrl+Alt+Escape to regain local control. Capture stops when you lock the session, disconnect the receiver, change displays or change the keyboard layout. Touch and remembered InputCapture grants are not supported. InputCapture forwards local input; it does not inject remote input.

Wallpaper approval copies the image into Ferese's data directory and updates the active light or dark appearance in the config. The other appearance keeps its wallpaper. A desktop-only change keeps the current lock-screen image, and a lock-screen-only change keeps the desktop image. Set theme.background.lock-path for a shared lock-screen image, or override it under theme.light.background and theme.dark.background. Without a lock-screen path, it follows the desktop wallpaper.

Global shortcuts cannot replace Ferese bindings or reserved escape/console keys. They stop when the app session closes. They never activate on the lock screen. Power confirmations show app inhibitors before proceeding. Ferese has no user-switch operation.

Portal selection

The installer writes /usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal/ferese-portals.conf. Overrides in ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal/ may take precedence. If a request opens the wrong dialog or no source appears, check those overrides and confirm that XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP includes Ferese.

For capture issues, see screen-sharing troubleshooting. For backend contracts and integration checks, see Development.