This is a work in progress tool for Linux based systems allowing users to remotely manage their desktops.
The main idea is to run a background daemon on your desktop which is always connected to a remote server, the controller, lets say your Android phone then connects to that server and makes remote procedure calls that are routed towards your desktop.
Currently it only allows to lock the screen.
For ease of delivery I have chosen snaps as the medium for delivery of this tool, so the guide below uses snaps.
$ snap install crossbar
$ snap install http
$ snap install linux-desktop-manager --edge
Then just download this file https://github.com/om26er/linux-desktop-manager/blob/master/config/config.json to a directory and in that same directory start crossbar using below command
$ crossbar start
In another terminal start LDM
$ linux-desktop-manager
Now to actually lock the screen or to check its state you need to know the machine id of your computer. On fairly newer
version of Linux distros that can be found inside /etc/machine-id
So to lock the screen, just call
http localhost:8080/call procedure=com.om26er.ldm.machine-<your_machine_id>.lock_screen
You can also check the screen lock status
http localhost:8080/call procedure=com.om26er.ldm.machine-<your_machine_id>.is_screen_locked
TODO:
- An Android app
- Make LDM a daemon that starts automatically
- Host a free Crossbar instance with TLS and Cryptosign auth enabled
- Figure out a very secure pairing mechanism