unable to leave fullscreen mode with CTRL+ALT+ENTER - after a while...

[basprins]

I use xfreerdp to RDP into a windows laptop (from ubuntu 23.04 host). I run xfreerdp in full screen mode, taking control of all my displays. I use CTRL+ALT+ENTER to leave full screen mode, and CTRL+ALT+ENTER again to go back to full screen mode.

This sometimes work, but often xfreerdp refuses to leave full screen mode when I hit CTRL+ALT+ENTER. I can see some visual feedback (a quick blink on all screens) where I think xfreerdp tries to leave full screen mode, but fails.

I am using latest versions of x

I start xfreerdp as follows
xfreerdp /multimon /d:*** /u:*** /p:*** /v:***

When the RDP session is freshly started, CTRL+ALT+ENTER always works. Always. But when I am in the RDP session for a while, it pretty much never works. The only way to leave full screen mode is to choose Windows->Power->Disconnect, this closes the RDP session client side and then I can reopen it again from ubuntu, to repeat the cycle.

Maybe it has something to do with power management or auto lock settings (which I can't control on the guest OS, company policies).

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Is there something I can do to prevent this? Is there more information I can share I don't know about? xfreerdp logging maybe (not sure if that exists and if so, where I can find them). Or wayland loggings (I don't really know what I am saying now ;-)).

[akallabeth]

well, that sounds like a possible window manager issue.
could you add some details to your machine? (os, ...)

[basprins]

Hi @akallabeth
sorry for the late reply, was following the previous discussion. I am running ubuntu 23.04 on wayland.
So I have 2 laptops:
one work,:

• 1x laptop screen
• windows 10 (irrelevant, I guess)
  one personal (legion amd9):
• 1x laptop screen
• 2x HDMI
• ubuntu 23.04/wayland

xfreerdp (as mentioned earlier) is RDPing with /multimon so all "host" screens used to control my windows PC. It works great, but I think since I upgraded to 23.04 (half a year ago) this problem of not being able to leave remote session is kind of annoying.

It reproduces quite often, so if I need to collect logs please tell me (and please also tell me what to collect exactly :))

[akallabeth]

@basprins ok, so you are using the repo package I assume?
can you give our nightly a try and check if that is also exposing this behavior?
https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/wiki/Prebuilds (note that you need to start with /opt/freerdp-nightly/bin/xfreerdp)

[basprins]

Apologies for the radio silence...

I installed:
bp@legion:~/scripts(master)$ /opt/freerdp-nightly/bin/xfreerdp --version
This is FreeRDP version 3.0.1-dev0 (3735440)

1. I start RDP using:
   /opt/freerdp-nightly/bin/xfreerdp /audio-mode:1 /multimon /d:$1 /u:$2 /p:$password /v:$3

2. The RDP session starts full screen.

3. CTRL+ALT+ENTER to leave full screen => OK

4. CTRL+ALT+ENTER to re-enter full screen => OK

5. CTRL+ALT+ENTER to leave full screen => NOK

Any consecutive CTRL+ALT+ENTER "nothing" happens. I see a brief screen refresh over all three physical screens, but the key event is either ignored by xfreerdp, or it never gets delivered. The only way to exit full screen is by terminating the RDP session on client side (windows => power => disconnect).

[zeroepoch]

I see the same issue on Fedora 39 with 2.11.4. I started in window mode then CTRL+ALT+Enter goes into fullscreen mode. I can never leave fullscreen mode. This sounds similar to @basprins, but I didn't start in fullscreen mode. The remote system is Ubuntu 22.04 using the built-in GNOME display sharing feature. I don't have a disconnect option on GNOME, so I have no way to get out of session other than dropping to a VT and killing xfreerdp.

[zeroepoch]

To add another data point, I just tried to floatbar option since that should give me a way to disconnect. The floatbar does indeed only show up by default in fullscreen mode when I add /floatbar. Although once I click the button to exit fullscreen on the floatbar it's still in fullscreen mode essentially and now the floatbar is gone. CTRL+ALT+ENTER goes back into what xfreerdp thinks is fullscreen mode and displays the floatbar.

[Isles487]

Reporting the same issue as @basprins on Arch Linux in gnome.

6.7.6-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri, 23 Feb 2024 16:31:48 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux
xfreerdp installed from freerdp package
Version 2.11.4
Starting with these command line options: /f /smart-sizing -clipboard

Using CTRL-ALT-ENTER:

1. Can go full screen
2. Can exit full screen once
3. On any subsequent attempts to exit full screen, the window appears to look as though it will minimize, but promptly snaps back into full screen. Cannot exit full screen.

[RobZRH]

Same problem. After a while i can't exit fullscreen. Xfreerdp with Ubuntu 22.04.