diff --git a/appvm-xpra b/appvm-xpra
index a6afe06..a514b64 100755
--- a/appvm-xpra
+++ b/appvm-xpra
@@ -5,19 +5,17 @@ xpra_host="$1"
 xpra_display=10
 conn_str="ssh/${xpra_host}/${xpra_display}"
 
-# try to determine if we need to attach or not
-#xpra info "$conn_str" 2>&1 >/dev/null && attach=1
-ssh "${xpra_host}" :${xpra_display} 2>&1 >/dev/null && attach=1
+systemctl --user start appvm-ssh@${xpra_host}.service
 
-if [[ $attach -eq 1 ]]; then
-    xpra attach "${conn_str}" \
-        --encoding=rgb \
-        --title="@title@ on ${xpra_host}" \
-        --tray=no \
-        --notifications=no \
-        --username=user \
-        --desktop-scaling=no
-else
+xpra attach "${conn_str}" \
+    --encoding=rgb \
+    --title="@title@ on ${xpra_host}" \
+    --tray=no \
+    --notifications=no \
+    --username=user \
+    --desktop-scaling=no
+
+if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
     shift 1
     app="${@:-firefox}"
 
diff --git a/appvm-xpra-torbrowser b/appvm-xpra-torbrowser
index 7a48fa4..00aee30 100755
--- a/appvm-xpra-torbrowser
+++ b/appvm-xpra-torbrowser
@@ -5,18 +5,17 @@ xpra_host="$1"
 conn_str="ssh/${xpra_host}/10"
 scale_factor=${GDK_SCALE:-1}
 
-# try to determine if we need to attach or not
-xpra info "$conn_str" 2>&1 >/dev/null && attach=1
+systemctl --user start appvm-ssh@${xpra_host}.service
 
-if [[ $attach -eq 1 ]]; then
-    xpra attach "${conn_str}" \
-        --encoding=rgb \
-        --title="@title@ on ${xpra_host}" \
-        --tray=no \
-        --notifications=no \
-        --username=user \
-        --desktop-scaling=${scale_factor}
-else
+xpra attach "${conn_str}" \
+    --encoding=rgb \
+    --title="@title@ on ${xpra_host}" \
+    --tray=no \
+    --notifications=no \
+    --username=user \
+    --desktop-scaling=${scale_factor}
+
+if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
     app="env TOR_CONTROL_PORT=9151 sandboxed-tor-browser"
     xpra start "${conn_str}" \
         --encoding=rgb \