Use Xpra in desktop mode #328

Wuestengecko · 2024-10-10T14:44:34Z

Compared to using the Xpra HTML5 client in window mode, the desktop mode features much better window management thanks to the battle-proven Openbox WM. The two most noticable improvements are:

The Capella main window automatically is fullscreened, removing the unneeded window decorations and making it always follow the browser window size. This also applies to Xrdp based session, which previously had every window in fullscreen mode, including (normally small) dialogs.
Modal dialogs (like the "New Project" or "Properties" dialogs) now properly stay on top of the Capella main window. Previously, they could disappear behind the main window. This avoids the awkward situations where a hidden modal dialog prevents interaction with the main window, making it appear completely frozen.

This change currently still has some unfixed issues.

The Capella splash screen isn't properly displayed during first start. When restarting Capella inside an established session, it does show up though.
~~When resizing the browser window too quickly, Capella sometimes gets stuck in a too large or too small size, or disappears entirely. Refreshing the tab fixes this.~~ Acceptable limitation. Use Xpra in desktop mode #328 (comment)
When clicking on something, or when the cursor style changes (e.g. from normal cursor to the "resize drag" cursor), the cursor turns very large, and becomes the normal size again once moved.
There should be a wallpaper, but the nitrogen process which should set it crashes with SIGABRT. => The wallpaper.png file in the repo is empty, and I can't find the contents. Removed nitrogen as suggested in Use Xpra in desktop mode #328 (comment).

Resolves #317

MoritzWeber0 · 2024-10-10T15:58:25Z

Thanks @Wuestengecko and @jamilraichouni for looking into it in detail. I like the proposal to switch to OpenBox: We already have the infrastructure from xrdp and can have a consistent window manager, independent from Xpra or Xrdp.

The Capella splash screen isn't properly displayed during first start. When restarting Capella inside an established session, it does show up though.

I can remember that we had this issue with Guacamole too (where Openbox is already used currently). However, just checked it with the latest version and there I can see the splash screen (via xrdp).

When resizing the browser window too quickly, Capella sometimes gets stuck in a too large or too small size, or disappears entirely. Refreshing the tab fixes this.

This is an acceptable limitation considering the usability improvements of the PR.

There should be a wallpaper, but the nitrogen process which should set it crashes with SIGABRT. To be investigated.#

A few years (?) ago we definitely had nitrogen working to display a "fake" splash screen. However, it has not been used since then and can be removed.

remote/Dockerfile

jamilraichouni · 2024-10-11T02:40:29Z

This change currently still has some unfixed issues.

Good morning @Wuestengecko , could you reproduce/ resolve this issue with a very big mouse cursor?

jamilraichouni · 2024-10-11T02:52:16Z

@Wuestengecko, add the trailer Resolves #317 to the PR description, please.

Wuestengecko · 2024-10-11T12:08:25Z

@Wuestengecko, add the trailer Resolves #317 to the PR description, please.

~~No longer needed, since it's already linked up through Github (see the sidebar on the "Conversation" tab) :)~~

Seems Moritz just did that instead. Regardless, you can also just do these kinds of minor edits yourself, or simply link up issues directly via the sidebar.

remote/rc.xml

MoritzWeber0 · 2024-10-16T09:06:46Z

remote/Dockerfile

@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y && apt-get install -y --no-install-reco
    obconf \
    gettext-base \
    xprintidle \
-    nitrogen && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* && \
+    sed -i -e "/^border\.width:/ s/: .*/: 3/" /usr/share/themes/Clearlooks/openbox-3/themerc


This only seems to increase the bottom border size. This looks a bit odd to me since the borders on the left and right still have the previous size. Since the left and right borders can also be used for resizing, we should check if it's feasible to increase their size (probably via theming)

MoritzWeber0 · 2024-10-16T09:08:09Z

remote/rc.xml

@@ -750,7 +750,7 @@

  # end of the example
 -->
-  <application name="Capella">
+  <application type="normal" title="workspace - Capella*">


Add the same rule for Papyrus and Eclipse. Even though it wasn't tracked before, we should keep it aligned and have the same behaviour between Papyrus, Eclipse & Capella.

MoritzWeber0 · 2024-10-16T09:09:25Z

remote/supervisord.xpra.conf

Requires testing: Does the session sharing in the Capella Collaboration Manager still work as expected? How does it behave with different screen sizes?

MoritzWeber0 · 2024-10-16T09:09:51Z

remote/supervisord.xpra.conf

Requires testing: Does the internal session viewer in the Capella Collaboration Manager still work as expected?

MoritzWeber0 · 2024-10-16T09:10:33Z

remote/supervisord.xpra.conf

Requires testing in the staging environment: How is the general connectivity? Reordering of a popup seems to cause more traffic since there is no window scoping anymore on the client side

MoritzWeber0 · 2024-10-16T09:11:51Z

remote/supervisord.xpra.conf

Browser zoom in doesn't scale the window anymore. Needs more investigation, probably we can't do much about it.

Zooming in and out does work for me, but only via the browser menu, as Ctrl+Scroll gets captured and sent to X. However it seems to suffer from the same issue as resizing quickly. Reloading fixes this as well, after which the Capella window is simply rendered larger (and blurry if zooming in, but that's expected on X).

remote/Dockerfile

MoritzWeber0 · 2024-10-16T13:45:21Z

remote/supervisord.xpra.conf

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

 [program:xpra]
-command=xpra start :10 --start=/home/techuser/.config/openbox/autostart --start-env=GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus --attach=yes --daemon=no --bind-tcp=0.0.0.0:10001 --min-quality=70
+command=xpra start-desktop :10 --start=/usr/local/bin/openbox-launcher.sh --attach=yes --daemon=no --bind-tcp=0.0.0.0:10001 --min-quality=70


Since openbox-launcher is now used as startup command, the favicon and title of the Tab in Chrome relate to "Openbox". It would be nice to still see the window title - or at least the text "Capella".

I tried this, but it doesn't seem like there's an easy win here. We could try to hard-code the title "Capella" in the HTML/JS files somehow, but it gets set dynamically after connecting, so this doesn't exactly sound trivial.

remote/supervisord.xpra.conf

jamilraichouni · 2024-10-16T22:33:31Z

Wow, when I look at the activity here, this one is bigger than initially expected.

Compared to using the Xpra HTML5 client in window mode, the desktop mode features much better window management thanks to the battle-proven Openbox WM. The two most noticable improvements are: 1. The Capella main window automatically is fullscreened, removing the unneeded window decorations and making it always follow the browser window size, just like for Xrdp based sessions. 2. Modal dialogs (like the "New Project" or "Properties" dialogs) now properly stay on top of the Capella main window. Previously, they could disappear behind the main window. This avoids the awkward situations where a hidden modal dialog prevents interaction with the main window, making it appear completely frozen. The Xvfb instance spawned by Xpra is configured to use 96 DPI. This avoid issues with Openbox seeing a way too high resolution during early startup, before the client has connected, and assuming a HighDPI display. Scaling is actually done client-side by the browser (by reporting a downscaled resolution to Xpra), and Openbox applying its own scaling settings would result in irritating issues like oversized mouse cursors. Setting the DPI happens in a small wrapper script, which is called by Xpra instead of the actual `openbox-session` executable. This allows the setting to be applied early enough to also affect Openbox itself, instead of only the Capella instance started by its autostart script.

It hasn't been working for a while anyways. (This might have to do with the wallpaper file being empty.)

The default border size of 1px can be very hard to grab, in case a floating window has to be resized.

It looks a bit more modern, and simly looks better with the thicker window borders.

This is a simple and pragmatic solution to the splash spawning outside of the viewport before the first connection.

MoritzWeber0 · 2024-10-17T12:17:15Z

#334 seems to do the job and has a smaller chance of potential other implications. This PR contains many interesting improvements for Guacamole though. @Wuestengecko can you create new PRs to include the following changes?

Remove nitrogen
Append to /etc/environment in provisioning.py
Theme change to Natura and maximize icon
Only show the main Capella window in fullscreen
--input-method=keep

jamilraichouni reviewed Oct 11, 2024

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jamilraichouni mentioned this pull request Oct 11, 2024

Modal dialogs disappear in the background #317

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Wuestengecko force-pushed the xpra-desktop-mode branch 2 times, most recently from 7ffa855 to 0acb4d0 Compare October 11, 2024 14:31

Wuestengecko marked this pull request as ready for review October 11, 2024 14:34

Wuestengecko requested a review from MoritzWeber0 as a code owner October 11, 2024 14:34

Wuestengecko force-pushed the xpra-desktop-mode branch from 7063bb0 to 5d5b401 Compare October 14, 2024 08:46

MoritzWeber0 reviewed Oct 16, 2024

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MoritzWeber0 reviewed Oct 16, 2024

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Wuestengecko force-pushed the xpra-desktop-mode branch 2 times, most recently from 35594f1 to 9b1ccfc Compare October 16, 2024 14:39

Wuestengecko force-pushed the xpra-desktop-mode branch from d393112 to 7285f22 Compare October 17, 2024 08:16

Wuestengecko added 8 commits October 17, 2024 12:42

fix: Only fullscreen the Capella main window in Openbox

2e5262b

chore: Remove nitrogen from remote docker image

dfb1b55

It hasn't been working for a while anyways. (This might have to do with the wallpaper file being empty.)

feat: Add a maximize button to non-fullscreen windows

78c5937

fix(remote): Slightly increase window border size

2e2d388

The default border size of 1px can be very hard to grab, in case a floating window has to be resized.

fix: Tell Xpra to not touch IM envvars

df52bf5

feat: Use the Natura Openbox theme

70ac827

It looks a bit more modern, and simly looks better with the thicker window borders.

fix: Move the splash to the top left corner

26f2b3d

This is a simple and pragmatic solution to the splash spawning outside of the viewport before the first connection.

Wuestengecko force-pushed the xpra-desktop-mode branch from 7285f22 to 26f2b3d Compare October 17, 2024 12:11

Wuestengecko closed this Oct 17, 2024

Wuestengecko deleted the xpra-desktop-mode branch October 17, 2024 12:40

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Use Xpra in desktop mode #328

Use Xpra in desktop mode #328

Wuestengecko commented Oct 10, 2024 •

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Use Xpra in desktop mode #328

Use Xpra in desktop mode #328

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