Broadway enables you to use your GTK apps right in the web desktop.

Broadway doesn't virtualize apps, it's a GTK backend (thus, it's faster). Instead of rendering apps on the screen (with the X server/Wayland/other), it's streaming it via WebSockets (compressed, and only updated regions are refreshed).

Resources:

• Official documentation: https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/broadwayd.html
• World of Gnome article: http://worldofgnome.org/running-gtk-apps-on-web-with-node-broadway/
• LinuxFr article (in French): http://linuxfr.org/users/ondex2/journaux/gtkhtml5-libreoffice-dans-le-cloud

This is an experimental technology! Use it carefully!

You'll have to install Broadway on your server:

• In Ubuntu: https://launchpad.net/~malizor/+archive/gtk-broadway
• In Archlinux: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/gtk3-broadway/

You'll have to install the branch feat-broadway of Symbiose in order to get latest Broadway updates in the webos.

First, start the Broadway server:

broadwayd -a 0.0.0.0 -p 8080 :2

Options:

• -a: the bind address
• -p: the server port
• :2: the display name

Open a terminal on your server, and execute the following commands:

export GDK_BACKEND=broadway
export BROADWAY_DISPLAY=:2

And execute the app you want to use, for example gnome-calculator or soffice --writer (LibreOffice).

To use LibreOffice, you must execute export SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk3 before running soffice --writer, in order to use GTK3. See https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Using_LibreOffice_in_a_Web_Browser

Then, you should be able to access http://localhost:8080 (replace the domain by yours).

You should be able to run multiple instances of broadwayd, just be sure to use a different port and display for each of them.

Once configured, enable Broadway support in the webos. For the moment, you'll have to execute this command in a Symbiose terminal: broadway.

Options:

• -H or --host: specify the host to connect to (e.g. broadway --host http://example.com:8081). Defaults to http://localhost:8080.

To start the Broadway server, execute broadwayd from a Symbiose terminal. You will then be able to start an app by typing its name.

Config is stored in /etc/broadway.

You can find logs in:

• /var/log/broadway-server.log for the server
• /var/log/broadway-apps.log for GTK3 apps

You can change the GTK theme by editing ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini (see http://worldofgnome.org/running-gtk-apps-on-web-with-node-broadway/ section Theming):

[Settings]
gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme=0
gtk-theme-name=Adwaita

Assumed you have Adwaita theme installed (you can choose another e.g. Elementary if you want).

Here are a full list of settings you can tweak: https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/GtkSettings.html#GtkSettings.properties