[GUACAMOLE-168] Add support for X.Org

• Type: New Feature
• Status: In Progress
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Component/s: guacamole-client, guacamole-server
• Assignee: Mike Jumper
• Reporter: Mike Jumper
• Created: 24/Jan/17 07:15
• Updated: 03/Aug/21 14:43

Description

It's been frequently requested that we add support for a more efficient protocol like NX or X2Go. Though that sounds nice on the surface, and theoretically would allow us to leverage some of Guacamole's nicer protocol-level features, investigating deeper reveals:

1. X2Go is NX - it uses the same protocol behind the scenes.
2. NX isn't really a protocol - it is essentially a compressor for X11, and depends on the client having a local X11 server to handle the decompressed result.

Implementing support for either of these would thus involve implementing support for X11, which is crazy. However:

What about implementing a driver for the X.Org X11 server?

The X.Org server provides a driver abstraction layer which exposes access to windows (including their hierarchy) and pixmaps, much in the same way the Guacamole protocol provides nestable layers and buffers. If we were to implement a Guacamole driver for X.Org, we would be able to make much greater use Guacamole protocol features like client-side compositing. Operations which are typically expensive in VNC or RDP like window movement suddenly become simple, as they only involve updating the properties of a layer.

I have an experimental implementation of all this, built upon several other improvements which ended up being required. Work started several years ago, even before Guacamole was accepted into the Apache Incubator, but I think it's finally ready to move forward. I've been using it myself for roughly a month now, and so far so good.

Issue Links

• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-172 Calculation of processing lag (potentially) incorrect
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-178 Shared cursor can be obscured by other layers
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-184 guac_common_surface_dup() may send invalid PNG
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-185 Source rectangle for transfer/copy not properly clipped
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-169 Use namespace for common utility headers
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-171 Bring broadcast socket into public libguac API
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-175 Move core of guacd into utility library
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-176 Support layer position and opacity in guac_common_surface
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-177 Update layer properties only on flush
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-179 Move PulseAudio support into utility library
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-180 Common display/surface should be threadsafe
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-187 Improve performance of layer/surface resize
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-189 Add support for per-connection guacd
• depends upon: GUACAMOLE-170 Always initialize guac_client args
• is related to: GUACAMOLE-577 Add Proxy Hostname and Port to LDAP Extension
• is related to: GUACAMOLE-188 Support alpha transparency in guac_common_surface