Third Shift Hero

Making Citrix span across multiple monitors in Linux

Apr 182012

I dug around for a long while trying to find a solution to this issue. I was able to find parts of it on various sites, but never found an explicit how to guide for setting this up. I’m sure most Linux pros know how to do this, but I am not that good and hopefully this will help other people use Linux for Citrix access.

Here is the environment I tested it on. I am running Kubuntu 11.10, Citrix Receiver 12.1 beta for Linux. I am using a 24in NEC and 19in NEC monitor. I launch my VDI session from a web link ICA file.

If you need help setting up Citrix the instructions are located in the Citrix Ubuntu Documentation. I installed the reciever, USB support plugin, libmotif, and all that good stuff. You can find if you are missing any libraries by running the HDX script in the citric folder. for me that was “/opt/Citrix/ICAClient/util/hdxcheck.sh”, run the script as root to make sure it detects everything alright.

Now, Citrix is set up and should work fine normally, but getting it to span was giving me trouble. I saw on the Citrix and Ubuntu forums that adding the command line parameter “-span 1,2″ would make it span properly. So, I just needed to get this to launch from a browser. I went into the folder Citrix was installed in again (/opt/Citrix/ICAClient) and edited the “wfica.sh” script located there. Basically this is a script that lanches the wfica program that launches Citrix. the last line of it is the command that launches the wfica program with the .ica file from the browser.

It should look like this:

$ICAROOT/wfica -file $1

I changed it to:

$ICAROOT/wfica -span 1,2 -file $1

Now it has the span parameter and will launch the file. Now I went into Firefox selected Edit -> Preferences, then to the Applications tab. Find “Citrix ICA settings file” in the list and change the program to launch it with to “wfica.sh”.

That should make Citrix launch with all the parameters we specified. You should be able to add any other command line parameters to this file if needed.

A little more app stuff

Earthdawn No Responses »

Jun 272011

So, I feel like I have moved into my new job alright and have a few posts planned her. We will see if anything actually comes from this.

As for the Earthdawn app I had a small hiccup with development. I was working on getting the drive I had the code and everything on backed up, but somehow I accidentally formatted over the drive. I managed to recover some stuff and at the very least my key for signing my app. It seems likely I will have to rewrite the whole thing unless I can pull the source code out of the jumbled mess of recovered files. This may be a blessing in disguise as the original write of it was a damn mess because I had no idea what I was doing at the time. I heave learned a great deal more and the app probably could do with a little cleanup. I also need to poke my artist and see if they can get me the icon and images for it.

The only thing lost was the source for the app. I recovered all the previous APKs for it so I have all previous versions of the app (That I saved APKs for at least). So all is not lost I guess. As long as I recovered the key store I should be good to go.

App update and some thoughts

Earthdawn No Responses »

May 142011

Put out an update for the ED app to fix a force close issue when using landscape. Thanks to the user who put in that error report.

Also I was looking at the demographics of my app and while most of the people are from the US it seems a fair bit are in Europe, the most being Germany. If anyone knows some other languages I may think about localizing the app in the future at least into German. Hit me up if interested.

New post on new domain

Site No Responses »

May 012011

I probably should have posted something about this on the old fridgewire domain, but I didn’t. Oh well.

I moved everything I had off of that domain to thirdshifthero.com. I am still working on the setup as I had a few other things to drag along with it. Things should be getting fleshed out in the future. I will not be putting the fridgewire forums back up, they were kind of a waste anyways. I backed it all up though so if anyone wants old posts of really really wants it back it is easy enough to restore. So right now it’s a new domain, with a new feed link and all that good stuff. Update your feeds if you use them and let me know if there are any problems hiding around the site.

ED app karma dice update

Uncategorized No Responses »

Mar 302011

Just released an update for the dice roller that adds a check box to roll karma dice. This functions for both Classic and 3rd Edition. In the options there is a list to select which race/die value to use for Classic karma.

Back and ED app update

Android, Earthdawn 2 Responses »

Mar 252011

Well I have been back from NZ for a couple weeks. Things have been busy, but it’s a good busy. I release v1.5 for the Earthdawn Dice Roller app. The update adds the much desired ability to use the Earthdawn Classic dice table and adds the ability to toggle a display for which dice values are being rolled. I didn’t put this in the change log anywhere, but I also made it so a bonus dice has and asterisk next to it so you can tell which dice are bonus dice. I am already working on v1.6 and have a working check box for karma dice in third edition. I need to implement it for classic still which takes a bit more work because if I am correct the steps are different for each race. I will probably put that in the options, because that isn’t something you should change every roll. I need to double check the rules to make sure I am getting this right. I will have to ask the ED community and make sure I am correct.

Too much too soon

Uncategorized No Responses »

Feb 202011

Holy crap… Life has been a flurry for the pas few months. I really haven’t had time to work on any of my projects. I actually decided to stop writing for Throw out the Dice and handed that over to Tim. He is still charging ahead with that even with the crazy stuff going on in his life.

I recently have been transitioning to a new position where I work and the process of applying for the job and then transitioning into it has sucked a great deal of life from me. Once things settle down at work I should be able to get my mind a little straight at least. The new position has kind of destroyed my blog title in some ways. I no longer work midnight and will be a normal day person most likely. It sort of makes me sad, but I had to go with it. I’ll probably keep the name of my blog and such because I really dig it.

In the midst of the job change I will be leaving on a trip to New Zealand for a couple weeks. I am hoping to really use the time to take it easy and clear my head and get a somewhat fresh start when I get back. Realistically, I probably will work harder to catch up from being gone for two weeks. In any case I can work on some things there and on the loooooong flight. Maybe I can finish another story and get that posted. We shall see…

Site stuff

Site No Responses »

Jan 232011

Moved the site from it’s subdomain to the main fridgewire.com address. Messed up a bunch of crap in the process. Was a good night. I really broke the heck out of it.

Earthdawn app

Android 2 Responses »

Dec 202010

I suppose I should put at least some reference to my Earthdawn Dice Roller app on the Android market since this is the website I put on my developer account.

First, thanks to all the people who have downloaded it and are using it (about 20 of you at this time!). I appreciate the installs and I hope the app works well for you all. Feel free to drop comments and requests here if you have something you would like to see or just want to say something else.

Second, I am planning to recode a good portion of the app in the near future. I’m sure some people noticed but I am a big huge noob programmer. This is the only program I have written outside of the stuff I did for one class back in college. I am learning a great deal from this program and as a result need to redo some of my… they aren’t really mistakes…. but less than desirable programing techniques. Bear with me as I learn, things should only get better in time.

Last, I will toss up a tab on this site for my app(s) so I can leave specific information about each one. I will plan on having that up in the next couple days, if not sooner. I have plans to try making a really simple game to get more coding under my belt. Wish me luck!

Plans

Site No Responses »

Dec 102010

I’m guessing nobody has really noticed much, but the www.fridgewire.com page has been down for like a year or so. I never rebuilt it after wiping out the site due to some sneaky sneaky malware that got in. I have been thinking about what to do for a redesign and I have a few ideas and I will do a little more planning to get it all implemented. HTML/CSS are very much not a strength of mine, so this will be interesting. I will probably use something pre-packaged, but who knows. Maybe a streak of ambition will show itself with me. More likely I will try to con someone I know into building it. Only the future will know.