Installing FreeRDP on ThinPro 3.3 (Take Two) [ Edited ]

[AdamB]

Jawa had a great post here about getting dual monitors to work on ThinPro 3.3, which involved installing FreeRDP onto the thin client.

His process involved installing a bunch of packages from the current debian squeeze repository, which concerned me a little, so I set out to do the same thing but with just lenny packages.

I also was not able to replicate his work, as my TC would freeze up with a perl error as it updated from the squeeze repository.

In any case, here are another set of instructions that I have been able to get to work, starting with a ThinPro 3.3 stock image on a T5565.

All of these commands are from the X Terminal (Admin mode, Control Panel, Advanced).

Step 1: Update the ALSA package. (optional?)

There appears to be an update to the ALSA package for the ThinPro 3.3. This may be optional, but I was trying to get better audio on my TC, and since ALSA has to do with audio, I thought it would be nice.

1a. fsunlock

fsunlock unlocks the file system so we can write to places like /bin

1b. apt-get update

This updates the package list from the HP repository.

1c. apt-get install alsa-modules-2.6.27-17-generic

This updates the ALSA module. Ordinarily I would just do an apt-get upgrade, but it seems that there is another package that gets upgraded that caused my thin client to stop starting up in the X shell (just commandline) upon reboot.

1d. reboot

You may not need to reboot, but I do anyway here.

Step 2: Install packages for freeRDP

2a. fsunlock

2b. vi /etc/apt/sources.list

2c. modify the first two entries so they read:

deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian lenny main

deb http://security.debian.org lenny/updates main

... so you are taking the # in front too. What this is doing is allowing the thin client to get packages from the debian repository. Changing the ftp to http I just found gave me less error messages. Be sure to keep the HP repository enabled, as some of the packages we will get below come from there.

2d. apt-get update

This updates the local repository cache with the package listings from the debian lenny repository.

2e. Install the necessary packages:

apt-get install build-essential git-core libssl-dev libx11-dev libxext-dev libxinerama-dev libxcursor-dev libxdamage-dev libxv-dev libxkbfile-dev libasound2-dev libcups2-dev

3. Fix broken gcc package issues

For some reason, the above steps don't get us all the files we need to build freerdp, so you need to do this:

3a. apt-get install --reinstall cpp-4.3

This reinstalls the cpp program, including some missing files it didn't install the first time.

3b. ln -s /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.3 /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.3.2

This makes a symlink (alias) folder called 4.3.2. It needs to be there, but for some reason the install package didn't put it there.

4. Install cmake 2.8.

The cmake version that comes in the lenny repository is version 2.6, and freerdp requires cmake 2.8. We could grab this from the squeeze repository, but then we will get a bunch of other squeeze file versions, which I didn't like. So instead, we'll install cmake from its binary source.

4a. cd /

4b. mkdir cmake

4c. cd cmake

4d. wget http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.8/cmake-2.8.7-Linux-i386.sh

This downloads the binary.

4e. chmod +x cmake-2.8.7-Linux-i386.sh

This makes the binary executable on our local file system.

4f. ./cmake-2.8.7-Linux-i386.sh

This actually executes the cmake installer. Say Yes to the first option (the EULA), and no to the second option (making a new subfolder).

4g. PATH=$PATH:/cmake/bin

This adds cmake to our executable path so we can call it later.

5. Compile FreeRDP

5a. cd /

5b. git clone git://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP.git

This downloads the FreeRDP source into a folder off the root called FreeRDP.

5c. cd FreeRDP

5d. cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DWITH_SSE2=ON -DWITH_SERVER=OFF -DWITH_FFMPEG=OFF  .

NOTE: That is a space and period at the end of the line, and that is all one line.

The DWITH_SERVER=OFF tells it not to try to compile the server side component of FreeRDP, which we aren't using, and which I wasn't able to compile.

5e. make

5f. make install

5g. vi /etc/ld.so.conf.d/freerdp.conf

Add the line:

/usr/local/lib/freerdp

to this file. This adds the library file path for freeRDP to the system library path.

5h. ldconfig

This actually adds the path we did in 5e for the current session.

5i. fslock

6. Reboot (just for good measure)

7. Set up the Connection

Go into Connections and create a new Custom Connection. There are many options you can add, so you should do xfreerdp from a command prompt to see them all.

I did:

xfreerdp -f --plugin rdpsnd -d CONTOSO --sec tls 10.0.0.25

... -f says "fullscreen"

... --plugin rdpsnd enables sound for the RDP session

... -d CONTOSO sets the default domain for user logins to CONTOSO

... --sec tls enables TLS for RDP security

... 10.0.0.25 is the IP of my server. You could put a hostname here too.

8. Cleanup

Assuming that works, you may want to go back and clean up your system by doing:

fsunlock

apt-get remove build-essential git-core libssl-dev libx11-dev libxext-dev libxinerama-dev libxcursor-dev libxdamage-dev libxv-dev libxkbfile-dev libasound2-dev libcups2-dev

and remove cmake and the FreeRDP build folders by doing:

rm -rf /cmake

rm -rf /FreeRDP

...then re-modifying /etc/apt/sources.list and commenting out the first two lines, doing an apt-get update, and finishing with an fslock then reboot.

[pcecom]

I'm attempting to install FreeRDP on a t5565 with Thinpro 3.3 following your guide but get hung up installing the packages. I receive an error No space left on device. If I look at System Information I have 553MB free. What am I doing wrong?

Edit:  Was able to get it installed by imaging with stock image as noted. I created a connection, and when I connect I see a window flash on the screen but no connection to my server is made. The connection status is active. Any help is much appreciated.

[pceinc]

I'm unable to get dual screen mode working properly. In Thin Pro OS the dual monitor is configured correctly, both screen are independent of each other. In my Windows RDP session, the screens are spanned. Any ideas?

[AdamB]

Try making a connection from the command shell; that way you can see what the error is.

[gogolmogol]

hi

there is a solution for t3553z  (os build Z5D40017) ?

on step 2e i have:

'apt-get install build-essential' ask to install libc6-dev.

and libc6-dev needs 2.7-18lenny7, but 2.11.1-0ubuntu7 is to be installed.

[Bmelz]

Hello AdamB,

I think the sources that are updated in step 2b are out of date.

I'm getting hung up on step 2c with the following error

E: Coudln't find package build-essential

I've tried it with ftp as well as your modified version with http.... I've also tried to reimage the factory and update to 3.3.

It just seems to me that build-essential isn't available on the sources you've provided.

Any ideas??

[Ajohnson30]

I've tried both install threads with no success on a T5325.  Looks like since Lenny was discontinued that might have something to do with it, but I'm not sure.  Depending on which HP image I flash I either get a libc6 dependency error or a libx11-dev dependency error during  the main apt-get install step.

I dont suppose anyone can send me the compiled FreeRDP file or zipped up folder for arm/lenny?  Would that even work?

[Ajohnson30]

Well, not getting any response here I sorta gave up.  But later I a messing around with a Raspberry Pi which is also ARM based, and on their forums someone mentioned just being able to apt-get install freerdp.   After poking around unsuccesfully with this on the Pi I discovered it needed some sources.list work and had been changed to "apt-get install freerdp-x11".  It also needed some library install copy/fixes, but I was ok with that.

Heartened by this success I revisited my HP thin client.  There was no Lenny source though.  The heck with that I say.  I'm taking a pristine T5325, modifying sources.list to add

http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib

run apt-get update

Then as a test I ran

apt-cache search "freerdp"

Sure enough, I see freerdp-x11 in there, along with a debug version and other stuff.

Sooo...

apt-get install freerdp-x11

ran fine, and FAST!

xfreerdp

also ran fine.  I have more testing to do, but I'm going to remove the extra source line now and not monkey with the thin client any more.

[Ajohnson30]

Someone up there must really, really, hate me.

Custom Connections...Adding custom connections...

"This feature is neither present nor supported on the HP ThinPro image for the HP t5325"