Installation on other distributions

Looking Glass Client

This guide will step you through building the looking glass client from source, before you attempt to do this you should have a basic understanding of how to use the shell.

Building the Application

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Installing Build Dependencies

These required libraries and tools should be installed first.

Required Dependencies

• cmake
• gcc | clang
• fonts-freefont-ttf
• libegl-dev
• libgl-dev
• libfontconfig1-dev
• libgmp-dev
• libsdl2-dev
• libsdl2-ttf-dev
• libspice-protocol-dev
• make
• nettle-dev
• pkg-config

May be disabled

These dependencies are required by default, but may be omitted if their feature is disabled when running cmake.

• Disable with cmake -DENABLE_BACKTRACE=no
  • binutils-dev
• Disable with cmake -DENABLE_X11=no
  • libx11-dev
  • libxfixes-dev
  • libxi-dev
  • libxss-dev
• Disable with cmake -DENABLE_WAYLAND=no
  • libwayland-bin
  • libwayland-dev
  • wayland-protocols

Debian (and maybe Ubuntu)

apt-get install binutils-dev cmake fonts-freefont-ttf libfontconfig1-dev libsdl2-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libspice-protocol-dev libx11-dev nettle-dev wayland-protocols

Fedora 29+

dnf install binutils-devel cmake texlive-gnu-freefont fontconfig-devel SDL2-devel SDL2_ttf-devel spice-protocol libX11-devel nettle-devel wayland-protocols-devel \
            gcc libXScrnSaver-devel libXfixes-devel libXi-devel wayland-devel

OpenSuSE Leap 15.0+

zypper install binutils-devel make cmake fontconfig-devel libSDL2-devel libSDL2_ttf-devel spice-protocol-devel libX11-devel libnettle-devel wayland-protocols-devel \
               libconfig-devel libXi-devel libXss-devel libwayland-egl-devel nettle

Arch Linux / Manjaro

pacman -Syu binutils cmake gnu-free-fonts fontconfig sdl2 sdl2_ttf spice-protocol libx11 nettle \
            gcc make pkgconf glu

Void Linux

xbps-install -Syu binutils-devel cmake freefont-ttf fontconfig-devel SDL2-devel SDL2_ttf-devel spice-protocol libX11-devel nettle-devel \
                  gcc make pkg-config

Gentoo

First set up the necessary USE flags if needed:

echo "media-libs/libsdl2 gles2" >> /etc/portage/package.use/libsdl2
echo "media-libs/nettle gmp" >> /etc/portage/package.use/nettle

Then fetch the packages:

emerge sys-devel/binutils dev-util/cmake media-fonts/freefonts media-libs/libsdl2 media-libs/sdl2-ttf app-emulation/spice-protocol \
       media-libs/fontconfig dev-libs/nettle \
       media-libs/glu

This list can also be placed into a setfile in /etc/portage/sets/ so that they can be updated with

emerge @setfile

Downloading

Either visit the site at Looking Glass Download Page

Or pull the lastest bleeding-edge version using the git command.

Note: If you are using the latest bleeding-edge from the master branch you MUST download/use the corresponding host application

git clone --recursive https://github.com/gnif/LookingGlass.git

Building

If you downloaded the file via the web link then you should have a 'zip' file. Simply unzip and cd into the new directory. If you used 'git' then cd into the 'LookingGlass' directory.

mkdir client/build
cd client/build
cmake ../
make

NOTE

The most common compile error is related to backtrace support. This can be disabled by adding the following option to the cmake command: -DENABLE_BACKTRACE=0, however, if you disable this and need support for a crash please be sure to use gdb to obtain a backtrace manually or there is nothing that can be done to help you.

Should this all go well you should be left with the file looking-glass-client. Before you run the client you will first need to configure either Libvirt or Qemu (whichever you prefer) and then set up the Windows side service.

You can call the client from the build directory; or, you can make it callable generally by adding the directory to your path or issuing

ln -s $(pwd)/looking-glass-client /usr/local/bin/

from the build directory.

libvirt Configuration

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This article assumes you already have a fully functional libvirt VM with PCI Passthrough working on a dedicated monitor. If you do not please ensure this is configured before you proceed.

If you use virt-manager, this guide also applies to you, since it uses libvirt.

If you are using QEMU directly, this does not apply to you.

Add the following to the libvirt machine configuration inside the 'devices' section by running "virsh edit VM" where VM is the name of your virtual machine.

<shmem name='looking-glass'>
  <model type='ivshmem-plain'/>
  <size unit='M'>32</size>
</shmem>

The memory size (show as 32 in the example above) may need to be adjusted as per Determining Memory section.

Spice Server

If you would like to use Spice to give you keyboard and mouse input along with clipboard sync support, make sure you have a <graphics type='spice'> device, then:

• Find your <video> device, and set <model type='none'/>
  • If you can't find it, make sure you have a <graphics> device, save and edit again
  • On older libvirt versions, just disable the device in Windows Device Manager
• Remove the <input type='tablet'/> device, if you have one
• Create an <input type='mouse'/> device, if you don't already have one
• Create an <input type='keyboard' bus='virtio'/> device to improve keyboard usage
  • This requires the vioinput driver from virtio-win to be installed in the guest

If you want clipboard synchronization please see FAQ#How to enable clipboard synchronization via SPICE

AppArmor

For libvirt versions before 5.10.0, if you are using AppArmor, you need to add permissions for QEMU to access the shared memory file. This can be done by adding the following to /etc/apparmor.d/abstractions/libvirt-qemu.

/dev/shm/looking-glass rw,

Qemu Commands

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If you are using virt manager/libvirt then this does not apply to you.

Add the following to the commands to your QEMU command line, adjusting the bus to suit your particular configuration:

-device ivshmem-plain,memdev=ivshmem,bus=pcie.0 \
-object memory-backend-file,id=ivshmem,share=on,mem-path=/dev/shm/looking-glass,size=32M

The memory size (show as 32 in the example above) may need to be adjusted as per Determining Memory section.

Determining Memory

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You will need to adjust the memory size to a value that is suitable for your desired maximum resolution using the following formula:

width x height x 4 x 2 = total bytes

total bytes / 1024 / 1024 = total megabytes + 2

For example, for a resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p)

1920 x 1080 x 4 x 2 = 16,588,800 bytes

16,588,800 / 1024 / 1024 = 15.82 MB + 2 = 17.82

You must round this value up to the nearest power of two, which with the above example would be 32MB

Note: This formula may be out of date. A 1440p display requires 64mb shared memory.

The shared memory file will be located in /dev/shm/looking-glass and will need to be created on every boot otherwise it will have incorrect permissions. Looking glass will not be able to run unless it has permissions to this file. You can create the shared memory file automatically by adding the following config file:

touch /etc/tmpfiles.d/10-looking-glass.conf

Add the following content to the file:

#Type Path Mode UID GID Age Argument

f /dev/shm/looking-glass 0660 user kvm -

Be sure to set the UID to your local user.

Looking Glass Service (Windows)

You must first run the Windows VM with the changes noted above in either the libvirt or Qemu sections.

Installing the IVSHMEM Driver

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Windows will not prompt for a driver for the IVSHMEM device, instead, it will use a default null (do nothing) driver for the device. To install the IVSHMEM driver you will need to go into the device manager and update the driver for the device "PCI standard RAM Controller" under the "System Devices" node.

French: "Gestionnaire de périphérique" -> "Périphériques Système" -> "Contrôleur de RAM Standard PCI"

English: "Device Manager" -> "System Devices" -> "PCI standard RAM Controller"

A signed Windows 10 driver can be obtained from Red Hat for this device from the below address:

https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/upstream-virtio/

Please note that you must obtain version 0.1.161 or later

If the installation of the driver results in warnings or errors about driver signatures, ensure secure boot is turned off for the virtual machine bios/uefi.

A note about IVSHMEM and Scream Audio

Using IVSHMEM with Scream may interfere with Looking Glass as it may try to use the same device. Please do not use the IVSHMEM plugin for Scream. Use the default network transfer method. The IVSHMEM method induces additional latency that is built into its implementation. When using VirtIO for a network device the VM is already using a highly optimized memory copy anyway so there is no need to make another one.

If you insist on using IVSHMEM for Scream despite its inferiority to the default network implementation the Windows Host Application can be told what device to use. Create a looking-glass-host.ini file in the same directory as the looking-glass-host.exe file. In it, you can use the os:shmDevice option like so:

[os]
shmDevice=1

Using the Windows Host Application

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Start by downloading the correct version for your release from https://looking-glass.io/downloads. You can either choose between Official Releases which is is stable or Release Candidates that tries to be stable but has new features. Note: If your looking-glass-client was created by building from the master branch you have to pick the Bleeding Edge version.

Next, use 7Zip to extract the zip archive using the commit hash for the password. Then, run the "looking-glass-host-setup.exe" installer and click through it. By default, the installer will install a service that automatically starts the host application at boot. The installer can also be installed in silent mode with the "/S" switch. Other command line options for the installer are documented by running it with the "/h" switch. There is also an unofficial Chocolatey package available, install with "choco install looking-glass-host --pre"

The windows host application captures the windows desktop and stuffs the frames into the shared memory via the shared memory virtual device, without this Looking Glass will not function. It is critical that the version of the host application matches the version of the client application, as differing versions can be, and usually are, incompatible.

Note: As of 2020-10-23, Microsoft Defender is known to mark the Looking-Glass host executable as a virus and in some cases will automatically delete the file.

Note: As of 2020-08-12 (commit dc4d1d49fac2361e60c9bb440bc88ce05f6c1cbd), the below instructions are deprecated. The host application now has an installer that installs a system-wide service to run the Looking Glass host application. When upgrading please be sure to remove the scheduled task if you have already created one.

Instructions for versions prior to 2020-08-12.

To get the Windows-Host-Application running after restart you need to run it as a privileged task we do that by starting cmd.exe as administrator and running a command in it which creates a windows task.

Note: At this time the Looking Glass host does not support running under unprivileged users. Your user account must have administrator privileges for the windows task to function.

SCHTASKS /Create /TN "Looking Glass" /SC  ONLOGON /RL HIGHEST /TR C:\Users\<YourUserName>\<YourPath>\looking-glass-host.exe

Copy the following command in to your cmd shell and replace the <YourUserName> with your username (e.g. "games") and your <YourPath> with the part where the looking-glass-host.exe is stored (e.g. "Documents") .

Now you simply need to hit enter in to the cmd shell and restart the vm to test if it worked.

Running the Client

The client command is the binary file: looking-glass-client. This command should run after the Windows Host Application has started.

For an updated list of arguments visit: https://github.com/gnif/LookingGlass/blob/master/client/README.md

Common options include '-s' for disabling spice, '-S' for disabling the screen saver, and '-F' to automatically enter full screen.