Pick the right package
The product path is to use release artifacts. For Linux there are two formats:
AppImage —the universal one, runs on any distro without installing
anything— and deb for Debian and Ubuntu. The goal is that you don't
have to manually install capture, audio or input dependencies.
The important part lives in the runtime-tools/ bundle. On Linux that's
where the native helpers live to capture, inject input and sync the clipboard. If a
final package doesn't ship that bundle, the bug is in the packaging.
Start the host
Once installed, start NodalDesk on the Linux computer you want to control. When you sign in with your account, that machine is linked to it and shows up in your devices. The host sets up video, audio, input and clipboard, and can also show a QR and a PIN as an extra step to validate or add a machine.
nodaldeskThat PIN is 6 digits and rotates periodically. Once a client is linked, that device's credentials are persisted, so you shouldn't have to repeat that step every session.
Connect from another device
From Android, sign in with your account and you'll see your machines; if you want to validate one with an extra step, you can scan the QR and enter the PIN. From the web, open the URL the host prints in a browser with WebCodecs. From desktop, use the Electron client for Windows, macOS or Linux.
On the local network, NodalDesk uses UDP discovery on port 19876. Away
from home, it relies on relay to reach your machines.
Handy options for testing
The host supports options like quality, FPS, HTTPS, relay and headless. Not all are needed to start; they're useful once you're tuning a specific install.
nodaldesk --quality high --fps 30
nodaldesk --https --upnp
nodaldesk --relay wss://your-relay:3478The documented headless mode requires KDE Wayland and KWin D-Bus. If you use GNOME, wlroots or X11, validate capture and permissions for that desktop family separately.