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Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

guac-dev.org

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Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#61

Post by skizm »

iandanforth wrote: post #55

I've found remote desktop setup immensely frustrating in the past. Every six months or so I'll think "Wouldn't it be cool if it I could have an Ubuntu AMI on EC2 I could boot and remote desktop into?" Then it's hours of googling and config settings editing. Hopefully someone will point me to the easy way I've been missing?

Chrome remote desktop works with linux/mac/win now. Not sure if there is some headless way to set it up on EC2 and/or linux but I've got it running on my box at home and it works great.

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#62

Post by jitl »

iandanforth wrote: post #55

I've found remote desktop setup immensely frustrating in the past. Every six months or so I'll think "Wouldn't it be cool if it I could have an Ubuntu AMI on EC2 I could boot and remote desktop into?" Then it's hours of googling and config settings editing. Hopefully someone will point me to the easy way I've been missing?

Unfortunately RDP server on Linux is a bit tricky to set up, and involved some amount of compiling for me. On the other hand, I think `x11vnc` is pretty easy to get started with. I followed this guide, and it worked for me no problem: http://askubuntu.com/questions/229989/how-to-setup-x11vnc-to...

My guacamole server then connects to x11vnc so I still get RDP-like performance across the internet.

Edit: you'll also want to make an Upstart job for x11vnc so that it starts on boot, and restarts if (when) it dies. You can just copy any of the basic upstart jobs in /etc/init.d/*.conf and investigate. You also may want to make x11vnc start after your X server: http://upstart.ubuntu.com/cookbook/#run-a-job-before-another...

There is a lot of fiddly business :/

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#64

Post by jitl »

chromaton wrote: post #42
Yardlink wrote: post #25

This could enable some very low development cost cloudwashing of legacy desktop software!

This was my thinking as well. Or to allow formerly plugin-requiring apps to run on the server. Any ideas for how to lock this down on the server side so that it can only run ONE application?

Guacamole is just a go-between. For that sort of OS-integrated lockdown you will need to configure your target server (the box actually running VNC or RDP). No special support on the Guacamole end required.

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#65

Post by jitl »

rev_bird wrote: post #53
ibisum wrote: post #47

I wonder if this can be used to set up a multi-headed workstation environment, where each user has their own desktop (Linux) on the same large, megalithic server? I have a machine with 128gigs of RAM and 1TB of SSD .. this seems like the perfect situation where I can give a desktop to 3 or 4 users on the same machine. Anyone know how well that works with Guacamole yet?

It doesn't seem like a particularly elegant solution, but with that much memory, you could almost certainly carve out 4 VMs, each running a separate guac instance, right? Getting to them might be trickier, though...

You don't need a separate Guacamole application instance for each user or even each VNC/RDP host -- each user in your Guacamole config has its own connection settings and operates independently of other sessions.

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#66

Post by krakensden »

luma wrote: post #50
mdmarra wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RDP8 also supports RDP over UDP which further enhances performance in high-latency scenarios. I'm assuming that is also not factored into that claim either

I kept waiting for the demo video to show any streaming video which they kept avoiding. VNC is ancient by industry standards. While this is convenient and the open license is helpful, there are far more mature remote desktop protocol stacks available commercially. PCoIP, RDP8, ICA/HDX, heck even HP's RGS cam handle streaming video and USB remoting.

In early 2013, guacamole would do video for a little bit, and then get desynchronized from the server. It would be pretty great while it lasted though...

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#67

Post by cbhl »

blutoot wrote: post #63

I'm thinking of the implication of something awesome like this. Hopefully in the long-run it will boost the likes of light LTE-enabled Chromebooks, at least for tech professionals. That of course requires high-speed LTE infrastructure and ISP backbones.

Eh, Chrome Remote Desktop and Fusionlabs' Chrome RDP both already allow Chromebooks to be used for remote desktops (the latter speaking actual RDP), although both are closed-source.

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#68

Post by joeperks »

I have used Guacamole as a solution to supporting remote desktop when the client location's firewall(s) allow nothing except port 80 and 443. Worked perfectly allowing users to connect to multiple desktops with no installation what so ever. Simply the perfect tool for what we needed and setup is a breeze once you familiarize yourself with the documentation.

Definitely keeping this in my mental toolbox!

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#69

Post by ibisum »

jitl wrote: post #65
rev_bird wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't seem like a particularly elegant solution, but with that much memory, you could almost certainly carve out 4 VMs, each running a separate guac instance, right? Getting to them might be trickier, though...

You don't need a separate Guacamole application instance for each user or even each VNC/RDP host -- each user in your Guacamole config has its own connection settings and operates independently of other sessions.

I've since gone through the setup of Guacamole and tried things out - indeed, its as you state, you can isolate users pretty well. I was able to set up 3 test users, each with their own WM, and independent logins on the machine .. and it works pretty well. I can see this as being a great facility for a small-office environment that just wants to run a single machine that services multiple users, each logging in with Android tablets or whatever other cheap browser-supporting devices they may have .. pretty neat, and you can't beat the ease of deployment: just point your users at their web URL, and there's their Linux desktop.

(I was even able to run Inkscape and Ardour on different logins, without too much fuss .. worked quite well!)

Re: Guacamole – HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop

#70

Post by drunkcatsdgaf »

jitl wrote: post #62
iandanforth wrote: post #55

I've found remote desktop setup immensely frustrating in the past. Every six months or so I'll think "Wouldn't it be cool if it I could have an Ubuntu AMI on EC2 I could boot and remote desktop into?" Then it's hours of googling and config settings editing. Hopefully someone will point me to the easy way I've been missing?

Unfortunately RDP server on Linux is a bit tricky to set up, and involved some amount of compiling for me. On the other hand, I think `x11vnc` is pretty easy to get started with. I followed this guide, and it worked for me no problem: http://askubuntu.com/questions/229989/how-to-setup-x11vnc-to... My guacamole server then connects to x11vnc so I still get RDP-like performance across the internet. Edit: you'll also wa…

Did you check out freerdp? I believe its in most package managers.
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