Add Option to Make X11 Server Directly Accessible via HTTP

[sedstr]

Describe the feature

I've used X11 for over 30 years in my job managing headless *NIX servers and VMs with low-res consoles.
The push to drop X11 on "Enterprise" Linux distros makes little sense to me, especially when it comes to IBM/RedHat - DB2, Cognos and dozens of other "Enterprise" products still require X11 displays for their installers and management tools, and dropping 32bit support, 99% of IBM's Linux installers and management tools are still 32bit! But I digress...

Several years ago, a little known feature of the GTK project got me excited - Broadway. This feature allowed me to export my display as a webserver on a loopback IP - using port forwarding over ssh is secure enough in my book.
I was then able to access my X11 apps in a browser, avoiding the need to run a local X11 server. It has many issues but its convenient for displaying and using trivial tools. With appropriate compensating controls, its secure enough.
I get rather frustrated with having to fix security issues that would only be a problem if my server was sitting unattended in McDonalds.

Anyway, development on Broadway seems to fall off, it would be great if Broadway could be considered as X11Libre moves forward, so Broadway still works, or even better, pull it into the X11Libre project and make it even better?

I'm not capable of contributing to the codebase, bit I very much appreciate what X11Libre represents (Open Source) and I know many people who feel the same way.

It should be implemented because

Broadway is just another option that makes X11 better.

What are the alternatives?

X11 Servers, but its always nice to have options

Additional context

https://docs.gtk.org/gtk4/broadway.html

Extra fields

• I have checked the existing issues
• I have read the Contributing Guidelines
• I'd like to work on this issue

[CustardEddy]

Perhaps a more generic title, such as "Add Option to Make X11 Server Directly Accessible via HTTP(S)"?

[roryyamm]

If I remember correctly, there's an option to enable this in Xpra. I distinctly recall using the HTML5 functionality on my smartphone a couple times, with some success.

[steven-vd]

Access via http would be neat, but baking it into the X server seems like bloat. I think a nicer solution would be to have a simple http server (separate binary from x11libre) that forwards messages to and from the X server. Apparently Broadway manages a DOM, but it should be possible to just blit to a single HTML canvas with width and height at 100%.

[mintplague]

it should be possible to just blit to a single HTML canvas with width and height at 100%.

Might as well use noVNC at that point.

[callmetango]

Thank you for your contribution! Access via HTTP is not within the direct scope of XLibre project, which is bound to the X11 protocol.

This issues will converted to a discussion and moved to X11Libre 1 New Ideas · Discussions · GitHub to understand the use cases, look for existing solutions and refine it.

[callmetango]

@sedstr Could these solutions fulfill your requirements:

• novnc/noVNC: VNC client web application
• Xpra-org/xpra: Persistent remote applications for X11; screen sharing for X11, MacOS and MSWindows., especially Xpra-org/xpra-html5: HTML5 client for Xpra
  ?

[cepelinas9000]

I think idea could be: teach modesetting driver to produce output to texture. It will have all desktop capacities and if necessary all gpu acceleration. Then this output can be consumed with gstreamer or similar tools (vaapi) then by small service provided to user: over http, direct to pipe over ssh or whatever.

top of head few small cons: need to think how input to server from user performed and server side refresh rate (fps) generation.