NoMachine NX - Support: Feature Request

Added on:

2006-12-12

Last Modified:

2007-06-20

Product:

NX Server

Target:

3.0.0

Priority:

High

Status:

Implemented

Opened by:

Silvia Regis

Technical Responsible:

Gian Filippo Pinzari

Adding support for desktop sharing in NX server

NX should provide the ability for users to shadow a native desktop so that, once authorized, multiple users can view, or optionally, collaborate within the same desktop and interact with the session.

The main difference between the desktop sharing and the session shadowing feature is that, in case of desktop sharing, the shadowee session is attached to the local display instead of to the remote display (NX session).

More details about session shadowing are available at:

http://www.nomachine.com/fr/view.php?id=FR10D01527

The end-user will be able run desktop sharing sessions by selecting Desktop type Shadow in the NX client GUI -> General panel.

Please, refer also to the following Feature Request related to modifications to the NX Client GUI:

http://www.nomachine.com/fr/view.php?id=FR11D01559

Upon the NX client request, and depending on how it is configured, NX server will be able to provide a list of both available X servers and NX sessions running on the server machine. The server could be configured
to allow/disallow both desktop sharing and session shadowing or to
allow/disallow only one of these features. In this case, when for example
session shadowing is disabled, the server will provide only the list of the available X servers on that machine.

The server will require the list of the X servers listening on Unix sockets to NX node, which could retrieve it by running the following command:

# netstat -ln --protocol=unix | grep X11-unix

If for example user B chooses to attach to one of the available X servers (desktop sharing), in the default sonfiguration, NX server notifies the desktop owner with message:

Request for desktop shadowing from user <username of user B>
Accept | Deny

If the desktop owner accepts to share his/her desktop, the server will start a session executing nxnode which runs nxagent with the -S option and specifyies the local display.

The server configuration will allow mainly to:

Enable/disable desktop sharing on this server.
Define the interaction level inside the shared session.
Disable/Enable requesting authorization to share
the native display to the session's owner.
Extending the possibility to connect to a native display
owned by an user who is not a NX user, when the node
is on the same machine where the server is running.
Extending the possibility described above also in case
the desktop owner is the root user.

#
# Allow the NX user to connect to a native desktop owned by an NX
# user:
#
# 1: Enabled. The NX user can connect to the native display of
#     a node. If EnableDesktopSharingAuthorization is
#     enabled, the desktop's owner will accept or deny the connection.
#
# 0: Disabled. Desktop sharing is forbidden.
#
#EnableDesktopSharing = "1"

If desktop sharing is disabled, the server will provide the following message to the client:

Session shadowing disabled on this server

#
# Allow desktop sharing in interactive mode:
#
# 1: Enabled. User connecting to the session can interact with
#    the session.
#
# 0: Disabled. The session is shared in view-only mode. User
#    attaching to the desktop can't interact with the session.
#
#EnableInteractiveDesktopSharing = "1"

#
# NX server requires authorization from the owner of the NX session
# to share the session:
#
# 1: Enabled. NX server asks for authorization from the owner
#    of the desktop to share the session.
#
# 0: Disabled. NX server tries to share the native display
#    without the need for any authorization from the owner
#    of the desktop.
#
#EnableDesktopSharingAuthorization = "1"

# Allow the NX user to connect to a desktop owned by a user who is
# not an NX user:
#
# 1: Enabled. Allow an NX user to connect to a desktop owned
#     by a user who is not an NX user. This requires running a
#     privileged script as root and will work only if the node
#     is the same machine where NX server is running.
#
# 0: Disabled. An NX user can connect only to a desktop owned
#     by an NX user when EnableDesktopSharing is enabled.
#
#EnableFullDesktopSharing = "0"

# Allow the NX user to connect to a desktop owned by root:
#
# 1: Enabled. Allow an NX user to connect to a desktop owned by
#     root (or Administrator on a Windows machine). This requires
#     EnableFullDesktopSharing to be enabled.
#
# 0: Disabled. A NX user is forbidden to connect to a desktop
#     owned by root.
#
#EnableAdministratorDesktopSharing = "0"

#
# Enable or disable NX server requiring authorization before sharing
# the session either when the X server is running as root or gdm.
#
# 1: Enabled. NX server needs authorization to proceed with
#    sharing the session.
#
# 0: Disabled. NX server tries to share the native display
#   without the need for any authorization. Sharing the
#   session is also possible when a user is not logged
#   on to the local desktop.
#
#EnableSystemDesktopSharingAuthorization = "1"

Notes


	Adding support for desktop sharing in NX server
Nothing available.