Get Started
Home ThinLinc release notes ThinLinc 2.1.0 Release Notes

ThinLinc 2.1.0 Release Notes

Introduction

Cendio is proud to announce a new major release: ThinLinc 2.1.0. As with earlier releases, this version includes several new features as well as many corrections. In total, this release contains more than 90 enhancements. These include:

  • Improved support for the latest operating systems, including Windows (R) Server 2008, Mac OS X 10.5, Red Hat (R) Enterprise Linux 5.2, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP2, and Ubuntu (R) 8.04.
  • Improved Smart Card support. With ThinLinc 2.0.0, we made password based authentication optional, by allowing Smart Card authentication instead. ThinLinc 2.1.0 removes the username dependency as well, by allowing login using a username automatically derived from the Smart Card certificate. The login can be triggered automatically when the Smart Card is inserted, thus providing outstanding session mobility.
  • Support for accessing different client devices is better than ever, with extended serial and parallel port support.

Changes in This Release

For each enhancement, the enhancement number is given in parentheses.

Server

  • ThinLinc works on most modern Linux distributions and Sun Solaris (R). This release has been extensively tested on the following platforms:
    • Red Hat (R) Enterprise Linux 5.2 (in 32-bit mode)
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP2 (R) (in 32-bit mode)
    • Ubuntu (R) 8.04 (in 32-bit mode)
    • Sun Solaris (R) 10
  • Configuration of the server font path is now easier on distributions such as Ubuntu, where the font path is not available in the X server configuration file. (2675)
  • With the ThinLinc 2.0.0 server, it was not possible to shadow using 1.6.0 clients. This problem has now been fixed. (2704)
  • The vsm-single-signon utility has been renamed to tl-sso-password. Similarly, tl-sso-getpass has been renamed to tl-sso-update-password. (2719, 2720)
  • The Webmin interface now shows a summary of the number of active sessions and users. (2079)
  • Previous ThinLinc versions used lowercase usernames in many places. This includes the session directory below /var/opt/thinlinc/sessions as well as the USER environment variable. ThinLinc 2.1.0 uses the native case on the server, as returned by the Name Service Switch modules. (The client still uses a lowercase username during the SSH authentication). (2753, 2685)
  • Mount options for local drives can now be customized. By default, local drives are mounted with the "-n" option, so that /etc/mtab is not updated. (2573)
  • Profile commands can now include quote characters. (2694)
  • The "root" user is no longer affected by "homecreatefilter", which limits file creation in the home directory. (2473)
  • Clipboard transfers to and from clients failed on servers with the XCB Xlib implementation, such as Fedora 8. This has now been corrected. (2693)

General

  • Windows Server 2008 is now supported, both as a client platform and application server. (The ThinLinc sound driver "tlsnd", which supports microphones and other input devices, still requires Windows Server 2003). (2707)
  • A server connection can now be automatically established upon Smart Card insertion. In this case, the username will be derived from the card certificate. (2740, 2631, 2715, 2722)
  • Smart Card Single Sign-On is supported. The client can optionally transfer the PIN to the server. This means that Windows Terminal Services connections can be authenticated using a Smart Card, without having to enter the PIN code. (Currently requires a terminal server with the Novell Client). (2591, 2636)
  • The python-ldap package is no longer distributed on the server CD. (2669)
  • The special print queue that transfers a print job to the client ("thinlocal") now supports raw print jobs, finalized at the server. This is useful for ASCII print jobs, which cannot be transferred via PDF. (1080)
  • Basic parallel port emulation has been added. A device node corresponding to the client print queue ("thinlocal") is now created. It is called $TLSESSIONDATA/dev/lp0. Currently, communication must be unidirectional and without ioctl:s. (2799)
  • The "start command", which specifies which command to execute in the session, can now contain non-ASCII characters. (2699)

Client

  • Serial port redirection is now supported with the Windows client. (1289)
  • Mandatory password changes during login are now supported. The new password will be used for the agent connection as well as for subsequent Single Sign-On connections. (1108)
  • Interactive Yes/No prompts from SSH/PAM are now displayed as a graphical dialog. This allows the user to answer by clicking on the desired button, instead of typing the answer. (2760)
  • The most common SSH/PAM prompts have been localized. This means that password change requests can be displayed in the language usage by the client. (2640)
  • The client has been translated to Spanish. (2794)
  • The Mac OS X client failed to connect on many Leopard (10.5) systems. This has now been corrected. (2729)
  • A server connection that lasts for fewer than 10 seconds often indicates a server problem. The client now detects such cases and displays an information dialog. (1561)
  • Previously, the Windows client required a locally installed PDF reader when printing to local printers. This requirement has been removed. (2150)
  • The client can optionally display the printer selection dialog for each print job, on Windows. This makes it easier to use "thinlocal" with multiple local printers. (2787)
  • The graphical theme of the client has been changed on UNIX and Mac OS X to more closely resemble the native look on these systems. (2802)
  • The client logo now uses the PNG image format instead of GIF. "tlclientlogo.gif" is now called "tlclientlogo.png". (1737)
  • The Windows client should now work on systems with Sophos Antivirus installed. (2792)
  • A stability problem with the Windows client, mostly affecting Windows Vista systems, has been fixed. (2777)
  • Connecting using a username or password with non-ASCII characters is now supported on systems without a UTF-8 locale. This includes the Thinstation. (2644)
  • Usernames containing whitespace are now supported. (2741)
  • During login, the client now displays the server and agent host names. (2169)
  • The Windows client uses a low fidelity resampling algorithm if the CPU capacity is low. (2798)

Desktop Customizer

  • When using Desktop Customizer, an icon for disconnecting the ThinLinc sessions is included in the root menu by default. (1974)
  • Desktop Customizer now supports localized desktop directories (xdg-user-dirs). (2813)

Novell Integration

  • tl-nds-posixuser avoids allocating uid/gid numbers already used by the system. (2564)
  • The functionality for maintaining an alias container, to ease Single Sign-On with Terminal Services in Novell environments, has been removed. Instead, ThinLinc retrieves the full username, including context, from the eDirectory server and transfers it to the Novell Client on the Windows Terminal Server via RDP. (2567)

Windows (R) Integration

  • The ThinLinc sound driver "tlsnd", which supports microphones and other input devices, now supports the mixer interface. (2292)
  • The rdesktop RDP client now supports microphone input with "tlsnd" using the Solaris /dev/audio interface. (2612)
  • Printing from Windows Terminal Servers are now done using the RDP channel rather than IPP. All printers available on the ThinLinc server for the running user will be available on the WTS. This means that the ThinLinc Printer Access Control feature now covers Windows Terminal Servers as well. Additionally, a mechanism to set pre-set default printer settings has been added. (2786)
  • tl-mount-cifs with the --homedir option should now handle home directories located below the exported share. (2779)
  • SeamlessRDP now has improved application compatibility. (2703, 2727)

TLCOS

  • NetworkManager can now optionally be used to manage network connections. This means that it is now far easier to use TLCOS with wireless networks. (2711)

Documentation

  • The chapters regarding the different client platforms have been restructured. (1918)

Corrected Issues

ThinLinc has also been enhanced in many other ways. The complete list of corrected issues is:

1080, 1108, 1289, 1451, 1488, 1519, 1561, 1686, 1709, 1879, 1918,
1974, 1990, 2079, 2137, 2147, 2169, 2203, 2292, 2298, 2336, 2392,
2416, 2418, 2437, 2469, 2473, 2564, 2567, 2573, 2591, 2592, 2605,
2612, 2631, 2632, 2636, 2640, 2644, 2669, 2671, 2675, 2681, 2684,
2685, 2689, 2692, 2693, 2694, 2696, 2699, 2703, 2704, 2707, 2711,
2712, 2715, 2716, 2719, 2720, 2721, 2722, 2723, 2724, 2727, 2729,
2733, 2738, 2740, 2741, 2742, 2746, 2750, 2753, 2759, 2760, 2763,
2766, 2769, 2777, 2778, 2779, 2786, 2787, 2792, 2794, 2798, 2799,
2802, 2808, 2813, 2820, 2826
ThinLinc (R) is a registered trademark of Cendio AB
Linux (R) is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Red Hat (R) is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc.
Fedora (R) is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc
SUSE (R) is a registered trademarks of Novell, Inc.
Ubuntu (R) is a registered trademark of Canonical Ltd.
Solaris (R) is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Windows (R) is a registered trademark of Microsoft, Inc.
Windows Vista is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc.
Mac OS X is a trademark of Apple Inc.
eLux (R) is a registered trademark of UniCon Software GmbH in Germany.
Sophos Anti-Virus is a registered trademarks of Sophos Group.

Frequently Asked Questions

Licensing/ Pricing ThinLinc Industry Applications Authentications Desktops Distributions

How can we help you?

Please tell us what you are looking for.