sdl-freerdp

The SDL2/SDL3 cross-platform FreeRDP client. Runs on Linux (X11 and Wayland), macOS, and Windows with graphical credential and certificate dialogs.

sdl-freerdp is a cross-platform RDP client built on SDL2 or SDL3. It ships two separate binaries — sdl2-freerdp and sdl3-freerdp — produced by the client/SDL/SDL2 and client/SDL/SDL3 build targets respectively. Both accept the same command-line options as xfreerdp and add an SDL-rendered graphical dialog layer for credentials and certificates.

Platform support

Platform	SDL2	SDL3
Linux (X11)	Yes	Yes
Linux (Wayland)	Yes (via XWayland or native SDL Wayland backend)	Yes
macOS	Yes	Yes
Windows	Yes	Yes

On Wayland with wlroots-based compositors (e.g. Sway), set the FREERDP_WLROOTS_HACK environment variable to work around multimonitor detection limitations. See the environment variables section.

Synopsis

sdl2-freerdp [file.rdp] [options] [/v:<server>[:port]]
sdl3-freerdp [file.rdp] [options] [/v:<server>[:port]]

The full option set is identical to xfreerdp. The most commonly used options are shown below; for the complete reference see the xfreerdp options page.

Quick examples

Basic connection

sdl2-freerdp /v:rdp.example.com /u:alice /p:secret

Key differences from xfreerdp

Feature	xfreerdp	sdl-freerdp
Display server	X11 only	X11, Wayland, macOS, Windows
Credential prompt	Terminal (stdin)	SDL graphical dialog
Certificate dialog	Terminal	SDL graphical dialog
Connection progress	Terminal output	SDL graphical dialog
Touch input	No	Yes (SDL touch events)
WebView AAD auth	No	Yes (with WITH_WEBVIEW)

SDL-specific behaviour

Graphical dialogs

When the server requests credentials or presents an untrusted certificate, sdl-freerdp shows a graphical SDL-rendered dialog instead of a terminal prompt. This makes it suitable for use as a standalone application on any platform without a terminal.

Touch and gesture input

The SDL client receives native touch events from the OS and forwards them to the server via the multitouch channel. Enable it explicitly if needed:

sdl2-freerdp /v:host /multitouch

Window and display

Common display options:

# Start in fullscreen
sdl2-freerdp /v:host /f

# Specific resolution
sdl2-freerdp /v:host /size:1280x800

# Use all available monitors
sdl2-freerdp /v:host /multimon

# Dynamic resolution (resize window to resize remote desktop)
sdl2-freerdp /v:host /dynamic-resolution

Performance presets

# LAN-quality with GFX pipeline and RemoteFX
sdl2-freerdp /v:host /network:lan /gfx /rfx

# Auto-detect (enables GFX + AVC444 if available)
sdl2-freerdp /v:host /network:auto

# Low-bandwidth WAN
sdl2-freerdp /v:host /network:broadband-low -wallpaper -menu-anims

Environment variables

Variable	Description
FREERDP_WLROOTS_HACK	Multimonitor hack for wlroots compositors. 0 = disable entirely, 1 = enable for fullscreen, force = enable for all sessions (windowed sessions may misbehave). Defaults to auto-detection via XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP / XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP.
WLOG_LEVEL	Default log level (OFF, FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG, TRACE)
WLOG_FILTER	Per-tag log filter
https_proxy / HTTPS_PROXY	Proxy for RD Gateway connections

Build notes

The SDL clients are built alongside the rest of FreeRDP when the WITH_CLIENT_SDL2 (or WITH_CLIENT_SDL3) CMake option is enabled. SDL2 development libraries must be present:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev

# Fedora
sudo dnf install SDL2-devel SDL2_ttf-devel

# Build with SDL2 client
cmake -DWITH_CLIENT_SDL2=ON ..
make sdl2-freerdp

For SDL3, replace SDL2 with SDL3 throughout and install the SDL3 development packages.

To enable Azure AD / WebView authentication in the SDL client, add -DWITH_WEBVIEW=ON to your CMake invocation and install the appropriate WebView library for your platform.