Installing the ThinLinc Remote Desktop Server

Verifying the server RPM

Before starting the installation, one may verify the authenticity of the ThinLinc server RPM, located in the server bundle subdirectory packages. Import the public key THINLINC-GPG-KEY, found in the server bundle top directory, by running

$ sudo rpm --import THINLINC-GPG-KEY

and affirm the file signature by running

$ rpm --checksig packages/thinlinc-server-*.rpm

with positive results confirmed by

digests signatures OK

Starting the Installation Program

The installation program is located in the root directory of the Server Bundle. Extract the bundle and start the installation program as follows:

$ sh ./install-server

If you prefer, you can also install the ThinLinc package by hand. This package is located in subdirectory packages of the Server Bundle.

After installing the software package, ThinLinc must be configured. This is done by ThinLinc Setup, which is started by running /opt/thinlinc/sbin/tl-setup. If install-server is used, it will ask about starting ThinLinc Setup automatically at the end of the package installation. ThinLinc Setup must be run on all ThinLinc servers that make up the ThinLinc cluster. The role of the server in the cluster can be specified at the start of ThinLinc Setup, it’s a choice between agent or master. Instructions for configuring newly installed master and agent machines to create a cluster can be found in Configuring ThinLinc Servers in a Cluster.

Automating ThinLinc Setup

You can automate ThinLinc Setup by providing it with an answer file. Begin by generating an answer template by running the following command.

$ /opt/thinlinc/sbin/tl-setup -g OUTPUT-FILE

A list of questions which ThinLinc Setup would ask is written to OUTPUT-FILE . Edit this file with suitable answers for your system. The file uses the same Hiveconf syntax also used for the ThinLinc configuration files, described in Hiveconf. You can now use the -a option for ThinLinc Setup to make it read answers from the given file.

$ /opt/thinlinc/sbin/tl-setup -a INPUT-FILE

Run ThinLinc administration commands using sudo

Once ThinLinc is installed, it is recommended to use sudo when running administration commands, instead of switching to root for long periods of time. To run ThinLinc commands with sudo and not have to specify the entire path to the command, sudo needs to be configured to trust ThinLinc paths. This is achieved by editing sudo’s secure_path in /etc/sudoers. The sudoers file needs to be edited using visudo:

$ sudo visudo

Add /opt/thinlinc/bin and /opt/thinlinc/sbin to secure_path and save the file.

Example

If this was in /etc/sudoers before:

Defaults    secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

Then after you add the ThinLinc paths it should be:

Defaults    secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/opt/thinlinc/bin:/opt/thinlinc/sbin