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Thin Computing via Pi & RDP Status???

I do a lot thin computing via other means, mostly XDMCPSSH which is XDMCP via SSH.

FF to a new need...

I want to build a nice big honking server with some AMD 8 core chips (Nope, no intel here!) and run some VM's on it then connect to them thinly...specifically I have a VM or two I need to move there, and have capacity to do some other things...

This specific setup needs RDP access for these VM..so I am looking for some sort of thin device versus some huge PC... so how about a Pi3??

BUT...

Looking at the state of RDP clients the key part of this is sound traversal... the situation these will be used in here, the experience of the user needs to match watch they get using the VM on the local hardware, other wise... this whole situation falls apart... and I may as well look at some thing a little more powerful to run the client..

the various RDP clients seem to do the sound but the Pi's can't keep up...

So has this situation improved of late??? Most of the articles were a year to several years old.

Key points:

1) Operate in a FULL SCREEN to match the desktop of the VM, no kludgey scrolling up and down of the screen

2) SOUND! It must work like they were sitting at local hardware and running the VM. Otherwise no go...

3) USB devices... not really a need... Printing is done via networked printer already...

I just want to take a couple Pi3's a couple of monitors and RDP into the VM(s) and be done...versus getting some sort of small PC, put Linux on it, and put an RDP client etc... YES the allure of $70 for the PC's is a factor I like versus $200-300 + the monitors...

Any input???

Thanks!

Reply to
rick christian
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No experience with this, but for starters RPi 3 is a whole lot faster than RPi 1.

Reply to
A. Dumas

GH> 25 years ago we called them X Terminals ...

Thanks, I am aware of that... and I do it all the time..via XDMCP over SSH... till the bozos who want to screw up the Linux GUI aka X screw it up with waycrap. (Yes this is a sore point, as is that stupid systemd infestation, that is why no Raspbian Jessie allowed!)

This setup needs RDP due to the way the VM server provides access to the VM's. They do it via RDP.. not my choice..

So have xfreerdp etc.. improved along with using a Pi3 to have usable sound via this setup?

Otherwise I have to look at some of the other options in small PC's, put Linux on them, and go from there... $70 v. $300 is a great motivator to try...

Reply to
rick christian

25 years ago we called them X Terminals ...

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

I have run the Citrix Receiver client on Raspberry Pi. It worked fine on a 2B+ and a 3. It's single-threaded, so doesn't benefit from the Pi 3's 4-cores though. I did a powerpoint presenation on it, going across a VPN over 4G, and no one in the audience noticed that I wasn't directly connected to the desktop running powerpoint. The presentation was about using Citrix Receiver client on Raspberry Pi, so when I told them at the end that this was all running over a VPN from a Pi, it was a bit of a 'wow' moment.

Having said that, some change at the Windows server end (nothing has changed on the client) has caused the client to hang quite often more recently.

--
Andrew Gabriel 
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]
Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Did X ever have sound forwarding, though? I thought that relied on separate protocols.

Reply to
A. Dumas

Not that I know of, beyond the ^G beep.

Follow-on remote terminals (such as Sun Ray) virtualised much more, e.g. sound, USB ports, serial ports, smartcard readers, etc.

The Appliance Link Protocol (used by Sun Ray) worked much better over high latency links than X. This was important for things like setting up a trading floor on a different continent from the VDI servers (something the Sun Rays were frequently used for, and particularly good at).

--
Andrew Gabriel 
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]
Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Hm. no. However I think the LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) did address that issue though.

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

One early attempt was NAS - Network Audio Service, it's still around

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Last time I used it 8 bit audio was the norm.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith                          |   Directable Mirror Arrays 
C:>WIN                                      | A better way to focus the sun 
The computer obeys and wins.                |    licences available see 
You lose and Bill collects.                 |    http://www.sohara.org/
Reply to
Ahem A Rivet's Shot

Like telephony. GSM fullrate is actually 13-bit, but very compressed. It runs at 13.800 bps, and handles loss very well. It is designed for random 30% packet loss. With the mobile codecs of today GSM-FR sounds positively high rate.

But it is nothing compared to other, better codecs. There is an overlap between low end DAB radio (48-128 kilobit/s) and high-end telephony (24-72).

ISDN with semi-compressed 64 kbit/sec is just so last century. Yet this is what we still use for all cross-carrier telephony.

-- mrr

Reply to
Morten Reistad

You can run Jessie without systemd, and be aware of ssh on the Pi - it's somewhat slow due to no hardware acellerated encryption that I'm aware of.

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

Looks like it. From the DebianEdu wiki: LTSP thin clients support three different audio systems for applications: ESD, PulseAudio and ALSA. ESD and PulseAudio support networked audio and are used to pass audio from the server to the clients. ALSA is configured to redirect its sound via PulseAudio. For selected applications only supporting the OSS audio system, a wrapper is created by /usr/sbin/debian-edu-ltsp-audiodivert to redirect their sound to PulseAudio. Run this script without arguments to get a list of applications with such redirection enabled.

Reference:

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--
Torfinn Ingolfsen, 
Norway
Reply to
Torfinn Ingolfsen

AG> I have run the Citrix Receiver client on Raspberry Pi. AG> It worked fine on a 2B+ and a 3. It's single-threaded, so doesn't AG> benefit from the Pi 3's 4-cores though. I did a powerpoint presenation AG> on it, going across a VPN over 4G, and no one in the audience noticed AG> that I wasn't directly connected to the desktop running powerpoint. AG> The presentation was about using Citrix Receiver client on Raspberry Pi, AG> so when I told them at the end that this was all running over a VPN from AG> a Pi, it was a bit of a 'wow' moment.

AG> Having said that, some change at the Windows server end (nothing has AG> changed on the client) has caused the client to hang quite often more AG> recently.

Thanks, thats great...The Pi's are great at doing a lot of things.... BUT

*I am NOT using any _windumber_..*

RDP may be used on that "os" but the various VMware and Sun VBOX provide access to the VM's they run via RDP servers internal to the hypervisor. The VM's in question are most definitely Linux.

Using that in the niche case I have is better than using direct OS stuff.. mainly due to the need for the sound...

ALSA over network can be done, its just not well used in a while.. Nope, pulseaudio is not available on these.. I wipe it away first step of my images. I do things via sound that require ALSA access to things and that junk interferes with it.

Multiseat X - More a PITA to setup and actually would probably be the better solution in this case, its just time consuming to setup

XDMCP - I do it all the time, but the sound is the issue here.. for what I do, sound traversal is irrelevant.

VNC - ditto.

Etc..

The Pi's make a great $70 or so solution as I have the monitors, keyboards are $10.. versus a $200-300 box even off Ebay or some of the off lease stuff and wipe and then put Linux on and do something.

The VM VMware/VBOX provide these internal RDP servers to the VM's and provide a solution to the sound traversal, if I can find a suitable client.

WHat I read for the various ones for the Pi's was 2-3 years old, and possibly the bugs and the Pi hardware caught up. That is what I am after.

Thanks for the info on the Pi use, interesting... but again I don't touch windumber.

Reply to
rick christian

GH> You can run Jessie without systemd, and be aware of ssh on the Pi - it's GH> somewhat slow due to no hardware acellerated encryption that I'm aware of.

Unless Debian has fixed things there is NO XDMCP capable DM lightdm doesn't seem to play nice with systems reverted to upstart or non systemd.. at least on

*buntus.. so I doubt that changes any in Debian, since really the major changes here is to clean up the packages that got horked up due to DFSG ie: Mp3 support, and other similar issues.
Reply to
rick christian

Hello,

RC> 25 years ago we called them X Terminals ...

AD> Did X ever have sound forwarding, though? I thought that relied on > separate protocols.

I think some X terminals used NAS, the network audio system. As you say, that's a separate protocol.

-Andy Ball.

Reply to
Andy Ball

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