Only tested on Ubuntu for now.

RustDesk 1.2 (nightly build)

Diabled by default.

Enable it via command line.

sudo rustdesk --option allow-linux-headless Y

or on GUI

Prerequirements:

# Only support gnome desktop. https://www.gnome.org
# xfce4 may be supported.

# for Ubuntu
$ sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop
$ sudo apt install xserver-xorg-video-dummy
$ sudo apt install lightdm

# for Fedora
$ sudo sudo yum groups install "GNOME"
$ sudo yum install xorg-x11-drv-dummy

# for archlinux
$ pacman -S xorg xorg-server xf86-video-dummy
$ pacman -S gnome

Steps

# install rustdesk
# get rustdesk id
$ sudo rustdesk --get-id
# set password
$ sudo rustdesk --password <password>

# connect

TODOs:

Do not show "Connection Error" on logout.

https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/pull/3902#issue-1651369085

Alternative solutions

Intel virtual display: https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/issues/59#issuecomment-1494257375
https://www.reddit.com/r/Immersed/comments/1bjqqbb/how_can_i_add_another_screen_im_currently_working/
Fake / dummy hdmi https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/issues/59#issuecomment-1494275098 https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/issues/59#issuecomment-1162817430
Configure dummy display yourself, https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/issues/3592
A lot of virtual display here, https://github.com/pavlobu/deskreen/discussions/86
https://docs.kernel.org/gpu/vkms.html

Some help

https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/pull/3902#issuecomment-1937900476

Raspberry PI

raspberry pi os 12 (bookworm): https://www.reddit.com/r/rustdesk/comments/1fodeku/headless_linux_on_rustdesk_display_and_desktop/
https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/issues/59#issuecomment-2099276097

A lot of discussion here

https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/issues/59