fix: disable GPU compositing for XRDP/VNC sessions + nightly update scripts

[davidamacey]

Summary

Fixes #319

Two changes in this PR:

1. XRDP / VNC GPU fix

When Claude Desktop runs inside an XRDP or VNC session, Electron's GPU compositor fails — the window either renders blank or crashes at startup. This adds detection in scripts/launcher-common.sh to disable GPU compositing for those sessions:

# Detect remote desktop sessions that lack GPU acceleration (XRDP, VNC)
if [[ -n "${XRDP_SESSION:-}" ]] || pgrep -x xrdp-sesman &>/dev/null; then
    electron_args+=('--disable-gpu' '--disable-software-rasterizer')
    log_message 'Remote desktop detected (XRDP) - GPU compositing disabled'
fi

Detection uses two signals (either is sufficient):

• $XRDP_SESSION — set by the XRDP X server
• xrdp-sesman process probe — catches VNC-via-xrdp and sessions where the env var isn't propagated

2. Nightly auto-update scripts

Three optional helper scripts for keeping Claude Desktop and Claude Code CLI up to date automatically:

Script	Purpose
scripts/nightly-update.sh	Cron orchestrator — runs both updaters, logs results
scripts/auto-update-desktop.sh	Checks version, builds .deb, installs via apt
scripts/auto-update-claude-code.sh	Runs claude update, skips if sessions active

Key design points:

• All paths resolved from script location — no hardcoded absolute paths
• --dry-run flag: show what would happen without changes
• --force flag: bypass safety checks (running-process detection)
• Logs to $HOME/.local/log/claude-updates/
• NVM sourced automatically for cron's minimal PATH
• Optional ntfy notifications (silently skipped if no server reachable) — configure via NTFY_URL / NTFY_TOPIC

Suggested cron:

7 3 * * * /path/to/claude-desktop-debian/scripts/nightly-update.sh

---

Generated with Claude Code
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 noreply@anthropic.com
95% AI / 5% Human
Claude: authored both changes, generalized paths, wrote issue + PR
Human: identified the XRDP problem and requested the PR

[aaddrick]

Hey! Thanks for putting this together, @davidamacey. The XRDP fix addresses a real usability gap for remote desktop users, and the auto-update scripts show solid defensive design with dry-run, force flags, and graceful ntfy handling. Good stuff overall.

Before diving in, I want to flag a scope concern. This PR bundles two unrelated features: a 6-line launcher fix and ~550 lines of new update automation. The commit history already separates them cleanly. I'd recommend splitting this into two PRs — the XRDP fix is small and merge-ready with one tweak, while the update scripts need a larger revision pass.

---

`scripts/launcher-common.sh`

Issue 1: `pgrep -x xrdp-sesman` false-positives on local sessions

The `xrdp-sesman` process is a system service. It runs whenever xrdp is installed, even when the current user is sitting at a local desktop. This will incorrectly disable GPU compositing for local sessions on any machine that has xrdp available.

The `$XRDP_SESSION` environment variable is session-scoped and sufficient on its own. Process scanning doesn't add reliable signal here.

Recommendation:

```bash

Detect remote desktop sessions that lack GPU acceleration

if [[ -n "${XRDP_SESSION:-}" ]]; then
electron_args+=('--disable-gpu' '--disable-software-rasterizer')
log_message 'XRDP session detected - GPU compositing disabled'
fi
```

If you want broader VNC coverage, check for VNC-specific env vars like `$VNCDESKTOP` rather than process probing.

---

`scripts/auto-update-desktop.sh`

Issue 2: Sudoers recommendation is overly permissive

The comment suggests `NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/apt install *` which allows passwordless root installation of any package, not just claude-desktop. A compromised user account could install arbitrary `.deb` files with pre/post-install scripts running as root. Restrict to the specific package path.

Issue 3: `is_cowork_active()` matches all bubblewrap processes

`bwrap` is used by Flatpak, Firejail, and other sandboxing tools. On any system running Flatpak apps, this will almost always return true, preventing updates even when Claude isn't involved. Should match `cowork-vm-service\.js` specifically.

Issue 4: `tee` pipeline masks git exit status

`if ! git ... | tee -a "$log_file"` tests `tee`'s exit status, not `git`'s. `tee` almost never fails, so git failures go undetected.

Issue 5: `git checkout main` in a working repo is surprising for cron

An unattended cron job silently switching branches could discard context or build from the wrong state. Consider using `git worktree` or building directly from the fetched remote ref without modifying the working tree.

Issue 6: `repo_dir` resolution doesn't guard against `cd` failure

---

`scripts/auto-update-claude-code.sh`

Issue 7: `is_claude_code_active()` uses fragile exclusion-based matching

Matches everything with "claude" in the cmdline, then tries to exclude known false positives. Should match what you want (e.g., `@anthropic-ai/claude-code`) rather than excluding what you don't.

---

All three new scripts

Issue 8: `log()`, `notify()`, and `parse_args()` are copy-pasted three times — extract shared helpers into `scripts/update-common.sh`, following the existing `launcher-common.sh` pattern.

Issue 9: `> /dev/null 2>&1` instead of `&>/dev/null` — inconsistent with codebase convention.

Issue 10: Double quotes used where single quotes suffice per STYLEGUIDE.md.

---

Summary

The XRDP detection fix (Issue 1) is close — narrowing to the env var check only would make it solid. I'd recommend splitting that out as its own PR.

The update scripts need more work before they're ready:

1. Security: Tighten the sudoers recommendation (Issue 2)
2. Correctness: Fix `bwrap` false positives (Issue 3), `tee` masking (Issue 4), and Claude Code detection (Issue 7)
3. Safety: Rethink `git checkout` in a working repo (Issue 5)
4. Maintainability: Extract duplicated helpers (Issue 8)
5. Style: Minor quoting and redirection form fixes (Issues 9-10)

The defensive design choices (dry-run, force, graceful ntfy fallback) are well thought out. These are solid foundations that will be even better after addressing the issues above.

---

Written by Claude Opus 4.6 via Claude Code