Port to Gtk3 and Python3 #9

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-04-02T12:49:42Z

The activity is working as expected.
The Pr includes-
Port to Gtk3
Python3
Fixes #2.
Fixes #3.
Fixes #7.

vnclauncher.py

chimosky · 2020-04-02T13:49:27Z

Reviewed, thanks.

a1c423b contains changes not included in the commit message.

Starting a server throws this error,

/home/ibiam/Activities/VncLauncher/bin/x86-64/x11vnc: error while loading shared
libraries: libssl.so.10: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

0493182 could have a better commit message.

You can consider demoting logging as the logs seem to be noisy.

As this is a Port to Gtk3, you should change the use of jarabe.model.network in L35 of vnclauncher.py, you can look at sugar-toolkit-gtk3 for a replacement.

Also consider fixing #7.

Kindly test your changes before making a PR.

vnclauncher.py

quozl · 2020-04-02T17:19:02Z

Please review and re-use any changes from #4 which was closed after progress stalled. When re-using, use "git commit --author" to credit properly.

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-04-03T06:22:17Z

@quozl Reviewed #4 didn't find anything . The changes are almost same.
@chimosky
/home/ibiam/Activities/VncLauncher/bin/x86-64/x11vnc: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.10: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
can be faced when your SSL is not installed or updated. If libssl is installed then cause of this error is a different name for the same library present. So you have to create a symbolic link with libssl.so.10 to lib.so.1.0.0(if it is the library present in system). Symbolic links can be created by these commands-

cd /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu
sudo ln -s libssl.so.1.0.0 libssl.so.10
sudo ln -s libcrypto.so.1.0.0 libcrypto.so.10

The steps for installation are-

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libssl1.0.0 libssl-dev
cd /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu
sudo ln -s libssl.so.1.0.0 libssl.so.10
sudo ln -s libcrypto.so.1.0.0 libcrypto.so.10
The question is here now that do we need to put these libraries in activity itself because it is problem of ubuntu itself so can't be solved without re-installation libraries or creating symbolic links.

quozl · 2020-04-03T08:14:02Z

The installation steps are not practical. A child learner or elementary school teacher won't be able to follow those steps, because they are too complex, or because they require administration rights. The x11vnc file is also very very old, so we can't use it. See #7 for how this should be fixed.

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-04-03T14:53:20Z

@quozl What vnc file we can use other than x11vnc file to remove #7 .I am not getting this. Do we need replacement of vnc file?

chimosky · 2020-04-03T15:01:34Z

There's a checklist in #7, you can take a look at it.

To elaborate, use distro specific binaries as the ones used in the activity are old and have vulnerabilities.

quozl · 2020-04-04T02:30:12Z

@quozl What vnc file we can use other than x11vnc file to remove #7 .I am not getting this. Do we need replacement of vnc file?

Sorry, I did think it was obvious, and surprised I have to explain. 😁 Rephrasing part of #7, /usr/bin/x11vnc is available on Linux as a package, so assume it to be present as a system dependency.

It is much the same reason why we don't include /usr/bin/python in this repository. We could include python, but then we'd be running an old version of python fairly quickly.

In future, strategic plans for an issue are best discussed in the issue; #7, otherwise we fragment the discussion.

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-04-30T06:56:45Z

@quozl If you want to merge , you can merge this pr , I will create a new one for #7 , as it is difficult to find all related dependencies related to x11vnc. Thanks

chimosky · 2020-04-30T16:48:14Z

@quozl If you want to merge , you can merge this pr , I will create a new one for #7 , as it is difficult to find all related dependencies related to x11vnc. Thanks

I think the fix for #7 needs to be incorporated here so we can know if the activity works as intended and why are you looking for all dependencies related to x11vnc if I may ask?

The idea behind #7 is using a distro specific binary when available, pkgs.org lists the x11vnc package name for various distros.

You'll want to;

Install x11vnc in your test environment.
Make the necessary changes .ie. remove support for the use of embedded binaries and use distro package if present.
add a warning to advise of any missing dependency when the activity is started, if x11vnc isn't installed.
add dependency for Fedora and Ubuntu to README.md, (see other activities with detailed dependencies for examples)

The x11vnc homepage might be of help.

quozl · 2020-05-01T07:27:54Z

I agree, it should be straightforward, and you don't need to know the dependencies of x11vnc as these will be handled automatically by whatever package management system is used.

It may help to understand why this situation happened. The activity was written for the OLPC XO laptop. Activities could not depend on the ability to install dependencies, because they did not run as root, and there was an amazing security system called Bitfrost. So activities that needed dependencies ended up with embedded binaries, which complicated their maintenance but got the job done.

Now, the activities don't have to focus on the same environment, and we can assume that the user has the capacity to install dependencies if needed.

This does mean that any user who downloads the .xo bundle from a Sugar app store won't necessarily be able to install the dependency, which is why the warning is needed.

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-05-02T14:07:02Z

@chimosky @quozl Thanks for your suggestions. Now I am thinking to include a script related to installation of x11vnc which must work on all distros possible.. and I will add steps for running the script in Readme. Will It be good or not, You both suggest please.

chimosky · 2020-05-02T15:53:27Z

I think adding a script for it is a bit overkill, you can just include instructions for some distros in the Readme - there's an existing commit you can look at for such -.

…

On Sat, May 2, 2020, 3:07 PM Saumya Mishra ***@***.***> wrote: @chimosky <https://github.com/chimosky> @quozl <https://github.com/quozl> Thanks for your suggestions. Now I am thinking to include a script related to installation of x11vnc which must work on all distros possible.. and I will add steps for running the script in Readme. Will It be good or not, You both suggest please. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#9 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AD3UAOREJOCMKNCOKBROOTLRPQSJFANCNFSM4L2MM2ZA> .

quozl · 2020-05-04T01:10:49Z

@Saumya-Mishra9129, thanks for the offer, but I don't think a script is needed.

Let me put this activity into perspective.

it is for teachers to use,
it shares the display of a Sugar system on a local network,
it does not provide any authentication or password.

It's 2006. When the OLPC XO was produced, classroom displays and projectors were rare and expensive, and usually were not available in the third-world global-south where we wanted to deploy the laptops. So we did not include an external socket for connecting to them. This saved cost, risks of a physical gap in the casing, risks of electrostatic discharge damage, risks of a VGA connector being used to bend the circuit board when someone tripped over a cable, and VGA connectors had a limited lifetime of several hundred insertion removal cycles. We also increased a focus on collaboration via wireless networking. Sugar was part of OLPC XO product and was not easily available on other computers.

It's 2008. The VNC Launcher activity was also created, by volunteers, to provide a way for teachers in first-world scenarios to use a projector with an attached computer.

It's 2020. What has changed since then;

Sugar can be run on ordinary computers, and demonstrated using a projector,
most laptops now have external video connectors of some sort, (HDMI is reasonably ESD resistant and the connector would more likely break rather than transfer significant force to the laptop),
cost of displays and projectors has fallen, by a factor or ten or more,
risk of automated network attack has risen, along with a focus on encryption and security protocols,

I don't recommend spending much effort in maintaining this activity. It is such a small corner case, and the people who need it will have the skills to follow instructions. They won't need a script. We also can't afford to maintain a script against changes made to all distros.

Hope that helps!

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-05-08T07:21:48Z

@Saumya-Mishra9129, thanks for the offer, but I don't think a script is needed.
Let me put this activity into perspective.
it is for teachers to use,
it shares the display of a Sugar system on a local network,
it does not provide any authentication or password.
It's 2006. When the OLPC XO was produced, classroom displays and projectors were rare and expensive, and usually were not available in the third-world global-south where we wanted to deploy the laptops. So we did not include an external socket for connecting to them. This saved cost, risks of a physical gap in the casing, risks of electrostatic discharge damage, risks of a VGA connector being used to bend the circuit board when someone tripped over a cable, and VGA connectors had a limited lifetime of several hundred insertion removal cycles. We also increased a focus on collaboration via wireless networking. Sugar was part of OLPC XO product and was not easily available on other computers.
It's 2008. The VNC Launcher activity was also created, by volunteers, to provide a way for teachers in first-world scenarios to use a projector with an attached computer.
It's 2020. What has changed since then;
Sugar can be run on ordinary computers, and demonstrated using a projector,
most laptops now have external video connectors of some sort, (HDMI is reasonably ESD resistant and the connector would more likely break rather than transfer significant force to the laptop),
cost of displays and projectors has fallen, by a factor or ten or more,
risk of automated network attack has risen, along with a focus on encryption and security protocols,
I don't recommend spending much effort in maintaining this activity. It is such a small corner case, and the people who need it will have the skills to follow instructions. They won't need a script. We also can't afford to maintain a script against changes made to all distros.
Hope that helps!

Yeah!! It will help for sure. Now I think including instructions for some distros in the Readme will be enough for it. Thanks

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-05-16T19:09:37Z

@quozl @chimosky @pro-panda I have done with changes required for x11vnc , kindly review now. Done as suggested by @chimosky here.

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-05-16T19:32:50Z

Perhaps we can think here for releasing new version as specified in #1 . Also activity doesn't specify a license.

README.md

quozl · 2020-05-21T07:21:48Z

I guess so.

Users of this activity are teachers, and the instructions from 2011 do give some indication.

If you think teachers won't be able to use IP addresses, then I guess the next thing to try is registering an mDNS name on the network and having the VNC client use that.

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-06-02T11:43:58Z

@JuiP Can you please look and plan for a new release of activity?

I guess so.

Users of this activity are teachers, and the instructions from 2011 do give some indication.

If you think teachers won't be able to use IP addresses, then I guess the next thing to try is registering an mDNS name on the network and having the VNC client use that.

Can we plan a release now, and leave it as I tried to find out the ways , I got to know about python3-avahi but it is not supported by all linux distributions, I couldn't find it for Ubuntu.
Also can you look for a merge, so that @JuiP can start on new release.

quozl · 2020-06-02T22:30:30Z

PyGObject has an Avahi API. I've not used it.

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-06-05T07:44:15Z

PyGObject has an Avahi API. I've not used it.

Yeah I saw about this. But I have no experience with this and how this works. I am planning to work on this. But for now it would be out of scope of this pull request. I will make a new one probably after implementing Avahi.

quozl · 2020-06-22T08:01:00Z

Please read the manual page for x11vnc, in particular the -avahi option.

Tested.

the Vte does not have focus to begin with, so nothing can be done without clicking in the widget first,
exiting the Vte with ctrl+d or exit does not exit the activity; this is unlike Terminal; possibly the problem was fixed in Terminal long ago but the sources have diverged,
there is no message to inform the user that /usr/bin/x11vnc is not available; the button just inserts the command into the Vte without pressing enter, and when you press enter the shell reports No such file or directory,
when in Sugar Ad-hoc network mode, the current IP address is not displayed, instead "Error!! check connection", workaround is to use Sugar Frame F6
README.md should advise use of apt not apt-get,
in the default operating mode, x11vnc is used insecurely, related to but not mentioned in Cannot be used; critical security vulnerabilities #7,
the critical how to use information at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/VNC_Launcher should be in the README.md instead of being externally hosted,
no information is present on how to install a vncviewer (e.g. sudo apt install xtightvncviewer), and run it,

That said, it does work.

configparser accepts <class 'str'> as *args. Boolean and integer args had to be converted to str

Fixes TypeError: Expected a Vte.CursorBlinkMode, but got str

TypeError: Must be number, not str

configparser accepts str as argument. Boolean and integers values need to be converted to str first

Vte didn't had focus to begin with. Workaround was to click in the widget first

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-08-07T20:37:25Z

Update - Please review till 05995ea. @chimosky @quozl .

quozl · 2020-08-08T02:58:16Z

scenario of two IP addresses (wireless and ethernet) still isn't handled; while we had discussed using Zeroconf/mDNS above, you decided against it, so that leaves the problem of having to handle the scenario,
the README.md doesn't show how to use the activity,
the README.md explains how to install a VNC viewer, but it isn't the packaged viewer available for the operating system.

Re: my earlier comment #9 (comment) ... I still don't see this winning any users. As far as I can see from the limited information; a teacher would have to install this activity on her device, install x11vnc on her device, then for each child device install a VNC viewer, and teach the child how to type a Terminal command. Where's the corresponding viewer activity? This search is interesting; there's a viewer that isn't on GitHub yet.

(Also, for history, one of the reasons the activity existed was because the OLPC XO had no external monitor socket, and teachers with classroom projectors needed a way to show the Sugar desktop from an XO using their Windows classroom system. They would install this activity on the XO, a VNC viewer on their Windows system, and demo from there. The method we eventually settled on at OLPC was to sell USB to VGA adapters. Now, the latest OLPC hardware has external monitor sockets.)

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-08-08T07:29:48Z

I still don't see this winning any users. As far as I can see from the limited information; a teacher would have to install this activity on her device, install x11vnc on her device, then for each child device install a VNC viewer, and teach the child how to type a Terminal command.

In 51344d9, I tried to give a feature by which when a user installs activity for the first time, he/she will be automatically able to install x11vnc without a need to type terminal commands. I tested it with Ubuntu and Debian, If @chimosky can test this with fedora then it will be good to go.

Where's the corresponding viewer activity? This search is interesting; there's a viewer that isn't on GitHub yet.

Thanks I saw this , but no information where source code can be found. Should we try to contact to Author of the Xo VNC Viewer. ?

scenario of two IP addresses (wireless and ethernet) still isn't handled; while we had discussed using Zeroconf/mDNS above, you decided against it, so that leaves the problem of having to handle the scenario,

I couldn't find a way to use x11vnc 's avahi option. I am trying to find out a way.

the README.md explains how to install a VNC viewer, but it isn't the packaged viewer available for the operating system.

Actually I think it is a easy way to install RealVNC this way. Setting up TightVNC with terminal is so complex , It requires a large setup. Downloading this way can work on Windows and Linux both as you mentioned about windows also above.

vnclauncher.py

chimosky · 2020-08-08T16:20:06Z

vnclauncher.py

+                if platform.version().find("Ubuntu") > -1 or platform.version().find("Debian"):
+                    cmd = "apt install x11vnc"
+                if platform.version().find("Fedora") > -1:


Might be better to use platform.linux_distribution()[0] because on fedora systems, platform.version().find("Fedora") will always return -1 as Fedora isn't part of the string returned by platform.version(). Although it's deprecated in python>=3.5.

Find a way to check for Fedora distros.

platform.platform() contains the necessary information.

Thanks Done in c733b9b.

chimosky · 2020-08-08T16:33:29Z

@quozl said

Re: my earlier comment #9 (comment) ... I still don't see this winning any users. As far as I can see from the limited information; a teacher would have to install this activity on her device, install x11vnc on her device, then for each child device install a VNC viewer, and teach the child how to type a Terminal command.

I agree.

quozl · 2020-08-10T05:37:57Z

@Saumya-Mishra9129 wrote:

Should we try to contact to Author of the Xo VNC Viewer. ?

What for? We have the activity bundle, isn't that enough to begin with?

An ideal VNC activity would offer a "share my desktop" button, support Sugar Toolkit collaboration, and joiners would automatically start a VNC viewer, perhaps in read-only mode. Obtaining the IP address through the collaboration stack is fairly easy, see the Level activity for details.

- add x11vnc dependency for Fedora , Ubuntu and Debian. - add info required to install VNC Viewer. - Modify how to use section

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-08-10T21:00:03Z

What for? We have the activity bundle, isn't that enough to begin with?.

Yeah It is. Thanks. I will try to look at the bundle and will what maintenance required there.

@quozl

the README.md doesn't show how to use the activity,

This I have tried to do in 64df965. You can review.

quozl · 2020-08-11T05:58:03Z

Thanks. Updated checkboxes.

The activity was written for an OLPC XO years ago, which had one network device wlan0, which would have one IP address. Nowadays, We use sugar on laptops and computers with both wireless and wired network connections. The patch displays all the IP(IPv4 and IPV6) addresses assigned to your system (Wired and Wireless)

Saumya-Mishra9129 · 2020-08-13T12:02:09Z

fix multiple IP addresses issue 477d141,

@quozl Please review and if possible merge the changes. I have tested on Ubuntu and Debian works fine for both systems.
It looks like this -

chimosky reviewed Apr 2, 2020

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Saumya-Mishra9129 force-pushed the major branch from f92e28a to ce22c62 Compare April 2, 2020 14:53

Saumya-Mishra9129 added 3 commits April 2, 2020 20:31

Port to Gtk3 and Python3

640d881

Conflicts resolved

e73b355

fix feed_child type-error

1a17a4b

Saumya-Mishra9129 force-pushed the major branch from ce22c62 to 1a17a4b Compare April 2, 2020 15:02

double parentheses typo fixed

f94e119

chimosky reviewed Apr 2, 2020

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Gdk.RGBA color parsing and removed jarabe.model.network

e8fc911

Saumya-Mishra9129 force-pushed the major branch from dd01a25 to e8fc911 Compare April 3, 2020 14:49

Saumya-Mishra9129 added 2 commits May 16, 2020 23:53

remove embedded x11vnc binaries

bc7baee

Add a warning for missing dependency

8492c69

chimosky requested changes May 16, 2020

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Saumya-Mishra9129 added 6 commits August 8, 2020 00:39

Use str as arg in configparser

8ee0e5e

configparser accepts <class 'str'> as *args. Boolean and integer args had to be converted to str

Change method name : _configure_vte to configure_terminal

4fe5e66

Convert string config args to parseable set_cursor_blink_mode

6779857

Fixes TypeError: Expected a Vte.CursorBlinkMode, but got str

Fix TypeError on set_scrollback

a34a2a1

TypeError: Must be number, not str

Use str as args in configparser

e1941bc

configparser accepts str as argument. Boolean and integers values need to be converted to str first

Fix Vte Focus

7c3ea6b

Vte didn't had focus to begin with. Workaround was to click in the widget first

Saumya-Mishra9129 force-pushed the major branch from a007853 to 05995ea Compare August 7, 2020 20:35

chimosky reviewed Aug 8, 2020

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chimosky reviewed Aug 8, 2020

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Saumya-Mishra9129 added 3 commits August 11, 2020 02:20

Update README.md

64df965

- add x11vnc dependency for Fedora , Ubuntu and Debian. - add info required to install VNC Viewer. - Modify how to use section

Fix Exit of Vte with ctrl+d or exit

08ba9f3

Add Message Dialog to install x11vnc

c733b9b

Saumya-Mishra9129 force-pushed the major branch from 05995ea to c733b9b Compare August 10, 2020 20:55

Saumya-Mishra9129 force-pushed the major branch from a6cf893 to c2367cf Compare August 13, 2020 11:34

Saumya-Mishra9129 force-pushed the major branch from c2367cf to 477d141 Compare August 13, 2020 11:46

quozl merged commit ca1d3bc into sugarlabs:master Aug 13, 2020

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Port to Gtk3 and Python3 #9

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Port to Gtk3 and Python3 #9

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