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DeskRanger for Linux

What the Linux app can do already, what comes next and which systems are supported.

DeskRanger for Linux is available in Early Access as a deb and rpm package from DeskRanger's package source; how to install it is under Installing and updates. The app follows the Mac app: the same sign-in, the same library, the same words. The overview below shows what Linux can do already.

Supported systems

• App and server package: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, Debian 13, Fedora 43, Fedora 44, RHEL / AlmaLinux / Rocky Linux 10
• Server package only (no desktop app): Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Debian 12, RHEL / AlmaLinux / Rocky Linux 8 and 9
• Processor: x86-64, ARM64 (aarch64)

The app

You sign in as on the Mac, with e-mail and password or with Apple or Google. Apple and Google open your browser; once you have signed in there, the app continues by itself. Your desktop's keyring (GNOME Keyring or KWallet) keeps this computer's key. If it is locked, the desktop asks for its password once.

After signing in, the app shows your library. On the left are Dashboard, Favorites, Recently Connected and Shared with Me, below them your Groups and then the Library with Devices, Apps, Files, Network, Terminal and Passwords. What the Linux app cannot do yet (Apps, Network, Passwords) is greyed with the note "Coming later". On the right there is a card for every device: its name, its system and how well it can be reached right now, for example directly with the round trip in milliseconds or through a relay. The star on a card makes a device a favourite, on all your devices. The search field at the top searches names, groups and tags.

At the foot of the sidebar is This Computer with this computer's name, its state and how well it can be reached. A click opens the overview with Reachability: the details, Test now and Paths · last 30 days with Clear history. For a device that can only be reached through the relay, Why? on its card explains why. When a new device appears in your account, the desktop says New device in your account with Remove Device. Below it is your account; click it to open it, and sign out there.

Next to the search is Connections (it only appears while something is open): a list in up to three groups with what is open on this computer, who is connected to it and the account's other sessions, each with Open and End; a shell that keeps running without anyone connected offers Reconnect and asks before it is ended. A small number on the icon counts what is open. On a device card with device information, the ⓘ in the picture's corner opens the information at once.

Under This Computer in the settings is Proxy server: if your network needs an HTTP proxy, enter its address there; without an entry DeskRanger follows the proxy environment variables (http_proxy, https_proxy). The settings show which proxy each connection uses and where it comes from.

Connect on a card opens a window of its own with the other device's screen. Mouse, keyboard and the clipboard go there; while the window is in front, shortcuts such as Alt+Tab too (some desktops ask you once whether that is allowed). Closing the window ends the connection. For the picture DeskRanger uses your graphics driver when it can decode video (VA-API, with Intel and AMD graphics). On a computer without one, DeskRanger downloads the free OpenH264 decoder directly from Cisco when you first connect; the window says so while it loads, a few seconds on a good connection. The program does not come with DeskRanger and is downloaded only once. Without a connection to the internet the window says: The picture cannot be shown here. Connect again once you are online.

The Account page shows under Sign-in activity where you are signed in and your sign-ins of the last 90 days, with Sign out and Sign out everywhere else; more under Account. At the very bottom Delete Account… deletes your account, with your password or, without one, with Apple, Google or Microsoft in the browser. A sign-in's place shows the country in your system's language where the system brings the country names (the iso-codes package), else the country code.

You can switch OpenH264 off and on again under Account › Video decoder. Switching it off also deletes the downloaded file. The licence text is under Licences on the same page, and Open Source Licenses lists every open-source component DeskRanger contains, with a search and the licence text of each.

In the window's header bar a coloured dot with the delay shows how the connection is right now (green good, yellow fair, red poor; when frames are lost the share is shown too). When the other device has several screens, you pick the one you see at the top right. Your pointer takes the shape the other device shows, and notes from the other device (locked, screen asleep, input blocked) appear as a bar above the picture. The Scaling menu in the header bar offers Fit to Window and Match Window: the other device then changes its resolution to the size of the picture and follows when you resize the window; it gives the resolution back when you choose Fit to Window or end the connection. If it will not do that, a note says why. A Windows PC without a screen says so in a bar with a link What helps? to the help page.

The More menu at the right of the header bar lists what the session offers: Control mouse and keyboard (switch it off and the window only watches), Privacy Mode (the other device darkens its screen; its person can refuse), Share Clipboard and Send system shortcuts to the device, and Show Device List brings the device list to the front while the session runs on. The same entries have keys: hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift and press the letter shown beside an entry; these keys stay on this computer and are never sent to the other device. When the connection breaks the last picture stays, dimmed, with the reason in plain words; a session that has ended offers Reconnect in the window. Connect on a device that is already connected brings its window forward.

Sharing this computer

At the top of This Computer, at the foot of the sidebar, is the switch Allow connections to this computer. While it is on, your other devices can connect to this computer; it stays on until you switch it off, also after a restart. Switching it off accepts no new connections; running ones go on. Your plan allows only a certain number of such devices; once it is reached, the app says Device limit reached and lists the devices that allow connections. Next to every other device is Remove…: after the question it is removed from your account and the place is free again (with DeskRanger Secure through the approval that removing a device needs anyway).

While a connection to this computer is running, DeskRanger asks before something would lock the other side out: when you switch the switch off (Turn off connections?) and when you switch off Prevent sleep while remote access is on (Allow sleep again?). The question says what then happens; the default is “Cancel”. The person connected may be you. Logging out, restarting and shutting down are never held up by DeskRanger.

While a connection runs, DeskRanger does not let the computer fall asleep by itself. In addition Prevent sleep while remote access is on keeps it awake as long as the switch Allow connections to this computer is on, because a sleeping computer cannot be reached remotely. You find the switch in the settings under This Computer; it is on at first on computers without a battery and off on laptops. Only automatic sleep is prevented: the screen may turn off, and Suspend in the system menu or closing the lid still work. Technically the app holds an “idle:sleep” lock with logind, which systemd-inhibit --list shows.

When you switch it on, DeskRanger sets the computer up right away, while you are sitting at it; below the switch is Setup with two rows. System permission: your desktop asks once whether DeskRanger may share the screen. In its dialog switch on remote interaction and the clipboard (GNOME leaves remote interaction off at first) and confirm; the desktop remembers the permission, and connections from your own devices then start without this dialog, also when nobody is at the computer. Right after that GNOME asks a second time, for a virtual monitor: pick it, leave remembering the selection on and confirm. A device of your account can then change the resolution with Match Window: DeskRanger adds an extra monitor the size of the window for it, without asking and without rearranging your screens, and takes it away with Fit to Window or when the connection ends. This works from the app's next start. If something is missing, the row says so, and Grant permission asks again. Video encoder: DeskRanger sends the picture through the graphics card (VA-API) when it can; otherwise it downloads OpenH264 directly from Cisco, as for viewing and under the same switch Use OpenH264. If the desktop no longer honours the permission later, or the encoder is missing, DeskRanger ends the connection with the reason instead of sending a black picture: the other device says … needs a permission given at the device. Open DeskRanger there and grant it. or … has no video encoder. Open DeskRanger there and finish the setup., and here the row shows what to do. Below the switch is also Let my devices connect without asking: while it is on (by itself after you sign in), your own devices connect without a window and without a click; while it is off, DeskRanger asks here for every connection, and the card says Ready · asks first. Other people and support codes always ask. While the service runs (Reachable before sign-in is on), the card shows its state instead of the app's switch: Ready when your own devices come in without asking, otherwise Ready · asks first; the Let my devices connect without asking switch then sits under the service's.

When someone wants to see this screen, a window opens: who it is, whether the device belongs to your account, and what they may do. See the screen is always part of it; you switch Control mouse and keyboard and Transfer files off one by one. If the device is not in your account, the window warns about scams and files start off. Without an answer DeskRanger declines after 30 seconds. Nothing reaches the other side before Allow. With Transfer files the other device can send files to this computer: from one of your own devices they are saved into the download folder without a question, otherwise a window asks, and a line in the live window says when a file has arrived. While other devices use your shared folders, a window of its own without a close button lists each device with Disconnect, Disconnect All and the latest activity. While a session (terminal, shared folders or screen) runs through the background service, another window without a close button lists it on every page of the app with End and goes with the last one. If parec (PulseAudio or PipeWire) is installed, the window also asks Share sound: off until you switch it on; then everything this computer plays can be heard (never the microphone). In the live window you can switch sound off at any time; you cannot switch it on there while the other side may control this computer.

Then a small window shows, as long as the connection runs, who is viewing or controlling this computer and since when; End ends it at once. This window cannot be closed while the connection runs. While a connection runs, DeskRanger keeps the screen awake: the desktop does not blank or lock it for being idle; with the last connection that ends, and nothing changes in your settings. Your desktop then asks on its own which screen to share; choose it there and confirm. For your own devices it no longer asks after the setup; for everyone else it asks every time. If you leave remote control off in that prompt, the other side may only watch, and its window tells it that only watching was allowed here. To let it control after all, end the connection and connect again: your desktop asks again (for your own devices too, because DeskRanger does not keep such a grant), and you switch on remote control in the dialog. If you allowed Share clipboard (the window offers it only when your desktop can), it has the switch Share Clipboard: copied text then goes both ways, nothing hidden, and the other person can switch it off too. Sound is not shared from this computer yet.

While a session runs, this computer's screen stays on: DeskRanger asks your desktop for an idle inhibitor so that it neither dims the screen nor locks it for inactivity, and the computer does not go to sleep by itself; DeskRanger gives it back when the session ends; nothing in your settings changes. If the system ends the screen sharing by itself, for instance because the screen went dark after all, DeskRanger restarts it, first after half a second, then at growing intervals up to 10 seconds. The other device sees the note that the screen is asleep meanwhile, so a frozen picture never looks like a live one. DeskRanger keeps trying for as long as the session runs, so the picture is back when the screen wakes up. If you end the sharing yourself on the desktop, the session ends as before.

While the screen is locked nobody here can accept a request: DeskRanger declines it at once, and the other device says that nobody there can accept right now. If you lock the screen during a connection you allowed, it goes on, but for viewing only: the other device says that this computer is locked and that control works again once it is unlocked, and keys it was holding are released. While your desktop still asks which screen to share, the other device says that control is blocked until you answer. Your own devices that connect without asking control the locked screen too.

While a connection to this computer runs or is about to begin, the app shows no six digits (at the sign-in, while waiting for an approval, and in an approval's field); it says Hidden while a remote session runs there instead, so the other side cannot see them.

System actions and the safety net

A device that may control this computer finds a few system actions in its session: Settings and File Explorer open your desktop's own apps, as you, and are offered only when the desktop has them. Lock screen is listed too, but as not possible for now: after it the other device would not get back in. The app is a program in your session; the locked screen is not shared with it. It becomes possible once the DeskRanger service serves the locked screen and is online in your account; the app sees that when it checks with the service at its start or after a sign-in. Restart… always works with control; this computer asks first, with a countdown and Cancel. Until someone signs in afterwards, only Terminal and Files reach it with the DeskRanger service, nothing without it. Without the service the question therefore tells the other device that someone has to sign in at this computer after the restart, instead of “back in about a minute”; the countdown here says it too. Log Out… signs you out on this computer (apps may still ask to save); it is possible only when the service serves the sign-in screen, otherwise the other device would not get back in. Shut Down… switches the computer off; the other device asks first and says the computer then cannot be reached until someone switches it on. This computer does not offer privacy mode or the screenshot of the active window: on Wayland nothing can be kept out of the shared picture, and a program cannot learn which window is in front. Switching off Allow connections to this computer while someone is connected asks first (Turn off connections?): the connection goes on, but nobody can connect again until you switch it on. DeskRanger itself cannot be closed while a connection runs, because the small window of that connection cannot be closed.

The privacy screen and the picture of the window in front are not available on Linux yet: Wayland offers no way to cover the screen without covering it in the shared picture too, and no way to read another program's window.

Your own devices without asking (GNOME)

When the DeskRanger service runs on a GNOME desktop (Wayland), your own devices can connect to the unlocked screen without a window or a click once you allow it. When you turn on Reachable before sign-in in the app, the same administrator password also turns on Let my devices connect without asking, for your account's devices. Below it the app shows its own switch: turning it on asks for the administrator password every time, turning it off works at once without a password. On a server without the app: deskranger desktop unattended on or deskranger desktop unattended off (as root). While someone controls this computer remotely it cannot be turned on. GNOME shows its sharing icon at the top right while a connection runs; one click on it ends it. After a restart the computer is online again at once, also before anyone signs in: Terminal and Files work already (as the user the switch belongs to, never as root), and the screen's window says that the computer is waiting for a sign-in until someone signs in to GNOME, also through GNOME's automatic sign-in; then the picture appears by itself. With an encrypted disk the computer waits for the disk password at startup and is offline until then. While the screen is locked your own device still connects and shows that it is locked; you unlock it there with your password. Requests someone has to accept (your devices while this switch is off, the browser, other accounts) are asked by the service itself: when the app runs, its window asks; when it is closed, GNOME shows a notification with Decline and Allow, also with “Do Not Disturb”; when the device also wants control, View only between them gives the picture without control. Without an answer the request is declined. With the screen locked or nobody signed in, nobody can accept, and such requests are declined. While the service serves this computer, the app itself takes no connections, so the computer is reachable once; turn Reachable before sign-in off and the app takes over again at once.

When the screen is locked, the window on your own device says “Screen locked”, and you unlock it with the password of the signed-in Linux user. After 5 wrong passwords the computer takes none for 15 minutes. Every try is recorded in your account (which device, when, whether it worked; never the password). Your other devices get a notification when the screen was unlocked remotely and when it is paused after 5 wrong tries, never for a single wrong try.

The Dashboard

Dashboard is the first row of the sidebar and the page the app opens with. It says in one sentence how your devices are (All good, or how many things need you) with the numbers under it, and offers the quick actions this computer can start: Give help, Add device and Open terminal. Needs attention lists what waits for you: a new sign-in to your account (View opens the account page, Got it marks it as seen on all your devices) and devices that have been offline for a long time (Stop telling me keeps the note away until something changes). Pick up where you left off lists what is running and your favourites; a click connects. This computer, your plan and the security rows follow. A number beside Dashboard in the sidebar counts the things to do. The Linux app does not host yet, so there is no quick action for getting help. Your devices at a glance shows this computer in the middle and your other devices around it; the colour of a line shows the path, and a click on a device opens it. Activity shows the last seven days as bars and the newest connections; the history stays on this computer only, and Clear history deletes it. With Customize at the top of the page you hide and show tiles and put them in a new order; this applies to this computer only. The app opens with the page you left it on.

Adding devices and being found nearby

The plus button above the list opens Add Device: the steps for installing DeskRanger on another device, and Nearby. DeskRanger looks for devices through Avahi, the system service for the local network (avahi-daemon, installed by default on most desktops); without it the page says so. Devices are only found when they announce themselves; DeskRanger scans no addresses. On a DeskRanger whose sign-in screen is open, Add starts the code comparison described in Add a nearby device. If DeskRanger Secure is on in your account, your yes is also the approval: this computer's approval key enters the new device in the device list. This works once this computer may approve devices; otherwise the page says so, and you add the device from a device that may.

The app can also show an icon in the notification area (Settings, General; on by default). A click on it opens the window. KDE, Cinnamon and XFCE show it; GNOME shows it only with the extension "AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support" (install it from GNOME Extensions); without it the window stays the only way in.

For this computer to be found, it needs Visible Nearby (Settings, This Computer). The switch is on while the computer has no account and off once you sign in, until you choose.

The sign-in screen and the question at the first start offer Or have a nearby device add this one: a device that already belongs to an account can add this computer without anyone signing in here. Visible Nearby must be on; the computer listens only while the sign-in screen is open, for at most 15 minutes (Make Ready Again opens a new window). When a device asks, a window shows the name the other device gives (it is not verified) and the code; if it matches the other screen, you confirm with Code Matches – Add or decline with Decline. After that the app shows the account's page: from here you connect to none of the account's devices, Show devices on this network stays off until you turn it on. The computer stays connected to the service for this: if the account removes it (in another app or in the console), it notices at once and shows the sign-in again. Sign In with Your Own Account… or Leave the Account… takes you out yourself (if the service cannot be reached, Leave on This Device Only is the way that always works).

Cards, connections and wake-up

After a session with one of your devices, its card shows the last picture of that session, small, with Last session · … and the time. The picture stays on this computer only (in the cache folder of your user, 640 pixels wide at most); it is never sent anywhere. It is replaced during a session about every 30 seconds and at its end, deleted after 30 days, when you remove the device and when you sign out. Until then the card shows its coloured placeholder.

If a connection is refused, the window says why in plain words, for example that another of your devices is already connected, and names the plan that allows more. A computer that has been asleep or has changed its network is reachable again within seconds. If this computer was removed from your account on another device or in the console, the app says This device was removed from your account; Sign In Again signs you in again and adds the computer anew.

At the foot of the sidebar, above your account, the strip with the sessions shows how many sessions of your account count toward the limit of your plan (one segment per allowed session, for example 1 of 3). A click opens Active Sessions: who is connected to what right now, how long, and whether directly or through a relay. A session that runs through one of your own devices sits indented under the session it runs through and counts once. For a session this computer is viewing, Show Window brings its window forward and End ends it; sessions of other devices can only be ended on those devices.

The settings page (the account row at the foot of the sidebar) starts with General: the language follows your system, and Save received files in names the folder for received files. This Computer shows this computer's name and its device ID with a copy button. Permissions says whether the desktop portal and the keyring are running, which the app needs to share this computer later and to keep your sign-in; if one is missing, the line says what to install. Folders this computer shares lists the folders other devices may see: Share a Folder… picks one (read only and for all your devices at first), and per folder you switch it off, allow writing, limit it to chosen devices, show hidden files or Stop Sharing; nothing in the folder is touched. Then follow your account, the video decoder and About with the version and the open-source licences.

The session

The session's „⋯“ menu lists the window's commands. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+K opens the command palette (Find Command…): type a few letters, the arrow keys choose, Enter runs. Under Scaling, Actual Size shows the picture pixel for pixel; when it is larger than the window, move the pointer to the window's edge and the view follows. When the device plays sound, the menu has Sound: mute it here or, when it is off, ask the person at the device to switch it on; they decide. The sound goes through ALSA, so PipeWire and PulseAudio serve it too. When the person at the other device shares only one app (for now only in development builds), the window title names the app, a badge at the top left says „Only ‹app›“, and a note explains why typing pauses; with one of your own devices, Show Whole Screen shows the whole screen if the device allows it.

Files

The Files page in the sidebar shows your devices with their shared folders on the left, and at the top This Computer with your home folder, the known folders (Desktop, Documents, Downloads) and the mounted drives. The list of the folder you opened is on the right: a double click opens a folder, the arrows and Up go back, forward and one level up, the column headers sort, and the search looks on the chosen device. A right click opens the menu with Rename, the trash, Copy Path and, on a folder, Add to Favourites: the folder then stays under Favourites in the places, where a right click takes it out again (Remove from Favourites). Alt+Up goes one level up, Delete moves the picked item to the trash after asking. When you select files of a device, Download and Download to… in the menu download them, and Upload… sends files of this computer into the open folder. Under Transfers you see every transfer with its progress, speed and path, and pause, resume or cancel it; when a file exists there already, you are asked. Received files land in “Downloads” or in the folder you choose under General on the settings page with Change…. In the window of a remote screen, Send Files… in the “⋯” menu sends files to that device; a file your own device sends you is saved in the download folder without a question, and a line over the picture tells you when a file arrived or failed. Several places can be open as tabs: “+” or Ctrl+T opens a tab, Ctrl+W closes it, Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab switch (at most ten; they come back after a restart). Open in New Tab in the menu of a folder, or a middle click on a place, opens it in a tab of its own. With files of a device selected, Copy To in the menu copies them into a folder open in another tab, directly from device to device. Drag files from your file manager onto the list of a device's folder to upload them there. The sidebar row Files shows how many transfers are still open. Side by Side (the toolbar button or Ctrl+Alt+S) shows two tabs next to each other; the side you clicked last gets a line on top, and the places on the left act on it. In a narrow window the places hide behind the Places button in the toolbar, and the two sides stack on top of each other. Drag files from a list onto a folder, a place, a tab or the other side: between devices they are copied, files of this computer are uploaded, files of a device are downloaded into a folder of this computer. Drag a tab to another spot in the strip to move it; tabs of a device that is no longer in your account close by themselves. Files you drag onto the picture of a remote screen go to that device. When a transfer asks what to do about a file that already exists, the question opens by itself. Under Servers (SFTP) you find the SSH servers from the Terminal; a click opens their home folder and the whole file system. The first time, DeskRanger asks as the Terminal does for the server's key and for the sign-in (DeskRanger remembers a password when Remember in the password store stays on and the sign-in works; it lives in this computer's password store, never on DeskRanger's servers, and is forgotten as soon as the server refuses it). Downloads and uploads run in the same list under Transfers; when a transfer waits for the sign-in, Sign In opens the server. A server has no trash: Delete… asks first and deletes for good. DeskRanger does not yet copy directly between a server and a device.

Remote desktops and services

Computers that offer Remote Desktop (RDP) or VNC instead of DeskRanger go into the library too. The "+" button in the library's header ("Add Remote Desktop …") opens the form: protocol, name, address, port and, if you like, user name and password. The password goes into the system's password store (Secret Service), never to DeskRanger's servers. The card's menu (the three dots) has "Edit …", "Forget Saved Login" and "Remove from My Devices …". If the computer sits behind one of your devices, choose it under "Access via". The session opens in its own window with picture, mouse and keyboard, the size following the window, the clipboard switch and, for VNC, the note that the way is unencrypted. More in Connect to a Windows PC with Remote Desktop and Connect to a Mac or other computer with VNC.

In the menu of an own device that shares services, "Services …" lists them: "Open locally" creates an address such as 127.0.0.1:8080 on this computer, "Copy address" copies it and "Close" closes it again. The addresses live while DeskRanger runs. More in Share a service and open it locally. The button of an own server's card ("Connect") opens its terminal as a tab of the terminal window.

Terminal and SSH

The terminal button at the top of the library (or Ctrl+K) opens the quick connect (Quick connect): type the name of an SSH host from your account, or user@host (also user@host:port) for a server you need only once. Every host opens as a tab in one terminal window. Ctrl+Shift+T or “+” opens the next tab, Ctrl+Shift+W closes it and Ctrl+Page Down / Ctrl+Page Up switch.

On the first connection to a server DeskRanger shows its fingerprint and signs in only after you trust it (Trust and Connect). If the key of a known server changes, it does not connect at all and shows both fingerprints. Passwords and the server's own questions, for example a one-time code, are asked in a window. For a password, Remember in the password store stays on unless you turn it off: after a successful sign-in it is kept in this computer's password store (Secret Service) and used the next time. If the server refuses it, DeskRanger forgets it and asks again. The password of a jump host (ProxyJump) is never remembered.

Ctrl+C and the other Ctrl keys go to the program on the server. Copy with Ctrl+Shift+C and paste with Ctrl+Shift+V or Shift+Insert; selected text is also on the primary selection, so a middle click pastes it. If you paste several lines at once, DeskRanger asks first. Shift+Page Up scrolls through the history. Links show their target when you move the pointer over them and open with Ctrl-click. A program that uses the mouse gets it; hold Shift to select anyway.

The “Terminal” page in the sidebar shows your SSH hosts in your groups and your devices that offer a terminal. A click on a host opens a tab; “SSH Host” adds one, with address, port, user, how to sign in, access through a device and a chain of jump hosts (ProxyJump), and the pencil and bin buttons change or remove it.

A click on a device that is online opens its terminal (no SSH) in a tab; if the connection dropped, the shell keeps running there and “Reconnect” continues it. “Local Shell” opens a shell of this computer in a new tab. Under “Keys” you create keys, import OpenSSH, PEM and PuTTY keys, copy the public part and export a key only encrypted; private keys never leave the computer unencrypted.

Profiles: on the Terminal page, “Profiles” lists them. New Profile makes one, Import Color Scheme … reads a colour scheme, and each row's menu sets the default, duplicates or deletes. In the editor you change colour scheme, font, size, ligatures, cursor and scrollback; the preview is a real terminal and open terminals follow at once. A host can use its own profile (“Profile” in the host form). The quick connect lists your devices and the local shell too. Profiles stay on this computer. Orca does not read the terminal's text line by line yet.

Forwards: in the host form, Port forwards sets up forwards that start with every connection (Local, Remote and SOCKS proxy); the terminal window has the Port forwards button at the top right: it lists the running ones with their state and End, and Add Forward … starts one for this connection only. A forward listens on 127.0.0.1 only unless you switch on Share on the network. One that opens this device or its network starts here only with Start. The Access & Tunnels page with all tunnels does not exist in the Linux app yet.

Taking over hosts: Import Hosts… next to SSH Host reads your ~/.ssh/config with its included files via Read ~/.ssh/config, or an export file from PuTTY, MobaXterm, SecureCRT or a CSV file via Choose File…. You first see what was found; hosts you already have are not chosen. Passwords, private keys and host keys never come in.

Reachable before sign-in too (package from deskranger.app)

With the deb or rpm package, this computer's card offers the switch Reachable before sign-in below Allow connections to this computer. When you turn it on, your system asks once for the administrator password; after that the DeskRanger service runs without the app, also after a restart, and the app hands it the account it is signed in to. The screen after sign-in, while locked with your password; Terminal and Files even before. When you sign out of the app, the service's sign-in ends too; when you sign in again with the same account, it takes it over by itself, without a password. If the service still belongs to another account, the card shows Move to my account …; only that, with the administrator password, moves it, and your own devices then connect only with a confirmation until you turn on Let my devices connect without asking. When someone connects to you through the service, the card shows it like any other session, with End. When the service runs but does not answer, the card says Unknown whether anyone is connected right now.: sessions through it may then be running that the card does not show. Turning it off also asks for the password and stops the service; its identity stays until you remove the computer from your account. Servers without a desktop still sign in with sudo deskranger login.

While the switch is on, the card shows below it what the service still needs, as on macOS and Windows: Background service allowed, Linked to account or what is missing, for instance Not linked to the account or Background service is not responding. What is missing is also listed under the to-dos in this computer's bubble.

Signing in from afar after a restart (GNOME)

When nobody has signed in at the computer since a restart, a screen session from one of your own devices opens GNOME's sign-in screen in a session of its own. For that, Reachable before sign-in and Let my devices connect without asking must both be on. You sign in there with your Linux password, as you would at the computer. The password goes to GNOME only: DeskRanger neither stores nor sees it. After that your desktop runs on in this session of its own, and GNOME shows its screen-sharing sign in the bar at the top there.

Meanwhile the screen at the computer stays at the sign-in screen and shows nothing of your session. Disconnecting does not sign you out: your session keeps running, and your next own device connects straight back to it. To end it, sign out inside the session from the menu at the top right. If you leave the sign-in screen open, DeskRanger closes it as soon as you disconnect. Other people, and connections that need a confirmation, never reach the sign-in screen: nobody there can accept a request.

This works with GNOME 46 or later (Ubuntu 24.04, Zorin OS 18) and the deb or rpm package. With other desktops the session still waits until someone signs in at the computer (The screen after sign-in, while locked with your password; Terminal and Files even before.).

Servers without a desktop

On a server without a screen you install the package deskranger-server (Debian and Ubuntu: deb; Fedora, RHEL and openSUSE: rpm). It brings the service and the command deskranger. After the install nothing runs yet.

1. sudo deskranger login shows a code. Open DeskRanger on a device you are signed in on and choose Add Device › Sign in with a code. Enter the code there and confirm. If your account uses DeskRanger Secure, you also type in the six digits the server shows.
2. sudo deskranger terminal-user <name> sets the user terminals and shared folders run as. Without one there is no terminal and no folder; none ever runs as root.
3. sudo deskranger status shows the account, the device, whether the server is online and the running sessions.

Without another device: a join key. A server in a rack or a container that nobody can sit at joins your account with a join key you made in DeskRanger on another device: sudo deskranger join --key-file /path/to/key (or --key-file - to pass the key on standard input, or set DESKRANGER_JOIN_KEY, which sudo only passes on with --preserve-env=DESKRANGER_JOIN_KEY). Keep the key file readable by its owner only (chmod 600); a key given as an argument is refused, because it would show in the process list and the shell history. Typed at a terminal, the key is not shown. The server joins as a node, without a screen; the command says how often the key can still be used. If the server is in an account already, remove it first with sudo deskranger forget.

sudo deskranger logout takes the server out of your account; sudo deskranger forget also deletes its identity. The service takes commands from root only; without "sudo", deskranger says it needs administrator rights. The service never installs an update while someone uses a terminal or a shared folder.

The server as the access to its network

A server without a desktop can be the access to its network for your account's devices: a remote desktop or an SSH server for which you choose it under "Access via" is reached through it. It reaches only the address in the entry, only for devices of your account, and never itself. sudo deskranger gateway publish <name> <port> publishes a service of this server, for example a web interface; with --host <address>, a service of another device in its network. Your devices then open it under "Services …" in the card's menu. sudo deskranger gateway and sudo deskranger status show every running tunnel with its number, who uses it and where it goes, as well as the published services and the entries that name this server as their access. sudo deskranger gateway end <number> ends a tunnel, --all ends all; sudo deskranger gateway unpublish <id> takes a service back, sudo deskranger gateway allow <id> off blocks an entry. Every start and end is written to the system journal. On a computer with a desktop the service does not offer this yet.

Updates on the server

The service keeps itself up to date when you installed it from our deb or rpm package. It looks for a new version regularly, checks its signature and installs it only once nobody has used a terminal or a shared folder for two minutes. Your system's package manager (apt, dnf or zypper) does the install; your settings stay. If the install fails, the service tries up to three times, otherwise it waits for the next version.

When we publish a new version, the service hears of it over the connection it already has and looks soon after, instead of waiting for its next regular check. That notice is only a nudge: only what passes the signature check is installed.

• sudo deskranger update looks for a new version at once and installs it right away when no session runs. If one runs, the command says so and installs nothing.
• After the install the service starts its new version itself once no session has run for 30 seconds. If a session starts in that time, it waits again; a running session never ends for it. This also applies when you update the package yourself with apt upgrade or dnf upgrade.
• sudo deskranger channel beta (or stable) chooses which channel updates come from: for the service and for the apt, dnf or zypper package source at once, otherwise the command changes nothing. Without a name it shows the channel and says when the package source follows another one. A change never installs an older version: if you move from beta to stable, your version stays until stable has a newer one.
• If you installed DeskRanger from the tar archive, the service does not update itself: you replace the archive as you did for the install.

Views, crash reports and reporting a problem

At the first start DeskRanger asks: What would you like to do? You pick one of three views (key 1, 2 or 3): Get help, Give help or All features. Someone who already has an account picks Sign in at the bottom. The choice applies to this computer only and can be changed at any time: with Switch View… at the foot of the simple views or in the settings under General. Before the screen is shared your desktop asks through the portal: you choose your screen there and click “Share”.

In the view Get help the number is there as soon as the page opens: three groups, large, with Copy and, where a speech service (speech-dispatcher) is installed, Read aloud, which reads it out only when you click. No account is needed: on a computer nobody is signed in on, DeskRanger goes online for the help, serves it with its own host and shows the number. If that is not possible the page says why in plain words (for instance No internet connection. Check the Wi-Fi or the cable and try again.) and offers Try again; when a number runs out a new one comes by itself. When someone uses it, the window asks as for every connection; the page names the person and says beforehand what your desktop will ask (Your system will ask in a moment), in words and without a picture because that dialog looks different on GNOME, KDE and others. While the help runs the page shows who helps and since when, with End; afterwards come Close and Get help again. While a help without an account runs, and for a short time after it, no sign-in is taken and the app says why. Not on Linux: letting someone only watch for the rest of a running help, and showing a single program (the desktop's own dialog offers a window or a screen).

In the view Give help you sign in once, briefly, so the other person sees who is helping. Then you type the number the other person reads out to you in three groups (pasting works, Enter connects) and click Connect; the other person always has to allow the request. If they do not have DeskRanger yet, Send link copies a link with a ready message to the clipboard for you to send (Linux has no share window like other systems). Under Recently helped you see the people you helped, only on this device and deletable; after a successful help a tip card appears. In the first session three lines under the header bar show where the special keys, the files and End are. The same entry is also a window in the library's header bar.

After a crash DeskRanger asks at the next start: DeskRanger crashed last time. Send a report? With What’s in it? you see the report exactly as it would be sent; nothing leaves without your answer or the switch Send Crash Reports in the settings under Privacy. That is also where Report a Problem… is: you describe what happened, give an address for the reply and see with View what diagnostic data goes with it. Nothing is sent until Send.

In the settings, Updates names the channel of this build and says how the app is updated: not by itself, but through your system's package manager; a package update does not end a running session. When a package update has replaced the app's program, the app restarts itself to match the new version. While something in it still runs – a window to another device, a connection being set up, an open terminal, a transfer or a session to this computer – or while you are using it, it waits and says so above the window: Update installed – DeskRanger restarts once nothing is running and you haven't used it for a while. It restarts only when nothing runs and you have not used it for two minutes (no key, no click in its windows), never in the middle of your work. Restart now restarts the app at once; its sessions and terminals end, as when quitting. Under Privacy you also find the note on end-to-end encryption and the link to the privacy policy in the app's language.

Sign-in and security

On the Account page, Sign-in holds two-factor sign-in: Turn on… lets you choose Approval on your devices, an authenticator app or basic protection. For an authenticator app DeskRanger shows a QR code and the key to type in, and asks for the first code. Under Recovery codes, Create new… makes new recovery codes; they appear only once. Before each of these changes DeskRanger asks: Confirm it’s you. The ways your account has count: Confirm on another device, a code from the authenticator app, a recovery code, the code by e-mail or your password; Apple and Google open their sign-in page in the browser.

Under Passkeys, Add passkey… creates a passkey for this computer. Linux has no passkey store of its own like Touch ID or Windows Hello, so DeskRanger keeps the passkey itself: the key is in your keyring (GNOME Keyring or KWallet), never in a file, and works for deskranger.app only. You then sign in with Sign In with Passkey and confirm changes with the passkey. It is as well protected as your keyring: anyone at your unlocked Linux session can use it. If you set Linux up again, create a new passkey and remove the old one from the list. How you switch DeskRanger Secure on on this computer is described below under “DeskRanger Secure on Linux”.

DeskRanger Secure on Linux

Under DeskRanger Secure on the Account page you switch DeskRanger Secure on with Turn on…. First you confirm it is you with one of your account's ways, as above (Confirm it’s you); this computer itself does not count for that. Then you choose your devices under Which devices are yours?, print your recovery key with Print… (also as a PDF there) and type two of its groups back from the printout.

This computer approves with a key from its keyring and does not ask for you when it does, like a Windows PC with its security chip. So it never counts as your confirmation: here you switch it off (Turn off…) only with your recovery key, and you create a new Recovery key on a Mac, iPhone or Android device. In the list of your trusted devices you remove a device with Remove for all your devices, and with Allow Approving… you let a device approve on its own. Removing a computer in the device list takes it out of the list of your trusted devices too, after the one question there.

When a new device signs in to your account, or a sign-in or account change asks for confirmation, the request comes forward on this computer, and the Dashboard lists it under Needs attention. For a new device you type the code it shows now; Approve works only once it matches. For a sign-in or account change you type the number shown there. Decline declines, This wasn’t me says it was not you. A DeskRanger Host request from another computer is approved at that computer itself. Browser requests and network requests are answered on another of your devices.

If DeskRanger Secure is on in your account and you sign this computer in anew, the window first shows This device is waiting for approval and asks for the approval once by itself. Open DeskRanger on a device you already trust and type the code this computer then shows. Without a trusted device you approve with your recovery key (No trusted device at hand? Approve with recovery key): type it from the printout. Sign Out withdraws an open request and signs you out. Only after the approval does the window show your devices.

If the background service runs on this computer (The screen after sign-in, while locked with your password; Terminal and Files even before.) and DeskRanger Secure is on, the service has to be in the device list too. Until it is, DeskRanger Secure shows This computer’s background service is waiting for approval, and This Computer has the task Background service waits for approval; until then the computer can't be reached before sign-in. If this app may approve, you add the service with Approve, right at the task under This Computer, on the overview or under DeskRanger Secure: no other device and no code are needed, the app enters it with its key and hands it the device list it follows from then on. It then says This computer’s background service is approved. This works only directly at this computer, not from a remote session. If you just turned on Reachable before sign-in, it can take up to a minute until the service is in the account; until then it says Linking to the account… This can take up to a minute.

If this computer is the first device of a new account, DeskRanger offers once to turn on DeskRanger Secure: Turn on Secure opens the steps above, Later closes the offer; it does not come back. When the list of your trusted devices changes, a notice says what happened: a short message in the window while it is in front, otherwise a desktop notification. Browser access reports the same way when a browser connects to one of your devices without asking or is allowed to. If DeskRanger Secure was started over on another device, DeskRanger Secure was started over shows at the top of DeskRanger Secure, with the device that started over under the name this computer knows (or that it never met it): Accept… only if it was you; with Don’t Accept this computer keeps its list. For The device list doesn’t add up, Resolve… shows what the other version changed; Keep This List keeps this computer's list and removes the ticked devices here too.

If you have no trusted device and no Recovery key left, you ask under DeskRanger Secure › Advanced at Start over without a key with Start Over… and confirm with a code by e-mail or a passkey. Every Linux computer then shows the request there, with the device that asked, and Cancel Request; after the 7 days also Start Over Now…: you confirm once more, choose your devices and create a new recovery key (DeskRanger Secure).

What Linux can do