Linux and Citrix

[Evans Kelley]

Hello all,

I am a very new to the Linux world and had a few questions that I was hoping you all could answer.
Here they go.

What they want to do here is install a Linux OS and then run the Citrix client at startup, so the client has just the Citrix client login prompt.

1. Can this be done?
2. What deployment versions would work the best with this kind of setup? (Redhat, Mandrake..etc)
3. Is there a way to add a Linux box to a Microsoft domain?

So far, those are the questions I have.
Thanks again for your time.
Evans

[Stuart Browne · Accepted solution]

Funky.. I didn't know such a beast existed.. *gets evil thoughts*

*cough* Anyway...

You don't want the user to log into the Linux system at all, do you, just to come up with the Citrix client?

Ok. That's doable.

Basically what you ned to do is to tell the Linux system not to launch a X-Windows login screen (gdm/xdm) and to start X directly.

This is probably easiest done from the 'inittab'. You'll probably have an entry which starts at run-level 5 (second token is 5) that looks something like this:

x:5:respawn:

where Application is usually the gdm/xdm equivalent.

Change 'application' for X on it's own, and you're set there.

You can tell X to run a single application, and no windows manager using 'xinit' (and associated '.xinitrc' files). depending on the distribution you use depends on where best to put these details.

'man xinit' for more details on that one.

As for deployment, I'm not sure what methodologies Mandrake has, but RedHat have their Kickstart routines which can do all of this sort of configuration pretty easily.

RedHat have some fun documentation on their website about how Kickstart works, and are even nice enough to provide you with a Kickstart configuration file of your system build when you do it manually (/root/anaconda-ks.cfg). Some %post, and away you go.

Hope this helps you.

Feel free to ask more specific questions once you tie down some of your details.

[benoit Bruckert]

Hi,
Start gave the answer on question 2 and 1.
About question 3, Linux box doesn't have to connect to Microsoft domain, because you are just using your linux as a screen+keyboard+mouse.
What you can also do is using Terminal server and not Citrix, there's a product (I'm using it) which is working very well, and it's less expensive (It's GPL), by the way you don't need Citrix, you just use the teminal server (rdp protocol).
See this link http://www.rdesktop.org

hth
Benoit
___________
Le vrai moyen d'etre trompe, c'est de se croire plus fin que les autres. -- La Rochefoucauld, Maximes

[David Guzman_1]

I have used both RedHat and Mandrake, and I would use Mandrake if I were new to Linux.
You can run Citrix Client on Mandrake, but I guess it comes on the commercial cd (you would have to purchase the power pack) but I am not sure of that. Anyway, Citrix ICA client is completely supported in Linux, allowing you to connect to servers running Citrix Metaframe. However, there an interesting option to consider: it is rdesktop, which is an open-source client for Windows NT Terminal and Windows 2000 Terminal Services(RDP) in order
to present the user's NT desktop. Unlike Citrix ICA, no
server extensions are required. rdesktop currently runs on most UNIX based platforms with the X Window System, rdesktop is used through rfbdrake, however there's no documentation.
Between RedHat and Mandrake there's no differences at the issues you are interested, consider the support resources that Mandrake offers
In my work we have the only two boxes running Linux in a Windows environment, we can share all kinds of resources with them such printers (CUPS), files (Samba), and so on.
Good Luck with your efforts, then write a HOWTO to share your expertise...

David

[mvr]

If you still want to connect your Linux box to the Microsoft domain, use SAMBA

Miro

[mvr]

Here is a link for SAMBA

http://www.samba.org/

If you have any question, about configuration, please ask again.

Miro

[Colin Topliss]

FYI,

I managed to get a Citrix ICA client (can't remember which version - sorry) working under RH6.0 (plus patches) connecting to a large Citrix farm. It is possible. I took a brief look at this as the company I was working for at the time wanted remote support people to use Citrix.

One thing I would say is that it would (in my opinion) be better to stick to RedHat. The reasons? Well, HP provide support for RedHat, and I have found that although Mandrake is based on the RH distro, they do make changes, and I have been caught out by this before.

[Chris Vail]

Citrix does support Metaframe for Unix. We use it here extensively. It just doesn't support Linux (yet). It does run on AIX, HP-UX and Sun/Solaris. We use it instead of Exceed, Reflection or other X servers on the desktop/laptop systems. On a pe-seat basis, its still pretty cheap. You can get the 3-user license for less than $3k, and it will share subsequent licenses with other Citrix servers on your network. Its also easy to install, and a cinch to maintain. It has to be, since almost NO ONE sells it, and the Citrix people themselves are totally ignorant of the Unix marketplace. And of course, Citrix support SUCKS, as is usual for their product. So you pretty much have to figure out how to install and maintain it yourself. Fortunately, this is no big deal. We have it running on 12 systems here, soon to grow to 30. So we like it.
I was one of the beta testers for the early Solaris product, and thats the only way I ever heard of it. If you want more info, post another message here.

Chris

[Evans Kelley]

All,

Thank you all for your time, input and knowledge. I was successful with installing Mandrake 9.0 and Citrix. I was also able to connect to the Citrix Farm servers and do everything they wanted to test. Now they want (it???s always something else isn???t it. Never satisfied! ??? ) to have a linux-based pc boot up, and then go directly to the Citrix login. No linux log in, this is so not to confuse the end-users. Stuart Browne has already addressed this above, but when I tried this I just end up at the desktop. I am sure I am not doing something right, but this is what my /etc/inittab looks like. See attachment.

[Stuart Browne]

As i stated in my original post, you'll want to look at your 'xinit' and associated '.xinitrc' files.

I've not used Mandrake, so I'm unsure whether it has an /etc/X11/xinit/ directory (like RedHat does), but if you type 'man xinit', you'll get shown what needs to be done to launch the ICA client only.

The other part of this is your inittab is launching the ICA client at init levels 2, 3, 4 and 5.

You might want to let it go at just 5 (which is your default init level). This will just reduce some of the strain on the machine at lower init levels.

It will only be going to lower init levels if someone forcibly does it (from a boot prompt, or issues 'init', so it is safe).

Hope this helps clarify a bit more.