Citrix ICA client 64-bit
 

Hi everyone,

I have a question: Is multilib support still a requirement for Citrix ICA client?

Background info:

I am trying to connect to a virtual desktop using Citrix Receiver/Citrix ICA client from my pure-64-bit Slackware 14.0-stable system. I found some threads here on LQ and elsewhere explainig how to get it working on Slackware, but they all refer to older versions of Slackware and the Citrix client, which was only available as a 32-bit binary, at that time.

In the meantime Citrix made a 64-bit binary for Linux available as RPM or deb package. Unfortunately, the .tar.gz package is still only 32-bit.

So I converted the 64-bit RPM to a Slackware package and installed it. However, it's not working, regardless if I have lesstif or OpenMotif installed. When I try to connect from within Firefox, I am asked, if I want to download an ICA file. But even if I explicitly tell Firefox to open that file with the ICA client, (apparently) nothing happens.

So, could it be, that there is still 32-bit support needed in order to get it working?

Thanks in advance!

gargamel

Yes - the ICA Client is still only 32 bit - even this 64-bit rpm,
and if you want to use the "Citrix Receiver" from Firefox (64bit),
you need to install the npica.so plugin with nspluginwrapper to get it working.

And you probably also need to make following key in about:config:
One of these, I am not sure which one:
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npica.so; false
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npwrapper.npica.so; false

See: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-con...rocess_plugins

Thanks a lot!
However, I still didn't get it working, neither the "Citrix Receiver" nor the Java client. Although I even replaced my OpenJDK package with Oracle JDK, Citrix requests me to install Java. My guess is, that 32-bit support for Java applets is needed, which is not available in 64-bit JDK.
In fact, I don't want to use the Java client, if I can get the native client working, as it is known to have problems with smartcard readers (which I have to use) etc. But I gave it try after my failed attempts with the native client.

So, what did I do?

• Download the .tar.gz file from Citrix (32-bit)
• Install Alien Bob's npluginwrapper package, although it is quite old (Slackware64-13.0); BTW, as far as I recall, there used to be a SlackBuild script in /extra, but it's not included with Slackware64-14.0, anymore, it seems
• Follow this How-to
• Create both keys for Firefox:
• dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npica.so; false
• dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npwrapper.npica.so; false

Then I invoked the URL, and authentication worked fine. But when I try to connect to the server, connection is timed out. So I am running out of ideas, here. One thing I am going to try, as soon as I have time, is to set up a 32-bit system on my old computer or in virtual machine, and see, if I can get through with that. Another option would be to add multilib support to my 64-bit system, but as I said in my OP, I don't actually want to do that.

In the meantime I'd appreciate further ideas and comments and hints, what to check for. Thanks in advance!

gargamel

* You have multilib incl. all the needed compat32 packages installed?
* try to run the Citrix Reciever from cmd line: "/opt/Citrix/ICAClient/wfcmgr.bin" and see it works.
* Does Firefox find your plugins, I had to set MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/
* You have the plugin "npwrapper.npica.so"?

I did not install any firefox plugin... I used the Citrix Receiver installation script to install to /opt/Citrix/ICAClient. This will take care of browser and KDE integration as well.

Then, the first time you click on a Citrix application link in Firefox, tell firefox to open the .ica file with "/opt/Citrix/ICAClient/wfica.sh" and have it remember that choice.

You do need multilib on Slackware 64-bit, and you also need to install a 32-bit compatibility package for openmotif - Slackware's own lesstif will not work with the ICAClient.

If Firefox refuses to start the icaclient, it can be caused by a non-standard language setting (i.e. you are not running a US english locale). Fix that (cost me a lot of frustration before I found the solution) by editing the startup script "/usr/bin/firefox" and adding this line somewhere at the top:
Eric

Thanks to both of you, Eric an ml4711, for clearing this up.
I tried to avoid multilib, because in my experience it happens that compiling some software from source fails, because 32-bit libraries and 64-bit libraries are called in a mix by some (improper) build scripts, and because I am reluctant to add such a lot of libraries just in order to use a single software package (everything else I use is now available for 64-bit).

So, I'll have to see, how I proceed. Perhaps I'll set up a virtualised Slackware64-14.0 with multilib in order to see, if it works, and try that first, before I add multilib to my host. Or I'll reactivate my old 32-bit computer, install Slackware-14.0 and then try to use that.

At least, now I know, what is required to make things work.

As soon as I have time I'll try one of the above and report back, how it works out. Of course, I'll add relevant info to the great effort of the Slackware Documentation Project wiki. :)

Thanks again!

gargamel


EDIT: In case you wonder what packages caused problems when compiled in a multilib environment, one example is E17 (Enlightenment) using the SBo script. No problem on a pure 64-bit system, though.