[FreeNX-kNX] NX Client woes (Was: FreeNX feature set)

[Terje Andersen]

On Monday 05 May 2008 02:09:33 Doug Breshears wrote:
> In my last message I was my client was failing to connect with no real
> reason in the "Detail" screen. I figured out the reason had something to
> do with nxesd.exe rather than (as I thought) the display resolution.
> (BTW I figured out the Ctrl-Alt-F to make it switch to full screen so I
> have verified that it can "migrate" sessions with different display
> resolutions)
>
> After killing nxesd the client would connect with no problem. This then
> got me thinking about sound, so I set up esound and friends on the
> server to see if I could get sound on the client and I did not. I looked
> around a little in the options and found the "Multimedia" box was not
> selected (which makes me wonder why nxesd was running...) So I selected
> it, saved, re-ran the client and I got sound.
>
> The real interesting thing is, now that sound is set up on the server
> and multimedia selected on the client, the nxesd thing is not an issue
> any more. Weird.
>

This sounds like a client specific issue - can try against NoMacine's 
TestDrive servers and if it fails, maybe you could report it to them?

> So I continue creating sessions, suspending, resuming on Linux then
> Windows and back and forth trying different things basically trying to
> kick the tires and see if this is stable enough to use in a home->office
> situation. After a few iterations of my last session the session will no
> longer resume on the Windows side again, only now nxesd is not running
> (no nx* process is). There is no indication of trouble in the "Details"
> window but I use the sessionID to look up the logs on the local file
> system.
> I tried deleting the cache of the the session and forcing to create a
> new one and still get the same problem.
> Normally I start the client, provide the password, it pops up a list of
> suspended sessions, I select the (only) session and hit ok to bring it up.
> Now I start the client, provide the password, then before it shows the
> list, I get the "Connection Error".
>

Well, I find something to point my finger at; first of all there is a 
significant error in the logs: 
"Cannot initialize the display service" - this is an tricky error after what I 
gather from NoMachine's KB since it more or less comes from challenges/bugs 
with CygWin (according to !M), and NoMachine are working on another solution 
to these errors (again, according to !M).

If you take the error message and search the KB at www.nomachine.com, you will 
find alot of interesting reads, which (might) indicate that NoMachine are 
working on a replacement to the CygWin libraries/binaries they are using 
today. Take a look at the TR below, which states that this should be fixed in 
your version of the client.

http://www.nomachine.com/tr/view.php?id=TR09E01893

After browsing the KB I was left with a feeling that this is CygWin related, 
and maybe the solution is one of the following:

1) Log out/in, or restart Windows, then try again
2) Try searching your Windows installation for other cygwin1.dll copies, then 
try to remove (rename) them, then try again.

I don't think I caught your Windows client version - do you use Vista? I tried 
Vista, several versions even (via work PC's), but had really no success at 
running/using the !M client on them, and ended up with throwing out Vista on 
my clients (for now). I had all kinds of Display related issues, most of them 
fixed by NoMachine (according to their client Changelogs) but it didn't work 
for me....

>
> Here is a "significant" snippet from the runlog (~/.nx/temp/2140/runlog)
> [Sun May 4 12:56:55 2008]: NXService::readParameters: got [Info:
> Starting daemon: 'B8ADF52D837BEE599E7E5AE76A29EBAB']
> [Sun May 4 12:56:55 2008]: Starting display status=1
> [Sun May 4 12:56:55 2008]: path before convert:
> [C:\DOCUME~1\DOUGBR~1\NX73F8~1/temp/2140]
> [Sun May 4 12:56:55 2008]: path after convert 1:
> [C:\DOCUME~1\DOUGBR~1\NX73F8~1/temp/2140] [39] [260]
> [Sun May 4 12:56:55 2008]: printFatalError [Cannot initialize the
> display service]
> [Sun May 4 12:56:55 2008]: KillAllComponents 00CA6688
>
> And from a working runlog..
> [Sun May 4 00:08:02 2008]: NXService::readParameters: got [Info:
> Starting daemon: '6166CCB707040791EBEDFB06341B910C']
> [Sun May 4 00:08:02 2008]: Starting display status=0
> [Sun May 4 00:08:02 2008]: path before convert:
> [C:\DOCUME~1\DOUGBR~1\NX73F8~1/temp/3288]
> [Sun May 4 00:08:02 2008]: path after convert 1:
> [C:\DOCUME~1\DOUGBR~1\NX73F8~1/temp/3288] [39] [260]
> [Sun May 4 00:08:02 2008]: NXService::getWin32DisplayHandler() begin
>
> On the server side I get this
> /home/doug/.nx/C-jdg-desktop2-1001-896E807229663AEBFE92C4F8F82B4F1F# cat
> errors
> Loop: WARNING! Connected to remote version 3.2.0 with local version 3.1.0.
> Proxy: WARNING! Handling data for finishing FD#8 channel ID#1.
> Proxy: WARNING! Handling data for finishing FD#8 channel ID#1.
> Loop: WARNING! Connected to remote version 3.2.0 with local version 3.1.0.
> Proxy: WARNING! Handling data for finishing FD#8 channel ID#1.
> Loop: WARNING! Connected to remote version 3.2.0 with local version 3.1.0.
> Proxy: WARNING! Handling data for finishing FD#8 channel ID#1.
> Proxy: WARNING! Handling data for finishing FD#8 channel ID#1.
>
> There are directories (C-jdg-desktop2-1001-xxx) that are newer than this
> one but this has the right ID so I assume it is what I want to look at.
> So this is weird in that I am not using the 3.2 client, the "About" tab
> specifically says "3.1.0-6"
>

Hmm. Weird. You haven't connected to/from other servers/clients and mixed the 
logs? If not, then this version of NXClient must have some kind of identity 
crisis - not knowing it's own version :P
I haven't experienced that the .0.7.2 version of FreeNX telling me this with 
my clients...

> Any clues as to what is going on and how to troubleshoot this further?
> I would really like to be able to read these log files with some degree
> of authority but for now I am really in the dark.
> I have also attached the sshlog and runlog from the windows side simply
> because I think the answer is most likely there if anywhere.
>

The runlog are the most interesting in this case IMO, but I could be wrong - 
se inline replies above. You could try searching the KB @ www.nomachine.com 
with the error above selected from your runlog and see if you can find any 
hints...

> Thanks for any clues..
> Doug

	/Terje