[SLUG] Re: [flalug] Terminal Server client for debian

From: Ian C. Blenke (ian@blenke.com)
Date: Mon Jan 13 2003 - 22:34:22 EST


On Mon, Jan 13, 2003 at 09:52:45PM +0000, cpace@tampabay.rr.com wrote:
> I misunderstood what exactly they were trying to do. We user Terminal
> Server in house and I thought they wanted to take Linux stations and
> connect them, I was incorrect. Apparently they have these thin-client
> termials (like the Wyse ones) that run RDP (I forgot to get the model
> #'s on the thin clients or I would have more info).

If they're WinCE devices, you're stuck to using X11/RDP/ICA to initiate
sessions.

If they're Linux devices, you can run them as diskless workstation via
NFS or rsync a mini-environment to the flash filesystem.
It is possible to run your x3270 sessions and window manager locally
(keeping the traffic off the network), if you can keep the runtimes
relatively small (16M or so).

> They want to setup a Linux Server (possibly using Knoppix because
> it was very good at the hardware detection) that will serve out to the
> terminals via RDP.

This is not possible. X11 is fine. But Linux cannoy serve ICA or RDP
sessions (although I did hear rumors about Citrix working on a Linux ICA
server a long while ago).

> I have Mandrake 9.0 PowerPak edition and from the literature it has
> Terminal Services 1.5 which is supposed to allow RDP clients to access a
> host session off the server (correct me please if I am misunderstanding
> this> )

As far as I am aware, nothing like this exists. There is a terminal
services manager of sorts that lets you create sessions for rdesktop to
use - this is probably what they're talking about. As for serving RDP
sessions, there has been no movement on this front for a while.

> and they wanted to know if there is anything available out there for
> Debian. Preferrably at no cost but if it does, something fairly priced.

Thin-soft has some interesting packages, but nothing that does exactly
what you want at the moment: http://www.thinsoftinc.com

> This might be used in an environment where all that is needed is email,
> web browser and a 3270 session. Again, my appologies for the
> misunderstanding (and I hope I have it right this time) and any advice
> anyone can offer. I'll find out the model of the thin clients when I
> go in tomorrow morning.

Use straight X11. XDMCP makes management painless. I wouldn't concern
myself at all with RDP in this model, you'll be happier in the end.

The only negative here is security... Yeah, you can lock down sessions
with xauth cookies, but the traffic is still in the clear on the
network (and rather heavy if you don't use a lighter window manager and
disable any pixmap heavy themes).

- Ian



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 13:22:50 EDT