Installing FreeNX in Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy

[daflame]

I have read so many posts on users having troubles installing the Seveas packages on AMD64 with Gnome or KDE. Or having to chase down some outdated client that is only available on remote sites and isn't 64bit ready. Also, I have become tired of Linux being consistently behind the ball game on the latest and greatest technology. Namely NX 3.2.0 protocol compression which is now 64bit ready, so in frustration I modded the FreeNX Debian packages to arrive on a solution that works on Gutsy and Hardy extremely well using FreeNX 0.7.2. All other mods I've heard of need either an outdated client and server or require someone with sysadmin level knowhow to install and setup. The following is a guide to install and setup the Gutsy packages that I have compiled for everyone's convenience.

[b]NOTICE: NX 3.2.0 is released! After much toil I have concluded that I cannot get native Hardy packages to compile in 64bit, so I am releasing Gutsy built packages in the Hardy repos for now since they work fine on Hardy. I will continue to try to find the problem, but it is a vague linker error that tells me to use -fPIC (which I am), so it is hard to track down the true cause.

ATTENTION: These are Gutsy and Hardy packages and I DO NOT GUARANTEE any usability especially on any other distribution prior to Gutsy. If someone would like to debuild packages for other debian versions I have also posted the source repos here that I have used to make these packages as well as compilation instructions. My only request is that you make them available to me so that I may make them available to the community. One note: You cannot build the Hardy sources on Hardy 64bit just yet. I built them on Gutsy 64 bit instead.

WARNING: All packages and files below are open-source and free according to the GPL license EXCEPT the nxclient-3.2.0 ones. This is the commercial nxclient, but it is still free to download and use according to the licensing on their site at www.nomachine.com. I have chosen the version below because it has been tested to work with these packages, you may use a newer one, but your mileage may vary. Do not bother to post about a newer version failing, as it has not been tested, it may not work so please use the version supplied. However, this new release should function with newer packages should you desire to use them. You may alternatively use the new qtnx client in Hardy repos, but only for the client side I believe.

For those desiring to use nxclient 3.2.0 for Windows, here is a link to a compatible nxclient 3.2.0-10:
nxclient-3.2.0-10.exe
This is the recommended nxclient for Windows. I have tested this version and it definitely works well.

First add the following lines to your sources.list for Gutsy:
deb http://www.datakeylive.com/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://www.datakeylive.com/ubuntu gutsy main

Or add the following lines to your sources.list for Hardy:
deb http://www.datakeylive.com/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://www.datakeylive.com/ubuntu hardy main

Then add my keys for authentication and update your package list
(both Gutsy and Hardy):

wget http://www.datakeylive.com/ubuntu/dists/gutsy/wjeremy.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update

Then install necessary packages:

sudo apt-get install expect openssh-server tcl8.4 dbus-x11 libxcomp3 libxcompext3 libxcompshad nxlibs nxagent nxproxy nxclient freenx-server

(I'm not sure what other libs are necessary as I have them all installed already, but you MUST have a desktop (X minimal, KDE, or Gnome) installed,
please let me know if I'm missing anything since the dependencies have changed.)

Please verify the above operation was successful by executing:

sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-cache show expect openssh-server tcl8.4 dbus-x11 libxcomp3 libxcompext3 libxcompshad nxlibs nxagent nxproxy nxclient freenx-server | grep "Unable"

If the previous command says unable to find .... (with a package name) you need to install that package first.
Otherwise it should just drop you back to the command prompt.
If you installed the files above you can skip this next section for compiling from source...

For those brave souls willing to compile from source first I will present the quick and dirty method (for Debian based ONLY):
Make sure you added the above package repository, then execute:

sudo apt-get install expect openssh-server tcl8.4 dbus-x11 build-essential devscripts fakeroot cdbs autotools-dev debhelper patchutils autoconf automake1.9 bzip2 libjpeg-dev libpng12-dev libssl-dev libx11-dev libxaw7-dev xutils zlib1g-dev apt-build nxclient

If you also want to build freenx-client you will need to execute:

Then execute:

sudo apt-build install libxcomp3 libxcomp-dev libxcompext3 libxcompext-dev libxcompshad libxcompshad-dev nxlibs nxlibs-dev nxagent nxagent-dev nxproxy freenx-server

Alternatively download these and try to build them yourself (I do not provide non-debian support):
nx_3.2.0.orig.tar.gz
nx_3.2.0-1gutsy1.diff.gz
freenx-server_0.7.2.orig.tar.gz
freenx-server_0.7.2-1gutsy1.diff.gz

verify that all of the above packages are installed correctly by first executing:

sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-cache show libxcomp3 libxcompext3 libxcompshad nxagent nxlibs nxproxy nxclient freenx-server | grep "Unable"

If the previous command says unable to find .... (with a package name) you need to reinstall that package again or restart the build process since something didn't work.
Otherwise it should just drop you back to the command prompt.

(CONTINUING FROM PACKAGE CHOICE)

Open /etc/X11/xorg.conf and make sure the font paths are in there. My section looks like:

Section "Files"

        # path to defoma fonts
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
        FontPath     "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

If you are missing this section from your xorg.conf configuration file I recommend adding it as without this FreeNX will die unexpectedly because FreeNX is actually xorg version 6.9 and Gutsy and Hardy are >=7.1. Since Gutsy, these settings aren't necessary anymore for a default install, and often aren't included by default.

I don't think this is necessary anymore but here is nxcupsd-wrapper for posterity for printing in old freenx:
nxcupsd-wrapper
Let me know if you have printing issues.

Now if you want someone to log into the server you need to make their account ready for log in. At a console prompt execute where xxxx is the name of the user you want to log in:

sudo nxserver --adduser xxxx

This should setup the user for you automatically.

If you want to support file sharing you will need to install smbfs and I would also recommend installing Samba:

sudo apt-get install samba smbfs

You need to share the directories (on the client side) using Samba or Windows file sharing that you want to mount. It is recommended to configure Samba, but it is beyond the scope of this FAQ, so just Google "setup Samba on Ubuntu" to get a better idea how to do this.

If you want to be able to proxy and tunnel RDP (Windows Remote Desktop/Terminal Services) you need to install rdesktop.
From a console type:

sudo apt-get install rdesktop

rdesktop is the RDP client that FreeNX uses to proxy RDP through the NX protocol. Then at the client end choose Windows, then click the settings button to setup the server and domain to log into. Make sure you use a server name that linux can resolve an IP to. Enter your credentials here if they differ on the windows machine.
I have found proxying RDP slightly more laggy on broadband, but it scales better and is much faster over slower connections.

If you want to proxy vnc sessions you need to install xvncviewer:

sudo apt-get install xvncviewer

If you want to also mirror sessions and the local desktop via VNC you need to install x11vnc:

sudo apt-get install x11vnc

On the client side you need to choose the session type as VNC and set a host, display and password in the custom section. Make sure to set the correct display size at the bottom or your window won't match the display size and vncviewer's scrollbar is terrible. (Right click to scroll up?) If you want to shadow when the window list pops up choose the session to shadow and click resume. If you want to VNC to a screen (Another machine usually) then click new instead.
When mirroring the local desktop make sure you have any builtin desktop VNC RFB server disabled. eg. KRFB

You should now be able to test this now by creating a connection to localhost using nxclient. If you need a Windows client version it is posted above.
There are many other commands that you can execute on nxserver just use:

sudo nxserver --help

Please post with your experiences!

TROUBLESHOOTING

I have heard reports that sometimes you need to copy the key from /home/xxxx/.ssh/authorized_keys2 to /home/xxxx/.ssh/authorized_keys where xxxx is the user name when public key authentication fails for user nx.
DO NOT DO THE FOLLOWING UNLESS YOU HAVE TO

sudo -u xxxx -i
cd
cat .ssh/authorized_keys2 >> .ssh/authorized_keys
exit

If you are having problems connecting with agent startup timeout, try one of the following:
uncomment the following from /etc/nxserver/node.conf and make sure it is at least 60 and DO NOT ADD ANY SPACES:

#AGENT_STARTUP_TIMEOUT="60"

or, delete all the xauthority files:

cd
sudo rm .XA*

Make sure you don't disable encryption of all traffic in the client. I have had problems logging in remotely with this setting turned on, local logins will still work. (There is a problem with direct unencrypted connections in FreeNX still trying to connect to localhost)
Don't forget to check the log under your username:
/home/username/.nx/F-C-(long alphanum session code)/session
if it has an error like:
/usr/lib/nx/nxnode: line 333: /usr/bin/dbus-launch: No such file or directory

You need to install the dbus-x11 package. There should be an auto-dependency from the dbus package, but there isn't.

The bug report is here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...us/+bug/118919

Also, remember to open port 22 (or whatever port you want to redirect to it) in your router and firewalls!
Another little trick, if you need to get through a firewall at work, it can be done by making port 21 or port 80 the new SSH port or tunneling via some tunneling client like hamachi, but make sure you do not have some other program using those ports first. For those wondering about using hamachi with NX, yes it does work, but I am having troubles with Hardy though. If you have hamachi installed in your linux box with a kernel <=2.6.23 (Not Hardy) and hamachi installed at a remote location and are a member of the network, just use the hamachi IP or a name that resolves to the hamachi IP as the server address. Opening post 22 on your internet router/firewall isn't necessary for hamachi to work, but opening hamachi ports may be.

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