winapps-org / winapps-org/winapps

Doesn't work if no external monitor plugged in.

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freerdp
Dominant language
Shell
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

The window ONLY works on the external screen for me, so if I don't have an external screen I won't get the window but instead get something high CPU use. With an external screen plugged in, the app starts as expected, pops up on the external screen and I can move it to the built-in screen.

Without an external screen, the app doesn't show up at all, and interestingly it doesn't show up in the taskbar or overview either. The task manager shows the app running and using 8.3% of my CPU constantly.

This problem even persists if the app was last on the built-in screen. So it's not just remembering its old position on the external screen.

The built-in screen is set as the default display in the system settings.

I tried to run this in the terminal without the external monitor, e.g. by navigating to the winapps folder and executing ./winapps excel-o365 %F but nothing happens (as in, I can enter the next command). Next I see my fans going on and the system monitor shows me a xfreerdp process using 8.3% of my CPU. (But no "Excel" in the Applications section, I have to go to the Processes section to see this.)

Now, If I plug the monitor back in and run winapps check it suddenly opens a dozen windows which failed to open before. Without the high CPU use, too.

Apps tried: Excel, Powerpoint, Word, Windows Explorer
System detail: OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, KDE Plasma 5.27.9, Wayland, freerdp 2.11.2, AMD GPU
Scaling: built-in monitor has 150% scaling, external has 100% scaling. winapps.config set to RDP_SCALE=140 but it also doesn't work when the RDP_SCALE parameter is commented out.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the winapps entry point and the winapps.config setting for RDP_SCALE; reproduce the failure using ./winapps excel-o365 %F with and without the external monitor. Compare the xfreerdp process and winapps check behavior, and consider the issue resolved when supported apps open on the built-in display without sustained high CPU use.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
linux, shell
Domain
desktop, operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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