diff --git a/crates/pf-capture/src/linux/pipewire.rs b/crates/pf-capture/src/linux/pipewire.rs
index 0f80219d..0dcbf2e5 100644
--- a/crates/pf-capture/src/linux/pipewire.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-capture/src/linux/pipewire.rs
@@ -1450,16 +1450,21 @@ pub fn pipewire_thread(
              RGB CSC; PUNKTFUNK_PIPEWIRE_NV12=0 restores the packed-RGB negotiation)"
         );
     }
-    // Modifiers our import stack handles for BGRx: the EGL-importable (tiled) set, plus LINEAR
-    // (0) — NVIDIA's EGL won't list it, but LINEAR dmabufs (gamescope's only offer) import via
-    // CUDA external memory instead. For the VAAPI passthrough path we advertise LINEAR only:
-    // radeonsi/iHD import it and any compositor can allocate it.
-    let mut modifiers = importer
-        .as_mut()
-        .map(|i| i.supported_modifiers(pf_frame::drm_fourcc(PixelFormat::Bgrx).unwrap()))
-        .unwrap_or_default();
-    if (importer.is_some() || vaapi_passthrough) && !modifiers.contains(&0) {
-        modifiers.push(0); // DRM_FORMAT_MOD_LINEAR
+    // Modifiers our import stack handles, enumerated PER FOURCC. `XR24` (BGRx) and `AR24` (BGRA)
+    // are asked separately on purpose: EGL/libva answer per format, and nothing entitles us to
+    // assume a driver that imports one imports the other. Keeping them apart is also what makes
+    // the BGRA pod below correct on AMD and Intel rather than an NVIDIA-shaped guess — each list
+    // is whatever THIS GPU's stack actually said.
+    //
+    // To each list we add LINEAR (0) — NVIDIA's EGL won't list it, but LINEAR dmabufs (gamescope's
+    // only offer) import via CUDA external memory instead. For the VAAPI passthrough path there is
+    // no importer at all, so the lists start empty and LINEAR is all we advertise: radeonsi/iHD
+    // import it and any compositor can allocate it.
+    let mut modifiers = Vec::new();
+    let mut modifiers_bgra = Vec::new();
+    if let Some(i) = importer.as_mut() {
+        modifiers = i.supported_modifiers(pf_frame::drm_fourcc(PixelFormat::Bgrx).unwrap());
+        modifiers_bgra = i.supported_modifiers(pf_frame::drm_fourcc(PixelFormat::Bgra).unwrap());
     }
     // PyroWave passthrough: the encoder imports through Vulkan, not libva — extend the
     // advertisement with every modifier its device samples from, so compositors that
@@ -1468,12 +1473,20 @@ pub fn pipewire_thread(
     // the host's `pyrowave` feature is on AND the session (or the global encoder pref) is
     // PyroWave — so capture never calls back into `encode` and needs no feature gate of its
     // own (the emptiness check gates it).
-    if vaapi_passthrough && !policy.pyrowave_modifiers.is_empty() {
-        for &m in &policy.pyrowave_modifiers {
-            if !modifiers.contains(&m) {
-                modifiers.push(m);
+    let extend_pyrowave = vaapi_passthrough && !policy.pyrowave_modifiers.is_empty();
+    for list in [&mut modifiers, &mut modifiers_bgra] {
+        if (importer.is_some() || vaapi_passthrough) && !list.contains(&0) {
+            list.push(0); // DRM_FORMAT_MOD_LINEAR
+        }
+        if extend_pyrowave {
+            for &m in &policy.pyrowave_modifiers {
+                if !list.contains(&m) {
+                    list.push(m);
+                }
             }
         }
+    }
+    if extend_pyrowave {
         tracing::info!(
             count = modifiers.len(),
             "zero-copy: advertising the PyroWave device's Vulkan-importable dmabuf modifiers"
@@ -1540,9 +1553,14 @@ pub fn pipewire_thread(
         );
     } else if want_dmabuf {
         tracing::info!(
-            count = modifiers.len(),
+            bgrx_count = modifiers.len(),
+            bgra_count = modifiers_bgra.len(),
+            // `sample` is TRUNCATED to 6, and LINEAR is pushed last — so reading the sample as the
+            // whole list makes a perfectly good offer look tiled-only. That misreading cost a full
+            // debugging session on 2026-08-14, hence stating the one bit that was actually wanted.
+            linear_offered = modifiers.contains(&0),
             sample = ?&modifiers[..modifiers.len().min(6)],
-            "zero-copy: advertising EGL-importable dmabuf modifiers"
+            "zero-copy: advertising EGL-importable dmabuf modifiers (BGRx + BGRA pods)"
         );
     } else if consumer.cpu_is_downgrade() {
         // Reached only when no dmabuf is advertised at all (every arm above rules out a
@@ -2094,17 +2112,39 @@ pub fn pipewire_thread(
             .map(|fmt| build_hdr_dmabuf_format(*fmt, preferred))
             .collect::<Result<Vec<_>>>()?
     } else if want_dmabuf {
-        let mut pods = Vec::with_capacity(if prefer_native_nv12 { 2 } else { 1 });
+        let mut pods = Vec::with_capacity(if prefer_native_nv12 { 3 } else { 2 });
         if prefer_native_nv12 {
             // First compatible consumer pod wins. Gamescope advertises NV12 and BGRx; pinning
             // BT.709 limited here selects its RGB→NV12 shader with our bitstream colorimetry.
             pods.push(build_dmabuf_format(VideoFormat::NV12, &[0], preferred)?);
         }
-        pods.push(build_dmabuf_format(
-            VideoFormat::BGRx,
-            &modifiers,
-            preferred,
-        )?);
+        if !modifiers.is_empty() {
+            pods.push(build_dmabuf_format(
+                VideoFormat::BGRx,
+                &modifiers,
+                preferred,
+            )?);
+        }
+        // xdph (Hyprland/sway) offers ONLY **BGRA** on its dmabuf EnumFormat — it lists BGRA *and*
+        // BGRx on the SHM pod, so a BGRx-only dmabuf offer intersects with nothing and PipeWire
+        // fails the link outright:
+        //     pw.link: negotiating -> error no more input formats (-22)
+        // Measured 2026-08-14 on Hyprland 0.55.4 + xdph 1.3.12: the 12 tiled modifiers matched on
+        // both sides perfectly — only the fourcc never did, which is why the failure reads like a
+        // GPU/modifier problem and is not one.
+        //
+        // BGRA and BGRx are the same 32-bit layout; the alpha byte is ignored the whole way to the
+        // encoder (`vk_util` maps both to `B8G8R8A8_UNORM`, VAAPI both to `Pixel::BGRA`), and the
+        // dmabuf import is driven by the NEGOTIATED format's fourcc, so an AR24 frame imports as
+        // AR24. Listed AFTER BGRx so a producer offering both still lands on the pre-existing path
+        // — first compatible consumer pod wins, so this is purely additive.
+        if !modifiers_bgra.is_empty() {
+            pods.push(build_dmabuf_format(
+                VideoFormat::BGRA,
+                &modifiers_bgra,
+                preferred,
+            )?);
+        }
         pods
     } else {
         vec![serialize_pod(obj)?]
diff --git a/crates/pf-inject/src/inject/linux/stream_output.rs b/crates/pf-inject/src/inject/linux/stream_output.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e46d4113
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/pf-inject/src/inject/linux/stream_output.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+//! The compositor output absolute coordinates belong to, by NAME — the Linux counterpart of the
+//! Windows `stream_target` slot, and what the wlroots virtual-pointer backend aims at.
+//!
+//! `MouseMoveAbs` carries its own reference extent (`w`/`h` — the client's letterboxed video rect
+//! in ITS window, not the streamed mode), and the wlr protocol normalizes `x`/`y` against it and
+//! maps the result onto whichever `wl_output` the virtual pointer was **created with**. So the
+//! extent takes care of itself and the OUTPUT is the whole question. The injector used to pass the
+//! first `wl_output` the registry advertised, which is the oldest global — on any multi-head box
+//! the operator's physical head, never the per-session headless output the client is looking at.
+//! On the EXTEND backends (Hyprland, wlroots/sway) the streamed head sits *beside* the operator's,
+//! so absolute samples landed on a screen no session was streaming. Reported from the field as
+//! "no cursor was visible in the session", and later as a cursor pinned near the left edge that
+//! vanished part-way across.
+//!
+//! The host publishes the streamed output's compositor name at capture bring-up
+//! ([`set_stream_output`]) — Hyprland's `PF-<pid>-<n>`, sway's `HEADLESS-N`, or a mirrored head's
+//! connector — and the wlr backend re-creates its virtual pointer bound to the matching `wl_output`
+//! (`wl_output.name`, protocol v4; the name is explicitly "the same for all clients", so the name
+//! `hyprctl`/`swaymsg` minted is the name we can match here).
+//!
+//! **One slot per process**, exactly like the Windows original: the injector is host-lifetime and
+//! every concurrent session's input flows through it, so with parallel sessions the LAST capture
+//! bring-up wins for every session's absolute input. Per-session routing needs source-tagged input
+//! events (the injector has to become session-aware first — see [`crate::set_absolute_anchor`]'s
+//! note), and the single slot is never worse than what it replaces: today EVERY session's absolute
+//! input lands on a head that no session is streaming.
+//!
+//! With nothing published — before the first bring-up, or on a compositor whose `wl_output` is
+//! older than v4 and therefore nameless — the pointer is bound to NO output, which maps absolute
+//! coordinates over the whole layout. On a single-output compositor that is identical to binding
+//! that output; on a multi-head one it is at least *reachable*, unlike a pin to the wrong head.
+
+use std::sync::RwLock;
+
+/// The streamed output's compositor name, or `None` when nothing has been published yet.
+static STREAM_OUTPUT: RwLock<Option<String>> = RwLock::new(None);
+
+/// Publish the compositor output (by name) that absolute input maps into. The host calls this at
+/// capture bring-up, and ONLY there: nothing clears it at teardown, because an output that goes
+/// away simply stops resolving (the backend falls back to whole-layout mapping, and between
+/// sessions nothing injects anyway). A later bring-up is what rewrites it — including to `None`,
+/// which a backend that needs no named binding passes so a stale name cannot outlive its
+/// compositor. See the module doc for the one-slot-per-process trade with parallel sessions.
+pub fn set_stream_output(name: Option<String>) {
+    let mut cur = STREAM_OUTPUT.write().unwrap_or_else(|e| e.into_inner());
+    if *cur != name {
+        tracing::info!(output = ?name, "absolute-input stream output set");
+        *cur = name;
+    }
+}
+
+/// The streamed output's compositor name, if one has been published.
+pub fn stream_output() -> Option<String> {
+    STREAM_OUTPUT
+        .read()
+        .unwrap_or_else(|e| e.into_inner())
+        .clone()
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// ONE test on purpose, like the libei anchor's: the slot is process-wide and cargo runs
+    /// tests on threads in one process, so splitting this into several would let them race.
+    #[test]
+    fn publishes_clears_and_round_trips() {
+        set_stream_output(Some("PF-1643-1".into()));
+        assert_eq!(stream_output().as_deref(), Some("PF-1643-1"));
+        // Re-publishing the same name is a no-op, not a second "set" (the backend keys its
+        // pointer re-creation off the resolved name, but the log line should not repeat).
+        set_stream_output(Some("PF-1643-1".into()));
+        assert_eq!(stream_output().as_deref(), Some("PF-1643-1"));
+        set_stream_output(Some("HEADLESS-2".into()));
+        assert_eq!(stream_output().as_deref(), Some("HEADLESS-2"));
+        set_stream_output(None);
+        assert_eq!(stream_output(), None);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/pf-inject/src/inject/linux/wlr.rs b/crates/pf-inject/src/inject/linux/wlr.rs
index 34bf2c76..bd685bee 100644
--- a/crates/pf-inject/src/inject/linux/wlr.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-inject/src/inject/linux/wlr.rs
@@ -5,6 +5,11 @@
 //! virtual keyboard (the host's layout via the standard `XKB_DEFAULT_LAYOUT` et al., defaulting
 //! to evdev/US), and translate events into virtual pointer/keyboard requests, tracking modifier
 //! state so the compositor resolves shifted keysyms correctly.
+//!
+//! **Absolute** motion is mapped by the compositor onto the `wl_output` the virtual pointer was
+//! CREATED with, so which output that is decides where every absolute sample lands. We aim it at
+//! the head the session is actually streaming — published by name in [`crate::stream_output`] and
+//! re-resolved (re-creating the pointer) whenever it changes; see [`WlrootsInjector::retarget`].
 
 use super::{gs_button_to_evdev, vk_to_evdev, InputEvent, InputInjector};
 use anyhow::{bail, Context, Result};
@@ -12,7 +17,12 @@ use punktfunk_core::input::InputKind;
 use std::io::Write;
 use std::os::fd::{AsFd, FromRawFd};
 use std::time::Instant;
-use wayland_client::protocol::{wl_output::WlOutput, wl_pointer, wl_registry, wl_seat::WlSeat};
+use wayland_client::backend::WaylandError;
+use wayland_client::protocol::{
+    wl_output::{self, WlOutput},
+    wl_pointer, wl_registry,
+    wl_seat::WlSeat,
+};
 use wayland_client::{Connection, Dispatch, EventQueue, Proxy, QueueHandle};
 use wayland_protocols_misc::zwp_virtual_keyboard_v1::client::{
     zwp_virtual_keyboard_manager_v1::ZwpVirtualKeyboardManagerV1,
@@ -27,13 +37,65 @@ use xkbcommon::xkb;
 /// `code` value marking a horizontal scroll event (mirrors `gamestream::input`).
 const SCROLL_HORIZONTAL: u32 = 1;
 
+/// `wl_output.name` — the connector name we match the streamed head on — arrived in v4. Nothing
+/// else we ask of an output needs more than v1, so a lower advert only costs us the names (and
+/// with them the ability to aim absolute input; see [`index_named`]). Same constant, same reason,
+/// as `pf_vdisplay`'s `kwin_dpms`.
+const WL_OUTPUT_MAX: u32 = 4;
+
+/// One `wl_output` the compositor has advertised.
+struct Output {
+    /// The registry global name — the key `wl_registry.global_remove` reports, and the user data
+    /// each `wl_output` event carries back so we know which head it describes.
+    global: u32,
+    proxy: WlOutput,
+    /// `wl_output.name` (protocol v4): the compositor's own name for the head — `HDMI-A-1`,
+    /// Hyprland's `PF-<pid>-<n>`, sway's `HEADLESS-N`. The protocol guarantees this is "the same
+    /// output name for all clients", which is what lets us match the name `hyprctl`/`swaymsg`
+    /// minted on the vdisplay side. `None` on a compositor stuck at v3, which has no name event at
+    /// all — then there is nothing to match on and the pointer stays unbound.
+    name: Option<String>,
+}
+
 /// Globals bound from the registry (the Wayland dispatch state).
 #[derive(Default)]
 struct Globals {
     pointer_mgr: Option<ZwlrVirtualPointerManagerV1>,
     keyboard_mgr: Option<ZwpVirtualKeyboardManagerV1>,
     seat: Option<WlSeat>,
-    output: Option<WlOutput>,
+    /// EVERY advertised output, in advertisement order — not just the first. The streamed head is
+    /// created per session, so it is never the first one advertised (that is the operator's
+    /// oldest physical head), and binding only the first is what aimed absolute input at the
+    /// wrong screen on every EXTEND box.
+    outputs: Vec<Output>,
+}
+
+/// Which advertised output — by position in `names`, which is advertisement order — the virtual
+/// pointer should bind to for the published target `want`.
+///
+/// The rule has **no fallback on purpose**, and that absence is the fix: what this replaced was a
+/// fallback ("bind whatever `wl_output` came first"), and the first-advertised output is the oldest
+/// global, i.e. the operator's physical head — never the per-session headless one the client is
+/// looking at. A target that matches nothing therefore yields `None`, which binds the pointer to no
+/// output and maps absolute coordinates over the whole layout: wrong-ish, but reachable, where a
+/// pin to the wrong head is unreachable.
+///
+/// Split out of [`Globals::output_named`] so the rule is testable — a `WlOutput` proxy cannot be
+/// constructed without a live Wayland connection, but the decision it feeds can.
+fn index_named<'a>(
+    names: impl IntoIterator<Item = Option<&'a str>>,
+    want: Option<&str>,
+) -> Option<usize> {
+    let want = want?;
+    names.into_iter().position(|n| n == Some(want))
+}
+
+impl Globals {
+    /// The `wl_output` whose compositor name is `want`, if it is currently advertised.
+    fn output_named(&self, want: &str) -> Option<WlOutput> {
+        index_named(self.outputs.iter().map(|o| o.name.as_deref()), Some(want))
+            .map(|i| self.outputs[i].proxy.clone())
+    }
 }
 
 impl Dispatch<wl_registry::WlRegistry, ()> for Globals {
@@ -45,13 +107,12 @@ impl Dispatch<wl_registry::WlRegistry, ()> for Globals {
         _: &Connection,
         qh: &QueueHandle<Self>,
     ) {
-        if let wl_registry::Event::Global {
-            name,
-            interface,
-            version,
-        } = event
-        {
-            match interface.as_str() {
+        match event {
+            wl_registry::Event::Global {
+                name,
+                interface,
+                version,
+            } => match interface.as_str() {
                 "zwlr_virtual_pointer_manager_v1" => {
                     state.pointer_mgr = Some(registry.bind(name, version.min(2), qh, ()));
                 }
@@ -61,16 +122,52 @@ impl Dispatch<wl_registry::WlRegistry, ()> for Globals {
                 "wl_seat" => {
                     state.seat = Some(registry.bind(name, version.min(7), qh, ()));
                 }
-                "wl_output" if state.output.is_none() => {
-                    state.output = Some(registry.bind(name, version.min(3), qh, ()));
+                "wl_output" => {
+                    // The `name` event is the only thing that tells the streamed head from the
+                    // operator's. Older compositors bind lower and stay nameless (harmless:
+                    // `output_named` then matches nothing and the pointer maps over the layout).
+                    // The registry global name rides along as user data so the events that follow
+                    // land on the right entry.
+                    let proxy = registry.bind(name, version.min(WL_OUTPUT_MAX), qh, name);
+                    state.outputs.push(Output {
+                        global: name,
+                        proxy,
+                        name: None,
+                    });
                 }
                 _ => {}
+            },
+            // A head went away — a session's headless output being torn down is the common case,
+            // and the pointer must stop being aimed at a dead object (`retarget` re-resolves and
+            // falls back to the whole layout on the next absolute sample).
+            wl_registry::Event::GlobalRemove { name } => {
+                state.outputs.retain(|o| o.global != name);
+            }
+            _ => {}
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl Dispatch<WlOutput, u32> for Globals {
+    fn event(
+        state: &mut Self,
+        _: &WlOutput,
+        event: wl_output::Event,
+        global: &u32,
+        _: &Connection,
+        _: &QueueHandle<Self>,
+    ) {
+        // Only the name matters here: geometry/mode/scale are the compositor's problem, because
+        // binding the pointer to an output makes IT do the mapping (see `retarget`).
+        if let wl_output::Event::Name { name } = event {
+            if let Some(o) = state.outputs.iter_mut().find(|o| o.global == *global) {
+                o.name = Some(name);
             }
         }
     }
 }
 
-// The managers, the two virtual devices, the seat and the output emit no events we use.
+// The managers, the two virtual devices and the seat emit no events we use.
 macro_rules! ignore_events {
     ($($t:ty),* $(,)?) => {$(
         impl Dispatch<$t, ()> for Globals {
@@ -80,7 +177,6 @@ macro_rules! ignore_events {
 }
 ignore_events!(
     WlSeat,
-    WlOutput,
     ZwlrVirtualPointerManagerV1,
     ZwlrVirtualPointerV1,
     ZwpVirtualKeyboardManagerV1,
@@ -92,6 +188,14 @@ pub struct WlrootsInjector {
     queue: EventQueue<Globals>,
     globals: Globals,
     pointer: ZwlrVirtualPointerV1,
+    /// The compositor name of the output `pointer` is bound to, or `None` when it is bound to no
+    /// output (absolute coordinates then span the whole layout). Compared against
+    /// [`crate::stream_output`] on every absolute sample; a difference re-creates the pointer.
+    bound_output: Option<String>,
+    /// evdev codes of the mouse buttons currently held on `pointer`, so re-creating the device
+    /// can release them first — the compositor has no reason to, and a virtual pointer destroyed
+    /// mid-press leaves the host with a stuck mouse button.
+    pressed: Vec<u32>,
     keyboard: ZwpVirtualKeyboardV1,
     xkb_state: xkb::State,
     _keymap_file: std::fs::File, // keep the memfd alive for the compositor's mmap
@@ -100,6 +204,25 @@ pub struct WlrootsInjector {
     start: Instant,
 }
 
+/// Resolve the published stream output ([`crate::stream_output`]) against the outputs this
+/// connection has bound: `(proxy, name)` when the target is live, `(None, None)` otherwise.
+///
+/// `(None, None)` covers three cases that all want the same answer — nothing published yet (before
+/// the first capture bring-up), the target's `wl_output` global not advertised yet (the injector
+/// opens on the first input event, which can beat the session's display), and the target torn down
+/// (session end). A pointer bound to no output maps absolute coordinates over the whole layout,
+/// which on a single-output compositor is exactly that output and on a multi-head one at least
+/// keeps the streamed head reachable — unlike a pin to a head nobody is streaming.
+fn resolve_target(globals: &Globals) -> (Option<WlOutput>, Option<String>) {
+    let Some(want) = crate::stream_output() else {
+        return (None, None);
+    };
+    match globals.output_named(&want) {
+        Some(proxy) => (Some(proxy), Some(want)),
+        None => (None, None),
+    }
+}
+
 /// Cap on distinct characters the dynamic text keymap holds before it restarts from scratch
 /// (keycodes grow upward from 9; xkb tops out at 255, so stay well under).
 const TEXT_KEYMAP_MAX: usize = 200;
@@ -140,12 +263,16 @@ impl WlrootsInjector {
             .clone()
             .context("compositor advertised no wl_seat")?;
 
-        let pointer = pointer_mgr.create_virtual_pointer_with_output(
-            Some(&seat),
-            globals.output.as_ref(),
-            &qh,
-            (),
-        );
+        // A second roundtrip: the first only said WHICH globals exist. The `wl_output.name` events
+        // that identify each head are emitted on the objects we bound *during* that roundtrip, so
+        // they only land now — and the pointer's output has to be resolved before we create it.
+        queue
+            .roundtrip(&mut globals)
+            .context("Wayland output-name roundtrip")?;
+
+        let (target, bound_output) = resolve_target(&globals);
+        let pointer =
+            pointer_mgr.create_virtual_pointer_with_output(Some(&seat), target.as_ref(), &qh, ());
         let keyboard = keyboard_mgr.create_virtual_keyboard(&seat, &qh, ());
 
         // The keymap the compositor resolves our raw evdev keycodes with. Empty names defer to
@@ -174,7 +301,9 @@ impl WlrootsInjector {
         conn.flush().ok();
 
         tracing::info!(
-            output = globals.output.is_some(),
+            outputs = globals.outputs.len(),
+            want = ?crate::stream_output(),
+            bound = ?bound_output,
             "wlroots virtual input ready (pointer + keyboard)"
         );
         Ok(Self {
@@ -182,6 +311,8 @@ impl WlrootsInjector {
             queue,
             globals,
             pointer,
+            bound_output,
+            pressed: Vec::new(),
             keyboard,
             xkb_state,
             _keymap_file: file,
@@ -190,6 +321,90 @@ impl WlrootsInjector {
         })
     }
 
+    /// Aim the virtual pointer at the output the session is streaming, re-creating it when that
+    /// changes — the fix for absolute input landing on the operator's screen.
+    ///
+    /// The wlr protocol maps `motion_absolute` onto the output the pointer was **created with**
+    /// and offers no way to re-aim one, so a change means destroy + create. Cheap and rare: the
+    /// host publishes the target once per capture bring-up, so a re-create fires at most a couple
+    /// of times per session. The no-change path — every other absolute sample — costs one `RwLock`
+    /// read and a scan of the output list, which has one entry per head.
+    ///
+    /// Called from the `MouseMoveAbs` arm immediately BEFORE the motion is sent, so a re-created
+    /// pointer gets its first position in the same batch rather than sitting wherever the
+    /// compositor puts a brand-new device.
+    ///
+    /// Resolution is by NAME, never by size: `MouseMoveAbs`'s extent is the client's letterboxed
+    /// content rect in ITS window, not the streamed mode, so no size ladder could identify the
+    /// head. Falling back to no output at all (whole-layout mapping) when the target is unknown is
+    /// deliberate — see [`crate::stream_output`]'s module doc.
+    fn retarget(&mut self) {
+        let (target, want) = resolve_target(&self.globals);
+        if want == self.bound_output {
+            return;
+        }
+        let (Some(mgr), Some(seat)) = (self.globals.pointer_mgr.clone(), self.globals.seat.clone())
+        else {
+            return; // cannot re-create without the manager/seat; keep the pointer we have
+        };
+        // Never destroy a device with a button held: nothing else will release it.
+        if !self.pressed.is_empty() {
+            let t = self.now_ms();
+            for btn in std::mem::take(&mut self.pressed) {
+                self.pointer
+                    .button(t, btn, wl_pointer::ButtonState::Released);
+            }
+            self.pointer.frame();
+        }
+        self.pointer.destroy();
+        self.pointer = mgr.create_virtual_pointer_with_output(
+            Some(&seat),
+            target.as_ref(),
+            &self.queue.handle(),
+            (),
+        );
+        tracing::info!(
+            from = ?self.bound_output,
+            to = ?want,
+            "wlroots virtual pointer re-aimed (absolute input now maps into this output)"
+        );
+        self.bound_output = want;
+    }
+
+    /// Drain the compositor's half of the connection, then push our batch to it — run after every
+    /// injected event.
+    ///
+    /// The **read** is the load-bearing half, and it used to be missing: `dispatch_pending`'s own
+    /// documentation says it "will not perform reads on the Wayland socket", so the queue only
+    /// ever held what [`Self::open`]'s roundtrips put there. Two consequences, both real. The
+    /// injector could never learn about a `wl_output` created AFTER it opened — which is exactly
+    /// the ordering the field report was captured in, and would have left [`Self::retarget`] with
+    /// nothing to resolve. And everything the compositor sent us piled up unread in the socket
+    /// buffer for the host's lifetime, including the protocol errors the code here claimed to be
+    /// surfacing but structurally could not.
+    ///
+    /// Non-blocking by construction: `read()` is documented to answer `WouldBlock` when the socket
+    /// has nothing for us, which is the common case at input rates and is not an error.
+    fn pump(&mut self) -> Result<()> {
+        // `prepare_read` will not hand out a guard while events are still queued, so dispatch first.
+        self.queue
+            .dispatch_pending(&mut self.globals)
+            .context("wayland dispatch")?;
+        if let Some(guard) = self.conn.prepare_read() {
+            match guard.read() {
+                Ok(_) => {
+                    self.queue
+                        .dispatch_pending(&mut self.globals)
+                        .context("wayland dispatch (post-read)")?;
+                }
+                Err(WaylandError::Io(e)) if e.kind() == std::io::ErrorKind::WouldBlock => {}
+                Err(e) => return Err(e).context("wayland read"),
+            }
+        }
+        self.conn.flush().context("wayland flush")?;
+        Ok(())
+    }
+
     fn now_ms(&self) -> u32 {
         self.start.elapsed().as_millis() as u32
     }
@@ -271,6 +486,12 @@ impl InputInjector for WlrootsInjector {
                 let w = (event.flags >> 16) & 0xffff;
                 let h = event.flags & 0xffff;
                 if w > 0 && h > 0 {
+                    // The compositor maps these onto the pointer's bound output, so make sure that
+                    // is the head this session streams before sending any. Checked here rather
+                    // than per inject: only absolute motion depends on the binding, and a pointer
+                    // swapped mid-drag is the one thing `retarget` has to work to be safe about.
+                    self.retarget();
+                    let t = self.now_ms(); // `retarget` may have consumed time releasing buttons
                     let x = event.x.clamp(0, w as i32) as u32;
                     let y = event.y.clamp(0, h as i32) as u32;
                     self.pointer.motion_absolute(t, x, y, w, h);
@@ -280,8 +501,12 @@ impl InputInjector for WlrootsInjector {
             InputKind::MouseButtonDown | InputKind::MouseButtonUp => {
                 if let Some(btn) = gs_button_to_evdev(event.code) {
                     let st = if event.kind == InputKind::MouseButtonDown {
+                        if !self.pressed.contains(&btn) {
+                            self.pressed.push(btn);
+                        }
                         wl_pointer::ButtonState::Pressed
                     } else {
+                        self.pressed.retain(|&b| b != btn);
                         wl_pointer::ButtonState::Released
                     };
                     self.pointer.button(t, btn, st);
@@ -328,12 +553,7 @@ impl InputInjector for WlrootsInjector {
             // wlroots has no virtual-touch protocol wired here; touch is the libei path only.
             InputKind::TouchDown | InputKind::TouchMove | InputKind::TouchUp => {}
         }
-        // Surface protocol errors / disconnects, then push the batch to the compositor.
-        self.queue
-            .dispatch_pending(&mut self.globals)
-            .context("wayland dispatch")?;
-        self.conn.flush().context("wayland flush")?;
-        Ok(())
+        self.pump()
     }
 }
 
@@ -383,3 +603,40 @@ fn memfd_with(s: &str) -> Result<std::fs::File> {
     f.write_all(&[0]).context("write keymap NUL")?;
     Ok(f)
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// The live-box layout the field report came from: the operator's `HDMI-A-1` is advertised
+    /// FIRST (it exists from compositor start), and the session's headless head is added later —
+    /// so "first advertised" is always the wrong answer, whichever order the injector and the
+    /// display happen to come up in.
+    const HYPRLAND_BOX: [Option<&str>; 2] = [Some("HDMI-A-1"), Some("PF-87756-3")];
+
+    #[test]
+    fn binds_the_streamed_head_not_the_first_advertised_one() {
+        assert_eq!(index_named(HYPRLAND_BOX, Some("PF-87756-3")), Some(1));
+        assert_eq!(index_named(HYPRLAND_BOX, Some("HDMI-A-1")), Some(0));
+        // sway's own naming, and a mirrored physical head, resolve the same way.
+        let sway = [Some("HEADLESS-1"), Some("DP-2"), Some("HEADLESS-2")];
+        assert_eq!(index_named(sway, Some("HEADLESS-2")), Some(2));
+        assert_eq!(index_named(sway, Some("DP-2")), Some(1));
+    }
+
+    /// Every "we don't know" must land on NO output (whole-layout mapping), never on a guess —
+    /// the regression this whole change exists to prevent.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_unknown_target_binds_nothing_rather_than_falling_back() {
+        // Published but not advertised (yet, or any more — the injector opens on the first input
+        // event, which can beat the display, and the head goes away at session end).
+        assert_eq!(index_named(HYPRLAND_BOX, Some("PF-87756-9")), None);
+        // Nothing published at all — before the first capture bring-up.
+        assert_eq!(index_named(HYPRLAND_BOX, None), None);
+        // A compositor older than wl_output v4 emits no `name` event, so nothing is matchable.
+        assert_eq!(index_named([None, None], Some("PF-87756-3")), None);
+        // …and a compositor advertising no outputs at all cannot resolve anything either.
+        let headless: [Option<&str>; 0] = [];
+        assert_eq!(index_named(headless, Some("PF-87756-3")), None);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/pf-inject/src/lib.rs b/crates/pf-inject/src/lib.rs
index 71bf4957..61dc3c77 100644
--- a/crates/pf-inject/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-inject/src/lib.rs
@@ -149,6 +149,15 @@ static ABSOLUTE_ANCHOR: std::sync::RwLock<Option<AbsoluteAnchor>> = std::sync::R
 /// record in `design/per-monitor-portal-capture.md` §5.3) and wrong for anything per-client. A
 /// per-session anchor needs the injector to become session-aware first; don't call this from a
 /// session path until it is.
+///
+/// The wlroots backend does **not** consult this — it aims at a named output via
+/// `stream_output::set_stream_output` (Linux), which the host DOES publish per session and which
+/// therefore takes exactly the last-bring-up-wins trade this warning describes: on purpose, and
+/// stated in the open in that module's doc, matching the Windows `stream_target` slot that already
+/// made the same call. The two are separate slots because they answer different questions and are
+/// written by different owners: this anchor is the operator's host-wide capture pin, recomputed
+/// from policy whenever the console writes it — which would wipe a per-session value written here —
+/// while the stream output is whatever head the session's capture actually attached to.
 pub fn set_absolute_anchor(anchor: Option<AbsoluteAnchor>) {
     let anchor = anchor.filter(|a| !a.is_empty());
     tracing::debug!(?anchor, "input: absolute-coordinate anchor set");
@@ -529,6 +538,14 @@ pub mod pen;
 pub mod stream_target;
 #[cfg(target_os = "windows")]
 pub use stream_target::set_stream_target;
+/// Linux: the streamed compositor output (by name) that absolute coordinates map into — the
+/// counterpart of the Windows `stream_target` module, published by the host at capture bring-up and
+/// consumed by the wlroots virtual-pointer backend, which binds its pointer to that `wl_output`.
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+#[path = "inject/linux/stream_output.rs"]
+pub mod stream_output;
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+pub use stream_output::{set_stream_output, stream_output};
 /// Stub — pen injection needs the Linux uinput tablet or Windows synthetic pointers;
 /// `pen_supported()` is false here, so no host advertises the cap and no batches arrive.
 #[cfg(not(any(target_os = "linux", target_os = "windows")))]
diff --git a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/lib.rs b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/lib.rs
index f51bc2d7..04c71401 100644
--- a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/lib.rs
@@ -79,6 +79,10 @@ pub(crate) fn emit_display_event(ev: DisplayEvent) {
 #[path = "vdisplay/backend.rs"]
 pub(crate) mod backend;
 pub use backend::{DisplayOwnership, VirtualDisplay, VirtualOutput};
+/// The NEGOTIATED ScreenCast cursor mode of a portal-backed output, reported per session by
+/// [`VirtualDisplay::last_portal_cursor_mode`]. (The module itself stays private — the ladder that
+/// picks the mode is this crate's business; the verdict is the caller's.)
+pub use portal_cursor::Mode as PortalCursorMode;
 
 /// Time-bounded child-process helpers — every compositor query shells out, and an unbounded one
 /// can wedge the calling (session) thread forever.
@@ -833,6 +837,21 @@ mod portal_config;
 #[path = "vdisplay/linux/portal_cursor.rs"]
 mod portal_cursor;
 
+/// The line fed to xdph's custom picker to select an output headlessly.
+///
+/// Declared unconditionally for the same reason again: it is a wire format with no schema and no
+/// error report, so the transcribed-parser tests are the only place a malformed line is visible
+/// without a compositor. That is not hypothetical — a missing separator shipped, and the one
+/// assertion that existed for it passed throughout.
+#[path = "vdisplay/linux/portal_picker.rs"]
+mod portal_picker;
+
+/// The single, never-dropped tokio runtime the portal handshakes run on. Linux-only: it exists to
+/// outlive ashpd's process-global cached D-Bus connection, and only the Linux backends speak to it.
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+#[path = "vdisplay/linux/portal_rt.rs"]
+mod portal_rt;
+
 #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
 #[path = "vdisplay/linux/hyprland.rs"]
 mod hyprland;
diff --git a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/backend.rs b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/backend.rs
index cb09cfad..3ed2b880 100644
--- a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/backend.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/backend.rs
@@ -76,6 +76,20 @@ pub struct VirtualOutput {
     /// capturer must hold frames until that renegotiation lands. Linux-only.
     #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
     pub expect_exact_dims: bool,
+    /// The compositor's own name for this output (Hyprland's `PF-<pid>-<n>`, sway's `HEADLESS-N`,
+    /// a mirrored head's connector) — the Linux answer to what `win_capture` carries on Windows:
+    /// the identity the host needs to aim **absolute input** at the head it is streaming
+    /// (`pf_inject::set_stream_output`, called from `capture::capture_virtual_output`).
+    ///
+    /// It is the `wl_output.name` of that head, which the protocol guarantees is the same string
+    /// for every client — so the injector can match it on its own Wayland connection. `None` on
+    /// the backends whose absolute mapping does not need it (KWin/Mutter inject through libei,
+    /// which selects by region; gamescope owns its whole seat).
+    ///
+    /// This crate must not depend on pf-inject (see the crate doc), so the name is only CARRIED
+    /// here — the host publishes it.
+    #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+    pub output_name: Option<String>,
 }
 
 impl VirtualOutput {
@@ -101,6 +115,8 @@ impl VirtualOutput {
             pool_gen: None,
             #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
             expect_exact_dims: false,
+            #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+            output_name: None,
         }
     }
 }
@@ -184,6 +200,33 @@ pub trait VirtualDisplay: Send {
     fn hw_cursor(&self) -> bool {
         false
     }
+    /// The ScreenCast cursor mode the backend's portal actually NEGOTIATED for the most recent
+    /// [`create`](Self::create) — the answer to [`set_hw_cursor`](Self::set_hw_cursor), which is
+    /// only ever a *request*.
+    ///
+    /// This is the difference between the two that matters downstream: on the whole wlr family
+    /// (xdph, xdpw) `AvailableCursorModes` is `Hidden|Embedded`, so a session that asked for
+    /// metadata is served **`Embedded`** — the compositor paints the pointer into the frames and
+    /// sends no `SPA_META_Cursor`, ever, wherever the pointer is. A consumer that reads "no cursor
+    /// overlay" as a symptom (the host's park schedule reads it as "the seat pointer has not
+    /// reached the streamed output" — true on Mutter, which suppresses metadata while the pointer
+    /// is off the recorded view) is then acting on noise; see
+    /// [`PortalCursorMode::delivers_metadata`](crate::PortalCursorMode::delivers_metadata).
+    ///
+    /// `None` — the default, and what every non-portal backend reports — means "nothing was
+    /// negotiated through the xdg ScreenCast portal here, so this says nothing at all": KWin
+    /// (`zkde_screencast` `pointer` mode), Mutter (`RecordVirtual` `cursor-mode`), gamescope (no
+    /// pointer either way) and Windows (IddCx) all get exactly what they ask for through their own
+    /// protocols, and their consumers must keep behaving as they always did. It is also `None`
+    /// before the first `create`.
+    ///
+    /// Reported by the wlr-family backends (`hyprland`, `wlroots`) and by the monitor
+    /// [`mirror`](crate::open_mirror) when it delegates to one. Those outputs are never registry-
+    /// pooled (`remote_fd.is_some()` — the portal fd cannot be re-opened per attach), so a reused
+    /// kept display can never hand back a *stale* answer here.
+    fn last_portal_cursor_mode(&self) -> Option<crate::PortalCursorMode> {
+        None
+    }
     /// The stable identity slot the backend resolved for the most recent [`create`](Self::create) —
     /// the per-client id the identity policy assigned (`Some`), or `None` for shared/anonymous. The
     /// registry reads it right after `create` to key the display's group **arrangement** (manual
diff --git a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/gamescope.rs b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/gamescope.rs
index 51c83b39..4a6a5eb2 100644
--- a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/gamescope.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/gamescope.rs
@@ -525,6 +525,9 @@ impl VirtualDisplay for GamescopeDisplay {
                 reused_gen: None,
                 pool_gen: None,
                 expect_exact_dims: false,
+                // gamescope owns its own seat and injects through its EIS socket, not the wlr
+                // virtual pointer (`point_injector_at_eis`) — nothing here to aim by name.
+                output_name: None,
             });
         }
         check_gamescope_version(); // diagnostic only — warns on known-deadlock-prone versions
@@ -718,6 +721,9 @@ fn create_managed_session(client: &str, mode: Mode, hdr: bool) -> Result<Virtual
             reused_gen: None,
             pool_gen: None,
             expect_exact_dims: false,
+            // gamescope owns its own seat and injects through its EIS socket, not the wlr
+            // virtual pointer (`point_injector_at_eis`) — nothing here to aim by name.
+            output_name: None,
         });
     }
     // B1b: a desktop-session Steam (outside any gamescope unit) also holds the single instance and
@@ -834,6 +840,9 @@ fn managed_output(node_id: u32, mode: Mode) -> VirtualOutput {
         reused_gen: None,
         pool_gen: None,
         expect_exact_dims: false,
+        // gamescope owns its own seat and injects through its EIS socket, not the wlr
+        // virtual pointer (`point_injector_at_eis`) — nothing here to aim by name.
+        output_name: None,
     }
 }
 
@@ -3595,6 +3604,9 @@ pub(crate) fn stream_existing_output(
     Ok(crate::mirror::MirrorStream {
         node_id,
         remote_fd: None,
+        // No xdg portal in this path at all (gamescope publishes the node itself), and no pointer
+        // in the node either way — nothing to report.
+        cursor_mode: None,
         keepalive: Box::new(()),
     })
 }
diff --git a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/hyprland.rs b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/hyprland.rs
index 5f3d70bf..dc985356 100644
--- a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/hyprland.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/hyprland.rs
@@ -16,10 +16,12 @@
 //! 3. The xdg ScreenCast portal (served by **xdph**) yields the output's PipeWire node. There is
 //!    no GUI to pick an output headlessly, so xdph is steered through its **custom picker**: a
 //!    managed config (`~/.config/hypr/xdph.conf`) points `screencopy:custom_picker_binary` at a tiny
-//!    installed shim that cats a per-session selection file we write (`[SELECTION]screen:<NAME>`)
-//!    right before the handshake — byte-for-byte the xdpw pattern, xdph's picker wire format.
-//! 4. Teardown is RAII: drop stops the portal thread (its zbus connection ends the cast) and runs
-//!    `hyprctl output remove NAME`.
+//!    installed shim that cats a per-session selection file we write right before the handshake —
+//!    `[SELECTION]/screen:<NAME>`, whose leading `/` is xdph's mandatory empty-flags separator (see
+//!    [`crate::portal_picker`], which owns the format and its tests).
+//! 4. Teardown is RAII **and ordered**: drop closes the ScreenCast session and WAITS for the portal
+//!    to confirm it, and only then runs `hyprctl output remove NAME`. Removing the output first is
+//!    what made every stream after the first one fail on Hyprland — see [`StopGuard`].
 //!
 //! Requirements: the host runs inside (or can reach) the Hyprland session — either
 //! `HYPRLAND_INSTANCE_SIGNATURE` is inherited, or [`is_available`] discovers it from
@@ -27,7 +29,8 @@
 //! the ScreenCast interface routed to xdph (`scripts/headless/portals.conf`).
 //!
 //! Contracts verified on **Hyprland 0.55.4 + xdph 1.3.x** (`design/hyprland-support.md` Phase 0):
-//! `hyprctl` subcommands / JSON shapes, the `[SELECTION]screen:<name>` picker format, the
+//! `hyprctl` subcommands / JSON shapes, the `[SELECTION]/screen:<name>` picker format (re-derived
+//! from xdph 1.3.12's own parser on 2026-08-14, which is when the missing `/` turned up), the
 //! `~/.config/hypr/xdph.conf` path + `screencopy:custom_picker_binary` key, and that `eval` needs
 //! the Lua config manager. Not yet exercised end-to-end on real DRM hardware: a headless output's
 //! GBM/dmabuf allocation (fails on a nested/NVIDIA test box — Sunshine#4197); `set_monitor_rule`
@@ -44,7 +47,7 @@ use std::thread;
 use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
 
 /// Per-session file the xdph custom picker reads the selected output from. We write
-/// `screen:<NAME>\n` here right before the portal handshake selects sources. Lives under
+/// [`picker_selection_line`] here right before the portal handshake selects sources. Lives under
 /// `$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR` (per-user, 0700) — NOT a world-writable /tmp path another local user could
 /// pre-create or rewrite between our write and xdph's read (steer capture elsewhere). Mirrors the
 /// wlroots chooser file.
@@ -61,13 +64,11 @@ fn picker_shim_path() -> String {
     format!("{dir}/punktfunk-xdph-picker.sh")
 }
 
-/// The picker line for output `name`. Verified against xdph 1.3.x / hyprland-share-picker on
-/// Hyprland 0.55.4: xdph reads the custom picker's stdout and requires the `[SELECTION]` marker
-/// followed by `screen:<name>` (or `window:<addr>` / `region:…`); anything else is rejected as
-/// "strange output" and falls back to the interactive picker. So a monitor selection is
-/// `[SELECTION]screen:<name>`.
+/// The picker line for output `name` — `[SELECTION]/screen:<name>`, whose every byte is load-bearing.
+/// Lives in [`crate::portal_picker`] with a transcription of xdph's parser, because it is a wire
+/// format with no error report and this file only compiles on Linux.
 fn picker_selection_line(name: &str) -> String {
-    format!("[SELECTION]screen:{name}\n")
+    crate::portal_picker::selection_line(name)
 }
 
 /// Monotonic per-process counter for headless output names (`PF-<pid>-1`, `PF-<pid>-2`, …). Named
@@ -131,11 +132,18 @@ pub struct HyprlandDisplay {
     /// only. Every session on this backend therefore resolves to `Embedded` today; KWin/Mutter
     /// remain the legs where the metadata channel is actually exercised.
     hw_cursor: bool,
+    /// What the portal actually gave us on the most recent [`create`](VirtualDisplay::create) — see
+    /// [`VirtualDisplay::last_portal_cursor_mode`], which is how the host learns that a cursor
+    /// overlay is never coming instead of inferring it from an absence.
+    last_cursor_mode: Option<crate::portal_cursor::Mode>,
 }
 
 impl HyprlandDisplay {
     pub fn new() -> Result<Self> {
-        Ok(HyprlandDisplay { hw_cursor: false })
+        Ok(HyprlandDisplay {
+            hw_cursor: false,
+            last_cursor_mode: None,
+        })
     }
 }
 
@@ -201,6 +209,10 @@ impl VirtualDisplay for HyprlandDisplay {
         self.hw_cursor
     }
 
+    fn last_portal_cursor_mode(&self) -> Option<crate::PortalCursorMode> {
+        self.last_cursor_mode
+    }
+
     fn create(&mut self, mode: Mode) -> Result<VirtualOutput> {
         // Log the permission-system caveat once per process (silent black frames otherwise).
         preflight_once();
@@ -224,16 +236,21 @@ impl VirtualDisplay for HyprlandDisplay {
         // thread (it parks to keep the cast alive, like the other backends). Serialized: the
         // selection is one per-user file, so a concurrent session's write between ours and xdph's
         // read would silently capture the wrong output (see `SELECTION_LOCK`).
-        let (fd, node_id, stop) = {
+        let (fd, node_id, cursor_mode, stop) = {
             let _sel = SELECTION_LOCK.lock().unwrap_or_else(|e| e.into_inner());
             select_and_cast(&name, self.hw_cursor)?
         };
+        // Latched for `last_portal_cursor_mode`: on today's xdph this is `embedded` whatever we
+        // asked for, and the session's whole cursor behaviour follows from that fact rather than
+        // from `hw_cursor`.
+        self.last_cursor_mode = Some(cursor_mode);
         tracing::info!(
             node_id,
             output = %name,
             w = mode.width,
             h = mode.height,
             hz = mode.refresh_hz,
+            cursor = cursor_mode.name(),
             "hyprland headless output ready"
         );
         Ok(VirtualOutput {
@@ -251,24 +268,100 @@ impl VirtualDisplay for HyprlandDisplay {
             reused_gen: None,
             pool_gen: None,
             expect_exact_dims: false,
+            // Hyprland is an EXTEND topology: this head sits BESIDE the operator's, so absolute
+            // input has to be aimed at it by name or it lands on their screen. `hyprctl`'s monitor
+            // name is the head's `wl_output.name`, which is what the injector matches.
+            output_name: Some(name),
         })
     }
 }
 
-/// Drop order matters: stop the portal thread first (zbus connection drop ends the cast), then
-/// remove the output (fields drop in declaration order).
+/// Drop order matters, and it is the whole fix: [`StopGuard`] **blocks until the ScreenCast session
+/// is actually closed**, and only then does [`OutputGuard`] remove the compositor output (fields drop
+/// in declaration order).
+///
+/// 🛑 THIS ORDERING USED TO BE A LIE. `StopGuard::drop` only set an atomic and returned, while the
+/// portal thread noticed it 200 ms later — so `OutputGuard::drop` ran `hyprctl output remove` on an
+/// output xdph was still actively capturing, every single teardown. See [`StopGuard`] for what that
+/// did to xdph.
 struct Keepalive {
     _stop: StopGuard,
     _output: OutputGuard,
 }
 
-/// Dropping this ends the portal keepalive thread, closing its zbus connection — the portal then
-/// tears the screencast session down.
-struct StopGuard(Arc<AtomicBool>);
+/// How long teardown waits for the portal to confirm the ScreenCast session is closed before giving
+/// up and removing the output anyway. One D-Bus round trip through xdg-desktop-portal to xdph; three
+/// seconds is generous. Bounded on purpose: a portal that has already wedged must not be able to
+/// wedge the host's teardown with it — every other blocking helper on this path is bounded the same
+/// way (see [`HYPRCTL_BUDGET`]).
+const CAST_CLOSE_BUDGET: Duration = Duration::from_secs(3);
+
+/// Ends the cast: signals the portal thread, then **waits for it to have closed the ScreenCast
+/// session**, so the caller may safely remove the output afterwards.
+///
+/// 🛑 THE WAIT IS THE POINT — "only the first stream after a portal start works" on Hyprland was
+/// this, root-caused 2026-08-14 against Hyprland 0.55.4 + xdph 1.3.12 + xdg-desktop-portal 1.20.4.
+///
+/// This used to be a bare `AtomicBool` that `drop` merely SET. The portal thread polled it every
+/// 200 ms and then just dropped its zbus connection, and xdph destroys a session on exactly one
+/// event — an explicit `org.freedesktop.impl.portal.Session.Close` (`Session.cpp:37`,
+/// `onCloseSession`); it has no peer-vanished watcher of its own. The frontend does have one
+/// (`xdg-desktop-portal.c:230` `peer_died_cb` → `close_sessions_for_sender`), but it only fires once
+/// our unique bus name goes away, which is *after* the 200 ms poll, and it runs asynchronously on a
+/// GTask thread. Meanwhile `OutputGuard::drop` had already removed the output — synchronously,
+/// microseconds after the flag was set.
+///
+/// So every teardown destroyed the `wl_output` out from under a live screencopy session. xdph's next
+/// `Start` then built a PipeWire stream against that wreckage and fell into
+///
+/// ```text
+/// while (pSession->sharingData.nodeID == SPA_ID_INVALID) {      // Screencopy.cpp:307-313
+///     int ret = pw_loop_iterate(g_pPortalManager->m_sPipewire.loop, 0);   // timeout 0 = NON-blocking
+/// ```
+///
+/// — an unbounded hot spin on xdph's ONLY event-loop thread, inside the `Start` handler, holding its
+/// `m_mEventLock`. From that moment xdph answers no D-Bus, no Wayland and no PipeWire, ever again, and
+/// every later `select_and_cast` dies on our 20 s timeout. MEASURED on the box: the wedged instance's
+/// unit reported `Consumed 3min 51.971s CPU time over 23min 41.092s wall clock`, and there were
+/// exactly 232.7 s of wall clock between its last log flush and its restart — 231.971 s of CPU
+/// against 232.7 s of wall, i.e. one core pinned solid for precisely the wedged interval.
+///
+/// Waiting here closes that window: `Session.Close` is answered synchronously by the frontend
+/// (`xdp-session.c:217` `handle_close` → `xdp_session_close` →
+/// `xdp_dbus_impl_session_call_close_sync`), so by the time `close()` returns, xdph has already run
+/// `destroyStream` and logged `Session destroyed`. The output we remove next is one nobody is
+/// capturing.
+struct StopGuard {
+    stop: Arc<AtomicBool>,
+    /// Signalled by the portal thread once it has closed the ScreenCast session.
+    ///
+    /// `None` on every path where no cast was ever established (a rejected or timed-out handshake):
+    /// there is nothing to close, and a portal that just failed to answer for 20 s is precisely the
+    /// one that would burn the whole budget here for nothing.
+    closed: Option<std::sync::mpsc::Receiver<()>>,
+}
 
 impl Drop for StopGuard {
     fn drop(&mut self) {
-        self.0.store(true, Ordering::Relaxed);
+        self.stop.store(true, Ordering::Relaxed);
+        let Some(closed) = self.closed.take() else {
+            return;
+        };
+        match closed.recv_timeout(CAST_CLOSE_BUDGET) {
+            // Closed — xdph has torn the capture down, the output is safe to remove.
+            Ok(()) => {}
+            // The thread is gone without confirming (it panicked, or the runtime died). Nothing is
+            // holding the cast either way, so there is nothing left to wait for.
+            Err(std::sync::mpsc::RecvTimeoutError::Disconnected) => {}
+            // Still going after the budget. Fall through and remove the output anyway — a leaked
+            // output is worse than a racy one — but say so, because this is the state that wedges
+            // xdph and the next session will be the one that pays for it.
+            Err(std::sync::mpsc::RecvTimeoutError::Timeout) => tracing::warn!(
+                budget_s = CAST_CLOSE_BUDGET.as_secs(),
+                "the ScreenCast session did not close in time — removing the output underneath it, \
+                 which is what wedges xdph's frame loop; the next cast may find the portal busy"
+            ),
+        }
     }
 }
 
@@ -349,6 +442,12 @@ impl Drop for OutputGuard {
 /// stream thread, whose only way to end a session is to return, so one hung query used to wedge the
 /// session for good. Generous next to a healthy call (single-digit milliseconds), and every call
 /// site already has a failed-query path.
+/// Ceiling on the whole ScreenCast handshake (`create_session` → `select_sources` → `start` →
+/// `open_pipe_wire_remote`). Deliberately under [`select_and_cast`]'s 20 s wait so a stuck portal is
+/// reported by the thread that owns it, with a reason, instead of the caller timing out on it — and,
+/// far more importantly, so that thread EXITS. See the note at the handshake itself.
+const HANDSHAKE_BUDGET: Duration = Duration::from_secs(15);
+
 const HYPRCTL_BUDGET: Duration = Duration::from_secs(5);
 
 /// Budget for the one-shot xdph restart. `systemctl --user try-restart` waits for the user manager's
@@ -401,19 +500,31 @@ impl Drop for SelectionFile {
 
 /// Point xdph's custom picker at `output` and run the ScreenCast handshake, returning the portal fd
 /// + node id and the guard that stops the cast. The caller must hold [`SELECTION_LOCK`].
-fn select_and_cast(output: &str, hw_cursor: bool) -> Result<(OwnedFd, u32, StopGuard)> {
+fn select_and_cast(
+    output: &str,
+    hw_cursor: bool,
+) -> Result<(OwnedFd, u32, crate::portal_cursor::Mode, StopGuard)> {
     ensure_xdph_config()?;
     let sel = selection_file();
     std::fs::write(&sel, picker_selection_line(output)).with_context(|| format!("write {sel}"))?;
     // Owned from the write on: every arm below (and every `?`) leaves the handshake, which is the
     // only thing that reads it.
     let _sel_file = SelectionFile(sel);
-    let (setup_tx, setup_rx) = std::sync::mpsc::channel::<Result<(OwnedFd, u32), String>>();
+    // The NEGOTIATED cursor mode rides back with the fd and node id: it is decided inside the
+    // portal thread (only there is the proxy to ask), and nothing downstream can re-derive it —
+    // `hw_cursor` is the request, not the answer.
+    let (setup_tx, setup_rx) =
+        std::sync::mpsc::channel::<Result<(OwnedFd, u32, crate::portal_cursor::Mode), String>>();
+    // The teardown handshake: the thread signals this once it has closed the ScreenCast session, and
+    // `StopGuard::drop` waits on it before the output is removed (see `StopGuard`). Kept a SEPARATE
+    // channel from the setup one above — it fires at the other end of the cast's life, long after
+    // `setup_rx` has been consumed.
+    let (closed_tx, closed_rx) = std::sync::mpsc::channel::<()>();
     let stop = Arc::new(AtomicBool::new(false));
     let stop_thread = stop.clone();
     thread::Builder::new()
         .name("punktfunk-hypr-cast".into())
-        .spawn(move || portal_thread(setup_tx, stop_thread, hw_cursor))
+        .spawn(move || portal_thread(setup_tx, closed_tx, stop_thread, hw_cursor))
         .context("spawn hyprland portal thread")?;
     // Built BEFORE the wait so EVERY error arm below sets the flag on its way out — as Mutter's
     // `create` does. Returning the bare `Arc` and letting the CALLER wrap it left the two failure
@@ -422,9 +533,14 @@ fn select_and_cast(output: &str, hw_cursor: bool) -> Result<(OwnedFd, u32, StopG
     // parks forever on `while !stop`, holding a live ScreenCast session, its zbus connection, an
     // `OwnedFd` and a 2-worker tokio runtime — one more set per slow-portal connect, for the host's
     // lifetime, against an output that no longer exists.
-    let guard = StopGuard(stop);
+    let mut guard = StopGuard { stop, closed: None };
     match setup_rx.recv_timeout(Duration::from_secs(20)) {
-        Ok(Ok((fd, node_id))) => Ok((fd, node_id, guard)),
+        Ok(Ok((fd, node_id, cursor_mode))) => {
+            // A cast exists now, so teardown has something to close and must wait for it. Only this
+            // arm arms the wait: see the field note on `StopGuard::closed`.
+            guard.closed = Some(closed_rx);
+            Ok((fd, node_id, cursor_mode, guard))
+        }
         Ok(Err(e)) => bail!("ScreenCast portal on {output} failed: {e}"),
         Err(_) => bail!("timed out waiting for the ScreenCast portal on {output}"),
     }
@@ -440,10 +556,11 @@ pub(crate) fn stream_existing_output(
     hw_cursor: bool,
 ) -> Result<crate::mirror::MirrorStream> {
     let _sel = SELECTION_LOCK.lock().unwrap_or_else(|e| e.into_inner());
-    let (fd, node_id, stop) = select_and_cast(connector, hw_cursor)?;
+    let (fd, node_id, cursor_mode, stop) = select_and_cast(connector, hw_cursor)?;
     Ok(crate::mirror::MirrorStream {
         node_id,
         remote_fd: Some(fd),
+        cursor_mode: Some(cursor_mode),
         keepalive: Box::new(stop),
     })
 }
@@ -793,7 +910,8 @@ fn ensure_xdph_config() -> Result<()> {
 /// custom picker, no dialog. (Kept separate from wlroots' copy so each wlr-family backend stays
 /// self-owned per D1; unify if they ever diverge no further.)
 fn portal_thread(
-    setup_tx: Sender<Result<(OwnedFd, u32), String>>,
+    setup_tx: Sender<Result<(OwnedFd, u32, crate::portal_cursor::Mode), String>>,
+    closed_tx: Sender<()>,
     stop: Arc<AtomicBool>,
     hw_cursor: bool,
 ) {
@@ -801,16 +919,15 @@ fn portal_thread(
     use ashpd::desktop::PersistMode;
     use ashpd::enumflags2::BitFlags;
 
-    // Multi-thread runtime: the zbus background reader must be pumped across the
-    // create_session → select_sources → start handshake (see capture/linux.rs).
-    let rt = match tokio::runtime::Builder::new_multi_thread()
-        .worker_threads(2)
-        .enable_all()
-        .build()
-    {
+    // 🛑 The SHARED, never-dropped runtime — NOT a per-cast one. ashpd caches its D-Bus connection
+    // process-globally, and a per-cast runtime takes that connection's background reader down with
+    // it when the cast ends, leaving every later handshake in this process awaiting a reply nothing
+    // is alive to read. That is the whole "the first stream works, the rest are black" bug. See
+    // [`crate::portal_rt`] for the measurement.
+    let rt = match crate::portal_rt::portal_runtime() {
         Ok(rt) => rt,
         Err(e) => {
-            let _ = setup_tx.send(Err(format!("build tokio runtime: {e}")));
+            let _ = setup_tx.send(Err(e));
             return;
         }
     };
@@ -818,9 +935,21 @@ fn portal_thread(
 
     rt.block_on(async move {
         let result: Result<()> = async {
-            let proxy = Screencast::new().await.context(
-                "connect ScreenCast portal (is xdg-desktop-portal running with the hyprland backend/xdph?)",
-            )?;
+            // Inside the bound below, deliberately: when the cached connection was orphaned this is
+            // where the thread hung — `Screencast::new()` itself, before a single handshake call —
+            // and a bound that started after it reported the caller's generic timeout instead.
+            let connect = async {
+                Screencast::new().await.context(
+                    "connect ScreenCast portal (is xdg-desktop-portal running with the hyprland backend/xdph?)",
+                )
+            };
+            let proxy = match tokio::time::timeout(HANDSHAKE_BUDGET, connect).await {
+                Ok(v) => v?,
+                Err(_) => bail!(
+                    "connecting to the ScreenCast portal did not return within {}s",
+                    HANDSHAKE_BUDGET.as_secs()
+                ),
+            };
             // NEGOTIATED against what xdph advertises, never asserted from `hw_cursor` alone: a
             // cursor mode the backend does not offer does not degrade — xdg-desktop-portal's
             // FRONTEND fails the call ("Unavailable cursor mode %x") before xdph sees it.
@@ -829,51 +958,99 @@ fn portal_thread(
             // hardcode killed EVERY cursor-forward session here, on today's packages, not just on
             // old installs: `unavailable cursor mode 4`, "pipeline build failed", black client.
             let cursor_mode = crate::portal_cursor::negotiate(&proxy, hw_cursor, "xdph").await;
-            let session = proxy
-                .create_session(Default::default())
-                .await
-                .context("create_session")?;
-            proxy
-                .select_sources(
-                    &session,
-                    SelectSourcesOptions::default()
-                        .set_cursor_mode(cursor_mode)
-                        // xdph offers MONITOR; the custom picker selects our output.
-                        .set_sources(BitFlags::from_flag(SourceType::Monitor))
-                        .set_multiple(false)
-                        .set_persist_mode(PersistMode::DoNot),
-                )
-                .await
-                .context("select_sources")?
-                .response()
-                .context("select_sources rejected")?;
-            let streams = proxy
-                .start(&session, None, Default::default())
-                .await
-                .context("start cast")?
-                .response()
-                .context("start response (custom picker declined? check the xdph config/shim/selection file)")?;
-            let stream = streams
-                .streams()
-                .first()
-                .context("portal returned no streams")?
-                .clone();
-            let node_id = stream.pipe_wire_node_id();
-            let fd = proxy
-                .open_pipe_wire_remote(&session, Default::default())
-                .await
-                .context("open_pipe_wire_remote")?;
+            // 🛑 BOUNDED, and that bound is load-bearing. `select_sources`/`start` await a D-Bus
+            // reply a wedged portal never sends, and an await that never returns CANNOT be cancelled
+            // by the `stop` flag — the thread never reaches the park loop that reads it. That is how
+            // one host accumulated NINE live cast threads (28 tokio workers) on 2026-08-14: each
+            // timed-out attempt left one behind holding a half-created portal session on this
+            // process's shared D-Bus connection, and from the first hang onwards EVERY later request
+            // from this process hung too — while a freshly-spawned process talking to the very same
+            // portal completed the identical handshake fine. Shorter than the caller's 20 s wait, so
+            // the failure is reported HERE with a reason instead of surfacing as a bare timeout.
+            let handshake = async {
+                let session = proxy
+                    .create_session(Default::default())
+                    .await
+                    .context("create_session")?;
+                proxy
+                    .select_sources(
+                        &session,
+                        SelectSourcesOptions::default()
+                            .set_cursor_mode(cursor_mode.to_ashpd())
+                            // xdph offers MONITOR; the custom picker selects our output.
+                            .set_sources(BitFlags::from_flag(SourceType::Monitor))
+                            .set_multiple(false)
+                            .set_persist_mode(PersistMode::DoNot),
+                    )
+                    .await
+                    .context("select_sources")?
+                    .response()
+                    .context("select_sources rejected")?;
+                let streams = proxy
+                    .start(&session, None, Default::default())
+                    .await
+                    .context("start cast")?
+                    .response()
+                    .context("start response (custom picker declined? check the xdph config/shim/selection file)")?;
+                let stream = streams
+                    .streams()
+                    .first()
+                    .context("portal returned no streams")?
+                    .clone();
+                let node_id = stream.pipe_wire_node_id();
+                let fd = proxy
+                    .open_pipe_wire_remote(&session, Default::default())
+                    .await
+                    .context("open_pipe_wire_remote")?;
+                Ok::<_, anyhow::Error>((session, fd, node_id))
+            };
+            let (session, fd, node_id) =
+                match tokio::time::timeout(HANDSHAKE_BUDGET, handshake).await {
+                    Ok(v) => v?,
+                    Err(_) => bail!(
+                        "the ScreenCast portal did not complete the handshake within {}s — \
+                         abandoning it instead of parking this thread on it forever (a hung \
+                         request poisons every later one from this process)",
+                        HANDSHAKE_BUDGET.as_secs()
+                    ),
+                };
 
             setup_tx
-                .send(Ok((fd, node_id)))
+                .send(Ok((fd, node_id, cursor_mode)))
                 .map_err(|_| anyhow!("virtual-output opener went away"))?;
 
-            // Park, keeping `proxy` + `session` (the zbus connection) alive until stopped — the cast
-            // is torn down when the connection drops.
+            // Park, keeping `proxy` + `session` alive until stopped. Polled at 20 ms rather than the
+            // 200 ms this used to use, because the teardown now WAITS on what follows — every
+            // millisecond here is a millisecond of stream teardown.
             let _keep_alive = (&proxy, &session);
             while !stop.load(Ordering::Relaxed) {
-                tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_millis(200)).await;
+                tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_millis(20)).await;
             }
+
+            // 🛑 CLOSE THE SESSION, AND CLOSE IT *BEFORE* THE OUTPUT GOES AWAY. Dropping the
+            // connection and trusting the peer to notice is what this used to do, and it is not the
+            // contract: xdph destroys a session only on an explicit
+            // `org.freedesktop.impl.portal.Session.Close` (`Session.cpp:37`). The caller is blocked
+            // in `StopGuard::drop` waiting for the signal below, and only removes the compositor
+            // output afterwards — that ordering is the whole fix; see `StopGuard`.
+            //
+            // Bounded: `close()` goes through xdg-desktop-portal to xdph, and an already-wedged xdph
+            // never answers. Timing out here still signals, so teardown pays the budget once and
+            // moves on rather than hanging on a portal that is already gone.
+            match tokio::time::timeout(CAST_CLOSE_BUDGET, session.close()).await {
+                Ok(Ok(())) => {}
+                Ok(Err(e)) => tracing::warn!(
+                    error = %e,
+                    "closing the ScreenCast session failed — the next cast may find xdph busy"
+                ),
+                Err(_) => tracing::warn!(
+                    budget_s = CAST_CLOSE_BUDGET.as_secs(),
+                    "the ScreenCast portal did not answer Session.Close in time — it is probably \
+                     already wedged"
+                ),
+            }
+            // Release the teardown. Best-effort: the receiver is gone if the caller already gave up.
+            let _ = closed_tx.send(());
             Ok(())
         }
         .await;
@@ -929,9 +1106,10 @@ mod tests {
         }
     }
 
+    /// The backend hands the picker exactly what [`crate::portal_picker`] says — that module owns the
+    /// format and its xdph-parser tests, which run on every platform rather than only this leg.
     #[test]
-    fn picker_line_carries_the_selection_marker() {
-        // xdph requires the `[SELECTION]` prefix; a bare `screen:NAME` is rejected as strange output.
-        assert_eq!(picker_selection_line("PF-1"), "[SELECTION]screen:PF-1\n");
+    fn picker_line_is_the_shared_selection_format() {
+        assert_eq!(picker_selection_line("PF-1"), "[SELECTION]/screen:PF-1\n");
     }
 }
diff --git a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/kwin.rs b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/kwin.rs
index 51f9aaa6..3ea211a8 100644
--- a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/kwin.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/kwin.rs
@@ -1467,6 +1467,9 @@ pub(crate) fn stream_existing_output(
         node_id,
         // KWin publishes on the user's own PipeWire daemon — no portal remote to carry.
         remote_fd: None,
+        // Not an xdg-portal session either: the `zkde_screencast` pointer mode was asked of KWin
+        // directly and KWin honours it, so the request IS the answer.
+        cursor_mode: None,
         keepalive: Box::new(StopOnDrop(stop)),
     })
 }
diff --git a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/mutter.rs b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/mutter.rs
index 171697c8..069c9579 100644
--- a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/mutter.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/mutter.rs
@@ -602,6 +602,9 @@ pub(crate) fn stream_existing_output(
         node_id,
         // Mutter's RecordMonitor node lives on the user's PipeWire daemon (like RecordVirtual).
         remote_fd: None,
+        // Not an xdg-portal session: `cursor-mode` was set directly on `RecordMonitor` and Mutter
+        // honours it, so the request IS the answer and there is nothing to report back.
+        cursor_mode: None,
         keepalive: Box::new(guard),
     })
 }
diff --git a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/portal_cursor.rs b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/portal_cursor.rs
index 65dde2b6..bc9031a8 100644
--- a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/portal_cursor.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/portal_cursor.rs
@@ -33,8 +33,15 @@
 
 /// A ScreenCast cursor mode, valued as the portal's own wire bits — which is what a backend prints
 /// when it rejects one, so `Metadata`'s `4` is literally the number in the field report.
+///
+/// Public because the NEGOTIATED mode is a per-session fact the consumer needs: the host's stream
+/// loop reads it back off the backend ([`VirtualDisplay::last_portal_cursor_mode`]) to know whether
+/// `SPA_META_Cursor` can ever arrive on this output. Re-exported as
+/// [`crate::PortalCursorMode`](crate::PortalCursorMode).
+///
+/// [`VirtualDisplay::last_portal_cursor_mode`]: crate::VirtualDisplay::last_portal_cursor_mode
 #[derive(Clone, Copy, Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
-pub(crate) enum Mode {
+pub enum Mode {
     /// No pointer in the cast at all.
     Hidden = 1,
     /// The compositor paints the pointer into the frames it hands us.
@@ -52,7 +59,7 @@ impl Mode {
     }
 
     /// The spelling used in logs and in `PUNKTFUNK_PORTAL_CURSOR_MODE`.
-    pub(crate) const fn name(self) -> &'static str {
+    pub const fn name(self) -> &'static str {
         match self {
             Mode::Hidden => "hidden",
             Mode::Embedded => "embedded",
@@ -60,6 +67,20 @@ impl Mode {
         }
     }
 
+    /// Can `SPA_META_Cursor` EVER arrive under this mode? Only under [`Metadata`](Mode::Metadata) —
+    /// and this is the whole point of surfacing the negotiated mode.
+    ///
+    /// Under `Embedded` the compositor paints the pointer into the frames and sends no cursor
+    /// metadata **regardless of where the pointer is**, so on such a session the absence of a cursor
+    /// overlay carries NO information: not about the pointer's position, not about whether the
+    /// capture is healthy. Consumers that treat "no overlay" as a symptom (the host's seat-pointer
+    /// park schedule, which reads it as "the pointer has not reached the streamed output" — true on
+    /// Mutter, which suppresses metadata while the pointer is off the recorded view) must ask this
+    /// first. Under `Hidden` there is no pointer at all, so the same holds.
+    pub const fn delivers_metadata(self) -> bool {
+        matches!(self, Mode::Metadata)
+    }
+
     /// What to ask for instead, best first, when this mode is not advertised.
     const fn fallbacks(self) -> [Mode; 2] {
         match self {
@@ -185,7 +206,7 @@ pub(crate) fn want(hw_cursor: bool, backend: &str) -> Mode {
 
 #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
 impl Mode {
-    fn to_ashpd(self) -> ashpd::desktop::screencast::CursorMode {
+    pub(crate) fn to_ashpd(self) -> ashpd::desktop::screencast::CursorMode {
         use ashpd::desktop::screencast::CursorMode;
         match self {
             Mode::Hidden => CursorMode::Hidden,
@@ -198,12 +219,17 @@ impl Mode {
 /// Ask the portal what it supports, run the ladder, and hand back the mode to put in
 /// `SelectSources`. Infallible by construction: a backend we cannot interrogate gets `Embedded`,
 /// the mode that predates the property and that every implementation has always had.
+///
+/// Returns OUR [`Mode`], not ashpd's — the caller converts with [`Mode::to_ashpd`] for the request
+/// and carries the value out of the portal thread, because what was negotiated (as opposed to
+/// asked for) governs how the session's cursor behaves for its whole life. See
+/// [`Mode::delivers_metadata`].
 #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
 pub(crate) async fn negotiate(
     proxy: &ashpd::desktop::screencast::Screencast,
     hw_cursor: bool,
     backend: &str,
-) -> ashpd::desktop::screencast::CursorMode {
+) -> Mode {
     let want = want(hw_cursor, backend);
     let advertised = match proxy.available_cursor_modes().await {
         Ok(avail) => avail.bits(),
@@ -216,7 +242,7 @@ pub(crate) async fn negotiate(
                 error = %e,
                 "ScreenCast: AvailableCursorModes query failed — requesting Embedded cursor"
             );
-            return Mode::Embedded.to_ashpd();
+            return Mode::Embedded;
         }
     };
     let choice = pick(advertised, want);
@@ -238,7 +264,7 @@ pub(crate) async fn negotiate(
              (requesting it anyway would close the session)"
         ),
     }
-    choice.mode.to_ashpd()
+    choice.mode
 }
 
 #[cfg(test)]
@@ -286,6 +312,21 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(c.wanted, Some(Mode::Metadata));
     }
 
+    /// The consumer-facing half of the same incident: xdph negotiates `3` down to `Embedded`, and
+    /// under Embedded no `SPA_META_Cursor` ever arrives — so a host that reads "no cursor overlay"
+    /// as "the pointer has not reached the streamed output" (true on Mutter, which suppresses
+    /// metadata off-view) re-centres the user's pointer forever. Field report 2026-08-14: the seat
+    /// pointer warped to centre once a second for the full park cap on a working Hyprland stream.
+    #[test]
+    fn only_metadata_can_deliver_a_cursor_overlay() {
+        assert!(Mode::Metadata.delivers_metadata());
+        assert!(!Mode::Embedded.delivers_metadata());
+        assert!(!Mode::Hidden.delivers_metadata());
+        // The negotiated mode is what governs, not the wanted one: this is the exact ladder result
+        // on xdph/xdpw, and it says "no overlay is ever coming" even though metadata was requested.
+        assert!(!pick(3, Mode::Metadata).mode.delivers_metadata());
+    }
+
     /// The same portal, a session with no cursor channel: already asking for what exists, so the
     /// fix must not perturb it.
     #[test]
diff --git a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/portal_picker.rs b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/portal_picker.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..464e0409
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/portal_picker.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+//! The line we feed xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland's **custom picker** to select an output headlessly.
+//!
+//! xdph has no headless source-selection API: it runs `screencopy:custom_picker_binary` and parses
+//! one line from its stdout. The Hyprland backend points that at a shim which cats a per-session
+//! file, and this module is the format of what goes in the file — a wire format with no schema, no
+//! validation and no error report, whose only observable failure is a line in the portal's log.
+//!
+//! Declared unconditionally although only `hyprland.rs` calls it, for the reason `portal_config` and
+//! `portal_cursor` give: this is pure string handling whose tests are the only place its behaviour
+//! is checkable without a compositor in front of you, so they run on every platform's CI rather than
+//! only on the leg that compiles `mod hyprland`. That is not hypothetical here — the bug below
+//! shipped, and the one test that existed for it passed the whole time.
+
+/// The picker line selecting monitor `name`: `[SELECTION]<flags>/<selection>`, with **empty flags**.
+///
+/// 🛑 THE `/` IS MANDATORY AND WE USED TO OMIT IT. xdph splits the line on the FIRST `/` into flags
+/// and selection ([xdph 1.3.12] `src/shared/ScreencopyShared.cpp:86-87`):
+///
+/// ```text
+/// const auto FLAGS = SELECTION.substr(0, SELECTION.find_first_of('/'));
+/// const auto SEL   = SELECTION.substr(SELECTION.find_first_of('/') + 1);
+/// ```
+///
+/// With no `/` anywhere, `find_first_of` returns `npos`, so `FLAGS` becomes the WHOLE payload — and
+/// `SEL` becomes the whole payload too, purely because `npos + 1` wraps to `0`. The output name
+/// therefore still parsed correctly, which is exactly why this survived: the only thing it broke was
+/// the flag loop (`:89-94`), which then walked `screen:<name>` one character at a time —
+///
+/// ```text
+/// [screencopy] unknown flag from share-picker: s
+/// [screencopy] unknown flag from share-picker: c
+/// [screencopy] unknown flag from share-picker: e     … one line per character
+/// ```
+///
+/// — and, because `sc*r*een` contains an `r`, which is xdph's "allow restore token" flag, set
+/// `data.allowToken = true`. xdph then answered every `Start` with a `restore_data` +
+/// `persist_mode: 2` we never asked for (we request `PersistMode::DoNot`), which is the
+/// `[screencopy] Sent restore token to …` on every single session in the field log.
+///
+/// The reference picker prints the separator unconditionally
+/// (`hyprland-share-picker/main.cpp:133-136`):
+///
+/// ```text
+/// std::cout << "[SELECTION]";
+/// std::cout << (ALLOWTOKENBUTTON->isChecked() ? "r" : "");
+/// std::cout << "/";
+/// std::cout << "screen:" << outputName.toStdString() << "\n";
+/// ```
+///
+/// so empty flags are spelled as a bare leading `/`, not as nothing at all.
+///
+/// ⚠️ This was NOT the cause of the "only the first stream works" stall — see `hyprland.rs`'s
+/// `StopGuard` for that. The sessions that streamed fine logged the identical flag spam and the
+/// identical restore token, so it never discriminated. It is a real bug on its own terms and nothing
+/// more.
+///
+/// The trailing newline is equally load-bearing: xdph does `data.output.pop_back()` unconditionally
+/// after `SEL.substr(7)` (`:96-100`), so without it the last character of the output name is eaten.
+///
+/// [xdph 1.3.12]: https://github.com/hyprwm/xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland/blob/v1.3.12/src/shared/ScreencopyShared.cpp
+pub(crate) fn selection_line(name: &str) -> String {
+    format!("[SELECTION]/screen:{name}\n")
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// xdph 1.3.12's parser (`ScreencopyShared.cpp:82-100`), transcribed — including the `npos`
+    /// arithmetic, which is the entire subtlety. Returns `(flags, output)`, or `None` where xdph
+    /// would fall through to its interactive picker.
+    ///
+    /// Transcribed rather than asserted on the string, because the bug this catches is invisible in
+    /// the string: the old line yielded the RIGHT OUTPUT NAME while handing xdph the whole selection
+    /// as a FLAG STRING. Only running its parser tells the two apart.
+    fn xdph_parse(picker_stdout: &str) -> Option<(String, String)> {
+        // `if (!RETVAL.contains("[SELECTION]")) return data;` — a default `SSelectionData`, i.e.
+        // TYPE_INVALID, which makes `SelectSources` fail.
+        let marker = picker_stdout.find("[SELECTION]")?;
+        let selection = &picker_stdout[marker + "[SELECTION]".len()..];
+        // `substr(0, npos)` is the whole string, and `substr(npos + 1)` is `substr(0)` — also the
+        // whole string. Unsigned wraparound, not a special case in xdph.
+        let (flags, sel) = match selection.find('/') {
+            Some(i) => (&selection[..i], &selection[i + 1..]),
+            None => (selection, selection),
+        };
+        let name = sel.strip_prefix("screen:")?;
+        // `data.output.pop_back()` — unconditional, hence the mandatory trailing newline.
+        let mut output = name.to_string();
+        output.pop();
+        Some((flags.to_string(), output))
+    }
+
+    /// The three load-bearing parts of the line, pinned as bytes.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_line_carries_marker_empty_flags_separator_and_newline() {
+        assert_eq!(selection_line("PF-1"), "[SELECTION]/screen:PF-1\n");
+    }
+
+    /// What xdph actually makes of our line: the exact output, and NO flags.
+    #[test]
+    fn xdph_reads_our_line_as_an_output_with_no_flags() {
+        for name in ["PF-1", "PF-1620-1", "HDMI-A-1", "DP-2"] {
+            let (flags, output) = xdph_parse(&selection_line(name)).expect("xdph parses our line");
+            assert_eq!(output, name, "xdph must recover the exact output name");
+            assert_eq!(flags, "", "we ask for no flags at all");
+            assert!(
+                !flags.contains('r'),
+                "an `r` in the flags makes xdph hand back restore_data + persist_mode=2 we never \
+                 requested (Screencopy.cpp:261-267)"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// The regression itself, so it cannot come back by "simplifying" the leading `/` away: the line
+    /// we used to send parsed the whole selection as flags, `r` included.
+    #[test]
+    fn without_the_separator_the_whole_selection_becomes_flags() {
+        let (flags, output) = xdph_parse("[SELECTION]screen:PF-1620-1\n").expect("still parses");
+        assert_eq!(
+            output, "PF-1620-1",
+            "the output name did survive — which is precisely why this hid for so long"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            flags, "screen:PF-1620-1\n",
+            "…while the entire selection was handed to the flag loop"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            flags.contains('r'),
+            "the `r` of `sc*r*een` is xdph's allow-restore-token flag"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// Without the trailing newline xdph's unconditional `pop_back()` eats a character of the name —
+    /// a silently wrong output, not an error.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_trailing_newline_is_what_pop_back_consumes() {
+        assert!(selection_line("PF-1620-1").ends_with('\n'));
+        let (_, truncated) = xdph_parse("[SELECTION]/screen:PF-1620-1").expect("parses");
+        assert_eq!(
+            truncated, "PF-1620-",
+            "pop_back() takes the last real character"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// A line with no marker at all is xdph's documented empty-read fallback: it prompts instead. The
+    /// shim relies on this when no session has written the selection file.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_empty_read_is_not_a_selection() {
+        assert!(xdph_parse("").is_none());
+        assert!(xdph_parse("screen:PF-1\n").is_none());
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/portal_rt.rs b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/portal_rt.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..39ecb653
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/portal_rt.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+//! The ONE tokio runtime every portal handshake runs on, for the life of the process.
+//!
+//! 🛑🛑🛑 This exists because of a lifetime bug that cost a full day of misdiagnosis, so the reason
+//! is written down rather than left to be rediscovered.
+//!
+//! ashpd caches its D-Bus connection **process-globally** — `static SESSION: OnceLock<Connection>`
+//! (ashpd 0.13.13, `src/proxy.rs:27`). The first `Screencast::new()` in the process creates that
+//! connection, and zbus spawns the connection's background reader as a task **on whichever tokio
+//! runtime happens to be current at that moment**.
+//!
+//! Each backend used to build its own multi-thread runtime per cast and drop it at teardown. So the
+//! FIRST cast of a host process created the cached connection on a runtime that was then destroyed
+//! when that cast ended — and the `OnceLock` went on handing the same, now-executor-less connection
+//! to every later `Screencast::new()`, which then awaited a reply nothing was left alive to read.
+//!
+//! MEASURED 2026-08-14 (Hyprland 0.55.4 + xdph 1.3.12): the first cast of a host process streamed;
+//! every cast after it hung, in a process whose surviving cast thread sat in `futex_do_wait` inside
+//! runtime shutdown. The discriminator that pins it on us rather than on the compositor stack: a
+//! freshly spawned process completed the identical handshake against the identical xdph, repeatedly,
+//! while the long-lived host could complete none — and xdph itself was idle (28 ms of CPU).
+//!
+//! ⚠ Therefore: **never build a per-cast runtime, and never drop this one.** A `OnceLock` that is
+//! only ever read keeps the connection's reader alive for the process lifetime, which is exactly as
+//! long as the cached connection itself lives. `block_on` takes `&self`, so every cast thread can
+//! park on this one runtime concurrently.
+
+use std::sync::OnceLock;
+use tokio::runtime::Runtime;
+
+/// Build failures are reported to the caller rather than panicking: a host that cannot build a
+/// runtime should fail the cast with a reason, not abort the process.
+static PORTAL_RT: OnceLock<std::io::Result<Runtime>> = OnceLock::new();
+
+/// The shared portal runtime, or the error from trying to build it.
+///
+/// Multi-thread with 2 workers: the zbus background reader must be pumped *across* the
+/// `create_session` → `select_sources` → `start` handshake while a cast thread blocks on it, which a
+/// current-thread runtime cannot do.
+pub(crate) fn portal_runtime() -> Result<&'static Runtime, String> {
+    match PORTAL_RT.get_or_init(|| {
+        tokio::runtime::Builder::new_multi_thread()
+            .worker_threads(2)
+            .thread_name("punktfunk-portal-rt")
+            .enable_all()
+            .build()
+    }) {
+        Ok(rt) => Ok(rt),
+        Err(e) => Err(format!("build the shared portal runtime: {e}")),
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/wlroots.rs b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/wlroots.rs
index 4e6b341f..d241ec4f 100644
--- a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/wlroots.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/linux/wlroots.rs
@@ -11,8 +11,10 @@
 //!    (`~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal-wlr/config`, written once + portal restarted on change)
 //!    sets `chooser_type=simple` with a `chooser_cmd` that cats the chooser file, which we
 //!    write per session (`Monitor: <NAME>` — xdpw 0.8 parses that prefix strictly).
-//! 4. Teardown is RAII: drop stops the portal thread (its zbus connection ends the cast) and
-//!    runs `swaymsg output <NAME> unplug` (headless outputs support unplug since sway 1.8).
+//! 4. Teardown is RAII **and ordered**: drop closes the ScreenCast session and WAITS for the portal
+//!    to confirm it, and only then runs `swaymsg output <NAME> unplug` (headless outputs support
+//!    unplug since sway 1.8). See [`StopGuard`] — and the long root-cause note on `hyprland.rs`'s
+//!    copy, which is where this was measured.
 //!
 //! Requirements: the host runs inside the sway session's environment (`SWAYSOCK` for swaymsg,
 //! and the portal activation env — `WAYLAND_DISPLAY`/`XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=sway` imported into
@@ -67,11 +69,18 @@ pub struct WlrootsDisplay {
     /// never be served out-of-band: it now degrades to `Embedded` and streams, where it used to
     /// cancel the cast and hand the client a black screen.
     hw_cursor: bool,
+    /// What the portal actually gave us on the most recent [`create`](VirtualDisplay::create) — see
+    /// [`VirtualDisplay::last_portal_cursor_mode`], which is how the host learns that a cursor
+    /// overlay is never coming instead of inferring it from an absence.
+    last_cursor_mode: Option<crate::portal_cursor::Mode>,
 }
 
 impl WlrootsDisplay {
     pub fn new() -> Result<Self> {
-        Ok(WlrootsDisplay { hw_cursor: false })
+        Ok(WlrootsDisplay {
+            hw_cursor: false,
+            last_cursor_mode: None,
+        })
     }
 }
 
@@ -100,6 +109,10 @@ impl VirtualDisplay for WlrootsDisplay {
         self.hw_cursor
     }
 
+    fn last_portal_cursor_mode(&self) -> Option<crate::PortalCursorMode> {
+        self.last_cursor_mode
+    }
+
     fn create(&mut self, mode: Mode) -> Result<VirtualOutput> {
         warn_topology_is_extend_only();
         // Snapshot → create → identify, all under CREATE_LOCK. sway names the headless output
@@ -146,16 +159,21 @@ impl VirtualDisplay for WlrootsDisplay {
         // its own thread (it parks to keep the cast alive, like the other backends). Serialized:
         // the chooser is one per-user file, so a concurrent session's write between ours and xdpw's
         // read would silently capture the wrong output (see `SELECTION_LOCK`).
-        let (fd, node_id, stop) = {
+        let (fd, node_id, cursor_mode, stop) = {
             let _sel = SELECTION_LOCK.lock().unwrap_or_else(|e| e.into_inner());
             select_and_cast(&name, self.hw_cursor)?
         };
+        // Latched for `last_portal_cursor_mode`: xdpw refuses metadata by construction, so this is
+        // `embedded` whatever we asked for, and the session's whole cursor behaviour follows from
+        // that fact rather than from `hw_cursor`.
+        self.last_cursor_mode = Some(cursor_mode);
         tracing::info!(
             node_id,
             output = %name,
             w = mode.width,
             h = mode.height,
             hz = mode.refresh_hz,
+            cursor = cursor_mode.name(),
             "sway headless output ready"
         );
         Ok(VirtualOutput {
@@ -173,24 +191,75 @@ impl VirtualDisplay for WlrootsDisplay {
             reused_gen: None,
             pool_gen: None,
             expect_exact_dims: false,
+            // Same EXTEND problem as Hyprland: on a sway session with real heads this `HEADLESS-N`
+            // sits beside them, and absolute input must be aimed at it by name. `swaymsg`'s output
+            // name is the head's `wl_output.name`, which is what the injector matches.
+            output_name: Some(name),
         })
     }
 }
 
-/// Drop order matters: stop the portal thread first (zbus connection drop ends the cast),
-/// then unplug the output (fields drop in declaration order).
+/// Drop order matters, and it is the whole fix: [`StopGuard`] **blocks until the ScreenCast session
+/// is actually closed**, and only then does [`OutputGuard`] unplug the output (fields drop in
+/// declaration order). This used to unplug first — see [`StopGuard`].
 struct Keepalive {
     _stop: StopGuard,
     _output: OutputGuard,
 }
 
-/// Dropping this ends the portal keepalive thread, closing its zbus connection — the portal
-/// then tears the screencast session down.
-struct StopGuard(Arc<AtomicBool>);
+/// How long teardown waits for the portal to confirm the ScreenCast session is closed before giving
+/// up and unplugging the output anyway. See `hyprland.rs`'s twin.
+const CAST_CLOSE_BUDGET: Duration = Duration::from_secs(3);
+
+/// Ceiling on the whole ScreenCast handshake, under the caller's 20 s wait — see the note at the
+/// handshake, and the longer one on `hyprland.rs`'s copy.
+const HANDSHAKE_BUDGET: Duration = Duration::from_secs(15);
+
+/// Ends the cast: signals the portal thread, then **waits for it to have closed the ScreenCast
+/// session**, so the caller may safely unplug the output afterwards.
+///
+/// 🛑 THE WAIT IS THE POINT. Root-caused on the Hyprland leg (see the long note on `hyprland.rs`'s
+/// `StopGuard`, which carries the measurements); the defect is the same here, and this is NOT an
+/// assumption of symmetry — xdpw was read to confirm it, against `emersion/xdg-desktop-portal-wlr`:
+///
+/// * **Only `Close` tears a session down.** `src/core/session.c` gives the session object exactly
+///   one method — `SD_BUS_METHOD("Close", …, method_close, …)` — and nothing else calls
+///   `xdpw_session_destroy` for a live cast. Like xdph, xdpw has no peer-vanished watcher of its own
+///   and depends entirely on xdg-desktop-portal's `peer_died_cb` calling `Close` for us, which
+///   happens only after our bus name goes away, asynchronously, and therefore after the old
+///   `StopGuard` had already let `OutputGuard` unplug the output.
+/// * **The same unbounded busy-wait is waiting for it.** `src/screencast/screencast.c:599-605`:
+///   `while (cast->node_id == SPA_ID_INVALID) { pw_loop_iterate(state->pw_loop, 0); }` — timeout 0,
+///   i.e. non-blocking, i.e. a hot spin on the portal's only loop with no escape if the stream never
+///   gets a node id. xdph's copy (`Screencopy.cpp:307-313`) is this code; that is the one measured
+///   pinning a core solid until it was restarted.
+///
+/// So sway's `output unplug` yanks a captured output out from under a live session exactly the way
+/// Hyprland's `output remove` did. Whether xdpw wedges *identically* has not been observed on glass
+/// — no sway box was available — but the two preconditions are present in its source, and closing
+/// the session before unplugging is the correct order regardless of what the backend does with it.
+struct StopGuard {
+    stop: Arc<AtomicBool>,
+    /// Signalled by the portal thread once it has closed the ScreenCast session. `None` when no cast
+    /// was ever established — nothing to close, and nothing worth spending the budget on.
+    closed: Option<std::sync::mpsc::Receiver<()>>,
+}
 
 impl Drop for StopGuard {
     fn drop(&mut self) {
-        self.0.store(true, Ordering::Relaxed);
+        self.stop.store(true, Ordering::Relaxed);
+        let Some(closed) = self.closed.take() else {
+            return;
+        };
+        match closed.recv_timeout(CAST_CLOSE_BUDGET) {
+            // Closed, or the thread is gone without confirming — either way nothing holds the cast.
+            Ok(()) | Err(std::sync::mpsc::RecvTimeoutError::Disconnected) => {}
+            Err(std::sync::mpsc::RecvTimeoutError::Timeout) => tracing::warn!(
+                budget_s = CAST_CLOSE_BUDGET.as_secs(),
+                "the ScreenCast session did not close in time — unplugging the output underneath \
+                 it; the next cast may find the portal busy"
+            ),
+        }
     }
 }
 
@@ -346,7 +415,10 @@ impl Drop for ChooserFile {
 
 /// Point xdpw's chooser at `output` and run the ScreenCast handshake, returning the portal fd +
 /// node id and the guard that stops the cast. The caller must hold [`SELECTION_LOCK`].
-fn select_and_cast(output: &str, hw_cursor: bool) -> Result<(OwnedFd, u32, StopGuard)> {
+fn select_and_cast(
+    output: &str,
+    hw_cursor: bool,
+) -> Result<(OwnedFd, u32, crate::portal_cursor::Mode, StopGuard)> {
     ensure_xdpw_config()?;
     let chooser = chooser_file();
     std::fs::write(&chooser, format!("Monitor: {output}\n"))
@@ -354,12 +426,21 @@ fn select_and_cast(output: &str, hw_cursor: bool) -> Result<(OwnedFd, u32, StopG
     // Owned from the write on: every arm below (and every `?`) leaves the handshake, which is the
     // only thing that reads it.
     let _chooser = ChooserFile(chooser);
-    let (setup_tx, setup_rx) = std::sync::mpsc::channel::<Result<(OwnedFd, u32), String>>();
+    // The NEGOTIATED cursor mode rides back with the fd and node id: it is decided inside the
+    // portal thread (only there is the proxy to ask), and nothing downstream can re-derive it —
+    // `hw_cursor` is the request, not the answer.
+    let (setup_tx, setup_rx) =
+        std::sync::mpsc::channel::<Result<(OwnedFd, u32, crate::portal_cursor::Mode), String>>();
+    // The teardown handshake: the thread signals this once it has closed the ScreenCast session, and
+    // `StopGuard::drop` waits on it before the output is unplugged (see `StopGuard`). Kept a
+    // SEPARATE channel from the setup one above — it fires at the other end of the cast's life,
+    // long after `setup_rx` has been consumed.
+    let (closed_tx, closed_rx) = std::sync::mpsc::channel::<()>();
     let stop = Arc::new(AtomicBool::new(false));
     let stop_thread = stop.clone();
     thread::Builder::new()
         .name("punktfunk-wlr-cast".into())
-        .spawn(move || portal_thread(setup_tx, stop_thread, hw_cursor))
+        .spawn(move || portal_thread(setup_tx, closed_tx, stop_thread, hw_cursor))
         .context("spawn wlroots portal thread")?;
     // Built BEFORE the wait so EVERY error arm below sets the flag on its way out — as Mutter's
     // `create` does. Returning the bare `Arc` and letting the CALLER wrap it left the two failure
@@ -368,9 +449,13 @@ fn select_and_cast(output: &str, hw_cursor: bool) -> Result<(OwnedFd, u32, StopG
     // parks forever on `while !stop`, holding a live ScreenCast session, its zbus connection, an
     // `OwnedFd` and a 2-worker tokio runtime — one more set per slow-portal connect, for the host's
     // lifetime, against an output that no longer exists.
-    let guard = StopGuard(stop);
+    let mut guard = StopGuard { stop, closed: None };
     match setup_rx.recv_timeout(Duration::from_secs(20)) {
-        Ok(Ok((fd, node_id))) => Ok((fd, node_id, guard)),
+        Ok(Ok((fd, node_id, cursor_mode))) => {
+            // A cast exists now, so teardown has something to close and must wait for it.
+            guard.closed = Some(closed_rx);
+            Ok((fd, node_id, cursor_mode, guard))
+        }
         Ok(Err(e)) => bail!("ScreenCast portal on {output} failed: {e}"),
         Err(_) => bail!("timed out waiting for the ScreenCast portal on {output}"),
     }
@@ -387,10 +472,11 @@ pub(crate) fn stream_existing_output(
     hw_cursor: bool,
 ) -> Result<crate::mirror::MirrorStream> {
     let _sel = SELECTION_LOCK.lock().unwrap_or_else(|e| e.into_inner());
-    let (fd, node_id, stop) = select_and_cast(connector, hw_cursor)?;
+    let (fd, node_id, cursor_mode, stop) = select_and_cast(connector, hw_cursor)?;
     Ok(crate::mirror::MirrorStream {
         node_id,
         remote_fd: Some(fd),
+        cursor_mode: Some(cursor_mode),
         keepalive: Box::new(stop),
     })
 }
@@ -513,7 +599,8 @@ fn ensure_xdpw_config() -> Result<()> {
 /// reports the fd + node id and parks until stopped — the zbus connection is the cast's
 /// lifetime). xdpw answers the source selection via the chooser, no dialog.
 fn portal_thread(
-    setup_tx: Sender<Result<(OwnedFd, u32), String>>,
+    setup_tx: Sender<Result<(OwnedFd, u32, crate::portal_cursor::Mode), String>>,
+    closed_tx: Sender<()>,
     stop: Arc<AtomicBool>,
     hw_cursor: bool,
 ) {
@@ -523,14 +610,13 @@ fn portal_thread(
 
     // Multi-thread runtime: the zbus background reader must be pumped across the
     // create_session → select_sources → start handshake (see capture/linux.rs).
-    let rt = match tokio::runtime::Builder::new_multi_thread()
-        .worker_threads(2)
-        .enable_all()
-        .build()
-    {
+    // The SHARED, never-dropped runtime — see [`crate::portal_rt`] and the long note on
+    // `hyprland.rs`'s copy: a per-cast runtime kills ashpd's process-global cached connection when
+    // the cast ends, and every later handshake in the process then hangs.
+    let rt = match crate::portal_rt::portal_runtime() {
         Ok(rt) => rt,
         Err(e) => {
-            let _ = setup_tx.send(Err(format!("build tokio runtime: {e}")));
+            let _ = setup_tx.send(Err(e));
             return;
         }
     };
@@ -538,9 +624,20 @@ fn portal_thread(
 
     rt.block_on(async move {
         let result: Result<()> = async {
-            let proxy = Screencast::new().await.context(
-                "connect ScreenCast portal (is xdg-desktop-portal running with the wlr backend?)",
-            )?;
+            // Bounded, like `hyprland.rs`'s copy: an orphaned cached connection hangs HERE, before
+            // any handshake call, so a bound that starts later never fires.
+            let connect = async {
+                Screencast::new().await.context(
+                    "connect ScreenCast portal (is xdg-desktop-portal running with the wlr backend?)",
+                )
+            };
+            let proxy = match tokio::time::timeout(HANDSHAKE_BUDGET, connect).await {
+                Ok(v) => v?,
+                Err(_) => bail!(
+                    "connecting to the ScreenCast portal did not return within {}s",
+                    HANDSHAKE_BUDGET.as_secs()
+                ),
+            };
             // NEGOTIATED against what xdpw advertises, never asserted from `hw_cursor` alone — see
             // the xdph copy in `hyprland.rs` for the incident. xdpw is the sharper case: its
             // screencast.c refuses the mode outright —
@@ -549,51 +646,91 @@ fn portal_thread(
             // — so EVERY cursor-forward session on this backend asked for a mode that cancelled the
             // cast. Different wording from xdph's "unavailable cursor mode 4", same dead session.
             let cursor_mode = crate::portal_cursor::negotiate(&proxy, hw_cursor, "xdpw").await;
-            let session = proxy
-                .create_session(Default::default())
-                .await
-                .context("create_session")?;
-            proxy
-                .select_sources(
-                    &session,
-                    SelectSourcesOptions::default()
-                        .set_cursor_mode(cursor_mode)
-                        // xdpw offers MONITOR only; the chooser picks our output.
-                        .set_sources(BitFlags::from_flag(SourceType::Monitor))
-                        .set_multiple(false)
-                        .set_persist_mode(PersistMode::DoNot),
-                )
-                .await
-                .context("select_sources")?
-                .response()
-                .context("select_sources rejected")?;
-            let streams = proxy
-                .start(&session, None, Default::default())
-                .await
-                .context("start cast")?
-                .response()
-                .context("start response (chooser declined? check the xdpw config/chooser file)")?;
-            let stream = streams
-                .streams()
-                .first()
-                .context("portal returned no streams")?
-                .clone();
-            let node_id = stream.pipe_wire_node_id();
-            let fd = proxy
-                .open_pipe_wire_remote(&session, Default::default())
-                .await
-                .context("open_pipe_wire_remote")?;
+            // Bounded for the same reason as `hyprland.rs`'s copy (the long note lives there): an
+            // await on a wedged portal never returns, the `stop` flag is only read by the park loop
+            // further down, so the thread leaks — and a leaked half-handshake poisons every later
+            // portal request from this process. xdpw has the identical unbounded node-id spin as
+            // xdph (`screencast.c`), so it can wedge the same way.
+            let handshake = async {
+                let session = proxy
+                    .create_session(Default::default())
+                    .await
+                    .context("create_session")?;
+                proxy
+                    .select_sources(
+                        &session,
+                        SelectSourcesOptions::default()
+                            .set_cursor_mode(cursor_mode.to_ashpd())
+                            // xdpw offers MONITOR only; the chooser picks our output.
+                            .set_sources(BitFlags::from_flag(SourceType::Monitor))
+                            .set_multiple(false)
+                            .set_persist_mode(PersistMode::DoNot),
+                    )
+                    .await
+                    .context("select_sources")?
+                    .response()
+                    .context("select_sources rejected")?;
+                let streams = proxy
+                    .start(&session, None, Default::default())
+                    .await
+                    .context("start cast")?
+                    .response()
+                    .context(
+                        "start response (chooser declined? check the xdpw config/chooser file)",
+                    )?;
+                let stream = streams
+                    .streams()
+                    .first()
+                    .context("portal returned no streams")?
+                    .clone();
+                let node_id = stream.pipe_wire_node_id();
+                let fd = proxy
+                    .open_pipe_wire_remote(&session, Default::default())
+                    .await
+                    .context("open_pipe_wire_remote")?;
+                Ok::<_, anyhow::Error>((session, fd, node_id))
+            };
+            let (session, fd, node_id) =
+                match tokio::time::timeout(HANDSHAKE_BUDGET, handshake).await {
+                    Ok(v) => v?,
+                    Err(_) => bail!(
+                        "the ScreenCast portal did not complete the handshake within {}s — \
+                         abandoning it instead of parking this thread on it forever (a hung \
+                         request poisons every later one from this process)",
+                        HANDSHAKE_BUDGET.as_secs()
+                    ),
+                };
 
             setup_tx
-                .send(Ok((fd, node_id)))
+                .send(Ok((fd, node_id, cursor_mode)))
                 .map_err(|_| anyhow!("virtual-output opener went away"))?;
 
-            // Park, keeping `proxy` + `session` (the zbus connection) alive until stopped —
-            // the cast is torn down when the connection drops.
+            // Park, keeping `proxy` + `session` alive until stopped. Polled at 20 ms rather than the
+            // 200 ms this used to use, because teardown now WAITS on what follows.
             let _keep_alive = (&proxy, &session);
             while !stop.load(Ordering::Relaxed) {
-                tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_millis(200)).await;
+                tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_millis(20)).await;
             }
+
+            // 🛑 CLOSE THE SESSION, AND CLOSE IT *BEFORE* THE OUTPUT IS UNPLUGGED. `Session.Close` is
+            // the only thing that ends an xdpw session (`src/core/session.c`); dropping the
+            // connection and trusting the peer to notice is not the contract. The caller is blocked
+            // in `StopGuard::drop` on the signal below — see `StopGuard`. Bounded, so an
+            // already-wedged portal cannot hang teardown with it.
+            match tokio::time::timeout(CAST_CLOSE_BUDGET, session.close()).await {
+                Ok(Ok(())) => {}
+                Ok(Err(e)) => tracing::warn!(
+                    error = %e,
+                    "closing the ScreenCast session failed — the next cast may find the portal busy"
+                ),
+                Err(_) => tracing::warn!(
+                    budget_s = CAST_CLOSE_BUDGET.as_secs(),
+                    "the ScreenCast portal did not answer Session.Close in time — it is probably \
+                     already wedged"
+                ),
+            }
+            // Release the teardown. Best-effort: the receiver is gone if the caller already gave up.
+            let _ = closed_tx.send(());
             Ok(())
         }
         .await;
diff --git a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/mirror.rs b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/mirror.rs
index 0e524f5f..f0a32034 100644
--- a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/mirror.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/mirror.rs
@@ -31,6 +31,12 @@ use anyhow::{bail, Context, Result};
 pub(crate) struct MirrorStream {
     pub node_id: u32,
     pub remote_fd: Option<std::os::fd::OwnedFd>,
+    /// The cursor mode the xdg ScreenCast portal NEGOTIATED for this recording, for the two
+    /// portal-based backends; `None` for the compositor-protocol ones (KWin/Mutter/gamescope),
+    /// which get what they ask for. Reported on to the host as
+    /// [`VirtualDisplay::last_portal_cursor_mode`] — same split as `remote_fd` above, and for the
+    /// same reason: only the portal path has an answer that can differ from the request.
+    pub cursor_mode: Option<crate::portal_cursor::Mode>,
     /// Dropping this ends the recording. It never owns the monitor — we did not create it.
     pub keepalive: Box<dyn Send>,
 }
@@ -40,6 +46,9 @@ pub struct MirrorDisplay {
     compositor: Compositor,
     connector: String,
     hw_cursor: bool,
+    /// What the portal gave the most recent [`create`](VirtualDisplay::create), when this mirror
+    /// delegated to a portal-based backend. See [`VirtualDisplay::last_portal_cursor_mode`].
+    last_cursor_mode: Option<crate::portal_cursor::Mode>,
 }
 
 impl MirrorDisplay {
@@ -48,6 +57,7 @@ impl MirrorDisplay {
             compositor,
             connector,
             hw_cursor: false,
+            last_cursor_mode: None,
         })
     }
 }
@@ -65,6 +75,10 @@ impl VirtualDisplay for MirrorDisplay {
         self.hw_cursor
     }
 
+    fn last_portal_cursor_mode(&self) -> Option<crate::PortalCursorMode> {
+        self.last_cursor_mode
+    }
+
     fn poolable_now(&self) -> bool {
         // Never. `create` below always reports `DisplayOwnership::External` — we did not make this
         // head and must not keep it — so the registry never pools a mirror, and the trait's `true`
@@ -125,10 +139,15 @@ impl VirtualDisplay for MirrorDisplay {
             ),
         };
 
+        // Latched for `last_portal_cursor_mode` — the delegate's verdict is this mirror's verdict.
+        self.last_cursor_mode = stream.cursor_mode;
+
         // NOTE: aiming absolute input at this head is the HOST's job, not ours — this crate must
         // not depend on pf-inject (see the crate doc: "never on capture/inject"). The host sets the
         // anchor from the same pin at startup; §7.2 of the design doc explains why it is host-level
-        // rather than set here per session.
+        // rather than set here per session. We only CARRY the head's name out (`output_name`
+        // below), which is what the wlr injector needs to bind its virtual pointer to this head —
+        // the libei anchor above cannot serve it, because that backend selects by region.
         tracing::info!(
             connector = %target.connector,
             mode = %target.mode_label(),
@@ -145,6 +164,9 @@ impl VirtualDisplay for MirrorDisplay {
         out.remote_fd = stream.remote_fd;
         // Never pooled, never lingered, never made primary/exclusive: we don't own this head.
         out.ownership = DisplayOwnership::External;
+        // The head absolute input maps into is the one we mirror — its connector IS its
+        // `wl_output.name` on the wlroots/Hyprland backends, where the injector matches on it.
+        out.output_name = Some(target.connector.clone());
         Ok(out)
     }
 }
diff --git a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/registry.rs b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/registry.rs
index 7f3d32f9..4b5472af 100644
--- a/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/registry.rs
+++ b/crates/pf-vdisplay/src/vdisplay/registry.rs
@@ -302,6 +302,14 @@ mod pool {
         pub(super) keepalive: Box<dyn Send>,
         pub(super) node_id: u32,
         pub(super) preferred_mode: Option<(u32, u32, u32)>,
+        /// The compositor's name for this output ([`VirtualOutput::output_name`]) — the identity the
+        /// host aims absolute input with. Kept across a keep-alive reuse for the same reason
+        /// `preferred_mode` is: the reused display IS the same head, so the output the caller is
+        /// handed must answer with the same name a fresh create would. No poolable backend sets it
+        /// today — the ones that do are all passed through unpooled (Hyprland/sway carry a portal
+        /// fd, a mirror is `External`) — so this only exists so that stops being a silent trap the
+        /// day one does.
+        pub(super) output_name: Option<String>,
         pub(super) mode: Mode,
         pub(super) backend: &'static str,
         /// The identity slot the backend resolved for this display (KWin per-slot naming; `None` for
@@ -601,6 +609,7 @@ mod pool {
                 keepalive: Box::new(()),
                 node_id: 0,
                 preferred_mode: None,
+                output_name: None,
                 mode: Mode {
                     width: 1920,
                     height: 1080,
@@ -1083,6 +1092,7 @@ mod linux {
     fn output_for(
         node_id: u32,
         preferred_mode: Option<(u32, u32, u32)>,
+        output_name: Option<String>,
         generation: u64,
         quit: Arc<AtomicBool>,
         reused: bool,
@@ -1093,6 +1103,8 @@ mod linux {
             preferred_mode,
             Box::new(DisplayLease { generation, quit }),
         );
+        // The head is the same one the entry was created for, so it answers with the same name.
+        out.output_name = output_name;
         // A2: tell the pipeline builder this was a REUSED kept display, so a first-frame failure can
         // `mark_failed(generation)` (tear the corpse down) rather than re-wedge the retry loop on the same node.
         out.reused_gen = reused.then_some(generation);
@@ -1176,6 +1188,7 @@ mod linux {
                             let generation = r.generation.fetch_add(1, Ordering::Relaxed);
                             es[idx].generation = generation;
                             let preferred_mode = es[idx].preferred_mode;
+                            let output_name = es[idx].output_name.clone();
                             tracing::info!(
                                 backend,
                                 node_id,
@@ -1184,6 +1197,7 @@ mod linux {
                             ReuseOutcome::Reused(output_for(
                                 node_id,
                                 preferred_mode,
+                                output_name,
                                 generation,
                                 quit.clone(),
                                 true,
@@ -1279,6 +1293,7 @@ mod linux {
 
         let node_id = real.node_id;
         let preferred_mode = real.preferred_mode;
+        let output_name = real.output_name.clone();
         // Fresh creates only: the backend may have birthed the output at a sacrificial mode whose
         // stream must renegotiate before frames count (KWin >60 Hz — see backend.rs). A REUSED kept
         // display already renegotiated in its prior session (the producer's rebuilt offer persists
@@ -1295,6 +1310,7 @@ mod linux {
             keepalive: real.keepalive,
             node_id,
             preferred_mode,
+            output_name: output_name.clone(),
             mode,
             backend,
             identity_slot,
@@ -1349,7 +1365,14 @@ mod linux {
         if (position.x, position.y) != (0, 0) {
             vd.apply_position(position.x, position.y);
         }
-        let mut out = output_for(node_id, preferred_mode, generation, quit, false);
+        let mut out = output_for(
+            node_id,
+            preferred_mode,
+            output_name,
+            generation,
+            quit,
+            false,
+        );
         out.expect_exact_dims = expect_exact_dims;
         Ok(out)
     }
diff --git a/crates/punktfunk-host/src/capture.rs b/crates/punktfunk-host/src/capture.rs
index 045b5147..68914df3 100644
--- a/crates/punktfunk-host/src/capture.rs
+++ b/crates/punktfunk-host/src/capture.rs
@@ -135,6 +135,17 @@ pub fn capture_virtual_output(
     // handshake already resolved that through [`capturer_supports_hdr_for`] before the Welcome,
     // so passing it through here is the whole of this arm's HDR logic. It used to be dropped on
     // the floor, which is what kept the Linux native plane at 8 bits.
+    //
+    // Aim the wlr injector's absolute mapping (abs-mouse, and `park_pointer`'s opening warp) at
+    // THIS head — the Linux counterpart of the `set_stream_target` call in the Windows arm below.
+    // The wlroots virtual pointer maps `motion_absolute` onto the `wl_output` it was created with,
+    // and on the EXTEND backends (Hyprland, sway) the streamed head sits BESIDE the operator's, so
+    // without this every absolute sample landed on their screen and the cursor never entered the
+    // stream at all. `None` (KWin/Mutter/gamescope, none of which inject through that backend)
+    // CLEARS the slot rather than leaving a stale name: one compositor serves the whole host, so a
+    // `None` here means no session on this host wants a named binding — e.g. a Game-Mode switch
+    // from a Hyprland desktop to gamescope, after which the old `PF-…` name means nothing.
+    crate::inject::set_stream_output(vout.output_name.clone());
     pf_capture::open_virtual_output(
         vout.remote_fd,
         vout.node_id,
diff --git a/crates/punktfunk-host/src/native/stream.rs b/crates/punktfunk-host/src/native/stream.rs
index 0ff3df79..aa95b462 100644
--- a/crates/punktfunk-host/src/native/stream.rs
+++ b/crates/punktfunk-host/src/native/stream.rs
@@ -1347,8 +1347,19 @@ pub(super) struct SessionContext {
 /// its embedded mode paints nothing either) the stream has NO cursor at all, in both the
 /// embedded and the cursor-channel composite models. Parking once per (re)built display — and
 /// again on the mid-stream flip to the capture model, which heals a pointer that drifted off the
-/// output's edge — pins the pointer to the surface the client actually sees. A desktop-model
-/// client overrides it with its first absolute move, so the jump is invisible in practice.
+/// output's edge — pins the pointer to the surface the client actually sees.
+///
+/// **Retried only for a relative-only client.** The schedule used to repeat this for every session,
+/// on the theory that "a desktop-model client overrides it with its first absolute move, so the
+/// jump is invisible in practice". One park at bring-up is; a *repeat* is not. A desktop-model
+/// client sends absolute positions — the very same [`MouseMoveAbs`] this synthesizes, only aimed
+/// where the user is actually pointing — so once those are flowing the park has nothing left to add
+/// and every later attempt is a visible yank to centre that fights them (field report 2026-08-14).
+/// The schedule below therefore keeps the single bring-up park for such a client (so its first
+/// click cannot land on the monitor the seat pointer was left on) and drops the retry; the
+/// capture-model flip re-arms the full schedule.
+///
+/// [`MouseMoveAbs`]: punktfunk_core::input::InputKind::MouseMoveAbs
 #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
 fn park_pointer(input_tx: &std::sync::mpsc::SyncSender<super::input::ClientInput>, w: u32, h: u32) {
     let ev = punktfunk_core::input::InputEvent {
@@ -1375,6 +1386,65 @@ fn park_pointer(input_tx: &std::sync::mpsc::SyncSender<super::input::ClientInput
     }
 }
 
+/// Settle this session's cursor plan against the cursor mode the display's portal ACTUALLY
+/// negotiated — THE rule, shared by bring-up and the capture-loss rebuild so the two cannot drift.
+///
+/// Returns whether "the capture has no cursor overlay" still MEANS anything on this display, and
+/// clears `metadata_composite` when the negotiated mode makes it a fiction. Both answers come from
+/// the same fact, which is why they are settled together.
+///
+/// The fact: [`set_hw_cursor`] is a *request*. On the whole wlr family (xdph, xdpw) the portal
+/// advertises `Hidden|Embedded` — measured, `AvailableCursorModes = 3`, on current packages — so a
+/// session that asked for metadata is served **Embedded**: the compositor paints the pointer into
+/// the frames and sends no `SPA_META_Cursor`, ever, wherever the pointer is. That breaks two
+/// downstream beliefs at once:
+///
+/// * the host planned a metadata composite it can never feed (the stream logs "host-composite
+///   active but the capture has no live cursor overlay yet" forever, and shows no host pointer —
+///   the compositor's own burnt-in one is the real cursor there), and
+/// * the seat-pointer park schedule reads "no overlay" as "the pointer has not reached the streamed
+///   output". That inference is sound on **Mutter**, which suppresses cursor metadata while the
+///   pointer is off the recorded view (`should_cursor_metadata_be_set`) — it is the signal
+///   [`park_pointer`] was built on — and it is pure noise under Embedded, where the host then
+///   re-centres the user's pointer once a second for the whole cap, fighting every mouse movement
+///   (field report 2026-08-14, Hyprland).
+///
+/// A backend that reports no negotiated mode (`None` — KWin, Mutter, gamescope, Windows) is served
+/// the cursor mode it asked for through its own protocol, so nothing here applies and both answers
+/// stay exactly as they were.
+///
+/// What this does NOT undo is [`SessionPlan::cursor_blend`]: the blend capability is resolved
+/// before any display exists, and the negotiation only happens inside `create`, so a session that
+/// lands on Embedded still captures RGB for a blend stage it will never be handed an overlay for.
+/// That costs a colour conversion, not correctness — and pre-judging it would mean re-asserting
+/// what the wlr portals advertise, which is exactly the hardcode `pf_vdisplay::portal_cursor`
+/// exists to have deleted.
+///
+/// [`set_hw_cursor`]: pf_vdisplay::VirtualDisplay::set_hw_cursor
+/// [`SessionPlan::cursor_blend`]: crate::session_plan::SessionPlan::cursor_blend
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+fn settle_portal_cursor(
+    vd: &dyn crate::vdisplay::VirtualDisplay,
+    metadata_composite: &mut bool,
+) -> bool {
+    let Some(negotiated) = vd.last_portal_cursor_mode() else {
+        return true;
+    };
+    if negotiated.delivers_metadata() {
+        return true;
+    }
+    if *metadata_composite {
+        *metadata_composite = false;
+        tracing::info!(
+            negotiated = negotiated.name(),
+            "the portal negotiated a cursor mode that carries no cursor metadata — dropping the \
+             host composite; the pointer in this stream is the compositor's own, burnt into the \
+             frames"
+        );
+    }
+    false
+}
+
 pub(super) fn virtual_stream(ctx: SessionContext, prepared: Option<PreparedDisplay>) -> Result<()> {
     // This thread runs the capture+encode loop (single-process — the only topology: Linux portal /
     // synthetic, Windows in-process IDD-push). Elevate it so a CPU-heavy game can't deschedule our GPU
@@ -1705,6 +1775,11 @@ pub(super) fn virtual_stream(ctx: SessionContext, prepared: Option<PreparedDispl
         mut cur_display_gen,
         built_bitrate,
     ) = pipe;
+    // The display exists now, so the portal has answered: settle the cursor plan against what it
+    // actually negotiated rather than what this session asked for (see `settle_portal_cursor`).
+    // `mut`: every capture-loss rebuild re-runs `create`, hence re-negotiates.
+    #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+    let mut no_overlay_means_off_output = settle_portal_cursor(&*vd, &mut metadata_composite);
     // The encoder may have opened at a re-resolved rate (a mirrored head delivering a size this
     // session never negotiated). Adopt it before anything downstream reads `bitrate_kbps`.
     adopt_built_bitrate(
@@ -2064,12 +2139,15 @@ pub(super) fn virtual_stream(ctx: SessionContext, prepared: Option<PreparedDispl
     // compositing), NOT an encoder problem. Logged every 2 s when `PUNKTFUNK_PERF`.
     let (mut diag_new, mut diag_repeat) = (0u64, 0u64);
     // Seat-pointer park schedule (see `park_pointer`): per (re)built display, and re-armed by
-    // the capture-model flip. More than one attempt because the first park of a session can
-    // land on a still-cold EIS connection (devices not yet resumed → the injector DROPS it) —
-    // observed on-glass; the retry a second later goes through. While the session is in the
+    // the capture-model flip. More than one attempt for a RELATIVE-ONLY session, because the
+    // first park can land on a still-cold EIS connection (devices not yet resumed → the injector
+    // DROPS it) — observed on-glass; the retry a second later goes through. A client that steers
+    // the pointer itself gets the bring-up park only: its own absolute moves are the retry, and
+    // a synthetic one on top of them is just a yank to centre. While the session is in the
     // capture model with no live cursor overlay, keep trying up to the cap: no overlay there
     // means the pointer still isn't on the streamed output, and a relative-only client can
-    // never fix that itself.
+    // never fix that itself — but only where an absent overlay is evidence of anything at all
+    // (`no_overlay_means_off_output`, settled per display by `settle_portal_cursor`).
     #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
     let mut parked_display = None;
     #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
@@ -3033,6 +3111,17 @@ pub(super) fn virtual_stream(ctx: SessionContext, prepared: Option<PreparedDispl
                 interval = new_interval;
                 cur_node_id = new_node_id;
                 cur_display_gen = new_display_gen;
+                // The rebuild re-ran `create`, so the portal answered again — possibly a different
+                // backend's portal (the retarget above), possibly with a different verdict. Settle
+                // the cursor plan against THIS display, exactly as bring-up did: the retarget arm
+                // recomputes `metadata_composite` from the compositor alone (it has to — it runs
+                // BEFORE the rebuild, to set `hw_cursor`), so without this a switch onto a wlr
+                // backend would re-arm both defects mid-session.
+                #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+                {
+                    no_overlay_means_off_output =
+                        settle_portal_cursor(&*vd, &mut metadata_composite);
+                }
                 // A capture-loss rebuild can land on a different source than it lost (this loop
                 // re-detects the session every cycle, precisely so it can follow a switch), so the
                 // delivered size — and with it an Automatic rate — may have changed under us.
@@ -3136,10 +3225,15 @@ pub(super) fn virtual_stream(ctx: SessionContext, prepared: Option<PreparedDispl
                         None => {
                             if !composite_saw_none {
                                 composite_saw_none = true;
+                                // NOT necessarily "cursorless", which this line used to assert:
+                                // where the portal negotiated Embedded (the whole wlr family) no
+                                // `SPA_META_Cursor` is ever sent and the compositor's own pointer
+                                // is already in the pixels — the host blend has nothing to add.
+                                // `settle_portal_cursor` logs which of the two this session is.
                                 tracing::info!(
                                     "host-composite active but the capture has no live cursor \
-                                     overlay yet (no SPA_META_Cursor bitmap) — the stream is \
-                                     cursorless until one arrives"
+                                     overlay (no SPA_META_Cursor bitmap) — nothing for the encoder \
+                                     blend to draw; the pointer, if any, is the compositor's own"
                                 );
                             }
                         }
@@ -3189,14 +3283,32 @@ pub(super) fn virtual_stream(ctx: SessionContext, prepared: Option<PreparedDispl
             frame.cursor = None;
         }
         // The seat-pointer park schedule (state + rationale at the declarations above; armed by
-        // the first frame of every (re)built display and by the capture-model flip). The first
-        // two attempts run unconditionally — attempt 1 can be swallowed by a cold EIS
-        // connection. Past those, only a host-composite session that STILL has no live overlay
-        // keeps trying — a channel session in the capture model, or a no-channel
-        // metadata-composite session (both relative-only): no overlay there means the pointer
-        // has not reached the streamed output (the compositor reports cursor metadata only
-        // while it is over the recorded view), and a relative-only client cannot get it there
-        // on its own.
+        // the first frame of every (re)built display and by the capture-model flip).
+        //
+        // Two unconditional attempts for a RELATIVE-ONLY session — attempt 1 can be swallowed by
+        // a cold EIS connection, and nothing else will ever move that pointer onto the output.
+        // Exactly ONE for a client that steers the seat pointer itself (a channel client in the
+        // desktop model): the park still runs once at bring-up, so the session's first click
+        // cannot land on whatever monitor the seat pointer was left on, but the retry a second
+        // later is dropped — by then the client's own absolute moves are doing this job, better
+        // (same event, aimed where the user is actually pointing), and the retry is a visible
+        // yank to centre that fights them (field report 2026-08-14; see `park_pointer`). A cold
+        // EIS swallows the client's moves too, and those keep coming, so it needs no retry.
+        //
+        // Past the unconditional attempts, only a host-composite session that STILL has no live
+        // overlay keeps trying — a channel session in the capture model, or a no-channel
+        // metadata-composite session: no overlay there means the pointer has not reached the
+        // streamed output (the compositor reports cursor metadata only while it is over the
+        // recorded view), and a relative-only client cannot get it there on its own.
+        //
+        // ...but ONLY where that inference holds — `no_overlay_means_off_output`, settled per
+        // display by `settle_portal_cursor`. Under a portal that negotiated Embedded no cursor
+        // metadata is EVER sent, so "no overlay" says nothing about where the pointer is, and
+        // this heuristic re-centred the user's pointer for the full cap on every Hyprland/sway
+        // session (the same field report). Those sessions still get the two unconditional
+        // attempts, which are what puts the pointer — and thus the compositor's burnt-in cursor,
+        // and the client's input — on the streamed output in the first place.
+        //
         // Armed from the loop's first tick — a static desktop may never deliver a fresh frame
         // (`parked_display` is only bookkeeping for rebuild re-arming), and the pointer must be
         // parked regardless.
@@ -3205,17 +3317,22 @@ pub(super) fn virtual_stream(ctx: SessionContext, prepared: Option<PreparedDispl
             && park_attempts < PARK_ATTEMPTS_MAX
             && std::time::Instant::now() >= next_park_at
         {
-            let composite_starved = ((cursor_fwd.is_some()
-                && !cursor_client_draws.load(Ordering::Relaxed))
+            let client_steers = cursor_fwd.is_some() && cursor_client_draws.load(Ordering::Relaxed);
+            let unconditional = if client_steers { 1 } else { 2 };
+            // Never true while `client_steers`: the channel term excludes it outright, and
+            // `metadata_composite` implies no channel at all.
+            let composite_starved = ((cursor_fwd.is_some() && !client_steers)
                 || metadata_composite)
-                && capturer.cursor().is_none();
-            if park_attempts < 2 || composite_starved {
+                && capturer.cursor().is_none()
+                && no_overlay_means_off_output;
+            if park_attempts < unconditional || composite_starved {
                 park_pointer(&input_tx, frame.width, frame.height);
                 park_attempts += 1;
                 next_park_at = std::time::Instant::now() + std::time::Duration::from_secs(1);
             } else {
-                // Settled (overlay flowing, or the client draws): stop scheduling until a
-                // rebuild or a capture-model flip re-arms it.
+                // Settled (the client steers, the overlay is flowing, or its absence carries no
+                // information here): stop scheduling until a rebuild or a capture-model flip
+                // re-arms it.
                 park_attempts = PARK_ATTEMPTS_MAX;
             }
         }
@@ -5115,4 +5232,65 @@ mod tests {
             "a +2 ms offset must shift the next target by +2 ms mod P, got {shift}"
         );
     }
+
+    /// The 2026-08-14 Hyprland field report, in one function: xdph advertises `Hidden|Embedded`,
+    /// so a session that asked for cursor metadata is served **Embedded** — no `SPA_META_Cursor`
+    /// is ever sent, whatever the pointer does. The host must then (a) stop planning a metadata
+    /// composite it can never feed, and (b) stop reading "no cursor overlay" as "the seat pointer
+    /// is not on the streamed output" — the inference that re-centred the user's pointer once a
+    /// second for the whole park cap.
+    ///
+    /// The `None` case is the regression guard for GNOME: Mutter is served the cursor mode it
+    /// asks for through its own protocol and DOES suppress metadata while the pointer is off the
+    /// recorded view, which is the signal `park_pointer` exists for. Nothing here may touch it.
+    #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+    #[test]
+    fn an_embedded_portal_voids_both_the_composite_and_the_starvation_signal() {
+        struct Fake(Option<pf_vdisplay::PortalCursorMode>);
+        impl crate::vdisplay::VirtualDisplay for Fake {
+            fn name(&self) -> &'static str {
+                "fake"
+            }
+            fn create(
+                &mut self,
+                _mode: pf_vdisplay::Mode,
+            ) -> anyhow::Result<crate::vdisplay::VirtualOutput> {
+                anyhow::bail!("this test never creates a display")
+            }
+            fn last_portal_cursor_mode(&self) -> Option<pf_vdisplay::PortalCursorMode> {
+                self.0
+            }
+        }
+
+        // The whole wlr family, today: metadata wanted, Embedded served.
+        let mut composite = true;
+        assert!(!settle_portal_cursor(
+            &Fake(Some(pf_vdisplay::PortalCursorMode::Embedded)),
+            &mut composite
+        ));
+        assert!(!composite, "the composite can never be fed — drop it");
+
+        // Hidden is the same story from the other end: no pointer, so no overlay, so no signal.
+        let mut composite = true;
+        assert!(!settle_portal_cursor(
+            &Fake(Some(pf_vdisplay::PortalCursorMode::Hidden)),
+            &mut composite
+        ));
+        assert!(!composite);
+
+        // A portal that really does serve metadata (xdph ≥ #366, or the portal path on
+        // KWin/Mutter): everything stays exactly as it was.
+        let mut composite = true;
+        assert!(settle_portal_cursor(
+            &Fake(Some(pf_vdisplay::PortalCursorMode::Metadata)),
+            &mut composite
+        ));
+        assert!(composite);
+
+        // Not portal-negotiated at all — KWin `zkde_screencast`, Mutter `RecordVirtual`,
+        // gamescope, Windows. THE no-regression case.
+        let mut composite = true;
+        assert!(settle_portal_cursor(&Fake(None), &mut composite));
+        assert!(composite);
+    }
 }