wlfreerdp

The wlfreerdp Wayland-native RDP client. Built on libuwac, it runs directly on a Wayland compositor without requiring XWayland.

wlfreerdp is the Wayland-native FreeRDP client. It uses libuwac (Use Wayland As Client) — a companion library in the FreeRDP tree — to communicate directly with the Wayland compositor. Unlike the SDL client running on the Wayland backend, wlfreerdp has no X11 dependency at all.

Prerequisites

1. Wayland compositor

   A running Wayland compositor is required (e.g. GNOME on Wayland, KDE Plasma on Wayland, Sway, or any other wl-compositor-compliant environment).

2. libuwac

   libuwac is part of the FreeRDP source tree (uwac/ directory). It is built automatically when the Wayland client is enabled. You do not need to install it separately.

3. Build the Wayland client

   Enable -DWITH_WAYLAND=ON (enabled by default when Wayland is found; disable with -DWITH_WAYLAND=OFF):

   cmake -GNinja -DWITH_WAYLAND=ON -B build -S .
   cmake --build build --target wlfreerdp
   

   Debian/Ubuntu build dependencies:

   sudo apt install libwayland-dev wayland-protocols libxkbcommon-dev
   

Synopsis

wlfreerdp [file.rdp] [options] [/v:<server>[:port]]

wlfreerdp accepts the same global option set as xfreerdp. See xfreerdp options for the full reference.

Quick examples

Basic connection

wlfreerdp /v:rdp.example.com /u:alice /p:secret

Supported features

Feature	Supported
Clipboard redirection	Yes (via wlf_cliprdr)
Display resize / dynamic resolution	Yes (via wlf_disp)
Keyboard input	Yes (via wlf_input, Linux input.h keycodes)
Pointer / cursor	Yes (via wlf_pointer)
Channel redirection (audio, drives, etc.)	Yes (shared library channels)
Touch input	Limited (depends on compositor support)
Graphical credential dialog	No (terminal prompts only)

Differences from xfreerdp (X11)

Aspect	xfreerdp	wlfreerdp
Display server dependency	X11	Wayland only
Credential prompt	Terminal	Terminal
Keyboard handling	X11 XKB	Linux input keycodes via Wayland
Multi-monitor	Yes	Yes
Window embedding (/parent-window:)	Yes (X11 window ID)	No
Floating toolbar (/floatbar)	Yes	No

Exit status

Code	Meaning
0	Successful disconnect
non-zero	Connection failure or error

See also

• xfreerdp(1) — full option reference
• wlog(7) — FreeRDP logging subsystem