FreeNX on suse 12.1

**jcdole** · 14-Jun-2012, 14:07

Hello.

Have install Freenx from please_try_again repository.
Have install nxclient from nomachine rpm package.

Following SDB:FreeNX server - openSUSE have applied patch.

Testing the setup give these errors :

linux:~ # nxsetup --test

----> Testing your nxserver configuration ...
Warning: Could not find nxdesktop in /usr/bin. RDP sessions won't work.
Warning: Could not find nxviewer in /usr/bin. VNC sessions won't work.
Error: Invalid value "KDE_PRINTRC=/root/.kde/share/config/kdeprintrc"
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_FOOMATIC=/usr/lib64/cups/driver/foomatic-ppdfile"
Users will not be able to use foomatic.
Warning: "/usr/lib64/cups/backend/smb" is not executable.
Users will not be able to enable printing.
Warning: Invalid value "CUPS_ETC=/etc/cups"
Users will not be able to enable printing.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_START_GNOME=gnome-session"
Users will not be able to request a Gnome session.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_START_CDE=cdwm"
Users will not be able to request a CDE session.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_SMBMOUNT=smbmount". You'll not be able to use SAMBA.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_SMBUMOUNT=smbumount". You'll not be able to use SAMBA.
Warning: Invalid cupsd version of "/usr/sbin/cupsd". Need version 1.2.
Users will not be able to enable printing.
Error: Could not find 1.5.0 or 2.[01].0 or 3.[01].0 version string in nxagent. NX 1.5.0 or 2.[01].0 or 3.[012].0 backend is needed for this version of FreeNX.

Errors occured during config check.
Please correct the configuration file.

linux:~ #

Starting a session locally I get this error ( after the window opened ) :

nxclient nepomuk service stub /usr/bin/nxprint cd /usr/share/ppd no such file or directory
and
Application: Nepomuk Service Stub (nepomukservicestub), signal: Segmentation fault

Within the session :
-) I can open dolphin
-) I can open a file in kate editor, but I can't print the document
-) I can't open firefox ( Error : Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system.) And for the same reason I can't open cups manager

I had none of these problems with nomachine nx server.

It seems that freeenx look for very old path, don't recognize cups ( cups 1.5 is running ) etc ...

Help is welcome

**please_try_again** · 14-Jun-2012, 15:18

The firefox error is not related to FreeNX. You would have the same problem if you try to start another instance of firefox in the same or another X session. But you won't have it if you open a nx session as another user or if you exit firefox on the server.

I never print in FreeNX, but I noticed that some paths are indeed wrong (such as /usr/lib/cups/backend). Try to change them in /etc/nxserver/node.conf and let me know if it works.

**please_try_again** · 14-Jun-2012, 17:33

Hummm ... complicated.

First off I could get rid of some of those warnings by applying some changes in /etc/nxserver/node.conf:

Code:

diff -u /etc/nxserver/node.conf.cups /etc/nxserver/node.conf
--- /etc/nxserver/node.conf.cups	2012-06-14 16:51:37.670481323 -0700
+++ /etc/nxserver/node.conf	2012-06-14 17:02:29.146945674 -0700
@@ -413,7 +413,7 @@
 # FreeNX with ENABLE_CUPS_SERVER_EXPORT="1" will automatically
 # export the environment variable CUPS_SERVER.
 
-#ENABLE_CUPS_SERVER_EXPORT="1"
+ENABLE_CUPS_SERVER_EXPORT="1"
 
 # FreeNX with ENABLE_CUPS_SEAMLESS will automatically try to download the 
 # necessary ppds from the client.
@@ -429,16 +429,16 @@
 # FreeNX with ENABLE_FOOMATIC will integrate the foomatic db to the list
 # of available ppd drivers via the $COMMAND_FOOMATIC command.
 
-#ENABLE_FOOMATIC="1"
+ENABLE_FOOMATIC="0"
 #COMMAND_FOOMATIC="/usr/lib64/cups/driver/foomatic-ppdfile"
 
 # CUPS_BACKEND and CUPS_ETC are the corresponding paths of your CUPS 
 # installation.
 
-#CUPS_BACKEND="/usr/lib64/cups/backend"
-#CUPS_IPP_BACKEND="$CUPS_BACKEND/nxipp"
+CUPS_BACKEND="/usr/lib/cups/backend"
+CUPS_IPP_BACKEND="$CUPS_BACKEND/ipp"
 #CUPS_DEFAULT_SOCK="/var/run/cups/cups.sock"
-#CUPS_ETC="/etc/cups"
+CUPS_ETC="/etc/cups"
 
 # SAMBA_MOUNT_SHARE_PROTOCOL is a key to configure the supported 
 # protocols for mounting shares.

Now the output of nxsetup --test (before I applied these changes, it looked pretty much like yours):

Code:

----> Testing your nxserver configuration ...
Warning: Could not find nxdesktop in /usr/bin. RDP sessions won't work.
Warning: Could not find nxviewer in /usr/bin. VNC sessions won't work.
Warning: Invalid value "CUPS_ETC=/etc/cups"
         Users will not be able to enable printing.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_START_CDE=cdwm"
         Users will not be able to request a CDE session.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_SMBMOUNT=smbmount". You'll not be able to use SAMBA. 
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_SMBUMOUNT=smbumount". You'll not be able to use SAMBA.
Warning: Invalid cupsd version of "/usr/sbin/cupsd". Need version 1.2.
         Users will not be able to enable printing.
Error: Could not find 1.5.0 or 2.[01].0 or 3.[01].0 version string in nxagent. NX 1.5.0 or 2.[01].0 or 3.[012].0 backend is needed for this version of FreeNX.

  Warnings occured during config check.
  To enable these features please correct the configuration file.

<---- done

----> Testing your nxserver connection ...
HELLO NXSERVER - Version 3.2.0-73 OS (GPL, using backend: 3.4.0)
<--- done

Now the same test on Fedora 16:

Code:

# nxsetup --test

----> Testing your nxserver configuration ...
Warning: "/usr/lib/cups/backend/nxipp" is not executable.
         Users will not be able to enable printing.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_START_CDE=cdwm"
         Users will not be able to request a CDE session.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_SMBMOUNT=smbmount". You'll not be able to use SAMBA. 
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_SMBUMOUNT=smbumount". You'll not be able to use SAMBA.
Warning: Invalid cupsd version of "/usr/sbin/cupsd". Need version 1.2.
         Users will not be able to enable printing. Ignore if you use cups > 1.2
Error: Could not find 1.5.0 or 2.[01].0 or 3.[0123].0 version string in nxagent. NX 1.5.0 or 2.[01].0 or 3.[0123].0 backend is needed for this version of FreeNX.

  Warnings occured during config check.
  To enable these features please correct the configuration file.

<---- done

----> Testing your nxserver connection ...
HELLO NXSERVER - Version 3.2.0-74-SVN OS (GPL, using backend: 3.5.0)
<--- done

It could be that printing might work after all.

I don't think that the nxagent error is fatal. I see it on different servers, different distros.

Now - and here's why I said 'complicated' - my /usr/lib/cups/backend/nx is pointing to /usr/NX/bin/nxspool

Code:

$ readlink /usr/lib/cups/backend/nx
/usr/NX/bin/nxspool

And this file belongs to the nomachine package:

Code:

$ rpm --query -f /usr/NX/bin/nxspool
nxnode-3.5.0-7.x86_64

This is not surprising since I install both and nomachine always last. How does this symlink look like on your system?

But again, I don't print.

**please_try_again** · 29-Jun-2012, 18:02

OK. Here's what I did: in /etc/nxserver/node.conf, I just uncommented this line:

Code:

ENABLE_CUPS_SERVER_EXPORT="1"

uncommented and modified these two:

Code:

CUPS_BACKEND="/usr/lib/cups/backend"
CUPS_IPP_BACKEND="$CUPS_BACKEND/ipp"

restarted the freenx server, and I was able to print from a freenx session. Notice that nomachine NX is also installed on this server.

There is an option in Nomachine client under services to enable CUPS printing. I didn't check it. I suppose it makes the client acting in turn as a print server. I didn't need it to just print a page in the client session.

**jcdole** · 30-Jun-2012, 11:52

Digging into loadnxconfig and modifying it I have removed some errors.
This is because freenx have not been updated for long times. So loadnxconfig is not looking for good files or paths or version number.

I have left out this project for the moment. I will give you news later.

Thank you very much for helping

PS: Effectively I had had no problems last year when i used Nomachine nxserver with Nomachine nxclient.

**please_try_again** · 05-Jul-2012, 05:45

Originally Posted by jcdole

Digging into loadnxconfig and modifying it I have removed some errors.
This is because freenx have not been updated for long times. So loadnxconfig is not looking for good files or paths or version number.

Correct. I fixed that already in the package I'm still building locally. I will release it when I'm done. Digging in other files and in the latest Fedora patches, I see there are a lots of other things which need to be changed. I won't be able to fix all FreeNX printer issues (specially with samba). However if someone could tell me what would be the (exact) equivalent of foomatic-ppdfile in openSUSE ... it might help. It's a perl script I found on Fedora and ArchLinux. FreeNX uses it as its foomatic command.

Code:

COMMAND_FOOMATIC="/usr/lib/cups/driver/foomatic-ppdfile"

I know there is "foomatic-rip --ppd" in openSUSE. But it doesn't seem to do the same thing.

**please_try_again** · 15-Jul-2012, 14:34

The printing bug is fixed in my last build of FreeNX. Of course, cups has to be running and set up properly on the server. I was able to print from a FreeNX session on a Linux client - without having NoMachine installed at all on the server. I also updated NX agent to version 3.5.0.

To anyone who might be interested, I posted 2 articles on how to install FreeNX and NoMachine NX under openSUSE separately or in parallel.