Subject: Bug#1080: [X2Go-Dev] Bug#1080: can "--server" option to specify the IP of the target, desktop server be added to x2goclient cli

From: Stefan Baur <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2017 00:12:58 +0100

Am 11.01.2017 um 23:36 schrieb brian mullan:

> I'd built up a remote desktop solution for some schools where the
> initial desktop was on an ubuntu cloud server.
> 
> However, on that Cloud server I had dozens of LXD containers which have
> a variety of different Desktop Environments in some of them
> as well as different purposes.
> 
> LXD is a "system" container technology versus the Docker type
> "application" container technology.
> 
> So some of the LXD containers might be more oriented to a specific
> "group" of educational users like science, or writing, or even teachers.
> 
> Those LXD containers are on their own 10.x.x.x network.
> 
> I wanted to use x2go to get to the "host" server Desktop but then just
> have Desktop Icon's setup to use x2goclient cli to connect them further
> to a specific LXD container Desktop of their choosing.
> 
> But although pyhoca-cli supports specifying a "- -server" target the
> x2goclient cli does not include that option.
> 
> However, the x2goclient cli supports other options I wanted to use that
> the pyhoca-cli does not such as "no-session-edit", "hide-menu-toolbar" etc.
> 
> My use-case problem really revolved around those kind of feature option
> differences between the two CLI methods.

Okay.  I think one way to solve this would be to install X2Go-Broker on
the host, along with postgres (the X2Go servers in the containers would
have to connect to that postgres DB as well), and have the broker
deliver the proper trimmed-down session config for the user (it can
match on user, group, IP or network range).  That way you don't have to
connect to the host desktop first.

Another, easier approach, though not as elegant, would be to configure
*all* the sessions that you need in one sessions file, then specify
either --session or --session-id on the shortcut.  Or, if you want to
use separate session configuration files, use the same name for the
session in each file, make --session point to that name, and specify the
sessions file using --session-conf.

You can also create desktop shortcuts by clicking on "Create Session
Icon on Desktop" (it's in the triangle-button -soon to be
"hamburger"-button- in the lower right of a session tile).
Have a look at the file/shortcut it puts on the desktop.

Also, in addition to using --no-session-edit, as long as your users are
sharing the same "client" system (in your case, the host to the
containers) to log on to their host, or have access to a common file
system, you can place a read-only sessions file there and use
--session-conf to point at it. Bam, central administration of the
session file, without having to install broker and postgres.

Oh, and by the way - X2GoClient has a SSH proxy feature.
So you don't have to run X2Go through X2Go to reach the container'ed
server your users are supposed to work on.
Just specify the host machine as SSH proxy in the session settings.
In that situation, you will have to make use of a shared, read-only
directory for the sessions file, though, if you want to keep
administration in a central spot.  But, if your users are all windows
users on the same network, you can even deploy the entire X2GoClient,
not only the sessions file, via a read-only network share, so you don't
even have to install it individually any more.

IMO, this isn't exactly a bug/X2Go-Dev topic any more - care to switch
over to the X2Go-User mailing list and explaining your setup further?
My hope would be that we can turn the results of this conversation both
into a success story (X2Go use at ..., by Brian Mullan) as well as a
HowTo (How to run X2Go servers in containers, with central
administration, blah, blah, blah) on our Wiki.

See
http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:deployment-stories:start#success_stories
and
http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:howto if you have no clue what I'm
talking about. ;-)

And of course, if you have the need for further consulting and support,
especially if you don't want to discuss your setup in public on one of
our mailing lists, we offer commercial services for that as well.
(I already feel bad for posting my "shameless plug" so often in the last
few days, so I'll refrain from it.  I'm sure you've read it often enough
if you follow the lists.)

> So I submitted the wish-list bug just to ask as not being a coder I
> don't know if something is alot or a little work but there was no harm
> asking.
> 
> I just hadn't gotten any response.   As I know you guys are busy with
> the future of Artica (btw I'm anxious to see what it is/does)... I
> thought I'd just send
> a ping to make sure someone at least took a look at the request.

It's Arctica (as in "effin' cold" ;-)), not Artica (as in artsy).  And
while some X2Go developers have left for Arctica, and others divide
their time between Arctica and X2Go, X2Go is anything but dead.

For example, Mihai is working on the macOS client, and there's also
ongoing work on what is the common base of FreeNX, NeatX, OpenNX, X2Go,
TheQVD and Arctica alike - the update/revamp of the NX-Libraries.

And while I don't exactly monitor the commit log that closely, I believe
there have been some commits by Alex (one of the two original founders
of X2Go) lately as well.

> By the way... Happy New Years to all of you guys on the x2go & artica
> team(s)...!

Thank you! :-)

Kind Regards,
Stefan Baur

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