Inquiry from the New Guy

Robert Dege rdege at cse.Buffalo.EDU
Wed Mar 19 20:51:14 EST 2003


I've used Citrix on RedHat linux in the past.  Worked fine.  I would
suggest that you use Redhat 7.3 instead of 8.0 however.  There are some
problems with rpm in 8.0, and I consider 7.3 more stable.  If you only
want them to see the citrix environment, then there's no sense in using
8.0 since it's mainly an updated source release with a really nice GUI
interface for KDE/GNOME.

Try this:

*)Install Redhat 7.3 & citrix (init 3)
*)Create a local user (for non-root purposes)
   +verify that citrix can run without error as local user
*)Modify /etc/rc.local and use the su command to login as user & launch
X-Windows.
*)Modify ~/.xinitrc (or ~/.Xclient) so that it launches twm & citrix.
  + (twm is only used to control keyboard mapping & focus on the app...
     might be option if you can get citrix full screen)

This way, the only system file modified is for autologin purposes.
Everything else is controlled by the user.  If the system fails, only the
$HOME has to be restored, and the autologin reset to that user.

The less system files you modify, the less global the impact on the
system.

-Rob

> Greetings All:
>
> I'm looking for some pointers regarding a Linux workstation rollout
> project I am working on. Here's the scoop:
>
> ASG has over 600 existing PC's running MS DOS 6.2, NIC & mouse drivers
> and the ICA Client for DOS. You power them up, autoexec.bat launches the
> ICA Client and you are presented with a Windows login screen. Simple
> configuration and a perfect end user experience for our environment. Over
> 90% of our staff gets their desktop environment from a Citrix server farm.
>
> However, I have another 100 or so used workstations we've purchased arriving
> soon. They are IBM 300GL PII 350's, 64 MB RAM, NIC and 4GB HDD. And (of
> course)
> no OS. Obviously, I don't want to spend over $20,000 in WinXP licenses just
> to
> dumb them down to MS-DOS.
>
> What I wish to accomplish is to build a Linux based PC that boots directly
> to
> X Windows and the ICA client (bypassing the Linux login) and present the end
> user with a Windows login prompt from our Citrix server farm, just like our
> existing DOS workstations.
>
> I've gotten some recommendations from Chad Robinson (A Linux Journal
> magazine
> contributing writer), an RHCE from UB and a few folks on the web. The flavor
> of
> these recommendations is:
>
> * Do a minimal RedHat 8 install.
>
> * Remove the getty statements in /etc/inittab to bypass the Linux login
> prompt.
>
> * Run the ICA Client as a shell in either run level 4 (Kiosk mode) or
>   run level 5 (X Windows).
>
> After I get a stable workstation config on one PC, the next step is to do
> network installs on the remaining units. They don't have CD-ROM drives.
>
> I've got management buy-in so I'm good there. I've already migrated our DNS,
> FTP and web server over to RedHat.
>
> Comments, tips, concerns? I'm admittedly a little inexperienced in a
> customized
> rollout like this. I'd love to hear your thoughts and see if anyone else
> locally
> is doing this sort of thing.
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Charles H. Root, III
> MIS Network Manager
>
> Account Solutions Group
> 205 Bryant Woods South
> Amherst, NY  14228-3608
>
> v: 716-564-4991
> f: 716-564-4440
>
> www.accountsolutionsgroup.com
>
>



Dege

So Many Things in Life Would Be Really Funny
.... If They Weren't Happening To Me




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