rdfeed/README.md

rdfeed

The RemoteApps of your company, in the Linux app menu.

Word, Excel and the other Windows apps your company publishes open as windows of their own.
Like "Work Resources" on Windows, through FreeRDP.

Install | How to use | Is it safe? | Report a bug

Install

Arch, CachyOS, EndeavourOS, Manjaro

yay -S rdfeed

Other distributions

See Build from source. It needs FreeRDP 3, Python 3, bash and secret-tool (libsecret).

How to use

rdfeed

Press 1 and type the address your IT department gave you. The server name or your work e-mail address often works too. Then sign in with your Windows user name and password.

The apps show up in your app menu, in a folder with the name of the workspace. Click one and it opens in a window of its own. If your company uses MFA, confirm the sign-in in your authenticator app. Many servers ask twice: a notification tells you when the second prompt is coming.

Files on your computer open in the apps too: right-click a .docx and pick Open with, then Word.

Settings

Is it safe?

Your password goes into the keyring, not into a file. FreeRDP gets it through a pipe, so it never shows up in the list of running programs.

The connection files from the server can ask to share every drive, camera and USB device of your computer. rdfeed removes that. The apps only see the folder you pick under Share a folder, and none by default. When you open a file in an app, its folder is shared while that app runs.

More

What it fixes in FreeRDP

Starting a RemoteApp with plain xfreerdp3 often goes wrong. rdfeed takes care of it:

• It hangs after the MFA prompt. A connection broker needs a second sign-in at the gateway. Its prompt only comes if the client waits about ten seconds, and FreeRDP does not wait. rdfeed does.
• Y and Z are swapped. Under Wayland, FreeRDP sees the wrong keyboard layout. rdfeed asks the desktop.
• The apps are blurry or tiny with a scaled desktop. rdfeed has the server draw them at your scale.
• Signing in to the feed fails. It needs NTLM, which curl no longer always has. rdfeed signs in by itself.

Known problems

• A window stays partly empty after you minimize or resize it. This is a bug in FreeRDP. Under Settings, Graphics on classic paints every window right, but some servers end the session with it.
• A second app of the same workspace takes over the first one's connection. Its windows move into the new one, nothing closes.

How it works

rdfeed	The menu and the commands.
rdfeed-fetch	Signs in to the feed and downloads the apps and their icons.
rdfeed-hook.so	Goes into FreeRDP: the wait for the second MFA prompt, and the classic graphics if you pick them.
rdfeed-refresh.timer	Loads the apps again once a day, so new ones show up.

The feed is the one Windows subscribes to under RemoteApp and Desktop Connections (https://server/RDWeb/Feed/webfeed.aspx). Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 sign in another way and are not supported. All details: man rdfeed.

Build from source

make
make test
sudo make install

Needs a C compiler, and for the translations and the man page gettext and scdoc. To run it: bash, Python 3, FreeRDP 3 (xfreerdp3 or xfreerdp) and secret-tool.

Credits

• FreeRDP, which does the actual work.
• MS-NLMP, for NTLM and its test vectors.

GPL-3.0-or-later.