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Version: v3

Desktop Environment

This section describes how to configure the desktop environment inside neko.

Neko uses the X Server as the display server with Openbox as the default window manager. For audio, PulseAudio is used.

config.yaml
desktop:
  display: "<display>"
  screen: "1280x720@30" # default
  • display refers to the X server that is running on the system. If it is not specified, the environment variable DISPLAY is used. The same display is referred to in the Capture configuration to capture the screen. In most cases, we want to use the same display for both.
  • screen refers to the screen resolution and refresh rate. The format is <width>x<height>@<refresh rate>. If not specified, the default is 1280x720@30.
tip

You can specify the screen resolution using the environment variable NEKO_DESKTOP_SCREEN.

Admin can change the resolution in the GUI.

Input Devices​

Neko uses the XTEST Extension Library to simulate keyboard and mouse events. However, for more advanced input devices like touchscreens, we need to use a custom driver that can be loaded as a plugin to the X server and then neko can connect to it.

note

Currently, only touchscreens are supported through the custom driver.

config.yaml
desktop:
  input:
    enabled: true # default
    socket: "/tmp/xf86-input-neko.sock" # default
  • enabled enables the input device support. If not specified, the default is false.
  • socket refers to the socket file that the custom driver creates. If not specified, the default is /tmp/xf86-input-neko.sock.
info

When using Docker, the custom driver is already included in the image and the socket file is created at /tmp/xf86-input-neko.sock. Therefore, no additional configuration is needed.

Unminimize​

Most of the time, only a single application is used in the minimal desktop environment without any taskbar or desktop icons. It could happen that the user accidentally minimizes the application and then it is not possible to restore it. To prevent this, we can use the unminimize feature that simply listens for the minimize event and restores the window back to the original state.

config.yaml
desktop:
  unminimize: true # default

Upload Drop​

The upload drop is a feature that allows the user to upload files to the application by dragging and dropping them into the application window. The files are then uploaded to the application and the application can process them.

The current approach is to catch the drag and drop events on the client side, upload them to the server along with the coordinates of the drop event, and then open an invisible overlay window on the server that has set the file path to the uploaded file and allows it to be dragged and dropped into the application. Then the mouse events are simulated to drag the file from the overlay window to the application window.

config.yaml
desktop:
  upload_drop: true # default

File Chooser Dialog​

danger

This feature is experimental and may not work as expected.

The file chooser dialog is a feature that allows handling the file chooser dialog in the application (for example, when uploading a file) externally. This means that the file chooser dialog is not displayed inside the neko desktop environment, but the neko client is requested to upload the file from the local filesystem.

The current approach is to put the file chooser dialog in the background as soon as it is displayed, prompt the user to upload the file, and then select this file in the file chooser dialog by simulating the keyboard events to navigate to the file and press the open button. This is very error-prone and may not work as expected.

config.yaml
desktop:
  file_chooser_dialog: false # default