ThinLinc

Introduction

ThinLinc is a technology for connecting to the G-Bar system from e.g. your own home computer. Just like ICA, VNC and RDesktop, ThinLinc incorporates several (open source) technologies (VNC, SSH, etc) and it is also possible to play sound through your ThinLinc connection.

Clients for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X can be downloaded from Cendio's webpage.

Installation

Client software is available for Windows/MacOS/Linux.

In addition to installing a client application you can also connect via a web browser: https://thinlinc.gbar.dtu.dk/

Windows

(Only supported on Windows 7 and newer)

Run the ThinLinc client application you downloaded.
Accept the terms of license agreement.
Choose the folder you wish your application to be installed and click "Install".
Wait for the installation to complete. You will receive a message that notifies you about it.

Connecting

Start ThinLinc (On Linux: /opt/thinlinc/bin/tlclient).
Enter Server thinlinc.gbar.dtu.dk, Username and password (DTU login).
Click Connect.

(Under Advanced -> Options the "Popup Menu key" is defined as F8, this can be used to toggle between Window and Full screen mode)

Finally your profile is loaded and you are logged into G-Bar thinlinc server:

Sound

Windows / MacOS

To play sound Through thinlinc you only need to ensure that the setting is enabled in the client. Before you connect, click on the Advanced button then "Options..." and tick the Sound option on the "Local Devices". This will allow sound to be played, within the Thinlinc session, on your local system.

Note: It will not work when you connect to an internal cluster node.

Known Limitations

Windows connection error

Sometimes the 4.9 Windows client will fail to connect, this is a known issues and you should install a newer version.

Printing

Printing via ThinLinc is not possible. If it is a file that you can open on your computer, you can download it using SCP (works under Windows as well), and print it when you have finished your ThinLinc session.

Working with local files

It is not possible to work with your local files from your computer under ThinLinc. Instead, you can use WinSCP (or SCP under Unix and MAC) to transfer files back and forth between your computer, and your home folder on the G-Bar.

Troubleshooting

Only a black screen is shown after connecting. This is most likely caused by you being at 100% usage on your home directory quota. You can still connect via command line ssh/putty and clean up your home directory.

Some users have reported problems with their firewall (e.g. Norton Firewall) blocking port 22, which is used by ThinLinc. Be sure to let ThinLinc pass the firewall.
"ThinLinc login failed. (The SSH connection succeeded, but the ThinLinc server connection failed. Perhaps this server doesn't run a Thinlinc server?)".Check that ThinLinc is set up to use port 22 (SSH), and not port 80 (HTTP), and that the server name is correct.
If nothing happens when trying to login, the problem might be caused by unended sessions. You may try to click "End existing session" to see if it helps.
If you cannot start programs, please consider if you have more violated your quota. You will have to clean up before you can start programs again as violating the quota prevents programs from writing data to your home folder.
Black squares and stripes after login with ThinLinc. This happens mostly with Windows 7. Try this: When the login screen comes up after starting ThinLinc, choose Options and then Optimization. Untick "Auto select" and under "Color level" choose "Medium (256 colors)".
Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-opyGii8SFx: Connection refused.Caused by sourcing python/conda setup files in your ~/.bashrc. Either remove the lines or move them into the if-fi block