The following information is based on my tests with my t5565 with 1GB of Flash, running ThinPro 3.3. Your mileage may vary depending on your model and it's hardware resources. The reason I pursued this project was that I needed to get Dual Monitors working correctly on my 2008 R2 Terminal Server. The builtin rDesktop 1.6 does not allow Dual Monitor's to work correctly in the Terminal Server environment. Instead of giving you two separate screens, it will stretch one screen all the way across.
To get Dual Monitors working correctly, you will have to compile and install FreeRDP, an open source rDesktop replacement. You can learn more about FreeRDP at www.freerdp.com. Before beginning this project, I had very little Linux experience, so it isn't that difficult and remember, Google is your best friend if you run into an issue.
Please, Please, Please be aware that by doing this, you are going way outside of the supported software on your Thin Client from HP and for all I know, are voiding your warranty on your device. By continuing, you understand the risks involved that may include total 'bricking' of your Thin Client and that it is possible HP will not warranty the device.
Here is what I used to get FreeRDP to compile directly in Thinpro 3.3 on a t5565 with 1GB of Flash if you want to give it a try. There are a couple of things to note in my methodology:
I get the dependencies twice, but from different repositories. There are two reasons for this: First, if I added the repositories that I use the 2nd time right at the beginning, then for some reason the Perl Library tries to update and during that update it locks up the Thin Client completely and the Thin Client needs reimaged. By going and getting the dependencies from the first location and then going and getting them again from the new location, the Perl Library doesn't’t trigger an update and thus, doesn't’t lock up the thin client. The second reason is that we have to update the GCC compiler to the version you will get in the 2nd run through the dependencies, or you will get an error when you try to compile. These two issues are all centered aroud the 'build-essential' package.
2. During the 2nd run through getting the dependencies, I took out ‘libcups2-dev’ as it was reporting a broken package during the update. Since I don’t have any locally attached printers to my thin clients, I don’t really need the CUPS library anyways. You may actually want to print to a printer directly attached to the Thin Client, so you'll want to see if this is an issue for you.
Without further delay, here are the instructions:
Change to Administrator mode
Go into the Control Panel Open up the Terminal program
Type the following: fsunlock vi /etc/apt/sources.list
Make these changes to the file, save and quit the file: uncomment the first two lines
Now, let's go get FreeRDP. Type the following: cd / git clone git://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP.git
Now, let's install FreeRDP. Type the following: cd /FreeRDP cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DWITH_SSE2=ON . make sudo make install
vi /etc/ld.so.conf.d/freerdp.conf
Add this line to the file, save and quit the file: /usr/local/lib/freerdp
Type the following: ldconfig
fslock
Go into Connections and create a Custom Connetion. I use the following command line to attach to my Windows 2008 R2 Terminal Server:
xfreerdp -f --no-nla --gdi sw servername
For me, I had to use the '--gdi sw' or the colors were all inverted and wrong. I also still have one small issue with one of my programs in the Terminal Server enviornment where it doesn't draw grid lines correctly until you click and drag the window to a new spot on the screen. It has something to do with the GDI setting combined with the version of the VIA video drivers that come baked into ThinPro 3.3. I know this because I can get Ubuntu to run off a USB stick on the t5565 and it issue doesn't happen. I'm getting ready to submit a possible bug to the devlopment team for FreeRDP to see if it can be addressed.
You may need different command line settings depending on what you are trying to do. Goto the FreeRDP wiki to understand all the command line options.
There is an open source package called Remmina that provides a nice GUI front end to FreeRDP, but once you get all the dependencies and compile on ThinPro 3.3 it messes with the look and feel enough of ThinPro that it wasn't worth it to me. Using the custom connection essentially does the same thing and will make it easy for your end users to understand how to access the Terminal Server enviornment.
Hi, I am Marc-Andre, founder of the FreeRDP project. I was recently given a t5745 by HP, and I'd like to set up FreeRDP on it. I didn't play much with the device yet, but I managed to install puppy linux after ubuntu 11.04 failed to install twice. I am mostly looking for flexibility, would you recommend that I re-image the thin client with ThinPro, or something else like ThinStation? If so, how should I proceed with re-imaging the thin client? Thanks! - Marc-Andre
I would go with ThinPro. You can get an image from the HP Support Site by typing in the model # of the unit. Here is a link: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3996170&... Then you download the HP Thin Client Image. That should let you make a bootable USB drive for re-imaging the device. ThinPro is based on Debian Linux, so it should be familiar coming from Ubuntu. After the box starts up, you can switch to admin mode with the icon in the lower left (password 'root'), then go to Control Panel and Advanced to get a terminal. You should run fsunlock before making changes that are going to touch /bin /sbin /lib etc, then fslock after. Or you can modify /etc/fstab to make partitions writable by default while you play. Glad to have you here and helping get FreeRDP on ThinPro!
I would also suggest installing ThinPro. Especially if you want to gauge FreeRDP performance/issues on it. The install base of ThinPro is pretty large, so I would think there are plenty of people who want FreeRDP to work in ThinPro. With the custom connection that can be created that essentially runs a command line script, you don't even need something like Remmina compiled and installed.
Plus, from a management standpoint, ThinPro is really easy to manage and deploy. It is also extremely user friendly for the end user. Installing Ubuntu or some other flavor of Linux works (right now, I'm posting this booted to Ubuntu 11.04 on a USB stick in my t5565). Getting FreeRDP to work in Ubuntu is really easy, but to customize Ubuntu to be even more user friendly than usual and give the users less ability to mess it up is really a chore for a Linux newbie like me.
I'm working on the Ubuntu version of this project as there is one small issue with FreeRDP on the t5565 that has to do with the built in VIA graphics drivers in tandem with GDI. It's a small issue to me, but knowing my user base, it will cause me headaches. If I could get the issue solved, I wouldn't even bother with trying to run Ubuntu from the USB stick.
02-23-201203:07 AM - last edited on 02-23-201203:25 AM
Hi,
i compiled freerdp on a t5745. The option -f gives me a span over two monitor like one big monitor. I expected to get the true multi-monitor support, so if i maximize windows they will maximize only to one screen. Does someone have an idea?
I'm attempting to install FreeRDP on a t5565 with Thinpro 3.3 but am unable to isntall the packages because I'm out of free space. However, System information shows I have 500MB free. Is there some other image I should be using on the t5565 other than the one from the download page?
Can you tell me what you did to correct the spanning issue on daul monitors? I have the same issue with my Windows 7 Pro session. Thin Pro O displays dual monitors correctly.
Probably a bit off-topic but I'm just getting started with these terminals.
I'm using XenDesktop and would like dual screens.
The t5565z has dual monitor outputs, DVI-I and DVI-D.
Does this terminal support dual monitors in its current state/configuration? If so, how do I attach dual monitors?
I've seen a break-out cable for DVI-I that seems to be one that mirrors the display to two analog VGA ports, but I'm expecting that is not what is needed.
03-14-201206:09 AM - last edited on 03-14-201206:10 AM
This is what I did to get it working with custom connection to a Windows 7 Pro VM. Your results may vary depending on the host OS you are connecting to.
First time connection had to be done in xTerm to get the certificate to be accepted.
Once that was completed, I was able to connect using custom connection in administrator mode only.
So if you don't want to change to administrator mode to use custom connetion each time you will need to elevate the user account to root.
Type this is xTerm whilst in administrator mode.
usermod -G root user
Your user account will now be able to use custom connection. The only other issue with this solution is security for your network and users. Since the custom connection passes all login info, your users will not be prompted to login.
Also, Thin Pro does not auto connect custom connections. If anyone knows a way around this with a script I would like to know.
Jawa - did you ever get your ubuntu version working?
I tried this on a t5550 which only has 512MB flash - not enough space to go through the steps.
I built it elsewhere then manually copied the freerdp files and libraries - only to be left with a screen that spans - like what these other posters are saying.
Can I / we just ask one question when you log on with multiple monitors and you maximise a windows 2008 window does it fill both screens or just one of them?
Hey...sorry everyone for not replying in a while. I've had a major change in my job duties at my current employer and it's caused me to be a bit distracted.
As for the multi monitor spanning. With FreeRDP 1.0, which is what I tested this process out with, I have not had that issue. 3 weeks ago or so I briefly tried one of the latest nightly builds of FreeRDP and that issue cropped up for me but I didn't take any time to troubleshoot it.
As for the Ubuntu question, when I was testing this out, I was running Ubuntu off a 4 GB USB stick, much like a LiveCD version, but gave it over a gig of persistant storage so that the various packages could be installed and run.
Since this project was undertaken for a client and the project is finished (and I now have essentially a different job anyways), I no longer have access to the t5565 thin client to do any more testing with or pass any more real knowledge on. I really wish I could be of more help to you guys, but at this point I don't think I'll be able to unless another client comes along that is using ThinPro.
