Why Linux labs need classroom software built for Linux

Most long-established classroom software only targets Windows, so after a move to Linux labs, screen broadcast goes black and remote control fails. cc-class was rebuilt for Linux from the ground up, so Linux labs and Windows labs use the same classroom software.

The plight of traditional electronic classrooms in Linux computer labs

The software only comes in a Windows version and can't be installed on Linux labs at all
Broadcast the screen, camera and audio live at the same time — ideal for on-camera presenters.
Remote control can't inject keyboard and mouse input, so the teacher "can see but can't control"
There are no installers for ARM64 or LoongArch machines
The lab has no external apt source, so dependencies can't be installed and deployment is an uphill battle
Teacher and student machines need separate images, doubling maintenance work

cc-class's solution for the Linux electronic classroom

Native Linux client, ready to install on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions
Installation automatically switches to Xorg, keeping screen broadcasting and remote control stable and usable
Based on XTest keyboard/mouse injection, take over remotely for hands-on guidance
Ships .deb packages for amd64, arm64, and loongarch64, covering x86, ARM64, and LoongArch machines
The offline installer bundles all dependencies and installs in one click without any internet connection
Teacher and student sides share one install package, with roles assigned automatically by computer name

One Linux classroom software to manage the whole Linux lab

The teacher app starts on the Linux desktop and shows live thumbnails of every Linux student PC, so broadcast, monitoring, remote control, and class control are all in one place

Classroom software that runs natively on the Linux desktop

The picture below is the real cc-class teacher interface on Linux managing a whole room of Ubuntu student PCs: the teaching and interaction toolbar is at the top, live screen thumbnails of each student PC are in the middle, and class controls such as blackout, internet block, USB block, and lock on disconnect are on the right.

LinuxNatively recommendedUbuntu and other Linux distributions share the same classroom software with Windows, with identical interface and features
Live monitoring of the whole classOne card per student machine, with a live screen thumbnail and online / hand-raised / presenting status
Screen BroadcastProject the teacher's desktop or a chosen window in real time to all Linux student machines across the class, with annotation for explanation
Remote TakeoverDouble-click a student card to take over their mouse and keyboard for hands-on troubleshooting guidance
Delivered with the cloud desktop, ready to useAuto-identifies teacher and student endpoints from tags pushed by the vDisk cloud desktop, avoiding repeated installation in the image
Classroom ControlOne-click black screen for silence, block internet, disable USB, and lock on disconnect

View Core Features Request a Trial →

cc-class teacher console · real Linux interface

Native Linux capabilities

Not a simple port: everything from installation and autostart to the display session was worked through for Linux labs

Multi-architecture Linux coverage

Packages are provided for amd64, arm64, and loongarch64, and install right away on Ubuntu 20.04 / 22.04 / 24.04 and other Linux distributions.

.deb online / offline installation

Online apt install It automatically pulls dependencies; when the lab has no apt source, it uses an offline package containing all dependencies and install.sh, installing everything in one click without any network connection.

systemd-guarded auto-start

The student endpoint registers as a systemd service and auto-starts at boot to automatically connect to the teacher endpoint; the teacher endpoint launches on demand and reconnects automatically when disconnected, requiring no manual attendance.

Role recognition · Xorg auto-adaptation

It automatically identifies teacher and student machines by computer name; the installation automatically switches the session to Xorg, ensuring screen broadcasting and remote control work reliably on Linux.

Real interface of the Linux electronic classroom

Real-time monitoringOne card per Linux student PC, with real-time thumbnails to grasp the whole class at a glance.

One-click blackoutThe whole end-to-end workflow — before, during and after class — combining interactive teaching, exams and homework, and classroom management.

Teaching channelMultiple classes in the same lab use different channels, so student devices only connect to the teacher machine on the same channel.

Core features of the Linux electronic classroom

Teaching demos, monitoring & control, assignment collection, and check-in attendance all in one, with feature parity with the Windows version

Screen Broadcast

Broadcast the teacher's desktop or a chosen window to the whole class in real time, with annotation and markup, and smooth playback of video, 3D and CAD.

Screen Watching

View real-time thumbnails of all student screens. Use grid view to see the entire class on one screen. Double-click to enlarge or directly take over, enabling timely detection of violations and intervention.

Remote Takeover

Double-click a student card to take over their mouse and keyboard, a hands-on guidance mode that lets you tutor and troubleshoot without leaving the teacher machine.

Voice Teaching

Teacher audio broadcasting and two-way voice communication: broadcast voice to students or talk with them in real time.

One-click black screen / control

Black-screen silence, internet lockout, USB disabling and offline screen lock — manage classroom discipline in a unified way.

Assignments

Materials are distributed in one click, with assignments and exam files automatically collected and archived by class / student ID / seat, with resumable transfers.

Check-In & Attendance

Students enter their name, student ID and class for automatic archiving; the check-in sheet is shown live on the left and can be exported to Excel.

Online Exams

Import a CSV question bank to distribute exams, with countdown auto-submission and scoring, and live answering progress.

Class control, group control, tamper protection, and Linux deployment: every feature explained

What Linux labs care about most: discipline control, synchronized control of the whole class, student-side tamper protection, system-level remote operations, network settings pushed to cloud desktops, zero-touch student onboarding, and installation with role detection. 86 features in all, each in one sentence.

7Feature Grouping

86feature by feature

2Client (Teacher Client / Student Client)

1Universal installation package

Terminal group control (one-to-many synchronous operation) 12 items

Whatever the teacher does on their own machine, the selected student machines will synchronously follow—unified software installation, unified environment configuration, unified training steps, done for the whole class at once, no need to go to each machine.

Real-time Keyboard and Mouse Mirroring: The teacher's local mouse movements, clicks, scrolls, and keystrokes are replicated in real-time to each selected student PC and replayed on their desktops.
Controlled by list: Same selection method as screen broadcast: first select computers or groups on the main interface, no selection means no action, never implicitly apply to the whole class.
Automatic proportional mapping for different resolutions: Coordinates are normalized as percentages of the screen and sent; student machines render them according to their own resolution. Even if teacher and student resolutions differ, there will be no click offset.
Initial cursor alignment: When group control is enabled, the teacher's current cursor position is synchronized immediately, without needing to wiggle the mouse first to align.
Block student's local keyboard and mouse: During group control, students' own keyboards and mice are blocked; only the teacher's operations take effect, and students cannot interfere.
Teacher's local machine unrestricted: Teacher-end collection only monitors without blocking; the teacher operates normally on their own machine and will not be obstructed by the group control they initiated.
Global escape hotkey: Ctrl+Alt+G to end group control at any time, even if the main window is covered by the demo program and cannot be clicked, you can still exit
Floating end button not mirrored: When the teacher clicks the "End Group Control" window, mouse events in that area are not replicated to the entire class, and the student desktop will not receive an accidental click.
Three-fold self-protection on student endpoint: Automatically unfreeze if no group control packet is received within 10 seconds. Disconnection or exit releases the lock. If forcibly killed, the keyboard and mouse are restored according to the disk list on next boot – student machines are never permanently locked.
Automatic retransmission for late arrival and reconnection: Machines that were not powered on at the time but are on the list will be automatically included when they come online later; machines not on the list will never be included even if they come online at that time.
Back Pressure Protection: When a student's network is congested, only pure movement events are dropped; clicks and key presses are not lost, ensuring operations remain correct.
Model PC: Pick one student PC as the model; the teacher operates on its real screen and the whole class follows in sync

Classroom Control 20 items

On the right side is a column of switches. Click once to enable, click again to restore. Red indicates that it is currently under control. Most of them apply to all students.

Blank screens: All screens in the class go black with keyboard and mouse locked; a teacher-set message is displayed on screen. Click to cancel blackout and restore.
Customizable black screen prompt message: Five built-in common prompts available for direct use, or you can write your own.
Three Unlocking Methods: Manual unlock, automatic unlock after a duration (N minutes later), automatic unlock at a specific time (by what time).
Automatic lock for newly connected devices during blackout: Student PCs that start up midway automatically join the black screen and are released simultaneously with the whole class
disable internet access: Cut off student PCs' external network access, one-click restore
Block specific websites: Restrict websites using blacklist or whitelist mode, maintain domain names in a dialog box
Browser keyword blocking: Set keywords; when a student's browser hits one, either close the browser or show a warning; common words are built in and active at startup
Keyword-hit evidence: A screenshot is taken automatically, reporting the keyword, window title, machine, and student; records can be viewed full size and exported as a spreadsheet with thumbnails
Program restrictions (block games/chat tools): Deploy program blacklist, automatically terminate programs that match on student machines, one-click release
Disable USB: Disable USB storage; even if students plug it in, it won't work.
Four-level USB flash drive control: Open / Read-only / Execute disabled / Fully blocked. Select one option based on course needs.
Block new application creation: Lock students to programs already open so they can't start new ones
Offline Lock Screen: Once a student disconnects from the teacher console, the screen automatically locks, preventing cable pulling or exiting to evade control; when reconnected, it automatically unlocks, and the number of locked screens is displayed at the top.
Application and URL monitoring: Monitor which programs students run and which websites they visit, with selectable toggles.
Print Control: Allow or disallow student printing
Note screenshots and help request toggle: Two independent switches determine whether students can press F2 to take notes and whether they can ask for help
Single client offline: Disconnect or restore network for a single student PC without affecting others.
Batch distribution of remote settings: Batch push student-side settings such as desktop background, theme, access channel, volume, and exit password; the background image can be directly selected and pushed.
Protected mode: Stops students from renaming their machine to impersonate the teacher PC
Class isolation: Student PCs from another class can't connect to this one, so several classes in the same lab don't cross over

Anti-deregistration and process protection on student endpoints 9 items

In computer labs, students often have local administrator privileges on their machines, which cannot be blocked at the user level. cc-class comes with a kernel driver for true antivirus/anti-kill, and it's enabled by default after installation.

Kernel-level process anti-kill: Built-in ccprotect kernel driver. Even if students have administrator privileges, they cannot terminate the student client process in Task Manager.
Microsoft officially signed driver: attestation formal signature (not test signature), no need to enable testsigning, no need to disable Secure Boot, no need to install self-signed root certificate
Auto-select driver by system: The installation package includes drivers for both Win7 and Win10. During deployment, the appropriate driver is automatically selected based on the system version.
Enabled by Default: After installation on the student client, it is deployed on boot without needing to configure each machine individually. The teacher's end can also be remotely shut down.
Automatic degradation on missing driver: If the driver is not installed or fails to load, it automatically falls back to user-mode watchdog, while all other functions remain normal.
Protect only own people: Protected programs are built-in whitelist in the driver; other admin programs cannot make the driver shield itself.
Protect cloud desktop clients together: The core process of the vDisk cloud desktop client is also included in the anti-kill whitelist to prevent students from unmanaging.
Process Self-Healing: The background service monitors the student client, automatically restarting it after a crash or shutdown, ensuring uninterrupted classroom control.
Disable protection before upgrade or uninstall: The installation and uninstallation process stops the driver first before moving the process; normal upgrades and uninstalls are not blocked by its own protection.

Remote commands and power 8 items

System-level remote operations; irreversible actions such as shutdown, restart, and kill process require selecting the target machine first, then a second confirmation.

Related pages:Lab operations management

Launch application: Select from the preset list (Notepad, Paint, Calculator, Command Prompt, etc.) for remote execution, or add custom program paths and parameters.
Open Webpage: Enter a URL, uniformly open it in the browsers of selected student PCs
Manage applications: View running processes on student PCs and terminate them
Close specific processes: Enter process names to batch terminate, e.g., chrome.exe
Close all desktop applications: One-click to close all desktop programs on student computers for quick cleanup
Remote power on (Wake-on-LAN): Send WoL magic packet to offline machines to wake them up; requires motherboard and network card support
Shutdown / Restart: Shut down or restart the selected student computers, with a confirmation prompt before execution
Remote command line: Send commands directly to selected student PCs and view the output from each

Cloud desktop collaboration and network parameter distribution 8 items

When used with vDisk cloud desktop, the teacher endpoint also serves as the network configuration console for the computer lab: it broadcasts to discover endpoints, and deploys the entire set of network parameters by MAC address in batches, regardless of whether the current IP of the endpoint is correct.

Broadcast discovery of endpoints: One-click broadcast scan, listing all cloud desktop endpoints in the LAN along with computer name, MAC, and current IP in a table.
Deploy by MAC address: Configuration delivered via MAC, without depending on whether the current IP of the endpoint is correct or on the same subnet as the teacher's PC.
Batch distribute network parameters: Fill in the server IP, start IP, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS once, apply to all endpoints, and automatically assign IP addresses in sequence.
Endpoint password verification: Verify the endpoint password before deployment. If the password is incorrect, it will not be written, to avoid misconfiguration to other classrooms.
Take effect immediately and persist: Parameters take effect immediately after writing to the endpoint and are retained, no need to restart or manually adjust each device
Per-Device Status Echo: The table displays results for each PC: success, password verification failure, driver read/write failure, no cloud desktop driver, etc.
Can recover even if network configuration is messed up: Scenarios where conventional software cannot connect to the endpoint due to incorrect IP configuration or unreachable network segment can still be fixed in batches.
Cloud desktop local information settings: Remotely set the local machine information of the cloud desktop endpoint, and deploy network parameters through the same entry point.

Student endpoint (zero-operation design) 8 items

The student client is designed so that 'students do nothing': auto-run on boot, auto-find the teacher's PC, auto-reconnect on disconnect.

Related pages:Linux teaching software

Zero-operation automatic online: Starts automatically on boot, connects automatically, students barely notice its presence
Auto-detect teacher's computer: The teacher end broadcasts a beacon every second, and the student end listens. When the channel matches, they connect automatically. No need to manually enter the teacher's IP throughout.
Automatic reporting upon going online: Once connected, it automatically reports the local hostname, login username, and MAC address, and then appears in the teacher's student list.
Auto-reconnect on disconnection: Reconnect to the last successfully connected teacher PC every 3 seconds, with unlimited retries; last teacher PC info is saved to disk, and it attempts to reconnect on startup.
Top auto-hide toolbar: Move the mouse to the top edge of the screen to evoke, including connection status, hand-raising, help request, homework submission, discussion
Toolbar slide in/out: On Windows, the toolbar slides out and back from the screen edge, no flickering or jumping; can be dragged to snap to another edge.
Single Instance Mutex: Global mutual exclusion across users prevents two student clients from running on the same machine and conflicting.
Auto Exit on Wrong Installation: If the student client is accidentally installed on the teacher's machine, it will self-detect and exit, avoiding role conflict.

Deployment, role determination, and runtime environment 21 items

One installation package deployed to all machines. After installation, the software determines which machine is the teacher's and which is the student's based on the computer name, so administrators don't need to perform different operations on each machine.

One installer for all: The same installation package is deployed to all machines, no need to distinguish between teacher version and student version, and no need to select specific machines.
Automatic role assignment by computer name: Names containing teacher / jiaoshi / laoshi / laoshi, or with -t, _t, tea teacher marker segments, are identified as teacher machines; the rest are student machines.
No misjudgment: Uses independent marker segments for matching; names like -test, team, host-time will not be mistakenly identified as teacher machines.
Cloud desktop computer name priority: The cloud desktop environment uses the cloud desktop computer name issued by the platform, which takes precedence over the OS hostname.
Consistent judgment across three endpoints: Teacher console, student console, and installer all have identical judgment logic, so the three sides never produce conflicting results
Automatic desktop icon processing: Automatically create or clean up desktop shortcuts based on roles; student machines intentionally do not place icons by design. On Linux, automatically set as trusted to avoid untrusted launcher prompts.
Rename to change role: After changing the computer name, just restart. The daemon automatically re-evaluates the role and rebuilds the icons without reinstallation.
Windows installation: Windows 10 / 11 64-bit, the installer automatically configures the firewall to allow required ports.
Linux installation: Ubuntu 20.04 / 22.04 / 24.04 and other Linux distributions, with online and offline .deb packages and systemd auto-start
Multi-Architecture Coverage: x86_64, ARM64, and loongarch64 (old-world ABI)
Offline Installation: The main program installs even without an internet package source in the lab, and missing system components are listed one by one with their impact and how to add them
Automatic student app upgrades: Import the upgrade package in the teacher app, and student PCs upgrade automatically when they connect, with no per-PC installs
Role prompt during installation: During installation it explains whether this PC installs as teacher or student, and how to name the teacher PC
Automatic firewall rules: Opens the needed ports in Windows Firewall and the Linux system firewall automatically during installation
Cross-platform hybrid networking: Teacher and student apps on Windows and Linux can be mixed, with broadcast, monitoring, group control, takeover, and file distribution all working the same
Xorg Session Auto Configuration: The installer automatically sets WaylandEnable=false to avoid black screenshots and broken keyboard/mouse injection under Wayland
Teaching channels 1–100: Multiple classes in the same computer lab use separate channels simultaneously without interference. Selecting an occupied channel shows a conflict warning.
Fix ports and allow traffic: Broadcast uses UDP 11100, control uses TCP 11100–11105; just allow these ports in the computer lab network.
Multilingual interface: Automatically switches between Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, and Russian interfaces following the system language, with identical button positions.
Student PC list access: Export or import the current student PC list as JSON, quickly restore after replacing machines in a fixed computer lab.
Trial and licensing: Self-service QR code registration for trial, can be extended three times, no limit on points; long-term license uses machine code on the interface to exchange for license code

See other functions such as screen broadcast, classroom interaction, exam and homework, etc. cc-class Complete feature list； See step-by-step operation steps and illustrations cc-class user manual.

Five steps to deploy a Linux lab

From bare machines to the first class, and just as easy offline with one click

STEP 01

Prepare the Linux machines

Install Ubuntu or another Linux distribution on x86 or ARM64 machines.

STEP 02

Install .deb

One-click install via online apt or offline package, with all dependencies handled automatically.

STEP 03

systemd autostart

The student client registers as an auto-start service on boot and connects to the teacher machine automatically.

STEP 04

Switch to Xorg

Installation automatically disables Wayland; logging back in enters an Xorg session.

STEP 05

Enter Classroom

The teacher selects a teaching channel to enter the lesson, and student machines automatically join the started class.

Use cases for the Linux electronic classroom

From Linux labs to exam centers: one control for teaching environments

Linux labs

Moving labs to Linux

Linux labs and old Windows labs share one classroom software, making the move to Linux smooth.

Debian-basedUbuntu-basedx86 · ARM64 · LoongArch

K-12 computer labs

Information technology classroom

A complete teaching workflow of screen broadcasting, monitoring and homework collection — efficient, orderly lessons in the computer lab.

Screen BroadcastMonitoringAssignments

University Computer Lab

Computer training lab

Supports smooth broadcasting of video, 3D and CAD, with remote takeover for hands-on guidance, suited to university practical training.

Practical TrainingRemote TakeoverMultimedia

Examination Center

Paperless computer-based exam proctoring

Screen monitoring, one-click blackout, lock on disconnect, and automatic paper collection keep Linux exam rooms fair and orderly.

Exam ProctoringBlack Screen & Screen LockAuto Collect Submissions

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Linux electronic classroom products and solutions

Success Stories

Real Deployment Site Snapshots

To protect client privacy, case images do not display client names

Linux electronic classroom softwarecc-class classroom software for Linux labs