How to install Citrix Client (Application virtualization) on Ubuntu Linux?

Posted on May 4, 2010 by Black God

I connect to my workstation at works through Citrix Presentation Server (also called as XenApp Server). This can also deliver the Windows applications such as Outlook, Internet Explorer through internet to a client system. In my case the client system is a linux running laptop. So across the OS and architecture, windows applications can be delivered online. If you want to know more about this refer here.

Citrix XenApp is an on-demand application delivery solution that centralizes application management in the datacenter and delivers applications as an on-demand service to users anywhere using any device.

This Desktop virtualization software  does Application virtualization also. The installation of this Citrix client for linux will enable you to run your windows applications in works server system on your linux laptop. Unfortunately it is not straightforward installation, it needs some tweaks. I have tried my best to document it. This HOW-TO is applicable for Firefox only. It is NOT applicable for Google Chrome browser, which is not working as of this moment in my linux workstation.

Installing Citrix Client

1. Download the citrix client from here. If this URL is not accessible, follow the path given below in the citrix web site.

Navigation: Citrix Clients -> Product version as Latest XenApp version -> OS/Hardware as Linux -> Download Category as Clients and Plug-ins (OR)You can download from here. For documentation click here.

2. As of this posting, the current version is 11.0. You can download different packages available according to your linux distribution. In my case, it is Debian based Ubuntu, so I downloaded .deb package. In case of RPM based distribution, you may choose .rpm package and all other cases it may be .tar.gz.


3. Just double click the downloaded .deb file to install the package. It will auto install any dependent packages also. As part of installation it will ask “Do you accept the EULA?” – just tick the Check box and click Forward . The installation should get completed successfully. 

Configuring Citrix Client

1. Connect to citrix presentation server through URL something like http://apps.mycompany.com in Firefox. You can safely ignore the following warning message if it appears in your URL page.
If you do not have the MetaFrame Presentation Server Client for Linux, you must install the client to launch the applications.
Install the client by clicking one of the icons below, appropriate to your system.
Download clients from the Citrix client download site
 

Warning to install Citrix client

 

2. Login with the credentials, your works IT department has provided. It should be successful with right authentication.

Citrix Login screen

3. Then select Remote Desktop or any Remote Windows application it shows. Your windows application will be invoked in Linux desktop. This is ideal case.

Most probably you may face the following error message:

You have chosen to trust “Thawte Premium Server CA”, the issuer of the server’s security certificate (SSL error 61).

Security Certificate Error (click to enlarge)

How to solve this Security Certificate error?

Basically the above error message is due to lack of root CA certificate in client workstation. This can be downloaded from verisign web site and copied to the “/usr/lib/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts/” directory. Here is the step by step console session for this.

Step-1: Move to /tmp directory, download the certificates. The “–no-check-certificate” option is necessary in wget command.

blackgod@blackgod-laptop:~$ cd /tmp

blackgod@blackgod-laptop:/tmp$ wget –no-check-certificate https://verisign.com/support/thawte-roots.zip

Step-2: Uncompress the downloaded archive, rename the certificate as .crt file and copy it to /usr/lib/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts/” directory.

blackgod@blackgod-laptop:/tmp$ unzip thawte-roots.zip

blackgod@blackgod-laptop:/tmp$ sudo cp “Thawte Roots/Thawte SSLWeb Server Roots/thawte Premium Server CA/Thawte Premium Server CA.cer” “/usr/lib/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts/Thawte Premium Server CA.crt”

Note: In case of user level installation through .tar.gz package, you have to copy this certificate to “~/ICAClient/linuxx86/keystore/cacerts”.

The above steps should solve the security certificate issue. Restart the Firefox and try again to see smile in your face.



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  • Simon Ashdown

    Thanks for this – worked perfectly. Have struggled with the certificate issue for a couple of days until I found this solution.

  • Yhudi

    Thanks 4 tutorial. I have succes install citrix and run application (foxpro under dos). But i found problem when implemented to my branch. connection between head office and branch using wireless. after launch citrix receiver, continue to reconnect. i have wating for along time but application failed to run. can you suggest to me the solution? thx very much

    • http://www.karuppuswamy.com swamytk

      Sorry, Yhudi. I don’t have much idea about it. You can approach Citrix forum and also search Citrix Knowledge center. A good number of nice people are sharing their experience and solutions there.

  • MD

    Did everything but got the following message when I tried executing the copy command: target `CA.crt”’ is not a directory

    When I tried to manually move the file I am told I do not have permissions to do so. How do I change the permissions to enable me to move the file?

    Many thanks

    • http://www.karuppuswamy.com Black God

      Copy the certificate file as root user (sudo cp ….) in Ubuntu as shown in post. In any linux system, login as root user and copy the certificate.

      Don’t copy and paste the “sudo cp ….” command in the post, since the double quote may have been truncated for html format. Use proper double quote.