Some notes about our Debian Sun Ray server

This are some notes about our installation of the Sun Ray Server Software (SRSS) 3.1.1 on Debian/unstable (the upcoming Etch release).
I doubt whether I would have had success without this excellent guide (and the included patches and scripts).

1. SRSS needs an older OpenLDAP version. Install libldap-2.2-7 from Debian 3.1 "sarge" (which in turn depends on libssl0.9.7).
2. Follow all the steps from the guide mentioned above.
3. Init scripts: The display manager GDM should start before the Sun Ray services and stop after them:

   update-rc.d -f zsunray-init remove
   update-rc.d zsunray-init defaults 99 01
   update-rc.d -f gdm  remove
   update-rc.d gdm  defaults 21 02
   

4. I had some problems getting a working X keyboard extension.
   • The SRSS X server "Xnewt" needs an old version of the xkb datasets:

     apt-get install xkb-data-legacy
           

   • Execute the xkbinstall-etch script from the guide mentioned above.
   • Some links and directories are missing:

     cd /opt/SUNWut/lib/xkb
     ln -s /usr/bin/xkbcomp .
     mkdir compiled
        

   • Activate XKB support:

     /opt/SUNWut/bin/utxconfig -a -k on
     	 

5. Sound: I was astonished how difficult it is nowadays to set LD_PRELOAD for all user sessions.
   • Nowadays the session manager is started as a child of ssh-agent which unsets LD_PRELOAD. The /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/0100.SUNWut script does some magic to bypass this which doesn't work with Debian. So put the following line into a new file called /etc/X11/Xsession.d/51SUNWut-preload

     STARTUP="/usr/bin/env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libc_ut.so $STARTUP"
     

   • KDE has an extra twist. A while ago, KDE processes were started with the "kdeinit" wrapper. Now we have "start_kdeinit" which is a SUID-wrapper around the kdeinit wrapper. "start_kdeinit" does some magic to "prevent getting killed by bad heuristic in Linux OOM-killer" (quote from the source code), then drops root privileges and calls kdeinit. And, of course, since it is a SUID program, it drops LD_PRELOAD.
     Way out: Edit /usr/bin/startkde and replace "start_kdeinit" by "kdeinit".
   
   
6. Debian man should find all the SRSS manpages: add the line

   MANDATORY_MANPATH                       /opt/SUNWut/man
   

   to /etc/manpath.config.
7. Since we found complaints about missing /var/dt in some log files:

   mkdir /var/dt
   chmod 755 /var/dt
   

8. The /opt/SUNWut/bin/utselect script doesn't work. It crashes when sort issues a warning about deprecated syntax. Please replace "sort +2nr" by "sort -nrk 2" in that script.

Gnome

• Don't install xscreensaver, but gnome-screensaver.
• Some mandatory preferences: no splash screen, no background pictures, screen saver blacks screen, configure some special keys of the Sun keyboards (Help, Moon, Find, Open)

  gconftool-2 --direct  --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory --type bool --set /apps/gnome-session/options/show_splash_screen false 
  gconftool-2 --direct  --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory --type string --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_options none
  gconftool-2 --direct  --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory --type string --set /apps/gnome-screensaver/mode blank-only
  gconftool-2 --direct  --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory --type string --set /apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/help "Help"  
  gconftool-2 --direct  --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory --type string --set /apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/screensaver "SunPowerSwitch" 
  gconftool-2 --direct  --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory --type string --set /apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/search "F19"
  gconftool-2 --direct  --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory --type string --set /apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/home "F17"
  

  Some default preferences: enable antialiasing in gnome-terminal despite the missing render extension of Xnewt, don't start esd sound daemon, don't "preview" sound files:

  gconftool-2 --direct  --config-source  xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults --type bool --set /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/no_aa_without_render false
  gconftool-2 --direct  --config-source  xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults --type bool --set /desktop/gnome/sound/enable_esd false
  gconftool-2 --direct  --config-source  xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults --type string --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/preview_sound never
  

KDE

• Don't install xscreensaver or kscreensaver-xsavers, but only kscreensaver.
• Make "blank screen" the mandatory screensaver: Add the following lines to /etc/kde3/kdesktoprc:

  [ScreenSaver]
  Enabled=true
  Lock=true
  LockGrace=300
  Timeout=600
  Saver[$i]=KBlankscreen.desktop
  

• Give KDE a "Desktop" directory in every home different from the Gnome Desktop directory and remove all KDE utilities that require root login from the KDE menu: Add the following lines to /etc/kde3/kdeglobals:

  [Paths]
  Desktop=$HOME/KDesktop
  
  [KDE Action Restrictions][$i]
  user/root=false
  

Things which don't work at the moment

• The KDE screensaver doesn't lock the screen. The "Lock screen" button in the KDE panel works, though.

Cool things which do work

• I connect my digital still camera and

  LD_PRELOAD=/opt/SUNWut/lib/libusbut.so.1 gphoto2 --autodetect
  LD_PRELOAD=/opt/SUNWut/lib/libusbut.so.1 gphoto2 --get-all-files
  

  just works.

Useful Links

• The SunRay Server Software on Debian guide by Michael Gernoth and Thomas Glanzmann from Erlangen university.
• The Sun Ray Users group: A lot of information and home of the sunray users mailing list archive
• Ubuntu on Sun Ray
• Some day I will try to understand the interaction between SRSS and GDM (creation of new sessions, starting the X servers etc). Perhaps this helps to fight the dreaded "26D" error state of the Sun Ray clients, something which happens from time to time.
  These links may be useful: the gdmdynamic reference and a (closed) bug report about gdmdynamic.
• Phillip Steinbach's Sun Ray page
• Gnome desktop configuration: Gnome Admin Guide, Red Hat Desktop Deployment Guide
• KDE desktop configuration: KDE for sysadmins, KDE::enterprise
• The Sun Ray page at sun.com