[SOLVED] RDP Capability Needed

[goosed]

I am looking to setup some computers as thinclients to connect to my MS Terminal Servers. We have a homebrew application that configures RDP sessions. A user logs into a webpage that dynamically generates a "launch.rdp" file. This file is generated to balance the load between servers.

What I'd like to do is configure an image to boot up into Mozilla. When the user goes to the webpage, I'd like the launch.rdp file to open up in a terminal server session.

I've tried with rdesktop and tsclient, but unfortunately neither would work with a "rdp" file. Any help or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

[alf55]

The question is what is in the file, "launch.rdp"? It might be possible to use the data within it by a script that launches one of the linux clients such as rdesktop or tsclient (or grdesktop).

[goosed]

The launch.rdp file contains this:

screen mode id:i:2
desktopwidth:i:1280
desktopheight:i:1024
session bpp:i:24
winposstr:s:2,3,0,0,800,600
full address:s:172.16.0.117
compression:i:1
keyboardhook:i:2
audiomode:i:0
redirectdrives:i:1
redirectprinters:i:1
redirectcomports:i:0
redirectsmartcards:i:1
displayconnectionbar:i:1
autoreconnection enabled:i:1
username:s:User
domain:s:America
alternate shell:s:
shell working directory:s:
disable wallpaper:i:0
disable full window drag:i:0
disable menu anims:i:0
disable themes:i:0
disable cursor setting:i:0
bitmapcachepersistenable:i:1

The reason I'd like to get something that can open .rdp files is so that I don't need to change anything server side. From what I've gathered rdesktop and tsclient aren't able to directly open an rdp file.

[alf55]

Here is a sample script that picks some of the fields from the file and then calls "rdesktop" with the selected options. I assume that with an example and the man page for rdesktop, other options can be processesd and passed to rdesktop.

The script is run with the "*.rdp" file as the first argument (I assumed that it was downloaded prior to the script running. If needed, wget might be able to ontain the "*.rdp" file.

Disclaimer: This script has not been tested. I will help if needed via information passed via the forum. I do not get the "*.rdp" or have a windows machine to connect to via "remote desktop" at this point in time to create a fake "*.rdp" file from the example.

#!/bin/bash
#

RDESKTOP="/usr/bin/rdesktop"

the_raw_data=($(cat ${1}))
Width=800
height=600
depth=24
compression=0
host=""
user=""
domain=""
use_shell=""
use_dir=""
for f in "${the_raw_data[@]}"; do echo $f; done
    case "${f}" in
        screen\ mode\ id*)              unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        desktopwidth*)                  Width="${f##*:}"        ;; # -g WxH
        desktopheight*)                 height="${f##*:}"       ;; # -g WxH
        session\ bpp*)                  depth=" -a ${f##*:}"     ;;
        winposstr*)                     unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        full\ address*)                 host=" -n ${f##*:}"      ;;
        compression*)                   compression="${f##*:}"  ;; # -z
        keyboardhook*)                  unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        audiomode*)                     unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        redirectdrives*)                unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        redirectprinters*)              unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        redirectcomports*)              unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        redirectsmartcards*)            unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        displayconnectionbar*)          unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        autoreconnection\ enabled*)     unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        username*)                      user=" -u ${f##*:}"      ;;
        domain*)                        domain=" -d ${f##*:}"    ;;
        alternate\ shell*)              use_shell=" -s ${f##*:}" ;;
        shell\ working\ directory*)     use_dir=" -c ${f##*:}"   ;;
        disable\ wallpaper*)            unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        disable\ full\ window\ drag*)   unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        disable\ menu\ anims*)          unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        disable\ themes*)               unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        disable\ cursor\ setting*)      unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
        bitmapcachepersistenable*)      unhandled="${f##*:}     ;;
    esac
done
geometry=" -g ${Width}x${height}"
[ ${compression} -gt 0 ] && compression=" -z" || compression=""

${RDESKTOP} ${geometry}${depth}${compression}${host}${user}${domain}${use_shell}${use_dir} &

Note if you include a "-C" option 32-bit might be available on a normal 24-bit but non-focused window my look psychedelic if it does use 32-bit for a window and 24-bit for the others.

[goosed]

Hey Alf, I like where you're going. Is there a way to run this to only pull out the host address and parse that into rdesktop command?

[alf55]

Of couse, I was pulling host, user, domain, color depth, compression, shell, directory. only use the host that was extractied.

Change the

${RDESKTOP} ${geometry}${depth}${compression}${host}${user}${d omain}${use_shell}${use_dir} &

to be

${RDESKTOP}${host} &

Also the other stuff in the case can be removed as well.

[goosed]

I'm not sure if it's extracting the host correctly. When I run the script it outputs the entire contents of launch.rdp, and then attempts to launch rdesktop with no switches.

Here's what I have in the script:

#!/bin/sh

RDESKTOP="/usr/bin/rdesktop"

the_raw_data=($(cat ${1}))
resolution=1024x768
host=""

for f in "${the_raw_data[@]}"; do echo $f; done
      case "${f}" in
               full\ address*)     host=" -n $f{##*:}"     ;;
      esac

${RDESKTOP} -d domain -g ${resolution} ${host}

Thanks again for the help.

Additionally if it helps, here's what the full address line looks like in the rdp file:

full address:s:172.16.0.117

[alf55]

My error ---
The problem is that I did not handle the spaces in the keywords and I messed up the for loop when I copied at the begining. (I had two loops the first dumped the data present and the second processed the data. I included the first and skiped the second.

The second error was I forgot to include the [quote]IFS=$'\n'[\quote] line as well. This makes the seperator for the array that I am building to be the new-line rather than white-space. I also added a save and restore the value for IFS.

#!/bin/sh

RDESKTOP="/usr/bin/rdesktop"

remember_IFS="${IFS}"
IFS=$'\n'
the_raw_data=($(cat "${1}"))
IFS="${remember_IFS}"
resolution=1024x768
host=""

for f in "${the_raw_data[@]}"; do
      case "${f}" in
               full\ address*)     host=" -n $f{##*:}"     ;;
      esac
done

${RDESKTOP} -d domain -g ${resolution} ${host}

The problem is that I did not handle the spaces in the keywords and I messed up the for loop when I copied at the beginning. (I had two loops the first dumped the data present and the second processed the data. I included the first and skipped the second.

Example run of the corrected script with an "echo of the command" to be run is show below while using your posted data for the "launch.rdp" is after the re-posting of the corrected original script.

For those that would like the working copy of the original script it follows.

#!/bin/sh

#
#   To run:
#          the_name_of_this_script   launch.rdp
#

RDESKTOP="/usr/bin/rdesktop"

{
    IFS=$'\n'
    the_raw_data=($(cat "${1}"))
}

host=""
Width=800
height=600
depth=24
compression=0
host=""
user=""
domain=""
use_shell=""
use_dir=""

for f in "${the_raw_data[@]}"; do
    case "${f}" in
        screen\ mode\ id*)              unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        desktopwidth*)                  Width="${f##*:}"        ;;
        desktopheight*)                 height="${f##*:}"       ;;
        session\ bpp*)                  depth=" -a ${f##*:}"     ;;
        winposstr*)                     unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        full\ address*)                 host=" -n ${f##*:}"      ;;
        compression*)                   compression="${f##*:}"  ;;
        keyboardhook*)                  unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        audiomode*)                     unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        redirectdrives*)                unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        redirectprinters*)              unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        redirectcomports*)              unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        redirectsmartcards*)            unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        displayconnectionbar*)          unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        autoreconnection\ enabled*)     unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        username*)                      user=" -u ${f##*:}"      ;;
        domain*)                        domain=" -d ${f##*:}"    ;;
        alternate\ shell*)              use_shell=" -s ${f##*:}" ;;
        shell\ working\ directory*)     use_dir=" -c ${f##*:}"   ;;
        disable\ wallpaper*)            unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        disable\ full\ window\ drag*)   unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        disable\ menu\ anims*)          unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        disable\ themes*)               unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        disable\ cursor\ setting*)      unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
        bitmapcachepersistenable*)      unhandled="${f##*:}"    ;;
    esac
done
geometry=" -g ${Width}x${height}"
[ ${compression} -gt 0 ] && compression=" -z" || compression=""

${RDESKTOP}${geometry}${depth}${compression}${host}${user}${domain}${use_shell}${use_dir} &

Results with the posted "launch.rdp" and the line:

${RDESKTOP}${geometry}${depth}${compression}${host }${user}${domain}${use_shell}${use_dir} &

becoming

echo ${RDESKTOP}${geometry}${depth}${compression}${host }${user}${domain}${use_shell}${use_dir} &

bash$ /tmp/my_rdesktop /tmp/launch.rdp 
/usr/bin/rdesktop -g 1280x1024 -a 24 -z -n 172.16.0.117 -u User -d America -s -c
bash$

[goosed]

This is EXACTLY what I needed!! Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this Alf. It is very much appreciated!!

[alf55]

Your welcome. Glad that I could help.

Wrapper scripts are much easier to create in Unix/Linux than in Windows. There a lot to be said about having a robust scripting language.





I have a wrapper script for "shoutcast" within streamtuner because they changed to supply multiple locations in a file from what was a location and worked nice with mplayer.

I also tend to run everything from the command line. In the old days (1984-KDE release) people wrote applications that were GUI to run in background but since the KDE-release they are not being written this way. By writting wrapper scripts I have been able to use the command WWW to lauch my browser which started out being Mosaic and is currently Firefox with a simple command that then runs the tool of the day for that application.

I even have wrappers for OpenOffice applications, almost every thing that I used. However, the applications vim, vimdiff, gvim, and gvimdiff have never had a wrapper script. Back in 1985-1987 I used emacs but a vi (or a derived editor) is the only editor that is part of the Unix specification and in 1987 I had to learn vi and never left it (I vi preference are: gvim, elvis, vim, and then normal vi).