RHEL 5.4 w/ FreeNX - timeout

[mbeaton]

Hi all, my first post here - I'm hoping someone can help me with a FreeNX issue I'm having. I have successfully setup FreeNX on Suse 10.2, Suse 11 (32 and 64 bit), and am now attempting on RHEL 5.4 (32 and 64 bit). For both distributions, the client fails to times out at exactly the same point - downloading the session information.

Here are the steps I took to install/configure.

Installed the following 3 RPMs
mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/i386/CentOS/expect-5.43.0-5.1.i386.rpm
mirror.centos.org/centos/5/extras/i386/RPMS/nx-3.4.0-6.el5.centos.i386.rpm
mirror.centos.org/centos/5/extras/i386/RPMS/freenx-0.7.3-6.el5.centos.i386.rpm

Unlock the nx pwd (found this in another forum - and it seems it is necessary, or I don't get nearly as far)
passwd -uf nx

Add nx to /etc/ssh/sshd_config AllowUsers, and restart sshd
/etc/init.d/sshd restart

Enable PASSDB authentication, and set id/pwd
sed -i 's/#ENABLE_PASSDB_AUTHENTICATION=\"0\"/ENABLE_PASSDB_AUTHENTICATION=\"1\"/' /etc/nxserver/node.conf
nxserver --adduser xuser
nxserver --passwd xuser
nxserver --restart

From the client, I create a connection via the connection wizard, and use the proper dsa client key. Everything seems to go ok until I get to the very end.

NX> 203 NXSSH running with pid: 864
NX> 285 Enabling check on switch command
NX> 285 Enabling skip of SSH config files
NX> 285 Setting the preferred NX options
NX> 200 Connected to address: 129.33.146.2 on port: 22
NX> 202 Authenticating user: nx
NX> 208 Using auth method: publickey
HELLO NXSERVER - Version 3.2.0-74-SVN OS (GPL, using backend: not detected)
NX> 105 hello NXCLIENT - Version 3.2.0
NX> 134 Accepted protocol: 3.2.0
NX> 105 SET SHELL_MODE SHELL
NX> 105 SET AUTH_MODE PASSWORD
NX> 105 login
NX> 101 User: xuser
NX> 102 Password: 
NX> 103 Welcome to: somehost user: xuser
NX> 105 listsession --user="xuser" --status="suspended,running" --geometry="1920x1200x16+render" --type="unix-gnome"
NX> 127 Sessions list of user 'xuser' for reconnect:

Display Type             Session ID                       Options  Depth Screen         Status      Session Name
------- ---------------- -------------------------------- -------- ----- -------------- ----------- ------------------------------


NX> 148 Server capacity: not reached for user: xuser
NX> 105 startsession  --link="wan" --backingstore="1" --encryption="1" --cache="16M" --images="64M" --shmem="1" --shpix="1" --strict="0" --composite="1" --media="0" --session="129.33.146.2" --type="unix-gnome" --geometry="1914x1132" --client="winnt" --keyboard="pc102/en_US" --screeninfo="1914x1132x16+render" 

NX> 280 Exiting on signal: 15

Any suggestion greatly appreciated. Willing to try nearly anything

[mbeaton]

I enabled the SESSION_LOG in the nxserver node.conf ...

Info: Agent running with pid '26459'.
Session: Starting session at 'Mon Nov 15 18:45:36 2010'.
Info: Proxy running in server mode with pid '26459'.
Info: Waiting for connection from '127.0.0.1' on port '5000'.
Info: Aborting the procedure due to signal '1'.
Error: Aborting session with 'Unable to open display 'nx/nx,options=/home/xuser/.nx/C-vhost0715-1000-1B41257B8F1762D3A463D539F8537455/options:1000''.
Session: Aborting session at 'Mon Nov 15 18:46:36 2010'.
Session: Session aborted at 'Mon Nov 15 18:46:36 2010'.
XIO:  fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":1000.0"
      after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining.

[Rubberman]

First, FreeNX should not require a password to install. Second, where did you get the sources and/or binaries? Third, what version are you trying to install? Here is a link to the FreeNX website: FreeNX - the free NX

[Rubberman]

One final thing (fourth), is that FreeNX is available in the CentOS extras repository. The version is 7.3 which is, as far as I can tell, the current version. Try installing directly: yum install freenx

[mbeaton]

First, FreeNX should not require a password to install. Second, where did you get the sources and/or binaries? Third, what version are you trying to install? Here is a link to the FreeNX website: FreeNX - the free NX

Thanks for your reply.

I'm not sure where I claim a password was required to install? Could you clarify? I did add an id/pwd to the PASSDB.

As I mentioned, the version I installed was:
mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/i386/CentOS/expect-5.43.0-5.1.i386.rpm
mirror.centos.org/centos/5/extras/i386/RPMS/nx-3.4.0-6.el5.centos.i386.rpm
mirror.centos.org/centos/5/extras/i386/RPMS/freenx-0.7.3-6.el5.centos.i386.rpm

I didn't install through YUM, since I had a script that I ported from other distributions. However, with your suggestion, I removed the packages I had previously installed, then configured the yum repository for CentOS 5 extras, and proceeded to do yum install nx freenx.

The packages match what I manually installed via rpm ...

================================================== ==============================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================== ==============================
Installing:
freenx i386 0.7.3-6.el5.centos extras 97 k
nx i386 3.4.0-6.el5.centos extras 2.9 M

I don't know much about yum personally, but it appears I ended up with the same configuration in the end.

In any case, after installing via yum, and completing the configuration, the symptoms appear to be the same. I'm still getting a timeout as before.

[Rubberman]

Ok. That's a start. Sorry, but I usually use VNC and not NX for remote access like this. Signal 15 is SIGTERM. Have you tried other options, such as disabling encryption, etc? At least to test the tool in order to get a funtioning connection.

[mbeaton]

Ok. That's a start. Sorry, but I usually use VNC and not NX for remote access like this. Signal 15 is SIGTERM. Have you tried other options, such as disabling encryption, etc? At least to test the tool in order to get a funtioning connection.

I have tried tinkering with client settings - but have not had any success. I suspect it's something server side - but I cannot determine exactly what.

[coopstah13]

I have installed and run NX successfully on centos5 machines.

Did you do anything other than default configuration on the server side? I used all default settings, and heck I even followed the guide to set it up from the ubuntu doc page for NX and it just worked.

[mbeaton]

I have installed and run NX successfully on centos5 machines.

Did you do anything other than default configuration on the server side? I used all default settings, and heck I even followed the guide to set it up from the ubuntu doc page for NX and it just worked.

I haven't done any configuration on the server side with the exception of the items in the original post. ie. allow nx user, enable and configure PASSDB id and pwd.