Setting up and using the Citrix ICA Client on Linux amd64

Here I will quickly cover setting up the Citrix client on a amd64 (64-bit) Debian Linux box.

I will assume you have a working Debian Etch or Sid installation on an amd64 box (or the intel clone of the same). This will also cover Citrix client installation in i386 for someone who only wants the client under one user account, i.e. you don't want proprietary software taking over your computer.

Also, I am assuming you have a web-facing Citrix server with port 443 open to the Citrix portal. For example, on Windows you would usually go to https://my.server.com then sign in with your Windows credentials, then click on an icon on the page to load the published application. I am assuming that you can do the same on Linux, but instead of loading the published app, you get the option to save a file called 'launch.ica'.

• UPDATE Wed Mar 18 19:57:11 UTC 2009 - Just use this shell script and it should do everything for you:

#!/bin/sh

mkdir ~/citrix-client
cd ~/citrix-client

echo *****Getting libmotif
wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free/o/openmotif/libmotif3_2.2.3-4_i386.deb
echo *****getting Citrix Linux Client
wget http://download2.citrix.com/FILES/en/products/Linux10/en.linuxx86.tar.gz
echo *****extracting libmotif
ar x libmotif3_2.2.3-4_i386.deb
tar -xzf data.tar.gz
echo *****extracting Citrix Linux Client
tar -xzf en.linuxx86.tar.gz
echo *****getting GoDaddy SSL certs
wget -P linuxx86/linuxx86.cor/keystore/cacerts/ --no-check-certificate https://certs.godaddy.com/repository/gd-class2-root.crt https://certs.godaddy.com/repository/gd_intermediate.crt https://certs.godaddy.com/repository/gd_cross_intermediate.crt

echo *****writing wfica.sh
echo '#!/bin/sh' > wfica.sh
echo 'cd $HOME/citrix-client/linuxx86/linuxx86.cor/'>> wfica.sh
echo 'export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./lib'>> wfica.sh
echo 'exec ./wfica "$@"'>> wfica.sh
chmod +x wfica.sh

• create a directory in your home dir called citrix-client. Go in there.

mkdir ~/citrix-client
cd ~/citrix-client

• Download and extract the i386 libmotif3 Debian package. You can get it from here: libmotif3_2.2.3-2_i386.deb.

wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free/o/openmotif/libmotif3_2.2.3-2_i386.deb
ar x libmotif3_2.2.3-2_i386.deb
tar -xzf data.tar.gz

• Download and extract the Citrix client. You can get it from here but if that doesn't work go here or here.

wget http://download2.citrix.com/FILES/en/products/Linux10/en.linuxx86.tar.gz
tar -xzf en.linuxx86.tar.gz

• Copy the required .so files to the Citrix directory. Make sure to type it exactly how you see the command below, including all slashes. Also update Citrix's outdated SSL certs. If you are missing any certs, download them by googling for 'COMPANY SSL cert .crt” (eg GoDaddy SSL cert .crt) and put them in linuxx86/linuxx86.cor/keystore/cacerts/

cp -r usr/lib linuxx86/linuxx86.cor/
cp /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/* linuxx86/linuxx86.cor/keystore/cacerts/

• For the people who need to install GoDaddy certificates, here's how it's done (you can download them from here if you like):

cd linuxx86/linuxx86.cor/keystore/cacerts/
wget --no-check-certificate https://certs.godaddy.com/repository/gd-class2-root.crt https://certs.godaddy.com/repository/gd_intermediate.crt https://certs.godaddy.com/repository/gd_cross_intermediate.crt

• Write a shell script that uses LD_LIBRARY_PATH to load your .so files:

vi wfica.sh

  #!/bin/sh
  cd $HOME/citrix-client/linuxx86/linuxx86.cor/
  export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./lib
  exec ./wfica "$@"

chmod +x wfica.sh

• Now you can open your launch.ica files with ~/citrix-client/wfica.sh. Note that you should use the launch.ica file ASAP after you download it becuase they expire quickly. You can also associate the .ica filetype with this shell script, but that is beyond the scope of this document.