Add virtual monitor to virtual desktop

Forum / NoMachine for Linux / Add virtual monitor to virtual desktop

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #41785
    anpieber
    Participant

    Hey,

    I’m evaluating the NoMachine Enterprise Desktop version for my company. I’ve now a virtual desktop which is nice. On the server-side I’m running Archlinux with i3wm – which also works great. Only question now – how do I add another virtual monitor on the server side? As I understood it that should be possible with the “NoMachine Enterprise Desktop” since it’s creating virtual desktops – but I don’t find any documentation how to do this.

    Any ideas or links to the documentation showing how to do this?

    Thank you very much and kind regards,
    Andreas

    #41788
    Britgirl
    Keymaster

    Hi,

    Enterprise Desktop (on all supported platforms) is for accessing the physical display of the computer you want to access. On Mac and Windows it cannot create virtual displays. The exception is on Linux.

    In the case of Linux, when connecting to the physical desktop which doesn’t have an X server running (e.g. it’s a headless machine), NoMachine is able to use its own display service (which is an embedded X server) to let users connect seamlessly to a physical desktop running in the background on the remote machine, what we call a “virtual display” or “virtual desktop”.

    Enterprise Desktop cannot create multiple virtual displays on Linux. To do that, you need one of the products from the NoMachine Terminal Server for Linux suite e.g Workstation. Workstation can run up to 4 “nomachine virtual desktops” on the same host.

    Further references:
    https://www.nomachine.com/terminal-server-family
    https://www.nomachine.com/product&p=NoMachine%20Workstation

    #41817
    anpieber
    Participant

    Hey,

    thank you very much for your answer, but there’s still one essential part missing in your answer – how do I create multiple virtual monitors to a “virtual display” or a “virtual desktop” as you call it?

    Best regards,
    Andreas

    #41844
    Britgirl
    Keymaster

    If I understand what you mean, when the user has multiple monitors on the client, it is possible to choose if the virtual desktop (with Terminal Server products) has to be spanned on all monitors, so that the virtual desktop sees this as one giant monitor, or maximized to one of the monitors.

    In the first case when you for example maximize a window, it spans on all monitors. In the second case separate monitors each monitor is treated individually and maximized applications only span one monitor. You can also drag files or application windows between monitors.

    To enable it:
    – Open the NoMachine menu panel inside the session (ctrl+alt+0 or click on the page peel in the upper right corner of the window)
    – Click on ‘Display’
    – Click on ‘Resize remote display’ then on ‘Fullscreen on all monitors’

    To access this feature you need to have a NoMachine Terminal Server Product installed e.g NoMachine Workstation. You should first uninstall Enterprise Desktop and then proceed to install Workstation.

    #41847
    anpieber
    Participant

    Hello,

    I’m using a tiling window manager (i3wm) on the server side and have “NoMachine Enterprise Desktop” installed there. Tiling window manager work better with multiple monitors isntead of one big monitor. As far as I understand, now that “NoMachine Enterprise Desktop” provides virtual desktops to also have multiple virtual monitors there. So that on the client side I dont have one giant montior over my two screens but rather two different ones. Like as if the server has two real monitors connected there. In this case the usecase works as expected. I just struggle with simulating those. Does it make sense?

    Best regards,
    Andreas

    #41849
    Britgirl
    Keymaster

    As far as I understand, now that “NoMachine Enterprise Desktop” provides virtual desktops to also have multiple virtual monitors there.

    No, Enterprise Desktop does not create multiple virtual desktops. As I wrote before, in the case of headless Linux, it can create one virtual display for you. “Enterprise Desktop cannot create multiple virtual displays on Linux. To do that, you need one of the products from the NoMachine Terminal Server for Linux suite e.g Workstation. Workstation can run up to 4 “nomachine virtual desktops” on the same host.

    That said, we have a feature planned to allow users to handle multiple monitors connected on the server as separate windows on the client side. ie. display each remote server-side monitor in a separate window. This applies to connections to physical desktop and virtual desktops/custom sessions.

    Perhaps this is what you want? It is planned for the future, but I am unable to provide an ETA.

    For real physical monitors connected on the server side (which is not your case I believe), take a look at the tutorial here: https://www.nomachine.com/switching-the-view-between-multi-monitors-during-a-remote-desktop-session

    #41853
    anpieber
    Participant

    OH. Now I understand our problem. Sorry – I had NoMachine Terminal Server installed all the time. So I was able to create up to 4 different virtual desktops but I wasnt able to add additional virtual monitors to them. But I assume that’s also connected to the new feature. Would be pretty cool to have that.

    #41859
    Britgirl
    Keymaster

    But I assume that’s also connected to the new feature.

    Yes, it is.

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

This topic was marked as solved, you can't post.