OSM Documentation 0.1.0 Search

1. The desktop and your account

Signing in

Open https://<server>:5001 in a browser: the server's address, or its name followed by .local (https://nas.local:5001). Plain http://<server>:5000 sends you to HTTPS.

  • Sign in with your account name and password. If two-step sign-in is on, OSM then asks for the 6-digit code from your authenticator app (or one of your recovery codes).
  • Sign in with a passkey signs you in without a name or a password, with your phone, Windows Hello, Touch ID or a security key. Passkeys need the server's name in the address, not an IP address.
  • Trust this browser skips the code in that browser for a number of days.
  • After 10 failed attempts from an address, that address is paused for 15 minutes.
  • A sign-in ends after 30 idle minutes, or after 12 hours in any case.

These four numbers are settings, in Settings > Desktop Access.

The browser warns about the server's certificate until you give the server a trusted one (Network: certificates).

The desktop

  • The top bar. At the left, All apps opens every app you may use, and the open windows have a button each: click one to bring its window forward, again to put it away. At the right:
    • the turning ring while something runs in the background (an installation, a backup, a copy): click it for the progress and the log;
    • the bell: notifications, such as a failing disk, a full volume or waiting updates;
    • your menu (the person): My Account, Appearance, restart and shut down (Administrators), sign out;
    • search (the magnifier);
    • the last button hides and shows the widgets, in this browser.
  • Icons on the desktop open their apps with a click. Every installed app with a web page has one. While an app starts, its window shows the app's icon and name, and its desktop icon a turning ring.
  • Windows move by their title, resize at their bottom right corner, and fill the screen with a double-click on the title. The ? of a window opens the help for what it shows.
  • A button whose task takes a while shows a turning ring in place of its words until the task ends, and pressing it again does nothing. While the server works on it, the window shows Please wait...: you can still move, minimize or close the window.
  • Features your license does not include are greyed out, with a small gold tag naming the license that has them (Pro, Business), or Renew when this server's license has ended. You can open their apps and pages to look around; what would change something is turned off, and See the license opens Settings > License (License).
  • Widgets, in the column at the right: Clock, Server Status, Activity, Storage, Apps and virtual machines, Network and Temperature, and (Administrators) Next steps, Connections and Backup. Next steps lists what a new server still needs, each step with a link to where it is done. Edit widgets, at the end of the column, chooses which widgets show and in what order; your choice is kept with your account.

On your phone

On a phone, OSM opens a page made for it instead of the desktop:

  • How the server is: what needs attention (a degraded volume, updates to install, a restart), and each volume with how full it is.
  • Files opens the desktop with Files. Send photos sends photos and videos from the phone to your home folder or to a shared folder you may write in; OSM remembers where you sent them last. A file never replaces one with the same name: it takes the next free name, such as IMG_0001 (2).jpg.
  • The latest notifications from the bell.
  • Open the desktop shows the whole desktop, and Phone view in your menu comes back. On a computer, https://<server>:5001/?app=phone opens the phone page.

Put OSM on the home screen to open it like an app, without the browser around it: on Android, tap Add to Home Screen on the phone page (or Install app in Chrome's menu); on an iPhone or iPad, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. OSM on the home screen also:

  • takes files from other apps (Android): Share a photo or a document there and choose OSM. The phone page then shows the files: choose where they go and tap Send, or Discard them;
  • opens without a network, and says that the server cannot be reached (it keeps OSM's own page files, never your data);
  • can get notifications.

Notifications on your phone

Tap Notify me on this phone on the phone page and allow notifications: a first message comes at once, to show that they arrive. Choose what comes (everything, warnings and errors, or errors only); Send a test message whenever you like; Stop turns them off on this phone. A phone gets the notifications its account sees in the bell (an Administrator's also those for Administrators), and none while the account may not sign in. Your other phones lists the account's other phones, to remove one you no longer have; Administrators see every account's phones in Settings > Notifications.

Signing out stops the notifications on that phone or computer too, so the next person to use it does not get yours: turn them on again after you sign in. If you only closed OSM, they keep coming. When a phone still gets the notifications of someone who used it before you, its phone page says so, with Stop them.

Each message goes through the push service of the phone's browser (Google's on Android, Apple's on an iPhone or iPad, Mozilla's for Firefox), encrypted on the server so that only that phone can read it: the push service sees only that a message was sent. A phone that is off gets the messages when it is back, if that is within a day.

Notifications, the home screen app and sharing to OSM need an address the phone trusts: the server's OSM Connect address, or your own domain with a certificate from Let's Encrypt (Certificates). At an address with the server's own certificate (the one the browser warns about), the phone page works, the home screen icon is a plain shortcut, and notifications cannot be turned on. On an iPhone or iPad, only OSM on the Home Screen gets notifications (iOS 16.4 or later).

The magnifier looks in five places at once:

  • the apps;
  • My Account and, for Administrators, the pages of Settings;
  • the help topics;
  • the names of the files and folders you may open, in your home folder and the shared folders (from two letters);
  • the words inside the documents of the shared folders that Settings > Search Index reads (from three letters, under In documents).

Type a few letters: every word you type must be in what it finds, and capitals and accents do not matter. The arrows choose, Enter opens, Esc closes. The search runs as you, so it finds only what you may open yourself. Recycle bins and snapshots are left out, and hidden files (a name that starts with a dot) show only when you type the dot too. Full-text search is set up in Settings > Search Index (Files).

Help

Help (in All apps) has every topic and a search of its own. Getting started there is a short list of what most servers need first.

Appearance

Open Appearance from your menu, or with Appearance... in My Account. Your theme, language and formats, and your choice of widgets, are kept with your account and follow you to every browser. The wallpaper, and whether the widgets show at all, are kept by each browser.

  • Theme: Light, Dark or Automatic (as your computer or phone is set), and an Accent colour.
  • Language: English, Deutsch or Français, for the whole desktop and its help. Messages that come from the system itself (the logs, some errors) and the App Catalog's descriptions of apps stay in English. Automatic follows your browser.
  • Formats: the date, 12- or 24-hour time, the first day of the week, numbers and sizes.
  • Desktop: Widgets (Choose...) sets which widgets show and in what order. Show the widgets and the Wallpaper are for this browser only.

The sign-in page shows the look and language of whoever signed in last in that browser.

My Account

Open My Account from your menu.

  • Password: the same password works for the desktop, file sharing, SSH and the server's console. Change... asks for your current one. Your other sign-ins end when you change it.
  • Email address: where the link to choose a new password goes if you forget yours, when an Administrator has turned password reset by email on. Changing it asks for your password.
  • Two-step sign-in: Set up..., then scan the QR code with an authenticator app (Aegis, 1Password, Google Authenticator...) and type the code it shows. OSM then gives you ten recovery codes: each signs you in once without your phone. Keep them somewhere safe, and make new ones (New codes...) when few are left.
  • Trusted browsers: the browsers that skip the code. Forget one you lost, or Forget all.
  • Passkeys: Add a passkey... makes one with this browser's or your phone's own prompt. Give it a name, and Delete it when you no longer use that device. A passkey counts as both steps of two-step sign-in.
  • API tokens: New token... makes a token for scripts and other computers (API and command line): read only, or everything your account may do, for 30 days, 90 days, a year or until you delete it. The token is shown once only. A token can never fetch a password (an app's or a virtual machine's sign-in, the domain Administrator's), and it stops working while your account is locked or has expired.
  • Appearance... opens Appearance.

Restarting and shutting down

Administrators restart or shut down the server from their menu. The server's power button does what Settings > Power and Hardware says (by default, a clean shutdown).

Keyboard and screen readers

You can use the desktop with the keyboard alone.

  • Tab moves to the next button or field. A window that you open or bring forward takes the keyboard focus, so Tab continues inside it. When you close the last window, the focus goes back to the first desktop icon.
  • Enter or Space opens the desktop icon that has the focus, as a click does.
  • While a dialog is open, Tab stays inside it. When it closes, the focus goes back to where it was before.
  • Esc closes a dialog, as its Cancel button does. A dialog that shows the progress of a task stays until the task ends.
  • Esc also closes a menu, All apps, the notifications, the background tasks, the clock's calendar and the search.
  • In All apps, type part of an app's name: Enter opens the first app that matches.
  • In the search, the up and down arrows choose a result (Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End go to the first and the last), Enter opens it and Esc closes the search.

For screen readers:

  • Buttons that show only an icon have a name, such as Close, Notifications or Help.
  • Windows and dialogs are announced by their titles.
  • The row of open windows and the group of desktop icons have names.
  • The search's results are a list, and the result you choose is read out.
  • Short messages, errors in forms and the progress of a task are read out when they appear.