Removing old NX packages from tree

I already sent the last rites announce a few days ago, but here is a more detailed post on the coming up removal of “old” NX packages. Long story short: migrate to X2Go if possible, or use the NX overlay (“best-effort” support provided).
2015/04/26 note: treecleaning done!

Affected packages

Basically, all NX clients and servers except x2go and nxplayer! Here is the complete list with some specific last rites reasons:

  • net-misc/nxclient,net-misc/nxnode,net-misc/nxserver-freeedition: binary-only original NX client and server. Upstream has moved on to a closed-source technology, and this version  bundles potientally vulnerable binary code. It does not work as well as before with current libraries (like Cairo).
  • net-misc/nxserver-freenx, net-misc/nxsadmin: the first open-source alternative server. It could be tricky to get working, and is not updated anymore (last upstream activity around 2009)
  • net-misc/nxcl, net-misc/qtnx: an open-source alternative client (last upstream activity around 2008)
  • net-misc/neatx: Google’s take on a NX server, sadly it never took off (last upstream activity around 2010)
  • app-admin/eselect-nxserver (an eselect module to switch active NX server, useless without these servers in tree)

Continue using these packages on Gentoo

These packages will be dropped from the main tree by the end of this month (2015/04), and then only available in the NX overlay. They will still be supported there in a “best effort” way (no guarantee how long some of these packages will work with current systems).

So, if one of these packages still works better for you, or you need to keep them around before migrating, just run:

# layman -a nx

Alternatives

While it is not a direct drop-in replacement, x2go is the most complete solution currently in Gentoo tree (and my recommendation), with a lot of possible advanced features, active upstream development, … You can connect to net-misc/x2goserver with net-misc/x2goclient, net-misc/pyhoca-gui, or net-misc/pyhoca-cli.

If you want to try NoMachine’s (the company that created NX) new system, well the client is available in Portage as net-misc/nxplayer. The server itself is not packaged yet, if you are interested in it, this is bug #488334

10 thoughts on “Removing old NX packages from tree”

  1. I’m using x2go as replacement of NX for several months and it works fine. It’s even easier to install and to configure than nxserver.
    The x2goclient is… not very beautiful but it works.

  2. A last comment, for correct performances with Qt/KDE, the following lines can be added to /etc/profile :

    if [ -n "${NXSESSIONID}" -o -n "${X2GO_AGENT_PID}" ] ; then
    export QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=native
    fi

    1. I switched my remote desktop from KDE to XFCE some time ago indeed because of performance problems, I’ll have to try that one!

  3. The Gentoo x2go client does not work for me with CentOS6 (ork place). It seems mouse clicks are not passed to the server. The Windows client works fine, so I don’t think the problem is at the server end.

    1. Strange, I just tested here with a CentOS 6.6 (and x2goserver from EPEL), mouse worked fine with xterm and full XFCE desktop, using latest nx/x2goclient on Gentoo side. Usually problems come from the server, not the client

      You can try to compare the session parameters between Gentoo and Windows, else please open a bug at bugs.gentoo.org, so we can check this further (comparing the components versions, ssh/hpn versions, …)

      1. This is a bog standard CentOS6.6 system with the default desktop and x2go from EPEL. Can you be more specific wrt session parameters, what information is that exactly?
        In Gentoo, I tried the 4.0.3.1 client. OpenSSH 6.7_p1 is built with hpn (-hpn is only needed for a Gentoo x2go server, right?).

        1. I was thinking about comparing the session preferences between the 2 systems (settings like clipboard mode, keyboard, proxy server, …). x2goclient version looks fine, do you have net-misc/nx-.3.5.30? It has a few fixes over previous stable version. And yes hpn should only matter for the server, but it has been the usual suspect recently 😉

          Also, are the windows/linux clients on the same box? A friend had problem with mouse clicks over plain X11 forwarding, with a special trackball mouse on his client, and Eclipse or other Java programs on the server.

          Lastly, does running x2goclient with –debug provide any useful tips?

  4. I couldn’t figure out how settings are stored under Windows. There was only a .x2go directory, whereas on Linux there’s .x2go and .x2goclient, where the latter appears to have the information I’m looking for.
    Then I compared settings in the GUI and found them identical, apart from the DPI setting. Changing it didn’t make any difference, but I suspect it is for the client?
    Last but not least, –debug provided success of sorts. The crucial info was x2go setting up a “new channel for reverse tunnel”, but then failing to connect to 127.0.0.1:4713. The port number did ring a bell, so I went back to the GUI and found it associated with Media/Sound support. Disabling sound support made it work! It was set to PA, and I didn’t change that because C6 uses PA. OTOH my Gentoo system uses ALSA.
    Is there any way to enable sound support on the Gentoo client without PA? I find it strange that the only alternatives build on software/systems that are well obsolete.

    1. Glad that you found the problem 🙂
      Indeed, pulseaudio is about the only way to have sound support in x2go sessions, as the only “modern” pure userland system (alsa could require modules loading/configuration, …).
      I’ll take a look at configurations that do not work and add a warning in x2goclient to warn about sound configuration without pulseaudio

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