Use existing Xorg session for chrome-remote-desktop

use_existing_session.patch

Add an option to use the existing Xorg session with
chrome-remote-desktop.

The original idea of the patch: https://superuser.com/a/850359
--- a/chrome-remote-desktop	2024-03-27 16:03:20.518579015 +0000
+++ b/chrome-remote-desktop	2024-03-27 16:17:58.241912847 +0000
@@ -110,6 +110,8 @@
 
 X_LOCK_FILE_TEMPLATE = "/tmp/.X%d-lock"
 FIRST_X_DISPLAY_NUMBER = 20
+EXISTING_X_DISPLAY_FILE_PATH = os.path.join(CONFIG_DIR, "Xsession")
+X_SESSION_FILE_TEMPLATE = "/tmp/.X11-unix/X%d"
 
 # Amount of time to wait between relaunching processes.
 SHORT_BACKOFF_TIME = 5
@@ -738,16 +740,33 @@
       return True
     return False
 
+  def _use_existing_session(self):
+    with open(EXISTING_X_DISPLAY_FILE_PATH) as fh:
+      try:
+        display_raw = fh.readline().rstrip()
+        display = int(display_raw)
+      except ValueError:
+        logging.error("Display must be a number; got: '%s'" % display_raw)
+        sys.exit(1)
+    if not os.path.exists(X_SESSION_FILE_TEMPLATE % display):
+      logging.error("Xorg session file doesn't exist")
+      sys.exit(1)
+    logging.info("Using existing Xorg session: %d" % display)
+    self.child_env["DISPLAY"] = ":%d" % display
+
   def launch_session(self, server_args, backoff_time):
     """Launches process required for session and records the backoff time
     for inhibitors so that process restarts are not attempted again until
     that time has passed."""
     logging.info("Setting up and launching session")
     self._setup_gnubby()
-    self._launch_server(server_args)
-    if not self._launch_pre_session():
-      # If there was no pre-session script, launch the session immediately.
-      self.launch_desktop_session()
+    if os.path.exists(EXISTING_X_DISPLAY_FILE_PATH):
+      self._use_existing_session()
+    else:
+      self._launch_server(server_args)
+      if not self._launch_pre_session():
+        # If there was no pre-session script, launch the session immediately.
+        self.launch_desktop_session()
     self.server_inhibitor.record_started(MINIMUM_PROCESS_LIFETIME,
                                       backoff_time)
     self.session_inhibitor.record_started(MINIMUM_PROCESS_LIFETIME,

Hi guys, was attempting this patch but got the following output. Any ideas?

patching file chrome-remote-desktop patch unexpectedly ends in middle of line Hunk #3 succeeded at 543 with fuzz 1.

edit: Although the patch command seems to fail, the code changes were applied successfully but it still doesn't work afterwards. what fixed it for me was the following (Debian 11):

FIRST_X_DISPLAY_NUMBER = 0 echo "0" > ~/.config/chrome-remote-desktop/Xsession systemctl restart chrome-remote-desktop@"your_user".service

However, my remote session seems to be missing some privileges and I can't run certain applications..

I encountered the same error as yours, I ended up manually patching the file myself without running the command

It seems this is needed on Manjaro when using xfce4 as window manager. Whenever I try to use a version that starts a new xserver, crd stops after a minute saying it cannot open or connect to Xorg.

Does Manjaro constrain Xwindows to open just one desktop?

Updated the gist.

@tokland: you can simplify things:

cd /opt/google/chrome-remote-desktop
sudo cp chrome-remote-desktop chrome-remote-desktop_bak # backup the original
sudo patch -Np1 -i /path/to/use_existing_session.patch
systemctl --user restart chrome-remote-desktop.service

You don't have to stop the service and you can patch the file inplace.

Hello!
I am currently trying to get this to work on the steamdeck, but despite followig these instructions I am not getting it work unfortunately.
Is it possible to get it working currently or am I out of luck?

this patch is my hero. CRD breaks all the time and just running

cd /opt/google/chrome-remote-desktop
sudo cp chrome-remote-desktop chrome-remote-desktop_bak # backup the original
sudo patch -Np1 -i /path/to/use_existing_session.patch
systemctl --user restart chrome-remote-desktop.service

fixes it like magic.

version: 121.0.6167.13

Hello, this has not worked for me. I tried applying the patch by manually replacing the lines as well and it seems the original file has changed. The function def launch_session is no longer around line 774, but around line 519. Even then I was not able to get this working. Could you update the patch please?

The console output was:

can't find file to patch at input line 4 Perhaps you used the wrong -p or --strip option?

and then

File to patch: /opt/google/chrome-remote-desktop/chrome-remote-desktop patching file /opt/google/chrome-remote-desktop/chrome-remote-desktop Hunk #1 succeeded at 109 (offset 2 lines). Hunk #2 FAILED at 776. 1 out of 2 hunks FAILED -- saving rejects to file /opt/google/chrome-remote-desktop/chrome-remote-desktop.rej

For those of you who ran into this issue you need to delete the first 4 lines of the patch (the plain text).

Here is a one-liner to do everything:
cd /opt/google/chrome-remote-desktop && sudo cp chrome-remote-desktop chrome-remote-desktop_bak && wget -qO- "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/nightuser/2ec1b91a66ec33ef0a0a67b6c570eb40/raw/b09250dcc9a28f09de93192a948dffb4963c2aca/use_existing_session.patch" | tail -n +5 > use_existing_session.patch && sudo patch -Np1 -i ./use_existing_session.patch && systemctl --user restart chrome-remote-desktop.service

Sorry, I don’t have any desktop Linux machines, so I can’t update (and test) the patch at the moment.

Updated the patch. Works for me on Ubuntu 22.04 in a virtual machine. The sound didn’t work, probably because the pipewire version is too old (there’s a check in the code). It’s not clear whether the setup_audio is being called at the moment, but it looks like it should.

@nightuser setup_audio doesn't seem to be called

It is invalid

Below is the one-liner from @mike-callahan post and individual commands, modified to create the Xsession file as well. I tested it on Arch Linux with chrome-remote-desktop version 128.0.6613.44 and it worked.

@jack9603301 Audio doesn't work for me either.

echo $DISPLAY | tr -d ':' >> ~/.config/chrome-remote-desktop/Xsession && cd /opt/google/chrome-remote-desktop && sudo cp chrome-remote-desktop chrome-remote-desktop_bak && sudo wget -qO- "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/nightuser/2ec1b91a66ec33ef0a0a67b6c570eb40/raw/b09250dcc9a28f09de93192a948dffb4963c2aca/use_existing_session.patch" | tail -n +5 > ~/use_existing_session.patch && sudo patch -Np1 -i ~/use_existing_session.patch && rm ~/use_existing_session.patch && systemctl --user restart chrome-remote-desktop.service && systemctl --user status chrome-remote-desktop.service

echo $DISPLAY | tr -d ':' >> ~/.config/chrome-remote-desktop/Xsession && cd /opt/google/chrome-remote-desktop
sudo cp chrome-remote-desktop chrome-remote-desktop_bak
sudo wget -qO- "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/nightuser/2ec1b91a66ec33ef0a0a67b6c570eb40/raw/b09250dcc9a28f09de93192a948dffb4963c2aca/use_existing_session.patch" | tail -n +5 > ~/use_existing_session.patch
sudo patch -Np1 -i ~/use_existing_session.patch
rm ~/use_existing_session.patch
systemctl --user restart chrome-remote-desktop.service
systemctl --user status chrome-remote-desktop.service

I already had the host configured before applying the patch and for some reason it no longer appeared in https://remotedesktop.google.com/access. I had to do again the entire process from https://remotedesktop.google.com/headless

Below is the one-liner from @mike-callahan post and individual commands, modified to create the Xsession file as well. I tested it on Arch Linux with chrome-remote-desktop version 128.0.6613.44 and it worked.

@jack9603301 Audio doesn't work for me either.

echo $DISPLAY | tr -d ':' >> ~/.config/chrome-remote-desktop/Xsession && cd /opt/google/chrome-remote-desktop && sudo cp chrome-remote-desktop chrome-remote-desktop_bak && sudo wget -qO- "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/nightuser/2ec1b91a66ec33ef0a0a67b6c570eb40/raw/b09250dcc9a28f09de93192a948dffb4963c2aca/use_existing_session.patch" | tail -n +5 > ~/use_existing_session.patch && sudo patch -Np1 -i ~/use_existing_session.patch && rm ~/use_existing_session.patch && systemctl --user restart chrome-remote-desktop.service && systemctl --user status chrome-remote-desktop.service

echo $DISPLAY | tr -d ':' >> ~/.config/chrome-remote-desktop/Xsession && cd /opt/google/chrome-remote-desktop
sudo cp chrome-remote-desktop chrome-remote-desktop_bak
sudo wget -qO- "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/nightuser/2ec1b91a66ec33ef0a0a67b6c570eb40/raw/b09250dcc9a28f09de93192a948dffb4963c2aca/use_existing_session.patch" | tail -n +5 > ~/use_existing_session.patch
sudo patch -Np1 -i ~/use_existing_session.patch
rm ~/use_existing_session.patch
systemctl --user restart chrome-remote-desktop.service
systemctl --user status chrome-remote-desktop.service

I already had the host configured before applying the patch and for some reason it no longer appeared in https://remotedesktop.google.com/access. I had to do again the entire process from https://remotedesktop.google.com/headless

This worked for me (Linux Mint 22, version 129.0.6668.14) with some tweaks.

I had issues with chrome-remote-desktop erroring out, which I solved by changing ~/.config/chrome-remote-desktop/Xsession's contents to be 0 instead of 0.0. I also had to run the systemctl commands without --user and appending @$USER to the commands, so the last two commands became the following:

systemctl restart chrome-remote-desktop@$USER.service
systemctl status chrome-remote-desktop@$USER.service

@JovannMC I hope you are aware of the rm ~/ bomb in that one liner of yours.

I wonder if it is possible for a similar fix under wayland, given that without the patch you can use remote desktop without issue... albeit still under a different session. :p

@JovannMC I hope you are aware of the rm ~/ bomb in that one liner of yours.

that isn't me!! that was from the quote
but yeah, that almost got me, @SitramSoft might wanna edit both the one liner and individual commands 😅

@JovannMC I hope you are aware of the rm ~/ bomb in that one liner of yours.

that isn't me!! that was from the quote but yeah, that almost got me, @SitramSoft might wanna edit both the one liner and individual commands 😅

😱 Thanks for pointing out that mistake. It should be fixed now in both places.

I hope nobody deleted their home directory with that command 😂

@JovannMC I hope you are aware of the rm ~/ bomb in that one liner of yours.

that isn't me!! that was from the quote but yeah, that almost got me, @SitramSoft might wanna edit both the one liner and individual commands 😅

it's still in your quote reply. the sloppy readers like me will totally copypasta themselves into doom.

@JovannMC I hope you are aware of the rm ~/ bomb in that one liner of yours.

that isn't me!! that was from the quote but yeah, that almost got me, @SitramSoft might wanna edit both the one liner and individual commands 😅

it's still in your quote reply. the sloppy readers like me will totally copypasta themselves into doom.

fixed also

@JovannMC I hope you are aware of the rm ~/ bomb in that one liner of yours.

that isn't me!! that was from the quote but yeah, that almost got me, @SitramSoft might wanna edit both the one liner and individual commands 😅

😱 Thanks for pointing out that mistake. It should be fixed now in both places.

I hope nobody deleted their home directory with that command 😂

iirc for me it tried to but didn't really do anything (esp since it didnt have -rf thankfully)

FYI @JovannMC the gist referenced in your expanded one liner is from 2022. It's not the current patch.