Is Desktop Sharing possible in Gnome 22.04? (With screen locking and disconnecting the screen)

Question

I'd like to be able to login to my remote Ubuntu 22.04 and see the Desktop as shown on that machine. (I know how to create a vncserver with a separate desktop instance).

Built-in Remote Desktop

When I try with the built-in Remote Desktop

it works as long as the user is logged in, the screen isn't locked, and there is a physical screen attached. Requiring the user to be logged in is fine for me, but screen not locked means I can't login remotely after a while, and the "physical screen attached" requirement means I it only works when my KVM switch has the Ubuntu machine active, which also doesn't work for me.

Otherwise I get one of these error messages:

Failed to record monitor: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Failed: Unknown monitor

Failed to start remote desktop session: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Session creation inhibited

But I want to be able to log in and see my desktop when the screen is locked and the monitor disconnected (due to the KVM).

The screen locked situation can be handled by this gnome extension: Allow Locked Remote Desktop - GNOME Shell Extensions, so now only the monitor disconnected issue remains, and for that, I've posted this issue: Failed to record monitor: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Failed: Unknown Monitor (using KVM switch) (#171) · Issues · GNOME / gnome-remote-desktop · GitLab.

x11vnc and x0vncserver

So I tried with x11vnc and x0vncserver. And they have different problems as outlined in: Why do both x11vnc and x0vncserver fail in similar ways in Gnome Ubuntu 22.04?

The real question

But this question is: Is there any easy way to get sharing of the "real" desktop with Gnome under 22.04 that works even if the screen locks and/or the monitor gets disconnected due to the KVM switch, ideally under Wayland (since that is where we're heading).

Is the situation better in future Ubuntu releases?

What about xrdp?

xrdp won't work for me, because as I state in the very first sentence:

...and see the Desktop as shown on that machine

xrdp only works if the user is not logged in locally (which I always am).

Related questions

These questions don't address my requirements of seeing the local already-logged-in desktop and that works with the monitor being disconnected due to the KVM switch:

• Maintaining RDP connection to Ubuntu after Ubuntu Screen times out (goes black) Here the solution is to install "Allow Locked Remote Desktop" which I already mention. It doesn't tackle the "physical screen attached" requirement.
• Connect when Remote Desktop is on login screen or screen locked (without autologin) Here the answer is either "Allow Locked Remote Desktop" or xrdp (both covered above).
• Ubuntu 22.04 remote desktop headless? Answer suggests using xrdp (covered above).

Answer 1

So "Built-in Remote Desktop" does not have support for when the monitor is disconnected (see issue#171 that I mentioned above).

And it turns out that the x11vnc and x0vncserver issues are also about the disconnected monitor.

I plan on working around this problem with an EDID Emulator. I've ordered this one. It hopefully lets the computer think the display is still attached. And then next time I update the KVM switch, get one with a built-in EDID emulator. I'll try to remember to update this thread when the EDID emulator arrives and I've tried it out.

That should allow me to use both the built in remote desktop and x11vnc and x0vncserver. We'll see...