README.md

   1 ## noVNC: HTML5 VNC Client
   2
   3
   4 ### Description
   5
   6 noVNC is a VNC client implemented using HTML5 technologies,
   7 specifically Canvas and WebSockets (supports 'wss://' encryption).
   8 noVNC is licensed under the
   9 [LGPLv3](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html).
  10
  11 Special thanks to [Sentry Data Systems](http://www.sentryds.com) for
  12 sponsoring ongoing development of this project (and for employing me).
  13
  14 Notable commits, announcements and news are posted to
  15 @<a href="http://www.twitter.com/noVNC">noVNC</a>
  16
  17
  18 ### Screenshots
  19
  20 Running in Chrome before and after connecting:
  21
  22 <img src="http://kanaka.github.com/noVNC/img/noVNC-1.jpg" width=400>&nbsp;<img src="http://kanaka.github.com/noVNC/img/noVNC-2.jpg" width=400>
  23
  24 See more screenshots <a href="http://kanaka.github.com/noVNC/screenshots.html">here</a>.
  25
  26
  27 ### Projects/Companies using noVNC
  28
  29 * [Sentry Data Systems](http://www.sentryds.com): uses noVNC in the
  30   [Datanex Cloud Computing Platform](http://www.sentryds.com/products/datanex/).
  31
  32 * [Ganeti Web Manager](http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr):
  33   Feature [#1935](http://code.osuosl.org/issues/1935).
  34
  35 * [Archipel](http://archipelproject.org):
  36   Demo [video](http://antoinemercadal.fr/archipelblog/wp-content/themes/ArchipelWPTemplate/video_youtube.php?title=VNC%20Demonstration&id=te_bzW574Zo)
  37
  38 * [openQRM](http://www.openqrm.com/): VNC plugin available
  39   by request. Probably included in [version
  40   4.8](http://www.openqrm.com/?q=node/15). Demo
  41   [video](http://www.openqrm-enterprise.com/news/details/article/remote-vm-console-plugin-available.html).
  42
  43 * [OpenNode](http://www.opennodecloud.com/): uses noVNC in
  44   [OpenNode Management Console](http://opennode.activesys.org/about/software-included-in-opennode/).
  45   OMC [Screencast](http://opennode.activesys.org/about/opennode-management-console-screencast/).
  46
  47 * [OpenStack](http://www.openstack.org): uses noVNC in Cactus release
  48   of [OpenStack Compute (Nova)](http://nova.openstack.org/runnova/vncconsole.html).
  49   OpenStack [Screencast](http://player.vimeo.com/video/20787736?autoplay=1) with noVNC shown at about 2:17.
  50
  51 * [Broadway (HTML5 GDK/GTK+ backend)](http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2011/03/15/gtk-html-backend-update/):
  52   incorporates noVNC keyboard/input handling code.
  53   [Code commit](http://mail.gnome.org/archives/commits-list/2011-April/msg06623.html). Broadway [broadway.js](http://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/tree/gdk/broadway/broadway.js) source file.
  54
  55 ### Browser Requirements
  56
  57 * HTML5 Canvas: Except for Internet Explorer, most
  58   browsers have had Canvas support for quite some time. Internet
  59   Explorer 9 will have Canvas support (finally).
  60
  61 * HTML5 WebSockets: For browsers that do not have builtin
  62   WebSockets support, the project includes
  63   <a href="http://github.com/gimite/web-socket-js">web-socket-js</a>,
  64   a WebSockets emulator using Adobe Flash.
  65
  66 * Fast Javascript Engine: noVNC avoids using new Javascript
  67   functionality so it will run on older browsers, but decode and
  68   rendering happen in Javascript, so a slow Javascript engine will
  69   mean noVNC is painfully slow.
  70
  71 * I maintain a more detailed list of browser compatibility <a
  72   href="https://github.com/kanaka/noVNC/wiki/Browser-support">here</a>.
  73
  74
  75 ### Server Requirements
  76
  77 Unless you are using a VNC server with support for WebSockets
  78 connections (only my [fork of libvncserver](http://github.com/kanaka/libvncserver)
  79 currently), you need to use a WebSockets to TCP socket proxy. There is
  80 a python proxy included ('websockify'). One advantage of using the
  81 proxy is that it has builtin support for SSL/TLS encryption (i.e.
  82 "wss://").
  83
  84 There a few reasons why a proxy is required:
  85
  86   1. WebSockets is not a pure socket protocol. There is an initial HTTP
  87      like handshake to allow easy hand-off by web servers and allow
  88      some origin policy exchange. Also, each WebSockets frame begins
  89      with 0 ('\x00') and ends with 255 ('\xff').
  90
  91   2. Javascript itself does not have the ability to handle pure byte
  92      arrays. The python proxy encodes the data as base64 so that the
  93      Javascript client can decode the data as an integer array.
  94
  95
  96 ### Quick Start
  97
  98 * Use the launch script to start a mini-webserver and the WebSockets
  99   proxy (websockify). The `--vnc` option is used to specify the location of
 100   a running VNC server:
 101
 102     `./utils/launch.sh --vnc localhost:5901`
 103
 104 * Point your browser to the cut-and-paste URL that is output by the
 105   launch script. Enter a password if the VNC server has one
 106   configured. Hit the Connect button and enjoy!
 107
 108
 109 ### Other Pages
 110
 111 * [Advanced Usage](https://github.com/kanaka/noVNC/wiki/Advanced-usage). Generating an SSL
 112   certificate, starting a VNC server, advanced websockify usage, etc.
 113
 114 * [Integrating noVNC](https://github.com/kanaka/noVNC/wiki/Integration) into existing projects.
 115
 116 * [Troubleshooting noVNC](https://github.com/kanaka/noVNC/wiki/Troubleshooting) problems.
 117
 118