Category Archives: Citrix

Installing Citrix Receiver 13.1 in Ubuntu/Debian

Posted by on 2014/11/19 1 comment

The best thing with Citrix Receiver for Linux is that it exists. Apart from that it kind of sucks. Last days I have tried to install it on Xubuntu 14.10 and Debian 7.7, both 64-bit version.

The good thing is that for both Debian and Ubuntu the 64-bit deb-file is actually installable using “dpkg -i”, if you fix all dependencies. I did:

1) #dpkg --add-architecture i386
2) #apt-get update
3) #dpkg -i icaclient_13.1.0.285639_amd64.deb
  ... list of failed dependencies...
4) #dpkg -r icaclient
5) #apt-get install [all packages from (3)]
6) #dpkg -i icaclient_13.1.0.285639_amd64.deb

Step (1) and (2) only needed in Debian.

selfservice is hard to get to start from the start menu. And selfservice gets segmentation fault when OpenVPN is on (WTF?). So for now, I have given up on it.

npica.so is supposed to make the browser plugin work, but not much luck there (guess it is because I have a 64 bit browser). I deleted system-wide symbolic links to npica.so (do: find | grep npica.so in the root directory).

#rm /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/npica.so
#rm /usr/local/lib/netscape/plugins/npica.so

Then I could tell the Citrix portal that I do have the Receiver even though the browser does not recognize it, and as I launch an application I have choose to run it with wfica.sh (the good old way).

keyboard settings can no longer be made in the GUI but you have to edit your ~/.ICAClient/wfclient.ini file. The following makes Swedish keyboard work for me:

KeyboardLayout = SWEDISH
KeyboardMappingFile = linux.kbd
KeyboardDescription = Automatic (User Profile)
KeyboardType=(Default)

The problem is, when you fix the file, you need to restart all Citrix-related processes for the new settings to apply. If you feel you got the settings right but no success, just restart your computer. I wasted too much time thinking I had killed all processes, and thinking my wfclient.ini-file was bad, when a simple restart fixed it.

Installing Citrix Receiver on Raspberry Pi (Raspbian)

Posted by on 2014/06/23 3 comments

Update 20150222:The new RPi2 has an ARMv7 processor. It should run standard officially supported Citrix Receivers. I have not tested this myself.

It is obviously tempting to try to use a Raspberry Pi as a thin client. Often, that means a Citrix client, that requires Citrix Receiver (a closed source program available from Citrix in binary form only).

The problem
Raspbian is very much a normal Debian system. Citrix Receiver usually works nicely on Debian, and Citrix provides ARM binaries. But that would be too easy.

There are two ARM binaries available from Citrix (Receiver 13.0, the current)

  1. ARMEL – for ARM cpus without floating point support
  2. ARMHF – for ARM cpus with floating point support AND at least ARMv7

The Raspberry Pi is based on an ARMv6 WITH floating point support. This means that the ARMHF binary can never run, since ARMv6 lacks instructions required by ARMv7. But it also means that the ARMEL version can not run on Raspbian (although it could work on a Raspberry Pi with another OS).

There are different strategies to this problem: fixing the OS, or fixing the Citrix client.

RPi Thin Client Project
There is a nice effort called RPi Thin Client Project. The version from 2013-11-28 runs everything in ARMEL (without Hardware Float). The good thing is that it actually runs Citrix Receiver on a Raspberry Pi, and the performance of the Receiver itself is quite decent. However, it is based on Debian Unstable, and as I started updating and installing packages it did not work very well. Also, the RPi is not very fast even with Hard Float working, and without Hard Float everything except the Citrix client is very slow.

I see there is now a new Hard Float release of the RPi Thin Client project (2014-06-10), but as far as I can see it does not include Citrix Receiver (feel free to correct or update me!).

Unofficial Citrix Client
On a blog hosted by Citrix, there is an unofficial Citrix Receiver available for download. Obviously Muhammad Dawood has access to the real Receiver source code and he is allowed to compile it and distribute unofficial binaries. If you follow his instructions (install Raspbian as usual, then install Citrix Receiver with his special setup-script) you will get a Hard Float Citrix Receiver on a normal Raspbian system. Very nice! I am running it and it works very well, and I am much looking forward to an official/supported version.

The setup script modifies /boot/config.txt, mostly to overclock the RPi to maximize performance. My RPi did not accept it and refused to start. The good thing is that you can remove the SD card from the RPi and edit the config file with another computer. I only have ONE active line in my /boot/config.txt:

gpu_mem=128

…and you can probably change/remove that line too. I have an old 1280×1024
LCD display, that I connect via an Apple HDMI->DVI adapter, and a DVI-DVI cable. The display is comes up at correct resolution (although lxrandr can not run).

Other ideas
I was thinking about decompiling/recompiling one of the official ARM binaries. After reading a bit about it I gave up without thinking about trying. It probably violates any license agreement too.

Perhaps it could be possible to run some official binary (ARMEL, ARMHF or even x86) using QEMU user mode. Probably the performance would be completely unacceptable.

On Raspbian pages I read that theoretically it is possible to run ARMEL applications on Raspbian using Linux/Debian multi-arch, but there seems to be some hacks made in Raspbian, and this multi-arch probably practically unrealistic.

Conclusion
I recommend go with the inofficial/unsupported binaries from Citrix for now. Lets hope Citrix embraces this some day.

Install Citrix Receiver 13 on Ubuntu 13.10

Posted by on 2014/01/03 9 comments

In this post I will explain how I installed Citrix Receiver (version 13) on Ubuntu 13.10 (Xubuntu x64 and Lubuntu x86 – but keep reading for other Ubuntu variants too).

The quick summary
Go to Citrix Receiver for Linux Download Page. Pick the generic tar.gz-version under 32-bit (yes, do this for 64-bit Ubuntu).

Then:

$ cd ~/Downloads

(nasty habit of not including a folder in the tar file:)
$ mkdir citrixtmp
$ cd citrixtmp
$ tar -xzf ../linuxx86-13.0.0.256735.tar.gz

(install, not as root)
$ ./setupwfc
   (choose 1=install
    answer yes to all questions
    use all defaults
    finally, 3=exit installer)

Now, if you are on 64-bit Ubuntu there are some 32-bit dependencies to take care of:

$ sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386
$ sudo apt-get install libxml2:i386
$ sudo apt-get install libstdc++6:i386

If, on the other hand, you are on 32-bit Ubuntu, you can instead install these packages:

$ sudo apt-get install libwebkitgtk-1.0.0
$ sudo apt-get install libxerces-c3.1

Now, (re)start your browser, log in to your Citrix Portal, open an application. Your browser should suggest you open it with wfica.sh (located in ~/ICAClient/linuxx86). Do it – it should work!

You should now be able to use your Citrix applications in a productive way from your Ubuntu computer!

If you are on 32-bit Ubuntu, you should also be able to use the GUI Self Service application (I have not figured out how to fix the webkit dependencies for 64-bit ubuntu).

Feel free to read on for more comments and details.

What is Citrix Receiver and how do I use it

Citrix is a technology that allows an organization (your employer) to package applications (typically Windows applications) and make them available over the intranet or the internet. This way, you can run the applications on a computer without the need to install those application on the computer itself.

I have two ways to access my Citrix Applications.

The first way is via a web based Citrix Portal. I open my web browser, enter the URL of the portal and log in. Now, in the web browser, I see all my applications as icons, and as I click the applications they start in separate windows via Citrix Receiver.

The second way is to launch the Citrix Receiver Self Service application, give the address of the citrix servers and then authenticate. This method can enable “desktop integration” (your Citrix Applications are available via your normal Start Menu or whatever you call it). This Self Service application is new to Citrix v13, and replaced something else in v12.

The Web-browser way is easier to make work. There are unresolved dependency issues with the Self Service program and my solution above.

My #1 priority is to get a working solution at all.

Why not use the .deb packages
The deb-packages are obviously not built for Ubuntu 13.10. I believe they are built for Debian, but this must be confirmed.

The purpose of deb-packages is to automatically resolve all dependencies. But the dependencies are wrong for Ubuntu, and you will need to “force” installation of the deb-packages. In the future, this can leave you with conflicts and confustion.

So, I prefer the generic tar.gz-installation (which also works fine without sudo/being root).

Why not use the 64-bit packages
Well, first there is no generic 64-bit package, so I would end up resolving the dependency problems with the deb-package.

Also, the 64-bit deb-package actually contains 32-bit binaries. It is just the dependencies that are configured against the 32-bit compability libraries in Debian (instead of the standard 64-bit libraries).

So, nothing fun with 64-bit until Citrix actually compiles a real 64-bit binary with no 32-bit dependencies.

Other versions of Ubuntu
I believe what I have written applies not only to Xubuntu, but also Lubuntu, Kubuntu (may require more gtk-installation as it is QT based) and standard Ubuntu, and more. Please comment below if you experience something else.

Other versions of Linux
If you are on Debian or a Debian-derived distribution (like Crunchbang) I guess you should go with the deb-packages.

You really need the Self Service
Consider installing 32-bit Ubuntu on your 64-bit PC. Depending on what computer you have and what you do with it this may be a quite ok idea, or a very poor idea. I can admit I have been running 32-bit Ubuntu on a 64-bit PC for years, at work, specifically because Citrix worked better that way (even the old Citrix Reciever 12 had this issue, even if the Self Service looked different then).

What is the difference between Receiver 12 and 13
If you use Citrix via your web browser, you will not notice much difference (if any).

The Self Service is much different, visually, from the old Receiver. The old one looked like something for SUN Solaris and the 80s (motif-based). The new one looks like some kind of mobile app. I dont know which is worst. Many components are still the same.

If you currently run Citrix 12 and you are happy with it, I suggest you dont upgrade to 13.

Problems installing Citrix Receiver 12
If you want to install the old Citrix Reciever 12, have a look at my old post.

Troubleshooting
Your browser should allow you to download the ICA file (instead of launching it). Do it – it should be saved to ~/Downloads/lauch.ica. Now try to start it manually with wfica.sh:

$ ~/ICAClient/linuxx86/wfica.sh ~/Downloads/launch.ica

If you are missing dependencies they should show up here.

Final words
I consider this post “work in progress”. I’d like to

  • make Self Service work
  • confirm extra features (audio, drive mapping, etc) that might not work properly with my install above

But I hope it can be helpful even in this state. Feel free to comment!

Keyboard problems with Linux Citrix Client

Posted by on 2012/08/31 No comments

My company updated the Citrix servers, and suddenly I ran into keyboard problems. This applies to the latest version of the Linux Citrix Client (12.1).

Under Tools->Settings->Preferences there are keyboard settings. I used to leave those at Default but now I need to set them.

The tricky part is not the settings themselves – the tricky part is knowing IF and WHEN the settings have applied. When playing with those settings I suggest the following procedure:

  1. Start the Citrix Client (wfcmgr)
  2. Make your settings
  3. Restart your client
  4. Test your settings (starting applications)
  5. Finally, make sure all connections are dead (Tools->Connection Center)
  6. Stop the Citrix Client

If paranoid, also use ps and kill to make sure no citrix client runs. I wasted much time thinking I was using some configurations when in fact I was not.

For the keyboard settings themselves, I found I needed all of them (leaving none at default):

  • Keyboard Layout=Swedish
  • Keyboard Type (Client)=LINUX
  • Keyboard Type (Server)=IBM PC/XT or compatible

As I dont really know the version or the settings of our Citrix Server environment, this is more some trial-and-error advice rather than a solution to your problem.

Install Citrix Receiver on Ubuntu 12.04

Posted by on 2012/04/29 10 comments

Update 2014-01-03: Installing Citrix in Linux is still a hazzle. Please have a look at my new post: Install Citrix Reciever 13 on Ubuntu 13.10. The below post applies to the older Citrix Client version 12.

Installing Citrix in Linux is always a hazzle. The following worked for me on a fresh installation of Ubuntu 12.04.

Prerequisites (amd64):

$ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs-multiarch:i386
$ sudo apt-get install libmotif4:i386

Prerequisites (i386):

$ sudo apt-get install libmotif4

Now choosing Citrix version was not so easy… I found:

icaclient_12.0.0_amd64.deb     (failed to meet dependencies)
icaclient_12.1.0_amd64.deb     (failed to meet dependencies)
icaclient_12.0.0_i386.deb      (OK! - both i386 & amd64)
icaclient_12.1.0_i386.deb      (broken gzip!!!)
linuxx86-12.0.0.189834.tar.gz  (did not test)
linuxx86-12.1.0.203066.tar.gz  (broken gzip!!!)

The amd64 bit packages do not seem to contain a 64-bit Citrix client. They are just built to install cleanly on a 64-bit system, but it doesn’t on Ubuntu 12.04 (perhaps better luck in Debian). The broken gzip-errors were really weird.

amd64 specific plugin issues
Now when Citrix is installed it can be useful to know that it ends up in /opt/Citrix. That is, on amd64, you need to tell Firefox to open ica-files with /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/wfica. The plugin /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/npica.so appears to be i386 (no suprise) and will not work with amd64. I tried to install firefox:i386 instead of the amd64-version, but then none of the other plugins worked. It is probably possible to fix, but I will not.

Certificates
Also, you (may) need to fix certificates:

zo0ok@oden:/opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore$ ls
cacerts
zo0ok@oden:/opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore$ sudo mv cacerts cacerts.orig
zo0ok@oden:/opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore$ sudo ln -s /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla cacerts

Finally
Finally, Citrix receiver 12.0 works nicely in Unity and Ubuntu 12.04. This was not the case a few versions ago.

Linux Citrix client SSL error 61

Posted by on 2010/12/16 1 comment

When connecting to a citrix server with the Linux client you can get this error message:

You have chosen not to trust “????”, the issuer of the server’s security certificate (SSL error 61).

Problem is that the Citrix client does not know about very many “trusted authorities”. Mozilla/Firefox knows about them though. If you have installed the Citrix ICA client in your home directory this is how to fix the problem on Ubuntu.

$ cd ~/ICAClient/linuxx86/keystore
$ mv cacerts cacerts.orig
$ ln -s /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla cacerts

Done! Now problem should be fixed.

Citrix Program Neighbourhood and Linux

Posted by on 2010/07/13 No comments

If you access Windows applications via Citrix, and it is a fairly modern Citrix server chances are you can just start your Citrix receiver, give server, username and password; and voila you get your applications immediately (without the need to start a browser and log on to the Citrix portal). For me this worked easily on Windows, Android and iOS. But not on Linux. The Linux (and probably Unix) Citrix receiver (wfcmgr) has more weird features, and it is more… compliant.

PNAgent/config.xml
The key to everything is a little file:

  http://portal.mycompany.com/Citrix/PNAgent/config.xml

On all platforms except Linux/Unix you can just give Server

  http://portal.mycompany.com

but on Linux/Unix, you need to give the Server URL. Well that is kind of easy to figure out.

Connection View vs Citrix XenApp View
If you just want your applications right away, in the View menu in wfcmgr you need to switch to Citrix XenApp view. After that, start making settings under the Tools menu. I wasted hours in the useless Connection View.

Overriding in config.xml
Maybe, at this point, you are already up and running. Good for you! If not, keep reeding. In the config.xml-file, you can find the following lines:

  <LogonMethod>sson</LogonMethod>
  <LogonMethod>prompt</LogonMethod>

First one means that Single-sign-on is ok. Second one means that user/password is ok. My file did not contain the “prompt” line, nevertheless the iOS and Android app (and probably also Windows) did use the prompt mode, ignoring the policys from the file – and getting away with it (yes, Wireshark was involved at this point). But the Linux client is dead compliant, and failes with no useful error message. I really put lots of effort into running the Linux client through a NTML-proxy to get SSON – totally wasted.

So, I downloaded the confix.xml file. I replaced sson with prompt. Then I hosted the confix.xml file on my local webserver:

  http://localhost/Citrix/PNAgent/config.xml

That almost worked. But the clever (stupid!) wfcmgr then replaced all URLs in the files from portal.mycompany.com to localhost. And since I dont have a full Citrix server, it didnt find things like enum.aspx (on localhost). Well, turns out there are plenty of things like:

  <Location replaceServerLocation="true" modifiable="true" ...

that you can change into

  <Location replaceServerLocation="false" modifiable="false" ...

and then it does not destroy the URLs anymore. Now it worked!

As a final revenge I modified the following line:

  <EnableSavePassword>true</EnableSavePassword>