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diff --git a/docs/manual/SpiceUserManual-Introduction.xml b/docs/manual/SpiceUserManual-Introduction.xml new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f5618bd0 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/manual/SpiceUserManual-Introduction.xml @@ -0,0 +1,264 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> +<?oxygen RNGSchema="http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/5.0/rng/docbookxi.rng" type="xml"?> + + <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" + xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" + xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="5.0"> + <title>Introduction</title> + <para> + Spice is an open remote computing solution, providing client access to remote displays and devices (e.g. keyboard, mouse, audio). + At the moment, it's mainly used to get remote access to virtual machines. Spice provides a desktop-like user experience, while trying to + offload most of the intensive CPU and GPU tasks to the client. + + The basic building blocks of Spice are: + </para> + + <orderedlist> + <listitem><para><link linkend="spice_server">Spice Server</link></para></listitem> + <listitem><para><link linkend="spice_client">Spice Client</link></para></listitem> + <listitem><para>Spice Protocol</para></listitem> + </orderedlist> + + <para> + The following sections provide basic information on Spice components and features, obtaining, building installing and using Spice. + </para> + + <section> + <title>Spice and Spice-related Components</title> + <section xml:id="spice_server"> + <title>Spice Server</title> + <para> + Spice server is implemented in libspice, a VDI pluggable library. + Currently, the main user of this library is QEMU. QEMU uses spice-server + to provide remote access to virtual machines through the Spice protocol. + Virtual Device Interface (VDI) defines a set of interfaces that provide + a standard way to publish virtual devices (e.g. display device, keyboard, + mouse) and enables different Spice components to interact with those + devices. On one side, the server communicates with the remote client + using the Spice protocol and on the other side, it interacts with the + VDI host application (e.g QEMU). + </para> + </section> + + <section xml:id="spice_client"> + <title>Spice Client</title> + <para> + The Spice client is a cross-platform (Linux and Windows) + which is used by the end user to access remote systems through Spice. + The recommended client is <link xlink:href="https://fedorahosted.org/released/virt-viewer/">remote-viewer</link> + (which is shipped with virt-viewer). + <link xlink:href="https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Boxes">GNOME Boxes</link> + can also be used as a Spice client. spicec is an obsolete + legacy client, and spicy is only a test application. + </para> + </section> + + <section> + <title>QXL Device and Drivers</title> + <para> + Spice server supports the QXL VDI interface. When libspice is used with + QEMU, a specific video PCI device can be used for improving + remote display performance and enhancing the graphic capabilities of the + guest graphic system. This video device is called a QXL + device and requires guest QXL drivers for full functionality. However, + standard VGA is supported when no driver exists. + </para> + </section> + + <section xml:id="vdagent"> + <title>Spice Agent</title> + <para> + The Spice agent is an optional component for enhancing user + experience and performing guest-oriented management tasks. + For example, the agent injects mouse position and state to + the guest when using client mouse mode. It also enables you to + move cursor freely between guest and client. Other features + of agent are shared clipboard (copy and paste between guest and host) + and aligning guest resolution with client when entering fullscreen mode. + </para> + </section> + + <section> + <title>VDI Port Device</title> + <para> + Spice protocol supports a communication channel between the + client and the agent on the server side. When using QEMU, Spice agent + resides on the guest. VDI port is a QEMU PCI device used + for communication with the agent. + </para> + </section> + + </section> + + <section xml:id="features"> + <title>Features</title> + <para> + The server and client communicate via channels. Each channel is dedicated to + a specific type of data. The available channels are following. + </para> + <section xml:id="multiple_channels"> + <title>Multiple Channels</title> + + <orderedlist numeration="arabic"> + <listitem> + <para><emphasis role="bold">Main</emphasis> - control and configuration</para> + </listitem> + <listitem> + <para><emphasis role="bold">Display</emphasis> - graphics commands images and video streams</para> + </listitem> + <listitem> + <para><emphasis role="bold">Inputs</emphasis> - keyboard and mouse inputs</para> + </listitem> + <listitem> + <para><emphasis role="bold">Cursor</emphasis> - pointer device position and cursor shape</para> + </listitem> + <listitem> + <para><emphasis role="bold">Playback</emphasis> - audio received from the server to be played by the client</para> + </listitem> + <listitem> + <para><emphasis role="bold">Record</emphasis> - audio captured on the client side</para> + </listitem> + <listitem> + <para><emphasis role="bold">Smartcard</emphasis> - passthrough of smartcard data from the client machine to the guest OS</para> + </listitem> + <listitem> + <para><emphasis role="bold">USB</emphasis> - redirection of USB devices plugged into the client to the guest OS</para> + </listitem> + </orderedlist> + </section> + + <section xml:id="image_compression"> + <title>Image Compression</title> + + <para> + Spice offers several image compression algorithms, which + can be chosen on server initiation and dynamically at run-time. Quic is a + Spice proprietary image compression technology based on the SFALIC + algorithm. The Lempel-Ziv (LZ) algorithm is another option. Both Quic and + LZ are local algorithms encoding each image separately. Global LZ (GLZ) is + another proprietary Spice technology that uses LZ with history-based global + dictionary. GLZ takes advantage of repeating patterns among images to + shrink the traffic and save bandwidth, which is critical in a WAN + environment. Spice also offers an automatic mode for compression selection + per image, where the choice between LZ/GLZ and Quic is heuristically based + on image properties. Conceptually, synthetic images are better compressed + with LZ/GLZ and real images are better with Quic. + </para> + </section> + + <section xml:id="video_compression"> + <title>Video Compression</title> + + <para> + Spice uses loss-less compression for images sent to the + client. However, video streams are handled differently. Spice server + heuristically identifies video areas and sends them as a video stream coded + using M-JPEG. This handling saves a lot of traffic, improving Spice + performance, especially in a WAN environment. However, in some + circumstances the heuristic behavior might cause low quality images (e.g. + identifying updated text area as a video stream). Video streaming can be + chosen on server initiation and dynamically at run-time. + </para> + </section> + + <section xml:id="mouse_modes"> + <title>Mouse modes</title> + + <para> + Spice supports two mouse modes: server and client. The mode + can be changed dynamically and is negotiated between the client and the + server. + </para> + <orderedlist> + <listitem> + <para> + <emphasis role="bold">Server mouse</emphasis> - When a user + clicks inside the Spice client window, the client mouse is + captured and set invisible. In this mode, the server controls + the mouse position on display. However, it might be problematic + on WAN or on a loaded server, where mouse cursor might have some + latency or non-responsiveness. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <emphasis role="bold">Client mouse</emphasis> - Not + captured and is used as the effective pointing device. To enable + client mouse, the VDI host application must register an absolute + pointing device (e.g. USB tablet in QEMU). This mode is + appropriate for WAN or or for a loaded server, since cursor has + smooth motion and responsiveness. However, the cursor might + lose synchronization (position and shape) for a while. + </para> + </listitem> + + </orderedlist> + </section> + + <section xml:id="other_features"> + <title>Other Features</title> + <orderedlist> + + <listitem> + <para> + <emphasis role="bold">Multiple Monitors</emphasis> - any number of monitors is supported + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <emphasis role="bold">Arbitrary Resolution</emphasis> - when + using the QXL driver, the resolution of the guest OS will be + automatically adjusted to the size of the client window. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <emphasis role="bold">USB Redirection</emphasis> - Spice + can be used to redirect USB devices that are plugged in the + client to the guest OS. This redirection can either be + automatic (all newly plugged devices are redirected), or manual + (the user selects which devices (s)he wants to redirect). + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <emphasis role="bold">Smartcard Redirection</emphasis> - + data from smartcard that are inserted into the client machine + can be passed through to the guest OS. The smartcard can be + used by both the client OS and the guest OS. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <emphasis role="bold">Bidirectional Audio</emphasis> - Spice supports audio playback and recording. Playback is compressed using the CELT algorithm + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <emphasis role="bold">Lip-sync</emphasis> - between video and audio. Available only when video streaming is enabled. + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <emphasis role="bold">Migration</emphasis> - switching channel connectivity for supporting server migration + </para> + </listitem> + + <listitem> + <para> + <emphasis role="bold">Pixmap and Palette caching</emphasis> + </para> + </listitem> + + </orderedlist> + </section> + </section> + +</chapter> |