VMware Horizon Client for Linux 2203 Release Notes

VMware Horizon Client for Linux 2203 | 05 APR 2022

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's New

Horizon Client for Linux 2203 includes the following new features.

Displayed Names for Real-Time Audio-Video Devices
In virtual desktop sessions, the Real-Time Audio-Video feature displays the actual names of redirected devices, but with (VDI) appended, for example, C670i FHD Webcam (VDI). See Configuring Real-Time Audio-Video.
Touchscreen Functionality in Remote Sessions and Client User Interface
Client users can use touchscreen gestures in remote desktop and application sessions. Touchscreen functionality is supported in both full-screen mode and window mode. Touchscreens also work with the Horizon Client user interface. See Keyboards, Monitors, and Touchscreens.
Disable USB Redirection for Specific Devices
You can now filter USB redirection by release number in addition to vendor and product IDs. See Disabling USB Redirection for Specific Devices.

For information about new remote desktop features, see the VMware Horizon 8 2203 Release Notes.

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.

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 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 8.5
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 equal to or lower than 1920 x 1080).
VMware Horizon Client for Linux is supported with the latest maintenance release of VMware Horizon 2203 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Extract the VMware-Horizon-Client-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz package.
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.
Note:libudev.so.0 is required to run Horizon Client. If libudev.so.0 is not available on the system, create a symbolic link from /usr/lib/vmware/libudev.so.0 to the libudev.so.1 on the system. For example, you can use this command for an Ubuntu system: sudo ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libudev.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware/libudev.so.0
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.
Extract the contents of the VMware-Horizon-PCoIP-YYMM-x.x.x-yyyyyyyy.ARCH.tar.gz package.
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.

Extract the contents of the VMware-Horizon-USB-YYMM-xxx-yyyy.ARCH.tar.gz package.
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.
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.
  1. Create symbolic links using the following command:
```
sudo ln -s  /etc/init.d/vmware-USBArbitrator /etc/rc#.d/S50vmware-USBArbitrator 
```
  2. 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 the 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.

Resolved Issues

There are no resolved issues for this release.

Application Sessions

System Tray redirection functionality is not supported

System Tray redirection functionality is not supported 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.
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 Linux published applications, screen sharing is not supported.

Workaround: None.

Printing

If multiple Horizon clients connect to the same published desktop or published 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.

Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV)

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

Miscellaneous

Issues when client system runs 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.
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.
Horizon Client crashes upon connecting to a remote desktop.
This known issue occurs 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.

Display

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 Horizon Client for Linux authentication domain list, desktop/application protocol list, and display list appear black on some Linux operating systems.

Because Horizon Client for Linux uses the Linux operating system's GNOME theme, these lists appear black, making them difficult to read.

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

Workaround: None
Power-save settings fail to take effect with mouse focus in desktop window.

If the user's mouse pointer is positioned in a remote desktop window, power-save and screen-saver settings fail to take effect on the client system when the configured timeout is reached.

Workaround: Move the focus away from the desktop window by positioning the mouse pointer outside the desktop window.

Keyboard and Mouse

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
```
Windows shortcuts don't work with seamless window applications.

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.
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.

RDP

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 issue exists 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

Multimedia Redirection (MMR)

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.
When you connect to a remote desktop with MMR 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

HTML5 Multimedia Redirection (HTML5 MMR)

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 MMR 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
```