fix(vdisplay/gamescope): DM-flavor-aware session takeover — stop masking Nobara's plasmalogin to death

Field report (Nobara 43 HTPC): switching the host to Steam Game Mode
mid-stream permanently black-screened the box. Live-proven root cause on
a Nobara repro VM: our takeover masks the box's gamescope-session-plus
unit, plasmalogin's Relogin=true then fails its session Exec repeatedly
and trips systemd's start limit within ~1 s — the display manager dies,
and our restore verb (unmask + user start) cannot bring a seatless
gamescope back. Only 'reset-failed + restart' of the DM recovers.

The takeover is now display-manager-flavor-aware:
- SDDM (Bazzite/SteamOS) keeps the proven mask+SIGKILL path unchanged.
- plasmalogin/unknown DMs never mask: with privilege (root or an
  operator polkit rule scoped to the DM unit — documented) the host
  stops the DM for the stream and restores it with reset-failed +
  restart (PUNKTFUNK_RECOVER_SESSION_CMD as fallback), recorded in the
  persisted takeover state so a host crash still restores; without
  privilege the managed takeover degrades to ATTACH and mirrors the
  box's live Game Mode instead of destabilizing the seat. Both legs of
  the privileged cycle live-verified on the repro VM (headless managed
  session works with zero login sessions; render nodes are 0666).
  A loaded-but-inactive leftover instance never triggers the DM stop.

Companion fixes from the same triage:
- ensure_box_gamescope_mode gains the attach-only rebuild-probe guard
  both managed paths already had (stale post-capture-loss detection
  restarted the box's unit), and no longer re-modes a box that drives a
  physical display — attach mirrors on-glass; re-mode is the
  headless-box model.
- Capture-loss rebuilds targeting gamescope get a 100 s budget: the
  40 s budget expired inside the first 45 s Steam-cold-start launch
  attempt, a guaranteed single-shot failure.
- A PUNKTFUNK_COMPOSITOR pin now WARNs once per capture loss when the
  live session no longer matches it (the pin disables
  session-following — the reporter's original stream-death trigger).
- A managed session that took nothing over (client gamescope pin beside
  a live desktop) is stopped on disconnect instead of being orphaned
  forever.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
2026-07-24 11:49:24 +02:00
co-authored by Claude Fable 5
parent 9b241d9d7b
commit e35dad529b
6 changed files with 373 additions and 45 deletions
+32 -4
View File
@@ -24,14 +24,42 @@ that has gamescope session infrastructure (Bazzite, SteamOS, Nobara) gets **mana
- **Attach** (`PUNKTFUNK_GAMESCOPE_ATTACH=1`) — the **box** owns its gamescope session and decides
Gaming vs Desktop via the normal Steam UI. Game Mode stays on the box's own (physical) display;
the host attaches to whatever's live and never tears it down, so switching Desktop ↔ Game is
rock-solid and disconnecting leaves the box where it was. When the session is the box's own
autologin unit, the host restarts it at the **client's** resolution on a mismatch; a foreign or
bare gamescope is streamed at its own mode.
rock-solid and disconnecting leaves the box where it was. When the box is **headless** (no
display connected) and the session is its own autologin unit, the host restarts it at the
**client's** resolution on a mismatch; a box driving a physical display — and any foreign or
bare gamescope — is streamed at its own mode.
- **Managed** (the infra-detected default; force with `PUNKTFUNK_GAMESCOPE_MANAGED=1`) — the host
takes the box's gamescope session over and relaunches it **headless** at the *client's* exact
resolution and refresh — Game Mode runs on the virtual screen, physical displays drop out of it —
restoring the box on idle after disconnect.
### Nobara and other autologin display managers
The managed takeover has to stop the box's Gaming Mode session to free Steam. How it does that
depends on the display manager driving the autologin:
- **SDDM** (Bazzite, SteamOS): handled automatically — no setup.
- **plasmalogin** (Nobara) and other display managers: the host must stop the display manager
itself for the length of the stream and restart it afterwards, which needs privilege. Allow it
with a polkit rule (adjust the unit and user names to your box):
```js
// /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/49-punktfunk-dm.rules
polkit.addRule(function(action, subject) {
if (action.id == "org.freedesktop.systemd1.manage-units" &&
action.lookup("unit") == "plasmalogin.service" &&
subject.user == "YOUR_USER") {
return polkit.Result.YES;
}
});
```
Without the rule the host degrades safely: it **attaches** to the live Gaming Mode session
instead (Game Mode stays on the box's display, mirrored to the client) rather than risk the
display manager. If the display-manager restart ever loses its privilege mid-restore,
`PUNKTFUNK_RECOVER_SESSION_CMD` (see [Configuration](/docs/configuration)) is fired as the
fallback.
## Session following
`PUNKTFUNK_SESSION_WATCH` follows a Gaming ↔ Desktop switch **mid-stream** — the host rebuilds the
@@ -58,7 +86,7 @@ a model. See the full [Configuration reference](/docs/configuration) for every o
| Setting | Values | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| `PUNKTFUNK_GAMESCOPE_ATTACH` | `1` | **Attach** model: the box owns its gamescope session (on its own display); the host captures whatever's live and never tears it down. A box-owned autologin session is restarted at the client's resolution on a mismatch; a foreign/bare gamescope streams at its own mode. |
| `PUNKTFUNK_GAMESCOPE_ATTACH` | `1` | **Attach** model: the box owns its gamescope session (on its own display); the host captures whatever's live and never tears it down. On a **headless** box the box-owned autologin session is restarted at the client's resolution on a mismatch; a box driving a physical display, and any foreign/bare gamescope, streams at its own mode. |
| `PUNKTFUNK_GAMESCOPE_MANAGED` | `1` | **Managed** model (the default where session infra is detected): the host takes the box's gamescope over and relaunches it headless at the client's exact mode, restoring on idle. |
| `PUNKTFUNK_GAMESCOPE_SESSION` | `steam` | The host owns a `gamescope-session-plus` (Steam) session at the client's mode — a headless appliance with no physical session running. |
| `PUNKTFUNK_GAMESCOPE_NODE` | `auto` · node id | Discover and capture a **running** gamescope's PipeWire node at a fixed mode. Do **not** combine with `SESSION`. |