Physical desktop resize mode resets after session timeout

[Andy Armstrong]

I’m new to NoMachine, and running into an issue running fullscreen with the remote display being resized.

– Client: NoMachine 9.2.18 on macOS

– Server: NoMachine 9.1.24 Enterprise Desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 using Gnome

When a session times out due to inactivity, the display mode resets from “Resize remote display” back to “Enable viewport mode”. I then have to manually change the setting back via the in-session toolbar each time.

I can see that the file ~/.nx/config after a timeout shows that the following value has been reset:

<option key=”Physical desktop auto-resize” value=”false” />

This value was set to “true” prior to the timeout. The values for “Physical desktop resize mode” and “Virtual desktop resize mode” also remain set to “viewport” rather than reflecting the selected mode.

I couldn’t find a way to make this setting persistent through the GUI. Is this is a known issue, and is there an option I can use to work around this problem?

Thanks!

– Andy

[Britgirl]

Hi, first let’s explain how the resize works. When the resize remote display is enabled, the remote desktop and the local window geometries are always synchronized. If the remote desktop changes its geometry, the client adapts the window size. When the client can’t fulfill a request to change the window size (usually, because the size is bigger than the client monitor), since the server has priority over its resolution (i.e. the client can’t “force” it back), then the mode automatically switches to viewport mode.

Now, it’s not clear to us what is happening when the “session times out due to inactivity” – we are happy to check the logs and that will let us also check the sequence of events occurring when you encounter the error. However, the technical behaviour is the one explained above, it is exactly how resize works when giving priority to remote desktop resolution.

We do have a Trouble Report open which has a workaround which you could try. Basically, the slider setting is ignored when disconnecting and connecting again to the same desktop. We are not sure if this is your case, https://kb.nomachine.com/TR07W11470.

To get the logs from the macOS client, reproduce the problem first, then, still on the client, go to Settings -> Player -> Security and ‘Take logs’.

[Andy Armstrong]

Thank you for following up. I’m sorry that I wasn’t clear with what I’m seeing. My preference for the Display settings is “Resize remote display” and “Fullscreen”. This works perfectly for my situation, but I am constantly finding that the Display setting is switched back to “Enable viewport mode” and “Fullscreen”. My workaround is to hit Control-Option 0, click on Display, and then change back to “Resize remote display”, and then hit Escape a couple of times to get back to my screen. However, I find myself doing this multiple times a day which is frustrating.

I tried using Claude AI to help me diagnose the problem, and it noticed that the config file was being updated. My best sense of what is happening is that when I am away from my session for a while and then come back, the login page is no longer the correct size, and at that point I can see that I have been switched back to “Enable viewport mode” again. However I could definitely be misunderstanding what is happening. Maybe there is some keystroke that I’m using which is changing the setting on me, but I can’t think what that would be.

I’ve downloaded the log file after this just happened again, so hopefully this will help diagnose my issue. I’ve uploaded the attachment. Let me know if there’s more information that I can provide.

BTW I really like the keyboard shortcuts like Control-Option-F to toggle full screen, and Control-Option-K to toggle native keyboard support. Is there a shortcut for switching the display into “Resize remote display”? That would certainly be a useful workaround if there was one keystroke I could use to get back to my preferred display settings.

Attachments:

1. Player-logs-2026-02-24-16.33.30.zip

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