Archive for October, 2012

Tip: Max. resolution for IGEL Universal Desktop OS (UDC) running as VM in a Microsoft Hyper-V

Monday, October 29th, 2012

Hello,

if you’re using a IGEL Universal Desktop OS VM in a Microsoft Hyper-V Environment (Windows 2008R2, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012) the max. possible Resolution for this VM is 1152×864.

Running a IGEL Universal Desktop OS VM in a Microsoft Hyper-V Environment is a very useful tool for tests, demonstration’s or to have a very secure desktop in place for Windows 8.

Cheers
Michael

P.S.: Assign a legacy network card to the IGEL Universal Desktop OS VM, otherwise you will not get a working network connection.

Tip: Display Hostname on demand for IGEL Universal Desktop LX/OS without the IGEL Application Launcher

Thursday, October 25th, 2012

Hello Folks,

if you want to Display the Client Hostname on demand just open the IGEL Setup and go to System->Firmware Customization->Custom Application and create a new custom application.

Now setup the application Name like “Show Hostname”, in the settings tab set as Icon igel and as start command notify-send-message Name $HOSTNAME

Name=Title of the window
$HOSTNAME=Display the hostname system variable

Close the setup, if now a user select the icon in the right button corner a small window with the Hostname will be displayed. That’s it…

Cheers
Michael

P.S.: Of course you can use this also with other or own created variables and add a Keyboard shortcut to this, quite helpfull for device support. You can use this also with autostart and the window will be also displayed in front of other Windows (like a Citrix Session).

Tip: Application can’t be started from a mapped USB Memory with IGEL Universal Desktop LX/OS in a Citrix Session

Thursday, October 25th, 2012

Hello Folks,

try http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX105611 to solve this issue.

Cheers
Michael

IGEL UD2 Multimedia is on sale now!

Friday, October 19th, 2012

Hello Folks,

the new UD2 Multimedia with System on a Chip support for Citrix ICA and Microsoft RemoteFX is on sale now! If you have a trial device, don’t forget do apply the latest firmware update!

Cheers
Michael

Poll: What upcoming IGEL Product would you like to see?

Saturday, October 13th, 2012

Hi,

and just a second poll about what upcoming product you would like to see from IGEL: http://cloud-client.info/tinc?key=jXHisWoj

Of course i can’t guarentee that IGEL will take care about this… 🙂

Cheers
Michael

P.S.: Like the other poll some parts could be appear in german again; sorry!

Poll: What IGEL OS do you prefer?

Saturday, October 13th, 2012

Hello Folks,

iam intrested to see what type of IGEL OS do you prefer… So here is a small poll about this: http://cloud-client.info/tinc?key=Tivjz7yC

Cheers
Michael

P.S.: The system is hosted in germany, it might be that some parts appear in german; sorry for that!

Travel to Barcelona tomorrow.. See you @ Citrix Synergy 2012

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Hi,

i hope to see a lot of you in the upcoming days, i wish you happy landings and a lot of fun!

Cheers
Michael

Reminder: Windows XP end of life is coming closer…

Friday, October 12th, 2012

On April 8, 2014 Windows XP extended support will be end, did you already think about an replacement?

Why not using Thin Client/Zero Clients? ..or migrating the old hardware to a full supported Linux Operating System incl. Management? If your Company still uses XP, you should start to plan this in the upcoming six month to have a replacement option in place until the support ends. Please note, a migration takes mostly more then three months incl. setup, tests and to get all the required work done. So it’s maybe a good idea to start thinking about this…

Please don’t forget… Check also if all your apps are working on the new system? If you’ve custom apps running with XP, then remember: they don’t have to work with the new System by default.

Cheers
Michael

P.S.: Windows ES (which is XP based) has an extended support until 8. Aug. 2019, so it’s not similar to Windows XP and you don’t have to hurry here!

Tip: Fixing Windows focus issues in ICA sessions (XenApp/Presentation Server) for IGEL Universal Desktop LX/OS

Tuesday, October 9th, 2012

Hi,

if you’re working with seamless apps in an Citrix Environment it can happen, that sometimes a Window drops behind an other window. For example you are working in Outlook and open a Email and the new email Window appears behind the main Outlook window. For the user it Looks like the session is freezed or similar.

There are a couple of Settings to fix this but the disadvantage: you’re required to test it by your own. Application and environments are working different and there is no general rule how this can be fixed.

Open the IGEL Setup or the UMS Profile and go to System->Registry->ICA->WFCLIENT, here try to modify the following settings:

Settwifocus
Settwifocusontitled
Twidropfocus
Twifocusonraise
Twinewcontrol
Usedefaultvisual
Uselocalim
Useuservisualid
Twiemulatesystray
twiigenornenormalstate 

Regarding the results from the past i would prefer starting with the Settings marked in blue. In advance you should also try to change two settings from the IGEL OS, these settings can be found also in the registry->windowmanager->wm0 and then change:

focusonmap, focushint and/or preventfocusstealing

Also here, different combinations can provide different results depending on the environment.  

See also http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX101644&searchID=25075941 that provides a bunch of Server related settings, from the list try to setup option 14 (DON’T SEND DISABLE) to 8000. This also fixed some issues for me in the past.

If everything doesn’t help, try to contact the Software Vendor for your application; a couple of applications are not able to work seamless regarding the fact that they do not handle Windows in the Microsoft way (Application developed in Delphi as examble). Try also if a “Desktop Session” will bypass the issue for the user.

As said, you need to spend some time here and i can’t guarentee that this will fix the issue at all. Please test it serious and don’t roll out a not tested configuration to a bunch of thin clients at once. 

Cheers

Michael

P.S.: This can also happen for any Version of the Citrix Receiver for Windows, you can try the same settings here.

Tip: Running a scheduled Job on an IGEL Universal Desktop LX / OS based client without a management server

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

Hi,
the most users doesn’t know this hidden feature… But if you want to perfom a scheduled task for an device like a system shutdown you need to setup several jobs in the Universal Management Suite server if dealing with different time zones also if no Management server is available (infrastructure to small or UMS not reachable) you maybe want to be able to run scheduled jobs too.

So how can you accomplish a task like this, first of all you need to get in touch with some IGEL LX/OS commands; i recommend to check out this small whitepaper: http://www.cloud-client.info/whitepaper/WhitepaperIGELLXOSquickcommandreference.pdf

Now create a new profile and call it “System shutdown at 7pm without UMS” or something similar, if you want to configure this local at the client you just have to open the IGEL Setup. This was tested with firmware Version 4.10.100 but i can’t guarentee that IGEL will keep this feature for the future.

Browse to System->Registry->System->Cron

To enable cron in general set enable_cron to enabled, now select cron% and click on add instance.
Expand the new instance cron0 and enter the command you want to execute, for a shutdown two ways are available:

1) With User interaction: user_shutdown
2) Without User interaction: user_shutdown -f

Enter one of these commands for your test.

Now set the excution time, use this as sample:

day of week (0 6) (0 is Sunday)
month (1 12)
day of month (1 31)
hour (0 23)
min (0 59)

You can use an asterisk (*) in any category to mean for every item, such as every day or every month.You can use commas (,) in any category to specify multiple values.So set the time you want to execute the job and run a test… It’s a very useful tool but you should handle it very serious!

Cheers
Michael

P.S.: Never use the update command in this way, it performs always a basic update and reduce the life time for the client memory.

Tip: Configure a Keyboard shortcut to minimize fullscreen Citrix or Microsoft RDS sessions for a Linux based IGEL OS

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

Hello,

very often i’ve been asked how a Citrix or Microsoft RDS fullscreen session can be minimized in an IGEL Universal Desktop LX/OS firmware. By default IGEL has not enabled this but this task is simple to do….

Open the IGEL Setup or the UMS Profile, now go to User Interface->Hotkeys->Commands and select Minimize all Windows… Click on Edit now and activate the hotkey, i prefer CTRL¦ALT and ESC (Write Escape in the Hotkey field to set ESC) but you can also set other combinations of course. Please make sure that your set combination do not conflict with any other Linux or Windows key combination!

Close the Setup or the profile (assign the profile to an Client if not already done) and here you go.

Cheers

Michael

P.S.: One Extension, of course any local Client key mapping do not work if the keyboard is mapped into the session thru “real” USB redirection!

P.S.2: For ICA Sessions it could be required to Setup a second key combination to Stop the direct Keyboard Passthrough, this configuration can be found in the IGEL Setup->System->Registry->ica->wfclient and then configure the following Settings: keypassthroughescapechar and keypassthroughescapeshift. This can be also configured with a profile in the IGEL UMS. If you’re connecting thru the Firefox Browser (Citrix Webinterface) you have to Setup the configuration in the Default.ica file from the Webinterface!

Fix: Freezing Firefox Browser in IGEL Universal Desktop OS/LX

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

Hello,

some Users have reported some issues with a freezing local Firefox Browser in the IGEL Universal Desktop LX/OS.

This freeze is not IGEL related but it seems to be an issue with older Versions of the Firefox Browser and/or memory, i’ve run also into the issue with an device running 24/7 in browser kiosk mode (public internet terminal) but now it’s fixed for me.

 To fix this perform one or more of there following steps:

1) Update to Firmware Version 4.10.100 (updated Version of Firefox)
2) In the advanced configuration of the BIOS make sure you have assigned at least 128MByte of RAM for the graphic memory in the Advanced Menu
3) Try a different version of the Adobe Flash Player, you can download different Versions from the Adobe Flashplayer download site and not all versions provide the same stability from my point of view.
4) For Universal Desktop OS converted devices make sure you’re device have at least 1GB of RAM

 Cheers

Michael

Tip: Enabling/Disabling Windows Services for IGEL Universal Desktop ES / ES W7 (Sample VMWare View USB Redirection)

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

Hello,

sometimes IGEL do some changes to the default Firmware configuration, for this example i point to the VMWare USB redirection service which is now disabled by default. (Why is simple… Running to much different USB redirection services at the same time is a bad idea and can produce conflicts depending on the USB device, like funny blue screens.).

If you now want to enable the service thru the local IGEL Setup, this is simple to do and you can find the configuration in the Accessoires->Windows Services Tab. If you want to perform this task  thru an UMS Profile it’s sometimes more tricky, if the new firmware setting is not available in the UMS Console GUI as example.

So first upgrade your profile to the latest firmware version; select your profile and then change “Optimized for”.

Now open the profile and select System->Registry-> System->winservices, try to find the service you want to enable; in our sample “start_view_usb_redirection” and save the profile after you have enabled the service. Assign the profile to your Clients (if not already done) and after a reboot: Tatata, the service is running.

If you require more references regarding the IGEL Registry try out our Whitepaper which is available here: http://www.cloud-client.info/whitepaper/WhitepaperBasicGuidetotheIGELThinClientRegistry.pdf

Cheers

Michael

Tip: IGEL UMS is not able to detect system proxy to fetch firmwareupdates for the Universal Firmware Update feature

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

Hello,

sometimes it can happen (UMS Version 4.01.500 or higher) that the UMS Server did not detect the System Proxy for the Universal Firmware Update Feature. If this happens you are not able to download Firmware’s thru the UMS Console from the IGEL download Server and you have to download the Firmware by your own.

To fix this open a DOS console and execute “C:\Program Files\IGEL\RemoteManager\rmguiserver\bin\tomcat5w.exe //ES//IGELRMGUIServer”

Open the JAVA Tab and make sure that the following entry exists in the field “Java Options”: -Djava.net.useSystemProxies=true

If this entry exist and it still doesn’t work, remove the entry and add the following Options:

-Dhttp.proxyHost=your_Proxyhost

-Dhttp.proxyPort=your_Proxyport

If your Proxyserver require an authentication add also:

-Dhttp.proxyUser=your_UserName
-Dhttp.proxyPassword=your_Password

This should fix the issue, of course without any warranty and test this first!

Cheers
Michael

Fix jumping Mousepointer for Citrix Receiver (Linux)

Monday, October 1st, 2012

Hello,

do you have dislocated offices and users reporting a jumping or flickering mouse pointer? From my expierence this is a bandwith/latency issue that should be investigated at all.

To fix or improve this for the Linux Version of the Citrix Receiver in an IGEL Firmware try:

System->Registry and then ica.wfclient.mousetimer=0, ica.wfclient.pointerclicktime=10 and ica.wfclient.pointergrabtime=10. All settings needs to be modified, test this with one device/user first before apply these modification to a bunch of clients.

Windows versions of the Receiver do not show this effect in general, they are just slower in this scenario.

Cheers

Michael

New IGEL Universal Management Suite Version 4.02.200

Monday, October 1st, 2012

Hello Folks,

there is a new IGEL UMS Version available at www.myigel.com
IGEL Universal Management Suite
=================================
Version 4.02.200
Release date: 24.09.2012

===============================
Notes:
===============================

Version 4.02.200 did a full QA run of version 4.02.110 and contains
few additional bugfixes.

The linux installers are tested with
– Ubuntu 8.04 (32bit)
– Ubuntu 10.04 (32bit)
– RedHat Enterprise Linux 6 (32bit)

For further compatibility information check the Universal Management Suite
Data Sheet at www.igel.com.

==================================
New features
=================================

– [Universal Customization Builder] Partial update folder deployment
available (in extension to file deployment)

================================
Fixed bugs
================================

– [AD / LDAP integration] Job update fails with ‘Access denied’ error message
for AD users.
– [Database backup] DB backups from UMS 4.01.500 cannot be restored in
version 4.02.100 (Error: ‘Failed to start database with class loader
sun.misc.Launcher…’).

==================================
Previous versions
==================================

**********************************************
UMS 4.02.110
*********************************************

=====================================
Notes:
=====================================

This is an untested internal release only!

=====================================
New features
=====================================

– Update Java Runtime Environment to version 1.6u33
This java version contains bug fixes related to kerberos logon and should
fix issues with UMS AD integration.

===============================
Fixed bugs
===============================

– [AD / LDAP integration]
– global permissions were not set correctly, when an
AD User which has been imported by an AD group is logged in.
– Consider active directory browse user (if defined) in kerberos login
process to resolve group memberships.
– AD search fails if you log on with the domain administrator account
(error message ‘Login failed’ followed by a user credential dialog).
– [console common] Creating a new UMS administrative group fails.
– [console: license handling] Performance enhancements issueing UDC licenses
from smart card
– [server common]
– UMS Server looses database connection if database is offline for a short
while
– ‘ORA-01000: Maximum open cursors exceeded’ error with Oracle DB
– server startup failed when the username and the schemaname
differs (SQL Server only).
– [server: webdav] Permissions to folder for a user in Snapshot Management
does not propagate to items inside the folder.
– [UMS Administrator application] The UMS Administrator application does not
start without access to the internet.

Cheers

Michael