saphid--frame-control/docs/streaming.md

Screen and desktop streaming

This covers two directions:

• A. Frame → Mac: see and control the headset from the Mac.
• B. Mac → Frame: use the Mac's desktop inside the headset.

The confidence labels are the same as in ssh.md.

A. See and control the Frame from the Mac

Option	What you get	Confidence	Notes
Steam Link (macOS app) → frame	A remote view of the headset	Confirmed (Frame): Valve says to "use Steam Link on iOS, Android, or desktop to view the headset remotely by connecting to 'frame'" (debugging)	Steam Link for macOS exists (Tom's Guide). It's the lowest-effort option. Whether you get the VR view or a flat mirror, and whether input works, is unverified.
RDP to xrdp	A separate Linux (Xorg) desktop session as steamos	Confirmed (Frame) for the server (debugging); Inferred for the Mac client	On the Mac, use Microsoft Windows App (the old "Microsoft Remote Desktop") from the App Store. Add PC frame.local (or the IP), user steamos, and the Developer Mode password. Valve says Xorg is the default session. This is a separate X session, not a mirror of what's in the headset. It's good for running GUI apps and supports clipboard sync.
ADB + scrcpy (Lepton only)	A mirror of the Android container	Guess	brew install scrcpy android-platform-tools, then adb connect frame.local:5555 while Lepton Development is running (adb_lepton), then scrcpy. This only shows Android apps, not SteamOS.
VNC server on the Frame (krfb / wayvnc)	A mirror of the Plasma desktop	Inferred (SteamOS)	Deck users run krfb in Desktop Mode (one.vg). On the Frame, the in-headset desktop is a virtual screen, and krfb isn't known to be preinstalled. RDP and Steam Link cover this case, so it's not recommended.

Recommendation for A: start with Steam Link for macOS, because Valve documents it. Use Windows App (RDP) when you want a proper Linux desktop on the Mac with keyboard, mouse, and clipboard.

B. Show the Mac's desktop inside the Frame

The Frame's streaming features are built around a Windows PC running SteamVR plus the USB Wi-Fi 6E dongle. Even Linux hosts had VR-streaming problems at launch (Steam discussion, gbl08ma). macOS isn't a supported SteamVR host, so for the Mac we're only looking at flat 2D desktop streaming into a window on the Frame's Linux desktop.

Option	Setup	Confidence	Verdict
macOS Screen Sharing (VNC) → Remmina on the Frame	Mac: System Settings → General → Sharing → Screen Sharing on → (i) → enable "VNC viewers may control screen with password". Frame: ./scripts/install-apps.sh remmina from the Mac, then open Remmina in the headset and connect to vnc://<mac>.local	Verified 2026-09-27 (Frame BUILD_ID 20260925.6191901, macOS 27.0), in its own panel via panel-on-frame.sh mac-screen. Remmina is on Flathub for aarch64 with VNC and RDP (Flathub). The Frame desktop runs Flatpaks (UploadVR). macOS VNC is built in.	Recommended. Nothing to install on the Mac, and it's easy to set up. Noticeable lag, even at lower Remmina quality settings on a good 5 GHz link, where neither Wi-Fi nor the Frame's CPU was the bottleneck. Usable for reading and coding, but not for games. You'll type the Mac's hostname once in Remmina on the headset, then save the profile. To avoid even that, the script can pre-seed a Remmina profile over SSH (see below).
Sunshine (Mac) → Moonlight (Frame Flatpak)	brew install Sunshine on the Mac, then ./scripts/install-apps.sh moonlight	Moonlight Flatpak supports aarch64 (Flathub). Sunshine on macOS is poorly supported: install problems on Apple Silicon/Sequoia, and no virtual gamepads (LizardByte discussion #777).	Try it if VNC is too laggy. Expect some friction.
Steam Remote Play with the Mac as host	Steam on the Mac, Steam Link/Remote Play on the Frame	macOS-hosted Remote Play is reported broken or flaky in 2024–2026 (Steam discussion)	Not recommended. It's only for games, if it works at all.
Immersed / Virtual Desktop	Vendor apps	Immersed has a Mac agent but no known Frame client. Virtual Desktop's developer said he'd "try" to port it (NewsBreak).	Not available as of 2026-09-25. Check again later.
WiVRn / ALVR	VR streaming from a Linux or Windows PC	Irrelevant for a Mac host (no SteamVR/OpenXR runtime on macOS)	N/A

For VR video files (180°/360° stereo), don't stream the Mac's screen. Play them on the Frame in DeoVR instead: see vr-video.md.

Pre-seeding the Remmina profile (no typing in the headset)

scripts/install-apps.sh remmina --vnc-host <your-mac>.local writes ~/.var/app/org.remmina.Remmina/data/remmina/mac-screen-sharing.remmina on the Frame over SSH. The profile then appears in Remmina's list, and you just click it. It scales the Mac's desktop to fit the window (scale=1, viewmode=1). Without that, Remmina shows a Retina Mac's native pixels 1:1, so you see a zoomed-in corner. (Verified 2026-09-27.)

Expect a Mac login prompt, not the VNC password. macOS offers Apple's own authentication (RFB security type 30) ahead of plain VNC auth (type 2), and Remmina picks it. So Remmina asks for your Mac account name and login password; the "VNC viewers may control screen" password isn't used. To store the password without typing it in the headset, run on the Frame:

printf '%s' "$PASSWORD" | flatpak run org.remmina.Remmina \
  --update-profile ~/.var/app/org.remmina.Remmina/data/remmina/mac-screen-sharing.remmina \
  --set-option password

Remmina encrypts it into the profile with its own key, because there's no secret service in the SSH session. (Verified 2026-09-27.)

The Mac's cursor

The mirror doesn't show the Mac's pointer, with either showcursor value. macOS keeps the pointer out of the picture it sends, and Remmina's cursor mode draws the cursor shape only at the Frame's own pointer, which doesn't follow the Mac trackpad. scripts/mac-cursor-ring.lua works around this: a Hammerspoon script that draws a ring around the Mac pointer as a real window, so it's part of the mirrored picture. Setup is in its header. (Verified 2026-09-27.)

Going the other way, pointing a controller at the panel moves the Mac's mouse, because Remmina forwards input (viewonly=0).

Input and text entry without the virtual keyboard

• A Bluetooth keyboard and mouse paired to the Frame is the obvious way to avoid the virtual keyboard. Road to VR says there are "only a few things you'd actually want to do" on the Linux desktop unless you connect a keyboard and mouse. (Pairing a BT keyboard on the Frame is inferred from SteamOS; not verified.)
• Clipboard from the Mac: scripts/paste-to-frame.sh (see file-transfer.md).
• RDP session: Windows App syncs the clipboard with xrdp, but only inside that RDP session.