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docker-dosbox-novnc/TODO.md
T
jensandClaude Sonnet 5 eb63f46978 Drop the iframe wrapper page and fix two real certificate bugs
Video and audio no longer share one iframe-based /screen/<name> page.
Firefox refuses to load iframe content signed by a certificate whose
warning hasn't been accepted at the top level, with no way to click
through inside the iframe (Chrome is more lenient, which is why this
briefly looked fine there). "Open Screen" is now a plain top-level link
straight to noVNC's own URL (new tab, normal Accept-the-Risk applies),
and the "Enable Sound" toggle moved to the main setup page - meant to
be left open in its own tab while playing. Because that page now hosts
a persistent AudioContext/WebSocket, its auto-refresh no longer fires
just because a game is running (only during active installs), since a
full-page refresh would have killed that connection every 3s.

Two real certificate bugs found and fixed along the way:
- CN=NY (a meaningless placeholder) -> CN=localhost + SAN
  (DNS:localhost, IP:127.0.0.1). Firefox validates the WebSocket-Secure
  connection's cert against the hostname independently of the page
  load and rejected the CN mismatch there even after the page-level
  warning was accepted.
- Worse: adding -addext without also pinning basicConstraints=CA:FALSE
  left the cert defaulting to CA:TRUE - i.e. flagged as a Certificate
  Authority, not a server cert. Firefox hard-refuses that with no
  override option at all (not a normal clickable warning), which is
  why "the warning appears but won't let me proceed" even after the CN
  fix. Fixed by explicitly setting basicConstraints=critical,CA:FALSE
  plus keyUsage/extendedKeyUsage=serverAuth. Confirmed fixed: Firefox
  now shows the same clickable self-signed warning Chrome always did,
  and the noVNC connection completes successfully after accepting it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01NiNnj78HGx1KWyCCo39HSz
2026-07-28 18:21:35 +02:00

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9.2 KiB
Markdown

# TODO
- ~~Reduce image size of `jayfield/dosbox-novnc` (currently ~2.3GB).~~ Done in two steps:
1. Merged the game download/extract steps and the unzip/smbclient install into a single
layer (so the downloaded zips and the packages only needed to extract them no longer
persist in the final image). 2.31GB -> 1.6GB.
2. Stopped baking the games into the image at all (927MB of that was just t7g's two CD
ISOs). `run.sh` mounts a named volume (`dosbox-games`) so installed games persist
across `--rm` restarts. 1.6GB -> ~690MB. Container now needs network access to
`vlda-01` at runtime (not just build time) to install games.
3. Dropped the auto-download at container startup entirely. `scripts/setup_server.py` is
a small stdlib-only HTTP server that serves an HTML page on `${SETUP_PORT}`
(`70${DISPLAY_NUM}`, published as `7099` by `run.sh`) listing every `*.zip` on the SMB
share with an Installed/Install status per game; the user clicks "Install" to
fetch+extract a specific game into `${GAMES_HOME}` on demand.
- **Manifest-driven games + Start/Stop/Uninstall**: games are no longer discovered from raw
`*.zip` files on the share. `setup_server.py` lists `*.json` manifests instead (one per
game, in the `Games\dosbox\` catalog directory), each declaring
`name`/`title`/`zip_path`/`start_cmd`. The web page grew Start/Stop/Uninstall buttons
alongside Install, driven entirely by that manifest — nothing about a game's identity or
how to run it is hardcoded in the image anymore. Started as a `stuntcar`-only pilot, now
extended to 6 games (see the SCUMM item below). `t7g` still has no manifest and won't show
up in the setup page until one is added (`t7g.json` with a `start_cmd` for its
`dosbox-0.74-3.conf`). `game.sh`/`scripts/start_game.sh` (the old `docker exec`-based
launch path, with its hardcoded `DOSBOX_VERSION`/`run.bat` convention) were intentionally
left untouched during the pilot and still overlap with the new Start button — worth
reconciling (or removing) once every remaining game has a manifest.
- ~~Create manifests for SCUMM engine games~~ Done: `scummvm` added to the Dockerfile
(`/usr/games/scummvm`, not on `$PATH` by default under a non-login shell — manifests use
the absolute path). Manifests live in the usual `Games\dosbox\*.json` catalog directory on
the share, but their `zip_path` now points at wherever the game's zip actually already
lived (`Games\Monkey Island\...`, `Games\Indiana Jones\...`, etc.) — this required
generalizing the manifest schema from a bare `zip` filename (implicitly under
`Games\dosbox\`) to a full `zip_path` relative to the share root, since these games weren't
colocated with dosbox's. Added and verified end-to-end (install/start/stop/uninstall) via
`monkey2`:
- `monkey` — The Secret of Monkey Island
- `monkey2` — Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
- `atlantis` — Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
- `indy3` — Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- `tentacle` — Day of the Tentacle
Skipped the German CD release of Day of the Tentacle on the share (`Day Of The Tentacle
(CD DOS, German).zip`) — unlike every other zip here, it doesn't wrap its contents in a
single top-level folder (loose files at the zip root plus a stray `MANIAC/` dir for the
embedded Maniac Mansion easter egg), so it doesn't fit the current "zip's top-level folder
== install name" extraction convention. Also skipped Curse of Monkey Island (much larger,
untested) — could be added the same way if wanted.
ScummVM's own game-target IDs (`monkey`, `monkey2`, `atlantis`, `indy3`, `tentacle`)
happened to exactly match each zip's existing top-level folder name, so no change was
needed to the install/extraction logic itself, only to where zips are looked up from.
- ~~Handle multiple games running at once~~ Done: each running game now gets its own
ephemeral X session (`Xvnc`+`fluxbox`+`websockify`, its own display `:90`-`:99` and noVNC
port `8090`-`8099`) spun up by `start_game()` and torn down by `stop_game()` (or lazily on
the next page load, if the game exited/crashed on its own) — instead of every game sharing
one screen and fighting over focus/audio. Capped at `MAX_CONCURRENT_GAMES = 10`; starting
an 11th game while all 10 slots are in use is refused with an error shown on its row rather
than silently doing nothing. There is no more a single shared "default" desktop or global
noVNC link — `server.sh` no longer starts Xvnc/fluxbox/websockify at container startup at
all, only `setup_server.py` itself; each game's own "Open Screen" link appears on its row
only while it's running, built with a little client-side JS (the noVNC port differs from
the setup port and can't be known server-side without knowing which hostname the browser
used to reach the container). `run.sh` publishes the whole `8090-8099` range up front,
since Docker can't add port mappings to an already-running container. Verified end-to-end
with two different games running concurrently (separate processes, separate displays,
separate noVNC ports, independent stop/teardown) and the 10-slot cap logic.
- ~~Get game sound actually audible during play~~ Done: PulseAudio + a hand-rolled stdlib
WebSocket bridge (`pcm_ws_bridge.py`, in `docker-common` — reusable, not dosbox-specific,
per the earlier plan for this item) carries raw PCM to the browser, played back via a
Web Audio `AudioWorkletNode` (`pcm-worklet.js`, also in `docker-common`). Verified real
end-to-end audio: DOSBox → ALSA (default device, routed through Pulse via
`/etc/asound.conf`) → PulseAudio's one default sink → `parec` → the bridge → a raw
WebSocket client, measured RMS ≈9292 while `stuntcar` was actually playing (vs. silence
before advancing past its title screen) — not just a plumbing check, actual game audio.
**Audio is a single shared mix, not per-game** — deliberately simplified from an
earlier per-slot-isolated design (considered and dropped as unnecessary complexity):
every running game's audio mixes into Pulse's one default sink, and every `/screen/<name>`
page connects to the same single `AUDIO_PORT` (`71${DISPLAY_NUM}`, `7199` by default).
Trade-off: with more than one game running, you can't tell their audio apart.
**Real bug found and fixed along the way**: `parec --device=@DEFAULT_SINK@.monitor`
(the seemingly-obvious macro syntax) fails with "Stream error: Invalid argument" —
PulseAudio has a *separate* single-token macro, `@DEFAULT_MONITOR@`, for exactly this;
concatenating `@DEFAULT_SINK@` with a literal `.monitor` suffix isn't valid.
`server.sh` now starts `pulseaudio --start --exit-idle-time=-1` and the bridge
(`pcm_ws_bridge.py 7199 parec --device=@DEFAULT_MONITOR@ ...`) once, before `exec`-ing
`setup_server.py` — both live for the container's whole lifetime, independent of any
game's start/stop.
**No iframe, no per-game screen page** — tried an `<iframe>`-based `/screen/<name>` wrapper
first (embedding noVNC + an Enable Sound button on one page), but Firefox refuses to load
iframe content signed by a certificate whose warning hasn't been accepted at the top level,
with no way to click through *inside* the iframe (Chrome is more lenient, which is why it
briefly looked like it worked). Settled on: "Open Screen" is a plain top-level link straight
to noVNC's own URL (opens in a new tab — normal "Accept the Risk and Continue" applies
there), and the one "Enable Sound" toggle lives on the main setup page instead, meant to be
left open in its own tab for as long as you're playing. Also regenerated the self-signed
cert with `CN=localhost` + SAN (`DNS:localhost`, `IP:127.0.0.1`) instead of the old
meaningless `CN=NY` — Firefox validates the WebSocket-Secure connection's cert against the
hostname independently of the page load and was rejecting the CN mismatch there even after
the page-level warning was accepted. Only fixes access via `localhost`/`127.0.0.1`; a LAN IP
or other hostname would hit the same mismatch again, since a static cert can't cover every
possible address in advance.
**A second, worse cert bug turned up right after**: adding `-addext` without also pinning
`basicConstraints=CA:FALSE` left `openssl req -x509` defaulting to `CA:TRUE` — i.e. the
generated cert claimed to be a Certificate Authority, not a normal server certificate.
Firefox hard-refuses a CA-flagged cert used as a TLS server cert (not an overridable
"Advanced -> Accept the Risk" warning, just a dead end), which is exactly why "the warning
appears but won't let me proceed" even after the CN fix above. Chrome is lenient about this
too, which is why it kept looking fine there. Fixed by explicitly setting
`basicConstraints=critical,CA:FALSE`, `keyUsage=critical,digitalSignature,keyEncipherment`,
and `extendedKeyUsage=serverAuth` in the same `openssl req -x509 -addext ...` call.
Because the setup page now hosts a persistent `AudioContext`/`WebSocket`, its
`<meta http-equiv="refresh">` auto-refresh was narrowed to only fire while an install is
actively in progress — it used to also refresh continuously whenever any game was running
(to catch a crashed game's slot being freed), which would have torn down the live audio
connection every 3 seconds.