[winswitch] Windiws client usage (was: Re: BUG: Mouse pointer stops working in multi-/single display setup)

[Antoine Martin]

> I used GSSAPI authentication first and needed to pass certain options to
plink. I didn't see how this works with winswitch/xpra. (Is it possible?
Particularly, supplying a session name or SSH public key would be
interesting)
I am not at all sure how well this works with plink and command line
arguments, but this is what the "--ssh=" flag is for.

> I found that I can save my settings in a *.xpra file. Nice!
Another little known feature, probably because of the lack of documentation
is xpra URL launch support:
xpra://[mode:]host:port/?param1=value1&param2=value2
ie:
xpra attach "xpra://tcp:localhost:10000/?encoding=png&mmap=false"

> But even when I select "Raw RGB + zlib..." the client starts off with
H.264. I need to change to RGB manually. Is this a bug?
How do you select it?
Setting "--encoding=rgb" should always work.
That would be a bug.

> When I select "Disconnect", the app terminates but the tray icon stays
there until I hover over it. Usually this is a sign that something crashes
and Shell_NotifyIcon is not called properly. Is this a bug?
Sounds like it :(

> When I double click the *.xpra file, the launcher opens. Is it possible
to connect automatically?
Yes, just add:
autoconnect=True

>  Similarly, is the xpra file format documented some where?
The file can contain the exact same option as the xpra.conf file which are
the same as the command line arguments.

> The command line arguments?
Yes, try: "xpra --help" (or "xpra_cmd.exe --help" on win32).
There is also "man xpra", and on win32 and osx version 0.15 will include
the manual page in html format.

> Out of curiosity: Which features/advantages does the native client have
against the "xpra attach + X forwarding + cygwin X11 server" solution?
I don't use X-forwarding with cygwin, so I can't be sure which features
will be missing. But for sure: sound forwarding, the tray applet?, video
compression (not necessarily useful if you have bandwidth to spare), etc -
maybe look at:
http://xpra.org/trac/wiki/Enhancements

> BTW, just a suggestion (I am sure it is not easily possible): I just
started to create different virtual desktops per application - so I can
access them on needed basis. It would be great if one tray icon would
handle all current connections and you could supply a name for it (instead
of one tray icon/X server per connection and title "username at server:3454".
It would be possible, but very very difficult to implement!

Cheers
Antoine


On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 1:30 AM, Lukas Haase <lukashaase at gmx.at> wrote:

> Hi Antoine,
>
> > [...]
> > (snip)
> > >>> Server: CentOS 6 with official repository (xpra v0.14.11)
> > >>> Client: Windows 7, Cygwin SSH server, connection over SSH +
> Forwarding.
> > >> I assume you mean Cygwin SSH client here?
> > > I am actually using Putty/plink.exe with X forwarding.
> > Oh dear.
> > >> Can you paste the command line that you use for connecting? (I can't
> > >> remember the last time I tried to use xpra with Cygwin's ssh instead
> of
> > >> plink - good to know it still works)
> > > I just use (this is in my connect.cmd):
> > >
> > >     plink.exe -X -load "my-remote-server" "~/xpra_client.sh"
> > >
> > > where my-remote-server is just a stored PuTTY session.
> > >
> > > xpra_client.sh on the server just contains:
> > >
> > >     xpra attach :1984 --no-keyboard-sync --encoding=rgb
> > Why bother with an X11 server on Windows when you can just use the
> > native client instead? That's bizarre.
>
> Well, the reason was three-fold:
>
> 1.) In the beginning I used X fowarding extensively and had the cygwin
> X-server installed anways. All that I needed was persistance. Not needing
> to install any application on client is what I regarded as great advantage.
>
> 2.) I started using xpra on a server machine where I had no root access
> ... and installed xpra with some python modules into the home directory so
> the setup was pretty weird. I could not get the (winswitch) client working
> with it. It did not have much documentation or debug output so I just gave
> up (too quickly!) ... and just used X forwarding.
>
> 3.) I used GSSAPI authentication first and needed to pass certain options
> to plink. I didn't see how this works with winswitch/xpra. (Is it possible?
> Particularly, supplying a session name or SSH public key would be
> interesting)
>
> But I took the opportunity now to give it one more try: Yay, it works now,
> great!
> And I am happy to not have a DOS box with plink running any more. :-) :-)
> Client looks great!
> The docu is unfortunately still missing ;-) (or I don't find it).
>
> I found that I can save my settings in a *.xpra file. Nice!
>
> * But even when I select "Raw RGB + zlib..." the client starts off with
> H.264. I need to change to RGB manually. Is this a bug?
>
> * When I select "Disconnect", the app terminates but the tray icon stays
> there until I hover over it. Usually this is a sign that something crashes
> and Shell_NotifyIcon is not called properly. Is this a bug?
>
> * When I double click the *.xpra file, the launcher opens. Is it possible
> to connect automatically? Similarly, is the xpra file format documented
> some where? The command line arguments?
>
> > You're getting the "screen for X11" part of xpra, but you're missing out
> > on a number of important features.
>
> Out of curiosity: Which features/advantages does the native client have
> against the "xpra attach + X forwarding + cygwin X11 server" solution?
>
> BTW, just a suggestion (I am sure it is not easily possible): I just
> started to create different virtual desktops per application - so I can
> access them on needed basis. It would be great if one tray icon would
> handle all current connections and you could supply a name for it (instead
> of one tray icon/X server per connection and title "username at server:3454".
>
> Regards
> Lukas
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