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Horizon Client for Linux 2106 | 15 July 2021

These release notes cover the following topics:

Key Features

VMware Horizon Client for Linux makes it easy to access your remote desktops and published applications from a supported Linux system with the best possible user experience on the Local Area Network (LAN) or across a Wide Area Network (WAN).

  • Support for Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) - The Horizon Client installer available from the VMware Downloads site provides support for these operating systems.
  • Unmatched performance - The adaptive capabilities of the VMware Blast and PCoIP display protocols are optimized to deliver the best user experience, even over low-bandwidth and high-latency connections. Your desktop is fast and responsive regardless of where you are.
  • Simple connectivity - Horizon Client for Linux is tightly integrated with VMware Horizon for simple setup and connectivity.
  • Secure from any location - At your desk or away from the office, your data is delivered securely to you wherever you are. Enhanced certificate checking is performed on the client. Horizon Client for Linux also supports optional RADIUS and RSA SecurID authentication.

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What's New in This Release

Horizon Client for Linux 2106 includes the following new features:
  • VMware Blast changes
    The Allow High Efficiency Video Decoding (HEVC) option is enabled by default. Previously, it was disabled by default. When this option is selected, performance and image quality are improved if the client machine has a GPU that supports HEVC decoding. If this option is selected but the client machine does not have a GPU that supports HEVC decoding, or the agent does not support HEVC encoding, Horizon Client uses H.264 decoding instead if H.264 is selected. Horizon Client uses Blast Codec decoding if H.264 is not selected. The default setting of view.enableHEVC is also changed from FALSE to TRUE. See Configure VMware Blast Options and Horizon Client Configuration Settings and Command-Line Options.
  • Enhanced support for Raspberry Pi 4
    ​Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV) is now supported on Raspberry Pi 4 devices.
  • Enhancements to serial port redirection
    This release offers the following improvements to the serial port redirection feature:
    • The GPO policy setting configured on the remote desktop in Administrative Templates > VMware View Agent Configuration > Serial COM > Connect all ports automatically now applies to serial port connections on Linux client machines. See VMware View Agent Configuration ADMX Template Settings.
    • The vmwsprrdctl.exe console utility provides detailed information about the source port on the client machine and the status of the redirection. See Using Serial Port Redirection.
  • Enhanced filtering of unity application windows
    The Unity Filter rule list agent group policy setting now supports the matching of classname values based on regular expression (regex) entries. The policy setting also provides support for the new style characteristic, which lets you apply rules based on Microsoft window styles. These features make it easier to filter out unused unity windows, thus improving the display behavior of remote application windows for Linux client users. See Managing Special Unity Windows.
  • Forever applications
    Beginning with Horizon 2106, administrators can configure the Bypass Session Timeout setting to make application sessions run forever. Forever applications are exempt from idle session and Horizon server timeouts. If you are using a forever session when a timeout occurs, the session will not end. You must manually close forever sessions when you are finished with them. Application sessions that run forever are not supported for unauthenticated users. For information about the Bypass Session Timeout option, see Setting Up Published Desktops and Applications in Horizon.
  • Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams
    This release supports the Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams feature, which redirects audio calls, video calls, and viewing desktop shares to process on the client machine instead of in the virtual desktop. The feature is installed by default with Horizon Client for Linux. See Configuring Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams.
  • USB device path changes
    In some cases, USB device paths have changed. For example, if you previously configured viewusb.ExcludePath="bus-1/0/0_port-02", in the 2106 release, you might need to change the value to viewusb.ExcludePath"bus-1/0_port-01". If you use USB filtering properties, check the device paths generated in the Horizon logs for the correct paths and edit the Exclude Path and Include Path properties if necessary. See Setting USB Configuration Properties.

For information about new remote desktop features, see Release Notes for VMware Horizon Version 2106.

Internationalization

The user interface and documentation for Horizon Client are available in English, Japanese, French, German, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Spanish.

Note: To have the client user interface use Simplified Chinese characters, set the client system to use the zh_CN locale. If you set the client system to use the zh_SG locale, the user interface is displayed in English characters.

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Before You Begin

Note: The supported systems listed below and in the VMware Horizon Client for Linux Installation and Setup Guide pertain to the Horizon Client for Linux that VMware makes available. In addition, several VMware partners offer thin and zero client devices for VMware Horizon deployments. The features that are available for each thin or zero client device, and the operating systems supported, are determined by the vendor and model, and the configuration that an enterprise chooses to use. For information about the vendors and models for these client devices, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

  • Horizon Client for Linux 2106 has been tested and is supported on the following 64-bit operating systems if you use the installer provided by VMware:
    • Ubuntu x64 18.04 and 20.04
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.9 and 8.4
  • Horizon Client for Linux is supported on Raspberry Pi 4 Model B devices that are installed with ThinLinx Operating System (TLXOS) or Stratodesk NoTouch Operating System with limitations. The supported Horizon Client features include Blast Extreme, USB redirection, Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV), and H.264 decoding (for one monitor at resolution lower than 1920 x 1920).
  • VMware Horizon Client for Linux is supported with the latest maintenance release of VMware Horizon 2106 and VMware Horizon 7 version 7.5 and later.
  • To install Horizon Client for Linux, download the installer from the VMware Horizon Client download page.
  • Horizon Client for Linux does not ship with the GTK+ library, but it does use the library installed on the host system. Make sure your system is up to date with a version of the library that includes fixes for publicly reported security vulnerabilities. A list of the publicly reported security vulnerabilities, and the versions affected, for GTK+ can be found at https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-666/GTK.html.
  • For information about the features that are supported in nested mode, see VMware Knowledge Base (KB) article 67248, "VMware Horizon Guidelines for Nested Mode."
  • Beginning with Horizon Client for Linux 2006, Virtual Printing (also known as ThinPrint) is not supported. Use VMware Integrated Printing instead.

For more system requirements and detailed installation instructions, see VMware Horizon Client for Linux Installation and Setup Guide.

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Information for Distribution Partners

The following deployment instructions and information about library dependencies are provided for VMware distribution partners.

These instructions describe how to deploy Horizon Client for Linux and individual Horizon Client components using tar.gz packages. For instructions on how to install Horizon Client for Linux using the .bundle installer file, see Install or Upgrade Horizon Client for Linux from VMware Product Downloads.

Deployment Instructions

  1. Download the VMware-Horizon-Client-Linux-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.tar.gz file from the VMware Downloads site and extract the contents of the downloaded tar.gz package to your system, where YYMM is the marketing version number, x.x.x is the internal version number, and yyyyyyyy is the build number. 

  2. Navigate to the folder for your CPU instruction set architecture. You will find additional tar.gz packages for individual Horizon Client components. For example, in the x64 folder you will find the following tar.gz packages for Horizon Client.

    VMware-Horizon-Client-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.x64.tar.gz
VMware-Horizon-PCoIP-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.x64.tar.gz
VMware-Horizon-serialportClient-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.x64.tar.gz
VMware-Horizon-USB-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.x64.tar.gz
VMware-Horizon-scannerClient-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.x64.tar.gz
VMware-Horizon-integratedPrinting-YYMM-x.x.x.yyyyyyyy.x64.tar.gz
VMware-Horizon-html5mmr-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.x64.tar.gz
VMware-Horizon-TeamsOptimization-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.x64.tar.gz
  3. To find tar.gz packages for additional Horizon Client components, navigate to the following location:
    SkypeForBusiness Redirection folder for VMware-Horizon-Media-Provider-XXX.x64.tar.gz
     
  4. Use the following deployment instructions for each of the tar.gz packages.
  • Horizon Client for Linux

    The VMware-Horizon-Client-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz package contains the VMware Horizon Client binaries. Use the following instructions as a guide for configuring the VMware Horizon Client binary files.

    The VMware-Horizon-PCoIP-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz package contains the mandatory binaries used by both display protocols, PCoIP and VMware Blast. Use the following instructions as a guide for configuring the Horizon Client display protocol files.

    1. Extract the VMware-Horizon-Client-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz package.
    2. Navigate to the extracted folder, VMware-Horizon-Client-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.ARCH, and move the contents of the extracted Horizon Client files to the recommended system folders. Depending on your particular Linux environment, you can choose to use folders different from those used below.
      1. Move the contents of the bin folder to the /usr/bin folder.
      2. Move the contents of the lib folder to the /usr/lib folder.
      3. Move the contents of the doc folder to the /usr/share/doc folder.
      4. Move the contents of the share/locale folder to the /usr/share/locale folder.
    3. Extract the contents of the VMware-Horizon-PCoIP-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz package.
    4. Navigate to the extracted folder, VMware-Horizon-PCoIP-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.ARCH, and copy the contents of the lib folder to the /usr/lib folder. Depending on your particular Linux environment, you can choose to use a folder different from /usr/lib.
      Note: To keep the attributes intact, use the -a option of the cp command when copying the files from lib folder.
  • USB Redirection
    The VMware-Horizon-USB-YYMM-xxx-yyyy.ARCH.tar.gz package contains the binaries used by the USB Redirection feature. 
    1. Extract the contents of the VMware-Horizon-USB-YYMM-xxx-yyyy.ARCH.tar.gz package.
    2. Navigate to where the package was extracted and copy the extracted folders to the recommended system folders.
      1. Copy the contents of the bin folder to the /usr/bin folder.
      2. Copy the contents of the lib folder to the /usr/lib folder.
      3. Copy the contents of the init.d folder to the /etc/init.d folder.
    3. Configure the USB Redirection feature, using the following examples for an Ubuntu system as a guide.
      1. Set up USB arbitrator daemon in the system's auto-startup script using one of the following methods, where # refers to 2, 3, 4, or 5, depending on your system's run level.
        • Create symbolic links using the following command: 
          sudo ln -s  /etc/init.d/vmware-USBArbitrator /etc/rc#.d/S50vmware-USBArbitrator
        • Add /etc/init.d/vmware-USBArbitrator start in your system's /etc/rc.local file. Make sure /etc/rc.local has the executable permission.
      2. Automatically stop the USB arbitrator daemon before a system reboot or halt using the following command, where # refers to 0 or 6, depending on your system's run level. 
        sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/vmware-USBArbitrator /etc/rc#.d/K08vmware-USBArbitrator
      3. Manually start, stop, or restart the USB arbitrator daemon when necessary using the following command: 
        sudo /etc/init.d/vmware-USBArbitrator [start|stop|restart]
  • Serial Port Redirection
    To install the Serial Port Redirection feature, see the README file included in the VMware-Horizon-serialportClient-YYMM-x.x.x.yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz file,  which is available with the vmware-view-client-linux-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz file that you downloaded earlier from the VMware Downloads site.
  • Scanner Redirection 
    To install the Scanner Redirection feature, see the README file included in the VMware-Horizon-scannerClient-x.x.x.yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz file, which is available with the vmware-view-client-linux-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz file that you downloaded earlier from the VMware Downloads site.
  • Skype for Business 
    To install the Skype for Business feature, see the Skype for Business README file included in the VMware-Horizon-Media-Provider-XXX.ARCH.tar.gz file, which is available for download from the VMware Downloads site.
  • VMware Integrated Printing
    To install the VMware Integrated Printing feature, see the README file included in the VMware-Horizon-integratedPrinting-x.x.x.yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz file, which is available for download from the VMware Downloads site.
  • HTML5 Multimedia Redirection
    To install the HTML5 Multimedia Redirection feature, see the README file included in the  VMware-Horizon-html5mmr-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz file, which is available for download from the VMware Downloads site.
  • Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams
    To install the Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams feature, see the README file included in the  VMware-Horizon-TeamsOptimization-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz file, which is available for download from the VMware Downloads site.

Building Dependencies

The following libraries are required for building and running Horizon Client for Linux.

  • gcc 6.4 or later

The following environment variables are required for building Horizon Client for Linux with Seamless Window feature.

export VIEW_LIBCRTBORA=1

After you install the Horizon Client components, locate the /bin directory in the Horizon Client package that you extracted earlier. From that bin directory, run the vmware-view-lib-san script, which checks the build dependencies.

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Known Issues

  • If multiple Horizon clients connect to the same RDS desktop or remote application simultaneously and map to a location-based printer with the same name, the printer appears in the first client session, but not in later client sessions.
    Workaround: For the client sessions in which the printer does not appear, perform a manual refresh. For a remote desktop, press F5 or refresh the Devices and Printers window. For a remote application, close and reopen the application print dialog box. The location-based printer appears in the printer list.

  • If your client system is running pcsc-lite version 1.5, smart card removal policy may not work, logging off, shutting down or resetting a Windows remote desktop may result in a black screen, or the Horizon Client menu may become blank for about 10 seconds when a user has smart card sessions to multiple desktops and the user disconnects from one desktop.
    Workaround: Upgrade to pcsc-lite 1.7.4 or later.

  • If you use a PulseAudio sound system, you might hear static when setting the volume using guest system volume slider.
    Workaround: Use the Linux client system's volume slider or use ALSA audio by adding sound.backendType = alsa to either the ~/.vmware/config or the /etc/vmware/config configuration file.

  • If you connect to a remote desktop with FreeRDP and configure the desktop to connect to a separate disk, if the disk name includes non-ASCII characters, the disk name cannot be displayed correctly in the remote desktop. For example, if you use non-ASCII characters in the disk name and then launch Horizon Client with command line option
    '--rdpclient=xfreerdp' and '--xfreerdpOptions="/drive: , /home/user"'
    the disk name does not appear correctly in the remote desktop.

    Workaround: None

  • If you use a FreeRDP connection and specify a monitor configuration that conflicts with the configuration the end user chooses, Horizon Client performance becomes poor and the client might stop responding altogether. For example, the following command for launching Horizon Client would cause problems if the user selected "Full Screen - This Monitor":

    vmware-view --enableNla --rdpclient=xfreerdp--xfreerdpOptions="/sec:nla /cert-ignore /p:password/u:crt\administrator /multimon"
     

    Workaround: As a best practice, avoid specifying FreeRDP options for the display, such as /multimon or /workarea. Instead, let Horizon Client control the topology.

  • Neither FreeRDP (xfreerdp) nor Remote Desktop (rdesktop) work on a client system running RedHat Enterprise Linux Workstation due to an Xorg error.

    Workaround: Use the Blast protocol instead.

  • Both FreeRDP (xfreerdp) and Remote Desktop (rdesktop) cause the X server to crash on client systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

    Workaround: None.

  • Users cannot use rdesktop 1.8.x to connect to Horizon 7 Windows desktops. This is because Horizon 7 does not support TLSv1.0 by default and rdesktop 1.8.x supports only TLSv1.0.
    Workaround: Enable TLSv1.0 on the desktop by setting the following registry key:
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS1.0\Server]"Enabled"=dword:00000001
    Be aware that TLSv1.0 is considered insufficiently secure. For Windows 7 desktops, Microsoft KB https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080079 must also be installed.

  • When using the rdesktop RDP client on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux machine to connect to a remote desktop, you cannot establish a TLS connection.

    Workaround: None

  • Some video files might not play properly on a remote desktop when MMR is enabled.
    Workaround: Make sure that the video format is supported and the proper decoder plug-in for the video is installed on the client.

  • On a Windows 7 remote desktop, while playing video on Internet Explorer and then you open a new tab, the MMR video frame overlays in the new tab.
    Workaround: Do not open a new tab or switch to a different tab while video is playing.

  • Videos do not play smoothly in remote desktops and sound disappears when MMR is enabled and the network delay is more than 75 ms.
    Workaround: Disable MMR when the network delay is more than 75 ms.

  • On some HP thin clients that have HP ThinPro 5.2.0 (T6X52011) operating system, Horizon Client for Linux might display a black screen or crash when user is playing some video on a remote desktop and pressing the fast-rewind button on Windows Media Player.
    Workaround: Upgrade the OS to HP ThinPro 6.1.0 (T7X61007) or the latest version.

  • The System Tray redirection functionality is not supported and so you can not  exit a remote application session using the system tray.
    Workaround:  Use the remote application's UI to end the application session. For example, to exit a Skype session, select the Settings icon  and then select File > Exit.

  • You cannot start an application from the Application Launcher because the launcher is unsupported.
    Workaround: Start the remote application via the Linux client's UI.

  • Mouse does not work inside the Blast session when the keyboard layout is switched to Secondary Keyboard Layout
    Workaround: Manually add the following configuration option in the /etc/vmware/config file:
            RemoteDisplay.allowVMPointerEvent2 = FALSE

  • If there are identical shortcuts with differing functions on the client Linux operating system and a remote Windows operating system, the shortcut for the Windows operating system will not work when a seamless window application is active. Only the shortcut for the Linux operating system takes effect. For example, by default, pressing Alt opens a Search dialog window on an Ubuntu operating system and it shows the application's menu on a Windows operating system. When a seamless window application is active, pressing Alt displays the Ubuntu operating system's Search menu, but does not show the application's menu.

    Workaround: Change the shortcut in the host Linux operating system or in the remote Windows operating system so that the shortcuts in the two operating systems do not conflict.

  • Because Horizon Client for Linux uses the Linux operating system's GNOME theme, the Horizon Client for Linux authentication domain list, the desktop/application protocol list, and display list appear black on some of the Linux operating systems, making it difficult to read any of these lists.

    Workaround: Change the GNOME theme used by the Linux operating system. For example, on an Ubuntu system, install gnome-tweak-tool if it is not yet installed, run gnome-tweak-tool, and change the GTK+ theme from Ambiance to Radiance.

  • When client users connect to a published application using a multiple-monitor configuration, they may encounter unexpected behavior in the display if they disconnect or reconnect monitors in their configuration. 

    Workaround: Disconnect from the published application and reconnect again.

  • When a RHEL 7 client user connects to a published Windows Server desktop using the VMware Blast display protocol and attempts to log out from the session, Horizon Client might hang. This issue is caused by conflicting processes associated with version 1.8.8 of the PC/SC Lite (pcsclite) library.

    Workaround: On RHEL 7 systems, upgrade the pcsclite library to a version later than 1.8.8.

  • When you open a local URL in Microsoft Edge on the remote desktop, multimedia content is not redirected to the client system as expected. By default, HTML5 Multimedia Redirection in an Edge browser only works for content situated on a non-local URL. To redirect content from a local URL, you must configure a certain setting for Microsoft Edge.

    Workaround: On the remote desktop, open a Command Prompt window and run the following command:

    CheckNetIsolation LoopbackExempt -a -n=Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe

  • Keyboard and mouse do not work when connecting to a remote application from a Raspberry Pi running ThinLinX or Stratodesk. There is a system conflict when using H.264 decoding with ThinLinX or Stratodesk Raspberry Pi for remote application sessions.

    Workaround: Disable H.264 decoding in the VMware Blast settings.

  • When you connect to a remote desktop with HTML5 Multimedia Redirection enabled and open a webpage that contains video content, the video thumbnail might not be displayed correctly. This issue only affects the thumbnail display of the video, not its playback capabilities.

    Workaround: None

  • Horizon Client does not support the Dark Appearance setting in Ubuntu 20.04.

    Workaround: None

  • System hangs may occur when using remote applications from a client system running Stratodesk.

    Workaround: Reduce the GPU memory to 128 MB. For example, in Stratodesk running on a Raspberry Pi, go to Configuration > Services > Raspberry Pi and change GPU memory (MB) to 128.

  • When using Microsoft Teams Optimization Pack with Horizon Client for Mac or Horizon Client for Linux published applications, screen sharing is not supported.

    Workaround: None.

  • When a Raspberry Pi 4 client user tries to play RTAV video at custom high resolutions (such as 1280 x 800) not supported by the connected USB webcam, the video fails to display in the remote desktop.

    Workaround: Use a standard resolution that is supported by the connected USB webcam.

  • When a Raspberry Pi 4 client user plays RTAV video at high resolution, the frame rate (FPS) of the video is low due to the limited CPU and memory of the client device.

    Workaround: None

  • Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams is not supported for the German, French, and Spanish (DE/FR/ES) locales. Horizon Client displays the "VMware Media Not Connected" banner, indicating that Microsoft Teams is running in fallback mode instead.

    Workaround: For the DE/FR/ES locales, use Microsoft Teams in fallback mode. Teams calls and meetings continue to work in fallback mode.

  • Horizon Client crashes upon connecting to a remote desktop under the following conditions:

    • Horizon Client is running on an Ubuntu 20.04 system with Intel Ice Lake or later hardware, and
    • Session protocol is VMware Blast with HEVC 4:4:4 encoding

    The Intel media driver that ships by default with Ubuntu 20.04 contains a bug that causes Horizon Client to crash. Later versions of the driver contain a fix for this bug.

    Workaround: Update the Intel media driver by installing the latest version of intel-media-va-driver-non-free.

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