-VNC HTML5 Client
-================
+## noVNC: HTML5 VNC Client
-Description
------------
+### Description
-A VNC client implemented using HTML5, specifically Canvas and
-WebSocket.
+noVNC is a VNC client implemented using HTML5 technologies,
+specifically Canvas and WebSockets (supports 'wss://' encryption).
+noVNC is licensed under the
+[LGPLv3](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html).
-For browsers that do not have builtin WebSocket support, the project
-includes web-socket-js, a WebSocket emulator using Adobe Flash
-(http://github.com/gimite/web-socket-js).
+Special thanks to [Sentry Data Systems](http://www.sentryds.com) for
+sponsoring ongoing development of this project (and for employing me).
+Notable commits, announcements and news are posted to
+@<a href="http://www.twitter.com/noVNC">noVNC</a>
-Requirements
-------------
-Until there is VNC server support for WebSocket connections, you need
-to use a WebSocket to TCP socket proxy. There is a python proxy
-included ('wsproxy').
+### Screenshots
+
+Running in Chrome before and after connecting:
+
+<img src="http://kanaka.github.com/noVNC/img/noVNC-1.jpg" width=400> <img src="http://kanaka.github.com/noVNC/img/noVNC-2.jpg" width=400>
+
+See more screenshots <a href="http://kanaka.github.com/noVNC/screenshots.html">here</a>.
+
+
+### Projects/Companies using noVNC
+
+* [Sentry Data Systems](http://www.sentryds.com): uses noVNC in the
+ [Datanex Cloud Computing Platform](http://www.sentryds.com/products/datanex/).
+
+* [Ganeti Web Manager](http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr):
+ Feature [#1935](http://code.osuosl.org/issues/1935).
+
+* [Archipel](http://archipelproject.org):
+ [Video demo](http://antoinemercadal.fr/archipelblog/wp-content/themes/ArchipelWPTemplate/video_youtube.php?title=VNC%20Demonstration&id=te_bzW574Zo)
+
+* [openQRM](http://www.openqrm.com/): VNC plugin available
+ by request. Probably included in [version
+ 4.8](http://www.openqrm.com/?q=node/15). [Video
+ demo](http://www.openqrm-enterprise.com/news/details/article/remote-vm-console-plugin-available.html).
+
+
+### Browser Requirements
+
+* HTML5 Canvas: Except for Internet Explorer, most
+ browsers have had Canvas support for quite some time. Internet
+ Explorer 9 will have Canvas support (finally).
+
+* HTML5 WebSockets: For browsers that do not have builtin
+ WebSockets support, the project includes
+ <a href="http://github.com/gimite/web-socket-js">web-socket-js</a>,
+ a WebSockets emulator using Adobe Flash.
+
+* Fast Javascript Engine: noVNC avoids using new Javascript
+ functionality so it will run on older browsers, but decode and
+ rendering happen in Javascript, so a slow Javascript engine will
+ mean noVNC is painfully slow.
+
+* I maintain a more detailed list of browser compatibility <a
+ href="wiki/Browser-support">here</a>.
+
+
+### Server Requirements
+
+Unless you are using a VNC server with support for WebSockets
+connections (only my [fork of libvncserver](http://github.com/kanaka/libvncserver)
+currently), you need to use a WebSockets to TCP socket proxy. There is
+a python proxy included ('websockify'). One advantage of using the
+proxy is that it has builtin support for SSL/TLS encryption (i.e.
+"wss://").
There a few reasons why a proxy is required:
- 1. WebSocket is not a pure socket protocol. There is an initial HTTP
+ 1. WebSockets is not a pure socket protocol. There is an initial HTTP
like handshake to allow easy hand-off by web servers and allow
- some origin policy exchange. Also, each WebSocket frame begins
+ some origin policy exchange. Also, each WebSockets frame begins
with 0 ('\x00') and ends with 255 ('\xff').
2. Javascript itself does not have the ability to handle pure byte
- strings (Unicode encoding messes with it) even though you can
- read them with WebSocket. The python proxy encodes the data so
- that the Javascript client can base64 decode the data into an
- array. The client requests this encoding
-
- 3. When using the web-socket-js as a fallback, WebSocket 'onmessage'
- events may arrive out of order. In order to compensate for this
- the client asks the proxy (using the initial query string) to add
- sequence numbers to each packet.
-
+ arrays. The python proxy encodes the data as base64 so that the
+ Javascript client can decode the data as an integer array.
-Usage
------
-* run a VNC server.
-
- `vncserver :1`
+### Quick Start
-* run the python proxy:
+* Use the launch script to start a mini-webserver and the WebSockets
+ proxy (websockify). The `--vnc` option is used to specify the location of
+ a running VNC server:
- `./wsproxy.py [listen_port] [vnc_host] [vnc_port]`
+ `./utils/launch.sh --vnc localhost:5901`
- `./wsproxy.py 8787 localhost 5901`
+* Point your browser to the cut-and-paste URL that is output by the
+ launch script. Enter a password if the VNC server has one
+ configured. Hit the Connect button and enjoy!
-* run the mini python web server to serve the directory:
+### Other Pages
- `./web.py PORT`
+* [Advanced Usage](wiki/Advanced-usage). Generating an SSL
+ certificate, starting a VNC server, advanced websockify usage, etc.
- `./web.py 8080`
+* [Integrating noVNC](wiki/Integration) into existing projects.
-* Point your web browser at http://localhost:8080/vnc.html
- (or whatever port you used above to run the web server).
+* [Troubleshooting noVNC problems](wiki/Troubleshooting).
-* Specify the host and port where the proxy is running and the
- password that the vnc server is using (if any). Hit the Connect
- button and enjoy!
projects / mirror_novnc.git / blobdiff