Providing
useful information
when requesting
support (1.5)

This document applies to version 1.5.0 of NX Server. Please find below the instructions on how to retrieve the relevant information from your NX installation. Be sure you include all the following information at the time you request support.



The Server Side

• Login as user 'root' to the NX Server host.
• Ensure that the shutdown procedure does not delete the temporary NX directory at the end of the session. To do that edit the file:

  /usr/NX/etc/node.cfg
  

  and uncomment (or append at the end of the file, if it is not already present) the following line:

  SESSION_LOG_CLEAN = "0"
  

• Also increase the logging facility level of your NX Server by modifying the following line:

  SESSION_LOG_LEVEL = "7"
  

• Run your tests by running a new session.
• When the session terminates, either because of normal shutdown or because of an error, locate the NX session directory on your system. You can find the NX session directory in the user's home, under the directory .nx. Session directories are named according to the following standard:

  ~/.nx/C-(Server Name)-(Display ID)-(Session ID)
  

  When a session is terminated correctly, the session directory is renamed as:

  ~/.nx/T-C-(Server Name)-(Display ID)-(Session ID)
  

  When a session is terminated because of an error, the session directory is renamed as:

  ~/.nx/F-C-(Server Name)-(Display ID)-(Session ID)
  

  In the NX session directory there are two log files that can be relevant for you. The file 'session' contains the stderr stream of NX Proxy, NX Agents and X applications run by the user. The file 'session' will usually contain the information that is most relevant for you. The file 'errors' is an additional logging facility useful for tracing the internal operation of NX Proxy.
• When submitting a support request, be sure to include a 'tar' archive of the whole NX session directory:

  #> tar -cvpf failed.session.tar $HOME/.nx/(session directory)
  

  For example, a typical failed session might look like the following:

  #> F-C-tahoe.nomachine.com-1050-0D03F09DF3A3B0756511509305D47E7C
  

• Now extract from the syslog file the lines generated by NX Server:

  #> grep NX /var/log/messages > syslog.extract
  

  Important Note for Solaris users:

  depending on the system configuration it could be required to modify the settings of the syslog daemon. Please make sure that a line similar to the following is present in the configuration file:

  *.err;user.debug;kern.debug;daemon.notice;mail.crit /var/adm/messages 
  

  Then restart the daemon for the changes you have made to take effect.

• Add the new file to the archive and compress it:

  #> tar -rvpf failed.session.tar syslog.extract
  

• And:

  #> gzip failed.session.tar 
  

• Be sure you include the generated archive in the support request in the form of an e-mail attachment.

On the client side make a compressed archive of the whole '.nx' user's directory and send to us:

• on Linux and Solaris:

  tar -cvp --exclude 'cache*' --exclude 'images' \
  -f - $HOME/.nx | gzip -c >nxdir.tar.gz
  

• on Windows you can use the WinZip utility to generate a zip file of the directory:

  %userprofile%\.nx [Windows NT/2000/2003/XP]
  

  or:

  %windows%\Profiles\%username%\.nx [Windows 9x]
  

  excluding the 'cache' and 'images' subdirectories. Please note that, on Windows 9x, if you login without using a profile, the directory '.nx' with the user' session data will be found on the NX Client installation directory (usually "C:\Program Files\NX Client for Windows").