prusaslicer-novnc/README.md

# Prusaslicer noVNC Docker Container

## Overview

This is a super basic noVNC build using supervisor to serve Prusaslicer in your favorite web browser. This was primarily built for users using the [popular unraid NAS software](https://unraid.net), to allow them to quickly hop in a browser, slice, and upload their favorite 3D prints.

A lot of this was branched off of dmagyar's awesome [prusaslicer-vnc-docker](https://hub.docker.com/r/dmagyar/prusaslicer-vnc-docker/) project, but I found it to be a bit complex for my needs and thought this approach would simplify things a lot.

## How to use

### In unraid

If you're using unraid, open your Docker page and under `Template repositories`, add `https://github.com/helfrichmichael/unraid-templates` and save it. You should then be able to Add Container for prusaslicer-novnc. For unraid, the template will default to 6080 for the noVNC web instance.

### Outside of unraid

#### Docker
To run this image, you can run the following command: `docker run --detach --volume=prusaslicer-novnc-data:/configs/ --volume=prusaslicer-novnc-prints:/prints/ -p 8080:8080 -e SSL_CERT_FILE="/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt" 
--name=prusaslicer-novnc prusaslicer-novnc`

This will bind `/configs/` in the container to a local volume on my machine named `prusaslicer-novnc-data`. Additionally it will bind `/prints/` in the container to `superslicer-novnc-prints` locally on my machine, it will bind port `8080` to `8080`, and finally, it will provide an environment variable to keep Prusaslicer happy by providing an `SSL_CERT_FILE`.

#### Docker Compose
To use the pre-built image, simply clone this repository or copy `docker-compose.yml` and run `docker compose up -d`.

To build a new image, clone this repository and run `docker compose up -f docker-compose.build.yml --build -d`

### Using a VNC Viewer

To use a VNC viewer with the container, the default port for TurobVNC is 5900. You can add this port by adding `-p 5900:5900` to your command to start the container to open this port for access. See note below about ports related to `VNC_PORT` environment variable. 


### GPU Acceleration/Passthrough

Like other Docker containers, you can pass your Nvidia GPU into the container using the `NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES` and `NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES` envs. You can define these using the value of `all` or by providing more narrow and specific values. This has only been tested on Nvidia GPUs.

In unraid you can set these values during set up, **additionally, please add the "Extra Parameters" with `--runtime=nvidia` to ensure the GPU passes through**. For containers outside of unraid, you can set this by adding the following params or similar  `-e NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES="all" NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES="all"`. If using Docker Compose, uncomment the enviroment variables in the relevant docker-compose.yaml file.

In addition to the information above, to enable **Hardware 3D acceleration** (which helps with visualizing complex models and  sliced layers), you must set an environment variable. You can do this by either adding `-e ENABLEHWGPU=true` to the `docker run` command or including `- ENABLEHWGPU=true` in your Docker Compose configuration.

Once enabled and started you can verify the GPU is being used by running `nvidia-smi -l` on the HOST machine and you should see `/slic3r/slic3r-dist/bin/prusa-slicer` as process using the GPU. 

```
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 535.161.07             Driver Version: 535.161.07   CUDA Version: 12.2     |
|-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

.. removed for brevity .. 

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                            |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                            GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                             Usage      |
|=======================================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A   4129827      G   /slic3r/slic3r-dist/bin/prusa-slicer        262MiB |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

*some information above was edited for privacy
```

The `GL Version` on the System Information screen inside the slicer should also show, the GPU model and driver version

<img src="https://github.com/vajonam/prusaslicer-novnc/assets/152501/250c93f5-e550-42f9-8cce-b942c93ef61e" width="300" />



### Other Environment Variables

Below are the default values for various environment variables:

- `DISPLAY=:0`: Sets the DISPLAY variable (usually left as 0).
- `SUPD_LOGLEVEL=INFO`: Specifies the log level for supervisord. Set to `TRACE` to see output for various commands helps if you are debugging something. See superviosrd manual for possible levels.
- `ENABLEHWGPU=`: Enables HW 3D acceleration. Default is `false` to maintain backward compatability.
- `VGL_DISPLAY=egl`: Advanced setting to target specific cards if you have multiple GPUs
- `NOVNC_PORT=8080`: Sets the port for the noVNC HTML5/web interface.
- `VNC_RESOLUTION=1280x800`: Defines the resolution of the VNC server.
- `VNC_PASSWORD=`: Defaults to no VNC password, but you can add one here.
- `VNC_PORT=5900`: Defines the port for the VNC server, allowing direct connections using a VNC client. Note that the `DISPLAY` number is added to the port number (e.g., if your display is :1, the VNC port accepting connections will be `5901`).

## Links

[Prusaslicer](https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/)

[TruboVNC](https://www.turbovnc.org/)

[VirtualGL](https://virtualgl.org/)

[Supervisor](http://supervisord.org/)

[GitHub Source](https://github.com/helfrichmichael/prusaslicer-novnc)

[Docker](https://hub.docker.com/r/mikeah/prusaslicer-novnc)

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