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Running Citrix ICA client on Linux – Ubuntu 8.10
22 Nov2008
As fate would have it I have the need to access Citrix applications again so as a matter of convenience I wanted to install the ICA client on my Ubuntu 8.04 desktop. After way too much effort I was finally able to get the client installed and launch application from within the SSL web interface via Firefox.
To install the ICA client on Linux go to the Citrix website and click Download to find the Linux client or click here http://www.citrix.com/English/SS/downloads/details.asp?downloadID=3323&productID=-1 for the tar.gz version
Note: You will have to turn scripting on to view the download link.
Extract the en.linuxx86.tar.gz file to your desktop
gunzip linuxx86.tar.gz
tar -xf linuxx86.tar
In the extracted directory type the following from a terminal window:
sudo ./setupwfc
Follow the prompts to install the application and install the linux for your Gnome or KDE installation.
After installing this successfully I tried to run the ICA client from within Gnome but the application would not run. After a little searching I discovered I needed a missing library. From the desktop open System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
Search for libmotif3 and click the checkbox and select Mark for Installation then click the Apply button.
After installing this missing library I was able to see the application and spawn the ICA client from within Firefox when visiting our Metaframe server. However after launching an application I received an “SSL Error 61: You have not chosen to trust the issuer of the server’s security certificate” message. A little more research indicated I needed to copy the ca-certs in the mozilla directory to the cacerts directory in the ICA client installation. So open a terminal window again and type the following:
sudo cp /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/* /usr/lib/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts/
There you have it…another wonderful installation on Linux that is horribly more complex than it has to be. As much as I love Linux it is installs like this that make me appreciate my Windows and OS X systems.
13 Responses to Running Citrix ICA client on Linux – Ubuntu 8.10
Tommy Gregersen
January 11th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I’hv been running ICA client on ubuntu 8.10 for 3 month now. but after a ssl update some time ago i can’t get it to work… i’m getting the same ssl cert. error now. Any ideas???
Cary Brown
January 13th, 2009 at 12:28 am
Difficult to say exactly what is happening with your configuration however the ICA client is primarily based on the SSL connection and could unfortunately be an incompatibility between what was distributed as part of the Citrix linux binary and the update to SSL in your specific distribution.
Johan Larsson
February 2nd, 2009 at 5:34 am
Thanks a lot for this guide. It’s working beautifully now after I copied the certificates.
Ashwin Khandke
February 17th, 2009 at 10:53 am
I finally managed to install the Citrix client. However, after a number of failed attempts, I was able to do so by entering ./setupwfc instead of sudo ./setupwfc. This was how it was written in the Unix Client Administrator’s guide that I downloaded. And then I followed your advice and installed libmotif3 using the Synaptic Manager. So far so good.
Jason B
February 25th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I don’t see what’s so tough here for someone who obviously works with computers.
People that “dabble” in Linux are obviously going to use this site, because they mostly use google to search for HOWTO’s running proprietary applications, like Citrix, with proprietary libs, like openmotif.
Of course installing it is not going to involve “pointing and clicking”. You, and a lot of other people just miss the point, and it’s stuff like this that keep Linux simple.
To anyone reading this “HOWTO”. Follow the given instructions from Citrix, not him, to install the application.
You unfortunatley need openmotif to run this, so simply copy and paste this into a terminal and hit enter:
sudo apt-get install libxaw6 libmotif3
done.
Cary Brown
February 26th, 2009 at 12:35 am
If jumping through hoops like this keeps Linux simple then perhaps this is part of the problem. Granted we are trying to install proprietary software on an primarily open platform but it is short-sited to believe any new users would intuitively know to do this. I respect Linux for the powerful OS it is however we are operating in an industry where not all “proprietary” software vendors have embraced an open approach to their software. Unbuntu and other distro’s have made incredible strides in automating installation of software. While you mentioned missing lib’s what you overlooked in your solution was the security certs that had to be copied in order to successfully authenticate with the Citrix gateway.
ken palmer
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:01 am
I’m also trying the run the install but having trouble doing so. During the install it is looking for and installable image which I thought that was in the directory that I built. Unfortunately the error message states that it does not contain the package. any ideas that could help?
Cary Brown
March 4th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Could you provide an error message? It is unclear what the problem might be or where it may stem from. Is it safe to assume from the post name you are using Ubuntu and all your apt packages are updated? There could be a library package missing from your installation. I recently performed another installation of this with a stock Ubuntu 8.04 install and performed the associated sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade commands prior to installing the Citrix package. The only error I received was the security certificate error which was corrected by copying the contents of the certificate directory per the post. Hope this helps…
Veikko Kukkonen
March 6th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Instead of copying the certificates (/usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/*) to citrix directory
Wouldnt it be more practical to make a symbolic link. Then the certificates would be up to date as soon as mozilla updates them. – Havent tested.
If it works someone could put here the code.
Cary Brown
March 7th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Great suggestion Viekko…. I haven’t tested this yet but I’ll post an update if it works.
Maniac
June 16th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
philosophy aside…d/led and installed citrix receiver…the plugin shows up in firefox.. terminal server is installed but ica is greyed out…when starting the citrix server get “the terminal server is not supported in this browser.” grrrrrrrrrr. what am i missing?
Mick Leyden
July 20th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Hi Cary,
Great article, I’ve managed to almost get it working but I get an error “The address type is unsupported (SSL error 23)”. Do you know what that means?
I only get it when trying to connect on Ubuntu, it works from from Windows and OXS.
any ideas would be very much appreciated!
cheers
mick
blarkalmemi
May 27th, 2010 at 3:06 am
i have problem with my 500gb external hard drive. It cant be recognise on my other PCs. It works proper on my main pc(windows 7),no problem at all. But when i try to connect to my other PCs (windows 7 and vista) it cant be find in the hdd list. USB connection is shows that it was connected proper, but it not shows up on the screen where all hdd shows up. any solution for it?