Seaside/Squeak/Linux: service with GUI as needed

Hello all,

Is it reasonable to expect Squeak/Pharo with Seaside, and other tools to
perform as follows:

(1) Pharo image(s) run as service(s); the computer is (ab)used pretty
much as an appliance; technicians are told to plug in the network cable,
then turn on the box, and if all is well, it "just works".

(2) most (Smalltalk) configuration tasks happen via a Seaside interface.

(3) I realize that I can edit code through Seaside's halos, but I will
sometimes want to interact graphically with the Squeak image; it will be
doing other things beyond serving Seaside pages.  I envision (please
tell me if there are better ways) making a remote desktop (or similar)
connection to the server, stopping the offending service, and restarting
it as a desktop user to debug, save the changed image, exit, restart the
service, and log out.

Is this a SSH/VNC task, or is there a better way.  Some things I have
read appear to suggest that one can simply use VNC to attach to the
running Squeak service and a GUI instantly appears???  That seems too
slick to expect it to work.

Do things change if one replaces Linux with Windows?  I am trying to
escape, but it will take some time to complete the transfer.

Bill





Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
University of Florida
Department of Anesthesiology
PO Box 100254
Gainesville, FL 32610-0254

Email: [hidden email]
Tel: (352) 846-1285
FAX: (352) 392-7029

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>  (1) Pharo image(s) run as service(s); the computer is (ab)used pretty
>  much as an appliance; technicians are told to plug in the network cable,
>  then turn on the box, and if all is well, it "just works".

That's already possible.

>  (2) most (Smalltalk) configuration tasks happen via a Seaside interface.

What configuration tasks? If these are not yet available an interface
could certainly be built. OmniBrowser and the XUL integration is also
a possibility here.

>  (3) I realize that I can edit code through Seaside's halos, but I will
>  sometimes want to interact graphically with the Squeak image; it will be
>  doing other things beyond serving Seaside pages.  I envision (please
>  tell me if there are better ways) making a remote desktop (or similar)
>  connection to the server, stopping the offending service, and restarting
>  it as a desktop user to debug, save the changed image, exit, restart the
>  service, and log out.

OmniBrowser.

>  Is this a SSH/VNC task, or is there a better way.  Some things I have
>  read appear to suggest that one can simply use VNC to attach to the
>  running Squeak service and a GUI instantly appears???  That seems too
>  slick to expect it to work.

RemoteFrameBuffer is perfect to do that. Like this you start you image
headless on the server, and use a VNC client to connect to the screen
from anywhere. I use that on all my servers.

>  Do things change if one replaces Linux with Windows?  I am trying to
>  escape, but it will take some time to complete the transfer.

Linux is great for deployment. A long time ago I did some deployment
on Windows servers. What's inside the image (e.g. RemoteFrameBuffer)
works equally well. The host OS is not so cool ...

Cheers,
Lukas

--
Lukas Renggli
http://www.lukas-renggli.ch
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On Sat, 2008-07-12 at 21:52 +0200, Lukas Renggli wrote: Yes, me too. Do you think it would be possible to let the squeak browser
module do a vnc connection. That could be cool for some situations where
you just enter the https url of your admin site and connect from the
browser image to the production image. But I don't know if the squeak
module is able to connect on another port. Tunneling the vnc of port 80
would be some work and would destroy the benefit.

Norbert
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I don't understand what you mean? What is a module?

There is a web-based application (WAScreenshot) included with Seaside
that enables accessing the GUI of a headless image through the web. It
is a bit slow (it essentially just displays a screenshot) and not very
user-friendly (mouse clicks on the screenshot are forwarded to the
image) though.

If you use RemoteFrameBuffer (VNC) you are very likely tunneling
through an SSH connection anyway. I guess nobody wants to keep an
unencrypted VNC port open on their server.

Cheers,
Lukas

--
Lukas Renggli
http://www.lukas-renggli.ch
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On Mon, 2008-07-14 at 11:20 +0200, Lukas Renggli wrote: I don't know the name of the firefox extension to run a squeak vm inside
the browser. But I mean that.
That's right. I didn't think about this. So some would have to tunnel
it through http. Ok, forget it. Thanks!

Norbert

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>
> If you use RemoteFrameBuffer (VNC) you are very likely tunneling
> through an SSH connection anyway. I guess nobody wants to keep an
> unencrypted VNC port open on their server.
>
> Cheers,
> Lukas
>

I'm using nx server from nomachine for remote desktop linux. It goes on ssh and
do its magic noticeably fast.

        cheers,

Sebastian

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