Installing the ICA Citrix client on RedHat Linux   
Charles Roth 17 May 2003
Last revised: 17 May 2004

This document describes how to install the ICA Citrix client on a Red Hat 8.0 Linux intel computer.

Update 7 August 2003: you may not even need to install the Linux citrix client!  A java-based client is now available instead.  Once you are logged in to your target host, click on the tool icon (shown to the right).  On the resulting page, choose the "java client" from the pull-down menu.  You may also need to set the size of the client window -- I found that the standard sizes did not work well (I always got 640x480 no matter what I picked), but that custom sizes worked fine. I eventually settled on 1024 x 700.

Continue reading if you really want to use the ICA client.

These instructions assume that you are familiar with the operation and management of Red Hat Linux.

  1. Install Netscape version 7.0 or higher.  The ICA client may not work (at least, not 'out of the box') with Mozilla.  (See Mozilla note below.)

  2. Download the ICA citrix linux client: ica_client630_linux.tar.gz.  Unzip and untar it into a temporary directory.

  3. Login or 'su' as root.  'cd' to the temporary directory, and run "./setupwfc".  Follow the instructions to install the citrix client and integrate it with Netscape.  In particular, accept the default install location of /usr/lib/ICAClient.

    When the installation is complete, perform the following (additional) step as root: 

           chmod 777 /usr/lib/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts

  4. Point Netscape at your target host, e.g. citrix.whatever.com.  Login with your userid and RSA key as you usually would.  (You can -- and probably should -- run Netscape as a normal user, rather than root.)

    You will be taken to --surprise!-- the login screen again.  That is not an error.  Login again, but make sure you use the next RSA key that appears.

  5. Once you see the "Applications" screen, right-click on the root certificate, and choose "save link target as...".  Save the file to the directory /usr/lib/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts, and change the extension of the file from ".cer" to ".crt".  (One reader notes... "and give it the same permissions as the other certificates there", presumably 444.)

  6. Now proceed to launch the desired application.  When you click on an application (e.g. "Mint31@1024"), you should see a "downloading launch.asp" dialog box as shown below:

    (If you get a "save file" dialog box instead, close it.  Then from the Netscape top level menu, choose Edit / Preferences / Navigator / Helper Applications.  Click "reset".  Then try clicking on the Citrix application again.)

  7. In the "downloading" dialog box, click on "open using an application", and un-check "always ask before opening...".  Click on "choose", and browse to /usr/lib/ICAClient, and select 'wfica'.

    This should start the Citrix application or remote desktop.  If you see any error messages, exit Netscape, and start the login process all over again.  This time, once you get to the Applications page, you should be able to run your Citrix application in the usual way.

  8. If you are using the remote desktop in Citrix, you may find it difficult to access the windows desktop toolbar w/o scrolling, since it defaults to the bottom of the screen.  (And if you have to scroll, you may have to right-click on the elevator to get it to scroll back up!)

    One solution is to click on the windows toolbar at the bottom of the citrix window, and drag it to the left side (so that the bar is vertical instead of horizontal).  This way the toolbar typically stays visible no matter what you do.

Notes: