Appendix A. FAQ

A.1. Where does the name "Guacamole" come from?
A.2. What does "clientless" mean?
A.3. Why does Guacamole not use WebSocket?
A.4. I have Tomcat (or some other servlet container) set up behind a proxy (like mod_proxy) and cannot connect to Guacamole. Why? How do I solve this?
A.5. I connect to the internet through a web proxy, and cannot connect to Guacamole. I cannot reconfigure the proxy. How do I solve this?
A.6. Can I buy special licensing of the Guacamole code base, such that I can use it in my own product, without providing the source to my users, without contributing back, and without acknowledging the project?
A.7. Can I pay for custom Guacamole work, or for help integrating Guacamole into my product, if the open source nature and licenses are preserved?
A.8. How can I contribute to the project?
A.9. How can I become an official member of the project?
A.10. I think I've found a bug. How do I report it?
A.11. I need help! Where can I find some?

A.1.

Where does the name "Guacamole" come from?

The name was chosen arbitrarily from a random utterance in a conversation with a member of the project.

When the project reached the point where it was growing out of the proof-of-concept phase, and needed a real home on the internet, we needed to think of a name to register the project under.

Several acronyms were toyed with and discarded. We tried anagrams, but all were too wordy and complex. We considered naming the project after a fish or an animal, and after suggesting the guanaco, James Muehlner, a developer of the project, suggested (randomly): "guacamole".

The name had a nice ring, we weren't embarrassed to use it, and it stuck.

A.2.

What does "clientless" mean?

The term "clientless" means that no specific client is needed. A Guacamole user needs only have an HTML5 web browser installed, which is exceedingly common; virtually all modern computers and mobile devices have such a browser installed by default.

In this sense, Guacamole is "clientless" in that it does not require any additional software to be installed beyond what is considered standard for any computer.

A.3.

Why does Guacamole not use WebSocket?

Guacamole actually does have support for WebSocket. It's far more common that WebSocket ends up not being used either due to a lack of support in the servlet container or to intervening proxies.

Historically, Guacamole had no WebSocket support at all. This was due to a lack of browser support and lack of a true standard. Overall, it didn't matter as there really wasn't any need: the tunnel used by Guacamole when WebSocket is not available is largely equivalent to WebSocket in terms of efficiency and latency, and is more compatible with proxies and existing browsers.

A.4.

I have Tomcat (or some other servlet container) set up behind a proxy (like mod_proxy) and cannot connect to Guacamole. Why? How do I solve this?

You need to enable automatic flushing of the proxy's buffer as it receives packets.

Most proxies, including mod_proxy, buffer data received from the server, and will not flush this data in real-time. Each proxy has an option to force flushing of each packet automatically, as this is necessary for streaming applications like Guacamole, but this is usually not enabled by default.

Because Guacamole depends on streaming to function, a proxy configured to not automatically flush packets will disrupt the stream to the point that the connection seems unreasonably slow, or just fails to establish altogether.

In the case of mod_proxy, this option is flushpackets=on.

A.5.

I connect to the internet through a web proxy, and cannot connect to Guacamole. I cannot reconfigure the proxy. How do I solve this?

You need to enable automatic flushing of your proxy's buffer to avoid disrupting the stream used by Guacamole.

If you cannot change the settings of your proxy, using HTTPS instead of HTTP should solve the problem. Proxies are required to stream HTTPS because of the nature of SSL. Using HTTPS will allow Guacamole traffic to stream through proxies unencumbered, even if you cannot access the proxy settings directly.

A.6.

Can I buy special licensing of the Guacamole code base, such that I can use it in my own product, without providing the source to my users, without contributing back, and without acknowledging the project?

Usually, no. Previous requests for such licensing have been very one-sided and there would be no direct or indirect benefit to the community and the project. That said, we handle requests for licensing on a case-by-case basis. In general, any special licensing has to somehow provide for the community and the open-source project.

A.7.

Can I pay for custom Guacamole work, or for help integrating Guacamole into my product, if the open source nature and licenses are preserved?

Yes. We love to be paid to work on Guacamole, especially if that work remains open source.

A.8.

How can I contribute to the project?

If you are a programmer and want to contribute code, Guacamole is open-source and you are welcome to do so! Just send us your patches. There is no guarantee that your patch will be added to the upstream source, and all changes are carefully reviewed.

If you are not a programmer, but want to help out, feel free to look through the documentation or try installing Guacamole and test it out. General editing, documentation contributions, and testing are always helpful.

A.9.

How can I become an official member of the project?

The short answer is: "by being asked."

People are only added as official members of the Guacamole project after their work has been proven. This usually means you will have contributed code in the form of patches before, or we know you from extensive testing work, or you frequently help with documentation, and we are impressed enough that we want you as part of the project.

All that said, you do not need to be a member of the project to help out. Feel free to contribute anything.

A.10.

I think I've found a bug. How do I report it?

The project hosts a bug tracking tool called Trac at http://guac-dev.org/trac/. All bugs should be reported there as new tickets. This is also where you would request a new feature.

If the bug you found is security-related, we would prefer to be contacted personally via email, such that the bug can be fixed before becoming dangerously widely known.

A.11.

I need help! Where can I find some?

The project hosts forums at http://sourceforge.net/projects/guacamole/forums. If you have a SourceForge username (or don't mind registering one), this is a good place to start.

Otherwise, there are Guacamole-specific official IRC channels on freenode.net: #guacamole, #guacamole-dev, and #guacamole-help.

If none of those options suffice, you can always email any of the project members directly. You will usually get a personal response, time permitting.