Discussion:
[Ltsp-discuss] Freerdp screen thumbdrive redirection for fat and thin clients
gordon
2015-05-01 17:35:37 UTC
Permalink
I am using the ltsp-pnp approach with Ubuntu 14.04. I am using freerdp
1.2. How can I make usb thumbdrive redirection to work with both fat and
thin clients?

My command line currently looks like the following:

xfreerdp /f /multimon +compression /sound:latency:10
/drive:media,/media/root /rfx -sec-nla /network:lan +fonts +aero
+window-drag +menu-anims /cert-ignore /v:rdpsrv.example.com
The problem is drive redirection only works for thin clients. It would be
ideal to only have 1 command that works for both thin and fat clients. Is
there any way to make this work?
Vagrant Cascadian
2015-05-01 17:55:02 UTC
Permalink
Post by gordon
I am using the ltsp-pnp approach with Ubuntu 14.04. I am using freerdp
1.2. How can I make usb thumbdrive redirection to work with both fat and
thin clients?
xfreerdp /f /multimon +compression /sound:latency:10
/drive:media,/media/root /rfx -sec-nla /network:lan +fonts +aero
+window-drag +menu-anims /cert-ignore /v:rdpsrv.example.com
The problem is drive redirection only works for thin clients. It would be
ideal to only have 1 command that works for both thin and fat clients. Is
there any way to make this work?
It's a little confusing what you mean by fat and thin clients
here...

You're specifying /media/root, which would only be accessible on the
client hardware, and only to the root user. This works with the LTSP
xfreerdp screen script because it runs as root.

If you were to run xfreerdp from a thin client
terminal(e.g. gnome-terminal), /media/root would be unaccessible (it's
not mounted on the server).

If you were to run xfreerdp from a fat client
terminal(e.g. gnome-terminal), /media/root would be unaccessible (it's
only readable by root, not the user running it).

If you're running xfreerdp from a thin or fat client terminal
(e.g. gnome-terminal), /media/USERNAME might work for the drive
location...


You'll need to describe what you're doing a little more clearly.


live well,
vagrant
gordon
2015-05-01 19:55:22 UTC
Permalink
Hello Vagrant,

I am replying to my mail instead of yours because I do not seem to be
getting emails from the list. Sorry about that.

I will try to clarify. I mean that when SCREEN_X in my lts.conf is set to
the command line I pasted earlier usb disk redirection works for thin
clients but not for fat clients.

Here is a simplified lts.conf for demonstration. Hopefully it makes my
intentions clear.


[Default]
SCREEN_07="xfreerdp /f /multimon +compression /sound:latency:10
/drive:media,/media/root /rfx -sec-nla /network:lan +fonts +aero
+window-drag +menu-anims /cert-ignore /v:rds.example.com"

[Thin]
LIKE="Default"
LTSP_FATCLIENT=False

[Fat]
LIKE="Default"
LTSP_FATCLIENT=True

[00:11:22:33:44:55]
LIKE="Thin"

[66:77:88:99:aa:bb]
LIKE="Fat"


When client "00:11:22:33:44:55" loads and logs into the remote desktop the
"media" drive is visible and when a usb stick is inserted into the client
it is made available to the remote session as a folder named after the usb
stick.

When client "66:77:88:99:aa:bb" loads and logs into the remote desktop the
"media" drive is visible. However, when a usb stick is inserted into the
client it is not made available to the remote session.

I figured this was due to the differences between thin and fat clients.
But I am not familiar enough with the LTSP architecture to make it work.
I've tried using "/drive:media,/media" to see if the usb stick would be
mounted at a different path under media but I observed the same results. I
also tried "sudo apt-get install -y usbmount" but could not seem to get
that to work either.

I know I am doing something wrong, I just cannot seem to figure out what
that is.

Thanks,
Gordon
Post by gordon
I am using the ltsp-pnp approach with Ubuntu 14.04. I am using freerdp
1.2. How can I make usb thumbdrive redirection to work with both fat and
thin clients?
xfreerdp /f /multimon +compression /sound:latency:10
/drive:media,/media/root /rfx -sec-nla /network:lan +fonts +aero
+window-drag +menu-anims /cert-ignore /v:rdpsrv.example.com
The problem is drive redirection only works for thin clients. It would be
ideal to only have 1 command that works for both thin and fat clients. Is
there any way to make this work?
gordon
2015-05-04 13:26:54 UTC
Permalink
I've been able to get it working except for one small cosmetic issue that I
am going to ignore for now unless someone knows the solution. I've boiled
it down to a small list of commands but it was fairly difficult to put
together.

The last issue is that thin clients do not get a notification/automatic
shortcut on the desktop and launch bar when a thumb drive is connected.
I've read the basic overview of ltspfs that uses fuse to redirect the thumb
drive to the server for the user. I didn't look into the problem any
further after reading about the drive redirection from thin client to
server, but I am guessing it is non-trivial to get a device connected
signal to the desktop so it shows a notification and shortcut. If someone
has already done this, I would appreciate the solution.

Anyways, below is a list of commands to allow fat clients and thin clients
to automount local thumbdrives outside of the Linux desktop for integration
with the freerdp screen script. I think it would be worthwhile to configure
ltsp like this by default for a more seamless user experience between fat
and thin clients. It also makes the lts.conf simpler since the thin and
fat clients can make use of the same SCREEN_X configurations when usb
redirection is important.

I've also attached the commands as a text file because email formatting is
difficult.


- #
- # INSTALL AND CONFIGURE USBMOUNT TO WORK WITH LTSP THIN AND FAT CLIENTS
- # -- FOLLOWING MUST BE ADDED TO lts.conf DEFAULT SECTION:
- # RCFILE_01="mkdir -p /media/usb0 && mkdir -p /media/usb1 && mkdir
-p /media/usb2 && mkdir -p /media/usb3 && mkdir -p /media/usb4
&& mkdir -p
/media/usb5 && mkdir -p /media/usb6 && mkdir -p /media/usb7 && mkdir -p
/var/run/usbmount"
- # -- THEN USE SCREEN SIMILAR TO THE FOLLOWING:
- # SCREEN_07="xfreerdp /sound:latency:10
/drive:media,/var/run/usbmount /rfx -sec-nla /cert-ignore /v:
srv.example.com"
- #
- sudo apt-get install -y usbmount
- sudo sed --in-place=".bak" 's/FILESYSTEMS="vfat/FILESYSTEMS="ntfs
ntfs-3g fuseblk vfat'/ /etc/usbmount/usbmount.conf
- # disable default automounting because it displays error boxes to the
end user
- # THIS IS AN UGLY HACK, see
http://askubuntu.com/questions/617906/disable-usb-automount-for-all-users/617932
- sudo -i
- echo '[Desktop Entry]' >
/etc/xdg/autostart/gsettings-for-all-users.desktop
- echo 'Type=Application' >>
/etc/xdg/autostart/gsettings-for-all-users.desktop
- echo 'Name=gsettings For All Users' >>
/etc/xdg/autostart/gsettings-for-all-users.desktop
- echo 'Exec=gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.media-handling automount
false' >> /etc/xdg/autostart/gsettings-for-all-users.desktop
- echo 'Icon=system-run' >>
/etc/xdg/autostart/gsettings-for-all-users.desktop
- echo 'X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true' >>
/etc/xdg/autostart/gsettings-for-all-users.desktop
- exit
- sudo -i
- echo "var/run/usbmount/.mount.lock" >>
/etc/ltsp/ltsp-update-image.excludes
- exit
Post by gordon
Hello Vagrant,
I am replying to my mail instead of yours because I do not seem to be
getting emails from the list. Sorry about that.
I will try to clarify. I mean that when SCREEN_X in my lts.conf is set to
the command line I pasted earlier usb disk redirection works for thin
clients but not for fat clients.
Here is a simplified lts.conf for demonstration. Hopefully it makes my
intentions clear.
[Default]
SCREEN_07="xfreerdp /f /multimon +compression /sound:latency:10
/drive:media,/media/root /rfx -sec-nla /network:lan +fonts +aero
+window-drag +menu-anims /cert-ignore /v:rds.example.com"
[Thin]
LIKE="Default"
LTSP_FATCLIENT=False
[Fat]
LIKE="Default"
LTSP_FATCLIENT=True
[00:11:22:33:44:55]
LIKE="Thin"
[66:77:88:99:aa:bb]
LIKE="Fat"
When client "00:11:22:33:44:55" loads and logs into the remote desktop the
"media" drive is visible and when a usb stick is inserted into the client
it is made available to the remote session as a folder named after the usb
stick.
When client "66:77:88:99:aa:bb" loads and logs into the remote desktop the
"media" drive is visible. However, when a usb stick is inserted into the
client it is not made available to the remote session.
I figured this was due to the differences between thin and fat clients.
But I am not familiar enough with the LTSP architecture to make it work.
I've tried using "/drive:media,/media" to see if the usb stick would be
mounted at a different path under media but I observed the same results. I
also tried "sudo apt-get install -y usbmount" but could not seem to get
that to work either.
I know I am doing something wrong, I just cannot seem to figure out what
that is.
Thanks,
Gordon
Post by gordon
I am using the ltsp-pnp approach with Ubuntu 14.04. I am using freerdp
1.2. How can I make usb thumbdrive redirection to work with both fat and
thin clients?
xfreerdp /f /multimon +compression /sound:latency:10
/drive:media,/media/root /rfx -sec-nla /network:lan +fonts +aero
+window-drag +menu-anims /cert-ignore /v:rdpsrv.example.com
The problem is drive redirection only works for thin clients. It would
be ideal to only have 1 command that works for both thin and fat clients.
Is there any way to make this work?
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