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   [Video demo](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). [Video
  41     demo](http://www.openqrm-enterprise.com/news/details/article/remote-vm-console-plugin-available.html).
  42
  43
  44 ### Browser Requirements
  45
  46 * HTML5 Canvas: Except for Internet Explorer, most
  47   browsers have had Canvas support for quite some time. Internet
  48   Explorer 9 will have Canvas support (finally).
  49
  50 * HTML5 WebSockets: For browsers that do not have builtin
  51   WebSockets support, the project includes
  52   <a href="http://github.com/gimite/web-socket-js">web-socket-js</a>,
  53   a WebSockets emulator using Adobe Flash.
  54
  55 * Fast Javascript Engine: noVNC avoids using new Javascript
  56   functionality so it will run on older browsers, but decode and
  57   rendering happen in Javascript, so a slow Javascript engine will
  58   mean noVNC is painfully slow.
  59
  60 * I maintain a more detailed list of browser compatibility <a
  61   href="wiki/Browser-support">here</a>.
  62
  63
  64 ### Server Requirements
  65
  66 Unless you are using a VNC server with support for WebSockets
  67 connections (only my [fork of libvncserver](http://github.com/kanaka/libvncserver)
  68 currently), you need to use a WebSockets to TCP socket proxy. There is
  69 a python proxy included ('websockify'). One advantage of using the
  70 proxy is that it has builtin support for SSL/TLS encryption (i.e.
  71 "wss://").
  72
  73 There a few reasons why a proxy is required:
  74
  75   1. WebSockets is not a pure socket protocol. There is an initial HTTP
  76      like handshake to allow easy hand-off by web servers and allow
  77      some origin policy exchange. Also, each WebSockets frame begins
  78      with 0 ('\x00') and ends with 255 ('\xff').
  79
  80   2. Javascript itself does not have the ability to handle pure byte
  81      arrays. The python proxy encodes the data as base64 so that the
  82      Javascript client can decode the data as an integer array.
  83
  84
  85 ### Quick Start
  86
  87 * Use the launch script to start a mini-webserver and the WebSockets
  88   proxy (websockify). The `--vnc` option is used to specify the location of
  89   a running VNC server:
  90
  91     `./utils/launch.sh --vnc localhost:5901`
  92
  93 * Point your browser to the cut-and-paste URL that is output by the
  94   launch script. Enter a password if the VNC server has one
  95   configured. Hit the Connect button and enjoy!
  96
  97
  98 ### Other Pages
  99
 100 * [Advanced Usage](wiki/Advanced-usage). Generating an SSL
 101   certificate, starting a VNC server, advanced websockify usage, etc.
 102
 103 * [Integrating noVNC](wiki/Integration) into existing projects.
 104
 105 * [Troubleshooting noVNC problems](wiki/Troubleshooting).
 106
 107