[X2go-Dev] NX workaround packages, temporarily SOLVES: crashing X2Go sessions

[Mike Gabriel]

Dear all,

(resending this mail to x2go-user, x2go-dev, corrected mail address of  
announcement list, fixed minor inaccuracies of the first version sent  
to the lists)

as many of you have reported, there are major issues with the version   
  of NoMachine's NX libraries that are currently  provided on    
packages.x2go.org and in X2Go's Ubuntu Launchpad.

The occurring crashes of X2Go sessions do not relate to the code    
itself but to the way the code (from X2Go Git) currently is built  
(i.e. compiled and packaged). Only five weeks ago, Alex, Reinhard and  
Mike could narrow the problems down to the build method being used.

The issues probably also apply to the way other NX related projects  
build their (Debian-ic) packages. So, if anyone needs more details on  
this, feel free to contact us on this list.

As a matter of fact, we currently can't consider the available NX  
libraries provided on packages.x2go.org (with obvious effect on  
x2goagent) as ,,stable'' at all; session crashes can easily be  
reproduced on various setups. Certain actions within the X2Go session  
cause naughty reconnect or disconnect messages for the client user and  
   many times the sessions die seemingly without reason. This problem   
is  due to NX libraries being built against the distribution's X   
server  development files and not against the development files of   
nx-X11  (Xserver provided by NoMachine). Unfortunately, the former  
build method, however, has  been state-of-the-art for the Debian-like  
packages ever since. We are working on a new way of building those  
packages, see below.

As there have been many complaints we'll respond by offering    
intermediate packages that do not contain these problems. However,    
these packages have been  built in a non-Debian state-of-the-art way  
and the solution provided from us is only a temporary workaround until  
   we have solved the  package build method for these packages.

Alex has built packages using a non-Git based build environment, one    
  we used before we changed to working with Git. The provided packages  
   have the same package names as found in Git, they also have a  
slightly    higher version number so your systems will upgrade easily  
if you  use   the ,,workaround'' package set:

   libxcomp3
   libxcompext3
   libxcompshad3

These new packages should do their job well, as we can't reproduce the  
    reported crashes with them anymore.

Currently, we are working with high pressure on cleanly-built NX    
packages (see: Git project nx-libs.git, test branch, also    
x2goagent.git, test branch), so that we can provide Git based NX    
packages soon again.

DEBIAN
======
If you want to use those packages on Debian, please make sure that you have

    deb http://packages.x2go.org/debain squeeze main

(or wheezy main, sid main) as package source configured in your APT system.

If that is the case simply upgrade the above named packages and then  
you should get the workaround NX packages installed.

   $ apt-get update
   $ apt-get install libxcomp3 libxcompext3 libxcompshad3

If encountering errors during installation, also make sure to  
uninstall all development packages around NX libs before upgrading to  
the workaround package set:

   $ apt-get remove libxcomp-dev libxcompshad-dev libxcompext-dev
   $ apt-get remove libxcomp3-dbg libxcompshad3-dbg libxcompext3-dbg

We'll keep the NX workaround packages in the "main" area of our Debian
repos as long as needed. You'll still have access to the git based  
packages using the "heuler" area. (deb http://packages.x2go.org/debian  
squeeze heuler).

UBUNTU
======
For people who use Ubuntu GNU/Linux and install X2Go from Launchpad     
the solution is not as simple. We have provided tar.gz files  
containing the needed  packages. Download the tar.gz file appropriate  
for your Ubuntu version from

   http://packages.x2go.org/nx-3.5-workaround/ubuntu/

Extract your downloaded tarball (=tar.gz file) and install packages     
manually (e.g. for Ubuntu oneiric):

   $ mkdir ubuntu-x2go
   $ cd ubuntu-x2go
   $ wget  
http://packages.x2go.org/nx-3.5-workaround/ubuntu/nx-3.5-workaround_ubuntu-oneiric.tar.gz
   $ tar -xvzf nx-3.5-workaround_ubuntu-oneiric.tar.gz
   $ eval $(dpkg-architecture -s)
   $ dpkg -i *${DEB_HOST_ARCH}*.deb

When encountering problems, also make sure to remove the development packages
around NX before installation of the workaround packages:

   $ apt-get remove libxcomp-dev libxcompshad-dev libxcompext-dev
   $ apt-get remove libxcomp3-dbg libxcompshad3-dbg libxcompext3-dbg

This is a temporary solution for the time we can't guarantee that the   
   Git based built packages are stable. From our perspective stability  
should come first, but of course we will try hard to solve the build  
problem so that we can use our X2Go Git based build environment for NX  
libs, as well (again).

Regards,

Heinz & Alex & Mike


-- 

DAS-NETZWERKTEAM
mike gabriel, dorfstr. 27, 24245 barmissen
fon: +49 (4302) 281418, fax: +49 (4302) 281419

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mail: mike.gabriel at das-netzwerkteam.de, http://das-netzwerkteam.de

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