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

[Mike Gabriel]

Dear all,

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 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 x2goagent/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 / x2goagent 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 x2goagent/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


-- 

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