RDP 7 support, HP T5735 thin clients

[localzuk]

I currently have a bunch of HP T5735 thin clients around the school, which all have their linux based OS on. However, the problem I have is that rdesktop only supports RDP5 and not the new RDP7 stuff with FX (ie. improved graphic support etc...).

Now, these machines run Sempron processors and have 1GB RAM. Would it be feasible for me to grab a bunch of Windows licenses (Vista Home Basic or something like that), and install this on them, and then use the proper RDP7 client?

Reason being is that at some point in the next couple of years, I want to migrate our current 2003 terminal server farm to a 2008 r2 farm, moving from loads of 32bit virtual machines to just a couple of high specced, purpose purchased 64bit machines.

[SYNACK]

Only 1GB of onboard flash to work with there may make it tough
http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&sou...WZjREFm6ZaGNLQ

You could possibly PXE boot or with some messing run a custom Windows 7 PE image off the flash on that with all the drivers slipstreamed and the latest mstsc app to automatticly hook up to the 2k8 server which as far as I know should allow you to use the latest features.

The issues arrise with respect to liscencing and also that Win PE will only run for 24 hours before rebooting. As full Windows will not boot of USB storage you would be limited to this or finding a way to fit a hard drive or SSD into the multibay for it to boot off.

The other issue with all of this would be the avalibility of drivers for this given that it was never shipped as a whole PC solution and certain components may be implemented differently or have no drivers avalible.

It would be worth a go and I would probably look into the WinPE idea to test first but it probably won't be easy.

[localzuk]

PXE boot into what? PXE boot requires an OS image that gets copied to the machine.

Windows 7 PE sounds like a pretty big bodge job too.

I've just remembered 'Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs' so am now having a look at it.

[ZeroHour]

I dont think you will get much of the RDP 7 benefits as I thought it still required a bit of a graphics card to do it as the rendering is done client/terminal side rather then server for remotefx etc?

[localzuk]

I dont think you will get much of the RDP 7 benefits as I thought it still required a bit of a graphics card to do it as the rendering is done client/terminal side rather then server for remotefx etc?

Its offloaded to the graphics card on the server side rather than the client side, with the goal of allowing high quality graphics without needing special clients. RemoteFX - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[SYNACK]

PXE boot into what? PXE boot requires an OS image that gets copied to the machine.

Windows 7 PE sounds like a pretty big bodge job too.

I've just remembered 'Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs' so am now having a look at it.

PXE boot to WinPE, you are right it is a hack but it is a way to do it within the limited infrastructure.

Not sure if Windows fundimentals will help much as the offloading is done with WPF which is not included in XP/Fundimentals so it probably won't fully support RDP7.

I am pretty sure that the new features still require local GPU power at the WDM level (directX 9.0c with native Vista/7 drivers) at least so that it can individually composit each of the elements locally rather than just dumbly fireing off a bunch of optimised screenshots.

[localzuk]

PXE boot to WinPE, you are right it is a hack but it is a way to do it within the limited infrastructure.

Not sure if Windows fundimentals will help much as the offloading is done with WPF which is not included in XP/Fundimentals so it probably won't fully support RDP7.

I am pretty sure that the new features still require local GPU power at the WDM level (directX 9.0c with native Vista/7 drivers) at least so that it can individually composit each of the elements locally rather than just dumbly fireing off a bunch of optimised screenshots.

Nope, when RemoteFX is release in 2k8 r2 sp1, it is simply a host side technology. A good explanation at Brian Madden's blog.

For those who don't know, RemoteFX is an enhancement to RDP's graphics remoting capabilities. The goal of RemoteFX is to deliver the full modern Windows desktop experience—including multiple displays, Aero, and multimedia—to all types of client devices including very thin, sub-$100 thin clients. RemoteFX does this via a technique known as host-based rendering, which means the entire final composited screen image is rendered on the remote host and then compressed and sent down to the client. (In effect this moves more computing into the datacenter and lessens the importance on specific client devices or client specs.)

Fundamentally RemoteFX is just a codec (like H.264) that's been written for real-time encodes. (H.264, on the other hand, is meant for content that can be pre-rendered not in real time, like TV shows and movies.)

So basically, the image is just a series of screenshots treated as an interactive movie.

[SYNACK]

I must have been thinking of 6.1 and the original 7, my bad.

[carvjo]

You could try 2X: - PXE one of the 2X images - 2X Thinclient - these are regularly updated - they say they are Server 2008 ready - as MS (or Citrix or VMWare) add new features 2X are pretty good at updating the images to reflect them..

[localzuk]

2x still make use of rdesktop as their RDP client, the same as all linux based images.

[carvjo]

2x still make use of rdesktop as their RDP client, the same as all linux based images.

I thought it used NoMachine NX technology?

[SYNACK]

I thought it used NoMachine NX technology?

Only if you use there stuff server side as far as I know, Windows does not support NX by default.

[localzuk]

I thought it used NoMachine NX technology?

2X use whatever technology you connect to. So, I'd be running RDP on my 2k8 r2 servers, and therefore the thin OS (ie 2x thinclient) would be running rdesktop to connect to it. If I were running Nomachine NX server, I'd need to use the right client to connect to that instead.

[carvjo]

Not worth arguing about but 2X said on 13th January 2011 in the MSDN Channel9 forum:

"We at 2X Software have licensed the RDP 7 with RemoteFX protocol and are developing these clients for Linux, Mac, iPad, iPhone and Android. So you will be able to take advantage of the RDP 7 features on these no Windows OS's. Please check back for new releases at 2x.com"

Like I said - they update their thinclient images regularly.. You can PXE boot a HP thinclient with a 2X image..

[Axel]

It's an interesting question - what do HP themselves say on the matter.

There is a difference between being W2008 (r2) ready, and supporting all the new features. For example W2008 has a 32 bit colour cursor, W2003 had 8 bit cursor, so a pure RDP5 client would have a black blob instead of a cursor - (as clients written back then would only support an 8 bit cursor and would give unpredictable results when sent the 32 bit cursor)

Microsoft also beefed up encryption for W2008, resulting in clients to also be upgraded in the same way or they wouldn't connect at all.

Incorporating these (and no doubt others functions) would make the client "W2008 ready" and allow to connect as an RDP5 client to a W2008 server - but that is a far cry from supporting all the additional benefit of W2008...(Microphone support, RemoteApp, RemoteFX etc etc)