Tutorials

o.lan — Libre Office in Browser, On-Demand, No Desktop Environment

Written by Adam Muiz Updated: 06 Aug 2026 5 min read
o.lan — Libre Office in Browser, On-Demand, No Desktop Environment

In the previous article I talked about b.lan — a remote desktop for Chrome that can be accessed from the browser. Well, this time it's still in the same realm, but with a different use case: o.lan, a special remote desktop for Libre Office.

Why are you separated? Instead of just installing Libre Office on b.lan? Yes, you can. But if combined, the browser session and office session become the same display. Complicated. If you're writing a document, suddenly you have to check something in Chrome, it crashes. Not to mention resource problems — Chrome loves memory, Libre Office is also not bad. It's better to separate them, each has its own display, its own port, and can be started/stopped independently.

Just like b.lan, o.lan carries the on-demand philosophy: the service is completely off when not in use, only on when you need it. There's no desktop environment, no display manager, no compositor. Just Xvfb + x11vnc + websockify + Openbox. The difference is, Chrome has been replaced by Libre Office.

O.lan start page

o.lan start page — session is dead, just click "Start Session"

Architecture

Technically, the architecture of o.lan is almost identical to b.lan:

Browser (client) ↓ HTTPS Nginx (o.lan:443) ↓ noVNC / websockify (:6081) ↓ WebSocket → VNC x11vnc (:5901) ↓ Xvfb (:98, 1920×1080) ↓ openbox + tint2 + Libre Office

The main difference is in the port and display:

Componentsb.lano.lan
Display:99:98
VNC port59005901
noVNC port60806081
Main applicationsGoogle ChromeLibre Office
Use caseBrowsing, research, admin panelWriting documents, spreadsheets, presentations

With different ports, both sessions can run together. Want to do research on b.lan while writing reports on o.lan? Can. Each in a different browser tab, so they don't interfere with each other.

Usage Flow

First, open https://o.lan in a browser. The start page will display offline status with a "Start Session" button:

Loading state o.lan

When the session is starting, a progress indicator appears

After clicking, the system will run the systemd service office-session.service which automatically turns on Xvfb, x11vnc, websockify, Openbox, and Libre Office. The process takes about 5-10 seconds. Once ready, you will see the Libre Office Start Center directly in your browser:

Libre Office Start Center via noVNC

Libre Office Start Center — select Writer, Calc, or Impress

From here you can choose the application you want to use: Writer for text documents, Calc for spreadsheets, or Impress for presentations. Everything runs on the server, the display is sent via VNC to your browser.

Libre Office Writer running on o.lan

Libre Office Writer — looks exactly like the native desktop

You can also open files that already exist on the server via Thunar (file manager), or copy and paste text from other sources. Since this is a full session, all keyboard shortcuts work normally. There is also a special shortcut:

  • Ctrl+Alt+W — Open Writer
  • Ctrl+Alt+C — Open Calc
  • Ctrl+Alt+I — Open Impress
  • Ctrl+Alt+T — Open terminal
  • Ctrl+Alt+F — Open file manager (Thunar)
Document Writer on o.lan

Typing Writer documents — responsive, no different from desktop

Idle Auto-Stop

This is my favorite feature. If you forget to close the session, o.lan will automatically shut down after 30 minutes of no activity. The timer is visible at the bottom of the screen — so you know when the session will end.

There are two layers to how it works:

  1. System-level: A systemd timer (runs every 1 minute) checks whether there is a TCP connection to the VNC port. If no client connects for 30 minutes, the service will immediately stop.
  2. App-level: JavaScript on a web page sends a heartbeat every time you click or press a button in the VNC area. If the heartbeat stops, the timer in the UI runs out, and the session is terminated.

The result: zero resource waste. When I used it, the service was full. When it was closed, everything was cleaned. RAM is relieved again.

Installation

For those who are curious and have their own home server, installation is really easy. Just clone the repo then run script:

git clone https://github.com/adammuizweb/office.git cd office sudo bash install.sh

Or if you want a custom domain:

DOMAIN=o.lan sudo bash install.sh

This script will take care of all dependencies: Xvfb, x11vnc, websockify, noVNC, Openbox, tint2, Libre Office, Nginx config, systemd service, and idle timer. Just run it, wait a few minutes, you're done.

Technical details and full code are on GitHub: github.com/adammuizweb/office

Conclusion

o.lan is proof that you don't need a bulky desktop environment just to run one application. With Xvfb + VNC + Openbox + Libre Office, you get a fully functional office experience without having to install DE, display manager, or compositor. Everything runs on the server, accessed from any device browser on the local network.

The combination of b.lan + o.lan on the home server becomes a complete remote workstation: Chrome for browsing and admin, Libre Office for writing and processing data. Both are on-demand, independent of each other, and don't waste resources.

Next? Maybe a session on GIMP or VS Code. But that's another story.