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ksmithandClaude Sonnet 5 6da9dc6ca5 Add VNC support (Milestone 6, issue #3 )

Implements RFB (RFC 6143) directly against QTcpSocket. No permissively
licensed VNC client library exists to vendor the way FreeRDP was for RDP:
LibVNCClient is GPLv2, gtk-vnc is LGPL but GTK-tied, and vendoring either
would force a licensing decision on the whole (MIT) project. This is
from-scratch protocol code instead, threaded like SshSessionBackend (a
QObject on its own QThread driven by Qt's own async socket signals)
rather than RdpSessionBackend's manual worker-thread/blocking-loop
pattern, since QTcpSocket is already async.

Scope, matching SessionTab's existing SSH/RDP dispatch pattern
(session_backend_factory.cpp, session_tab.cpp's widget construction and
signal wiring) and VncDisplayWidget mirroring RdpDisplayWidget's
scale-to-fit rendering:
- Protocol handshake: RFB 3.3/3.7/3.8 negotiated explicitly (the
  SecurityResult message only exists in 3.8; pre-3.8 servers signal auth
  failure by closing the socket, which the disconnect handler accounts
  for)
- VNC Authentication (DES challenge-response, via OpenSSL's classic DES
  API) and no-auth security types
- Raw + CopyRect framebuffer decoding into a persistent QImage, requesting
  a fixed 32bpp format whose byte layout matches QImage::Format_RGB32
  directly (same zero-conversion trick RdpSessionBackend uses for
  FreeRDP's GDI buffer)
- Keyboard (Qt key -> X11 keysym, including the Unicode-beyond-Latin-1
  keysym convention) and mouse/wheel input forwarding

Explicit non-goals for this pass (see docs/PROGRESS.md for the full
list): Apple's Screen Sharing auth (so this can't yet reach macOS's
built-in VNC server), compression encodings beyond Raw/CopyRect, dynamic
resize, remote cursor shape sync, clipboard sync.

19 unit tests (tests/test_vnc_session_backend.cpp): pure-function
coverage (DES key prep verified against an independently documented test
vector for password "COW", X11 keysym mapping, socket-error mapping) plus
state-machine coverage against a scripted in-process fake RFB server
covering all three protocol-version handshake shapes, auth success/
failure, unsupported security types, and pixel-accurate Raw decoding.
That harness caught a real re-entrancy bug: QAbstractSocket::abort()
synchronously re-emits disconnected() before returning, so
failConnection() calling it was silently letting a second, generic
disconnected-socket handler overwrite an already-correct, specific error
message.

Also verified live against a real, independently implemented VNC server
(TightVNC on Windows): connect with VNC Authentication, correct
framebuffer dimensions and pixel data, clean disconnect, reconnect.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-09-15 18:02:49 -06:00

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OrbitHub

OrbitHub is a cross-platform native desktop app for managing and launching remote sessions from one place.

It is implemented in C++17 with Qt6 Widgets and built with CMake.

Supported target platforms:

Windows
Linux
macOS

Current Status

OrbitHub is in active development.

Milestones completed: M0-M9
Current milestone: Milestone 10 (v1.0 Stabilization)
Latest checkpoint tag: v2026.9.15
VNC (M6) covers standard VNC Authentication and no-auth servers; see docs/PROGRESS.md for known gaps (Apple Screen Sharing auth, compression encodings, resize, cursor sync, clipboard)

Progress and milestone details:

docs/PROGRESS.md

Latest release (installers for Windows, Linux, and macOS):

v2026.9.15

User Guide:

docs/USER_GUIDE.md (also available as a PDF attached to each release, and in-app via Help -> User Guide)

Screenshots

Profiles organized into folders, with protocol, host, and tags shown at a glance. (Sample data shown; not real hosts.)

An interactive SSH terminal session in a tab, with the event log below.

An embedded RDP session in a tab.

Implemented Features

Profile Management

SQLite-backed profile storage
Create, edit, delete profiles
Protocol-aware profile validation (SSH/RDP/VNC)
Profile search and sorting
Tags support
Folder/subfolder support
List and Folders profile views
Right-click profile tree actions:
- New Folder
- New Connection
Drag-and-drop profile moves between folders with persistence

Session Experience

Multi-tab session window
Auto-connect on tab open
Disconnect on tab close
Session state indicators on tabs
Timestamped event log with filtering and export

SSH

Embedded interactive terminal (in-app typing)
Theme support (Dark, Light, Solarized Dark)
Password and private-key auth flows
Known-hosts policy support

RDP

Embedded in-window RDP rendering surface (no external launcher)
Keyboard/mouse input forwarding
Resize handling and resolution renegotiation
Domain-aware authentication support
RDP security/performance profile options

App UX

App icon and themed About dialog
File menu:
- New Profile
- New Folder
- Quit
Help menu:
- About OrbitHub

Build and Run

Detailed platform instructions:

docs/BUILDING.md

Quick start (Linux/macOS with Ninja):

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja
cmake --build build
./build/orbithub

Packaging

Detailed packaging instructions for all platforms:

docs/BUILDING.md

Linux (.deb):

./packaging/linux/build-deb.sh

Linux (Flatpak):

./packaging/flatpak/build-flatpak.sh

Windows (Inno Setup installer):

.\packaging\windows\build-installer.ps1

macOS (.dmg):

./packaging/macos/build-dmg.sh

Dependencies

Core dependencies:

Qt 6 (Widgets, SQL)
CMake 3.21+
C++17 toolchain

Protocol/runtime dependencies:

SSH client (ssh) available on PATH for SSH sessions

Bundled/vendored third-party components:

KodoTerm
libvterm
FreeRDP/WinPR

Licensing

Project license:

MIT (see LICENSE)

License links:

MIT License: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
GNU LGPLv3: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.html
Apache License 2.0: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Important third-party license notes:

Qt6 is dynamically linked in this project build setup.
Qt6 is used under LGPLv3 terms in this project build setup.
KodoTerm and libvterm are MIT-licensed.
FreeRDP/WinPR is Apache-2.0 licensed.

Repository license files:

See in-app Help -> About OrbitHub for license links and third-party inventory.

Repository Structure

src/ - application source code
docs/ - build guide, spec, and progress tracking
third_party/ - vendored third-party dependencies
build/ - local build output (generated)

Notes

Passwords are requested at connect time and are not stored in the profile database.
VNC support covers standard VNC Authentication and no-auth servers (e.g. TigerVNC, x11vnc, TightVNC); it doesn't yet reach macOS's built-in Screen Sharing server, which uses a different authentication scheme (see docs/PROGRESS.md, Milestone 6).

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