2b272e74c8
Wails3's Linux systray hands the icon off to whatever process owns
org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher on the session bus. Bare WMs (Fluxbox,
OpenBox, i3, dwm, sway, vanilla GNOME without the AppIndicator
extension) ship no watcher, so the icon registration silently fails
and the tray never appears — leaving a tray-only app like NetBird
unreachable.
Add a Linux-only watcher fallback that claims the watcher name when
nobody else does, plus an XEmbed bridge so legacy X11 system trays
(_NET_SYSTEM_TRAY_S0) can still render the icon. Both no-op on other
platforms via build tags.
Pieces:
- tray_watcher_linux.go: claims org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher on a
private session bus, exports the bare RegisterStatusNotifierItem /
RegisterStatusNotifierHost surface, and spins up an XEmbed host per
registered SNI item.
- xembed_host_linux.go: per-item event loop. Polls X11 events with a
50ms ticker, listens for the SNI NewIcon signal, dispatches Activate
/ context menu through dbusmenu (com.canonical.dbusmenu).
- xembed_tray_linux.{c,h}: the X11/cairo native bits. Window is created
with CopyFromParent visual + ParentRelative background so transparent
pixels show the toolbar beneath instead of solid black on 24-bit
trays. cairo paints the IconPixmap with OVER blending so per-pixel
alpha is honoured against the parent-relative base. GTK3 owns the
context-menu popup; menu items round-trip through dbusmenu Event.
- tray_linux.go: forces WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 in init() so
developers running `task dev` / launching the binary directly get the
same software rendering path the .desktop launcher already enables;
the deb/rpm Exec wrapper covers installed users.
- tray_watcher_other.go and xembed_host_other.go: build-tag stubs so
main.go's startStatusNotifierWatcher() compiles on every platform.
- main.go: calls startStatusNotifierWatcher() before NewTray so the
Wails systray's RegisterStatusNotifierItem call hits a watcher we
control on bare WMs.
- build/linux/netbird-ui.desktop: regenerated by `task build` to wrap
the dev launcher's Exec line with the WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER
env, matching what the tray_linux.go init does at runtime.
Adapted from work originally prototyped on the prototype/ui-wails branch.
Tested on Fluxbox (Debian 13): the icon appears in the slit/toolbar with
the toolbar's background showing through transparent pixels, left-click
opens the window, right-click brings up the GTK popup of the dbusmenu
items.
Start using NetBird at netbird.io
See Documentation
Join our Slack channel or our Community forum
🚀 We are hiring! Join us at careers.netbird.io
New: NetBird terraform provider
NetBird combines a configuration-free peer-to-peer private network and a centralized access control system in a single platform, making it easy to create secure private networks for your organization or home.
Connect. NetBird creates a WireGuard-based overlay network that automatically connects your machines over an encrypted tunnel, leaving behind the hassle of opening ports, complex firewall rules, VPN gateways, and so forth.
Secure. NetBird enables secure remote access by applying granular access policies while allowing you to manage them intuitively from a single place. Works universally on any infrastructure.
Open Source Network Security in a Single Platform
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/10cec749-bb56-4ab3-97af-4e38850108d2
Self-Host NetBird (Video)
Key features
| Connectivity | Management | Security | Automation | Platforms |
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Quickstart with NetBird Cloud
- Download and install NetBird at https://app.netbird.io/install
- Follow the steps to sign-up with Google, Microsoft, GitHub or your email address.
- Check NetBird admin UI.
- Add more machines.
Quickstart with self-hosted NetBird
This is the quickest way to try self-hosted NetBird. It should take around 5 minutes to get started if you already have a public domain and a VM. Follow the Advanced guide with a custom identity provider for installations with different IDPs.
Infrastructure requirements:
- A Linux VM with at least 1CPU and 2GB of memory.
- The VM should be publicly accessible on TCP ports 80 and 443 and UDP port: 3478.
- Public domain name pointing to the VM.
Software requirements:
- Docker installed on the VM with the docker-compose plugin (Docker installation guide) or docker with docker-compose in version 2 or higher.
- jq installed. In most distributions
Usually available in the official repositories and can be installed with
sudo apt install jqorsudo yum install jq - curl installed.
Usually available in the official repositories and can be installed with
sudo apt install curlorsudo yum install curl
Steps
- Download and run the installation script:
export NETBIRD_DOMAIN=netbird.example.com; curl -fsSL https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/releases/latest/download/getting-started.sh | bash
- Once finished, you can manage the resources via
docker-compose
A bit on NetBird internals
- Every machine in the network runs NetBird Agent (or Client) that manages WireGuard.
- Every agent connects to Management Service that holds network state, manages peer IPs, and distributes network updates to agents (peers).
- NetBird agent uses WebRTC ICE implemented in pion/ice library to discover connection candidates when establishing a peer-to-peer connection between machines.
- Connection candidates are discovered with the help of STUN servers.
- Agents negotiate a connection through Signal Service passing p2p encrypted messages with candidates.
- Sometimes the NAT traversal is unsuccessful due to strict NATs (e.g. mobile carrier-grade NAT) and a p2p connection isn't possible. When this occurs the system falls back to a relay server called TURN, and a secure WireGuard tunnel is established via the TURN server.
Coturn is the one that has been successfully used for STUN and TURN in NetBird setups.
See a complete architecture overview for details.
Community projects
- NetBird installer script
- NetBird ansible collection by Dominion Solutions
- netbird-tui — terminal UI for managing NetBird peers, routes, and settings
Note: The main branch may be in an unstable or even broken state during development.
For stable versions, see releases.
Support acknowledgement
In November 2022, NetBird joined the StartUpSecure program sponsored by The Federal Ministry of Education and Research of The Federal Republic of Germany. Together with CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security NetBird brings the security best practices and simplicity to private networking.
Testimonials
We use open-source technologies like WireGuard®, Pion ICE (WebRTC), Coturn, and Rosenpass. We very much appreciate the work these guys are doing and we'd greatly appreciate if you could support them in any way (e.g., by giving a star or a contribution).
Legal
This repository is licensed under BSD-3-Clause license that applies to all parts of the repository except for the directories management/, signal/ and relay/. Those directories are licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3.0 (AGPLv3). See the respective LICENSE files inside each directory.
WireGuard and the WireGuard logo are registered trademarks of Jason A. Donenfeld.