ROME, Italy, July 22, 2005 - NoMachine announces today the immediate availability of NX 1.5.0. The new release introduces an impressive number of changes and many new features, among them:
- NX Server Manager Beta
The NoMachine NX Server Manager is the new management interface for the NX Terminal Server system. The NX Server Manager sports most of the features users would expect from an enterprise-grade application, with the easiness of use of a Web interface.
- NX Web Companion Beta
The NoMachine NX Web Companion is a small Java applet and a plugin interface bridging the availability of the Web and the unmatched power of NX. Embedded in a Web page, the NX Web Companion lets users publish any corporate application on-demand, anywhere.
- Possibility to move the client software to any removable media
A number of improvements went into the NX client software to make it possible to copy the binaries to any removable media and run a NX session off a CDROM or a USB stick.
- New seamless mode in X11 applications
The NX 1.5.0 sports a completely new "single application" mode, with X11 applications leveraging the complete set of features and facilities offered by the NX X protocol compression. Additionally, applications running on the server now have a little drop-down menu, letting users suspend and resume the application with a single mouse click.
- Improved integration with the host system
NX 1.5.0 integrates by default with the existing authentication infrastructure of the host server, so administrators don't have to explicitly create NX accounts.
- Complete access to the XDMCP infrastructure
Companies having large deployments of Unix desktops can now migrate their users to NX with no effort. Just set up a NX server and let it balance the load among the available X desktop servers.
- Better support for the industry standards and superb manageability of the remote session
On the Windows side, NX offers unlimited number of colors in RDP sessions and better integration with the Windows environment. On the Unix side, NX comes with full support for the popular OpenGL extension and with an improved multimedia backend, making easier to play the sound produced by the applications running on the server. Huge improvements also went into the manageability of the remote session. NX has now the ability to resize the desktop on-the-fly or switch between an "eager" and a "lazy" mode, the latter skipping most of the image transfers to leave more bandwidth for the textual communication.
Supported PlatformsSupported NX Server platforms
RedHat Linux 7.x/8/9/WS/AS/ED
SuSE Linux 7.x/8.x/9.x
Mandriva Linux 9.x/10.x
Fedora Linux Core 1/2/3/4
Debian GNU/Linux Woody and Sarge
Solaris SPARC 8/9/10 (SunOS 5.8/5.9/5.10)
Sun JDS 2
Supported NX Client platforms
Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP
RedHat Linux 7.x/8/9/WS/AS/ED
SuSE Linux 7.x/8.x/9.x
Mandriva Linux 9.x/10.x
Fedora Linux Core 1/2/3/4
Debian GNU/Linux Woody and Sarge
Mac OS/X PPC 10.1/10.2/10.3
Solaris SPARC 8/9/10 (SunOS 5.8/5.9/5.10)
Sun JDS 2
Important Notes
New organization of the software packages
Besides the support for the new Linux distributions that have entered the market since the 1.4.0 release, NoMachine has introduced a new packaging scheme that will make easier to choose the right download among the available packages. Software is now made available in only three formats: a NX Server and Client for Linux RPM, a NX Server and Client DEB and a NX Server and Client statically compiled compressed TAR. For all packages, NoMachine has reduced the set of dependencies to a bare minimum. This means that packages should install on any recent Linux distribution without having to satisfy any additional dependency.
Software upgrades
When upgrading NX Server from the 1.4.0 or a previous version, you should:
- Make a backup copy of the old installation tree.
- Save the license key file, /usr/NX/etc/key.txt, in a safe place.
An automatic upgrade procedure is run at the end of the installation. The procedure should resolve all the conflicts and add the new configuration keys without user intervention. However, in the case of problems, you can still proceed to a clean install and later copy the relevant databases from the original NX Server installation.
Please note that the new version of NX Server expects a license file named /usr/NX/etc/server.lic. The upgrade procedure should recognize the old license key and rename it accordingly. After installing the new version, you may need to copy the license key to the final destination and make sure that it has the proper permissions:
- chown nx:root /usr/NX/etc/server.lic
- chmod 0400 /usr/NX/etc/server.lic
Trouble Reports and Feature Rrequests implemented in the 1.5.0NX Server
FRSA052320 - The nxserver should give a complete list of configuration keys and related descriptions
FRSA052327 - Improve nxserver session history
FRSA052280 - New naming conventions for license key files
FRSL042201 - Improve printing reliability in NX server
FRSL042207 - Introducing support for CUPS printer drivers in '.ppd' format
FR04C00860 - The nxserver should implement the getlog --type command
FR04C00857 - Adding the userlevel command to the nxserver
FR04C00856 - The nxserver should give back a message when the nx user runs commands requiring admin privileges
FRSA052341 - Adding a server key to mandate the use of a given domain
FRSL042166 - An option should exist to let users login even if the remote IP is not exported by SSH
FRSL041944 - Handling the -c option in nxserver
FRSL041908 - Server-side forced SSL encryption
FRSA052258 - The installation and update procedures of NX server should check if the SSH daemon is running
FRSA052349 - The NX Server should use the 'accept' option to let nxcomp bind to the loop back interface when using SSL encryption
TR05C00891 - The nxserver is not able to unmount a client share when it's mounted on a symbolic link
TRSL041896 - No appropriate 'usage' message shown when run by non-root
TRSL052322 - The NX server's shell can fail to provide the list of users after a deleteuser or adduser command
TRSL042034 - DOS: 'listsession' executed by NX Client can lock NX DB
NX Manager
FR04C00861 - The nxmanager should visualize log files for each session
FR03C00832 - The nxmanager should send messages only to the selected session
FRSA052351 - The nxmanager should not use a single connection to NX server more than one time concurrently
NX Plugin
FR03C00840 - The nxapplet should use some parameters to identify the download dir and the session
FR03C00839 - The nxapplet should temporarily save the proper session file
FRSA052385 - The nxapplet should launch the nxclient with --plugin option
FRSA052384 - The nxapplet should verify the nxclient exit code
FRSA052381 - All the nxapplet messages should be configurable
FRCL042139 - Open applications transparently with nx
FRCL042138 - Use a Java applet to download and copy the NX client files to the local drive
FRCA052315 - The nxapplet should create a version file when the nxplugin has been correctly installed
NX Client
TRCW041885 - nxclient asks to replace the remote RSA host key but it fails
TRCL042134 - NX client seems to ignore the protocol message 'Server capacity: reached for user: '
TRCL042239 - The NX Client exits without any feedback if the display is not set
TRCL052328 - The dialog prompting the user to suspend the session remains running after the session is suspended
TRCL041915 - The sshlog files in temp remain locked by some process
TR03C00825 - The nxclient doesn't seem to save the 'Use font server' configuration
TR05C00881 - When the nxclient shows the 'Session timeout' dialog, it should have already killed the nxssh
TR06C00913 - When the session fails, NX Client progress dialog doesn't refresh
TRCL042241 - Changing the system font makes the NX Client use a font size 5 instead of the font that has been set
TRCL042238 - If the NX Client for Windows package is not installed, the additional font packages are installed in a wrong directory
TRCL042005 - No way to save changes on the 'Service' configuration dialog
TRCL052307 - The NXWin.exe remains in background after closing the nxclient
TRCL052369 - The login dialog window should not be visualized when the NX client is launched by shortcut or plugin
TRCL052370 - The NX client launched by shortcut or plugin should be terminated when the user clicks on Cancel button
TRCL052371 - The login dialog window should be visualized when launching the NX client by shortcut if the password is not stored in the session file
TRCL052372 - The password in the session file should be deleted only when the user modifies it explicitly
TRCL052373 - The password in the session file should be maintained to the original value when the user clicks on Close/Cancel button
TRCW042023 - nxauth crashes when multiple Cygwin dll versions are loaded
FRCL042091 - Configuration settings for sessions launched via shortcuts
FRCW042194 - On the Windows platform NX client must be able to mount at run-time its installation directory
FRCL042156 - Passing the NX configuration file in the command line of nxclient
FRCL042157 - Passing a session file on the command line of nxclient
FRCL042153 - Identifying the NX system and user directories in nxclient
FRCL042151 - Locating the nxclient.conf file in nxclient
FRCL042139 - Open applications transparently with nx
FRCL042137 - Make nxclient run from any disk location
FRCL042086 - The nxclient should warn the user when running session as 'root'
FRCA052259 - Expected behaviour of the 'nxclient' application when invoked with the '-- dialog' option
FR03C00817 - The NX client should provide an additional dialog to manage customized keys
FRCA052388 - The NX client should be able to use customized keys to connect to the NX server
FRCA052356 - The NX client should not forward the local X authorization cookie to new versions of NX server
FRCA052300 - The nxclient should be able to enable/disable SSL tunneling based on the code 707 received from NX server
FRCA052383 - Including nxreplace script in nxscripts to replace all the occurences of a given string with a different string
FRCA052366 - The option --plugin should be added
FRCA052367 - The NX Client should provide exit codes
FRCA052365 - The NX client should provide an additional configuration dialog for XDMCP queries
FRCA052254 - The path for the 'rgb.txt' file should be defined inside 'NX-Cygwin.def' instead of being harcoded in NXWin
FRCA052352 - NX client should set NX_HOME, NX_ROOT, NX_SYSTEM environment variables
FRCA052340 - Adding a field in the configuration settings of RDP sessions to specify the Windows domain for the authentication
FRCL042197 - Adding an option to nxclient to allow the users to choose a color depth for RDP sessions
FRSA052348 - The NX Client should use the 'accept' option to let nxcomp bind to the loopback interface when using SSL encryption
FRCA052301 - The nxclient should be able to export its configuration files in plain text format
FRCA042232 - The nxssh component should not ignore the $HOME environment variable
FRCA042231 - The nxclient application should set the correct value for the $HOME environment variable before starting nxssh and nxcomp
FRCL041906 - Message shown when maximum server capacity is reached
FRCA052326 - Add a check box to let RDP session use the same credentials as for the NX server
FRCL041989 - Building nxcomp/nxcompext with updated libpng is required
NX Core
FRCA052261 - Rootless operation in X11 sessions
FRSL042161 - Implemention of a GC cache for nxagent at reconnection stage
FRSL042215 - An option should be added to disable the 'NX was unable to negotiate a cache' message at session startup
FRSA052393 - The nxagent should not use packed images for X cursors
FRSL042220 - Scrolling the nx session window when the local desktop has a lower resolution
FRAL042159 - NX should encompass support for connections to external XDMCP servers
FRSA052262 - Continuous operation of X11 agent while disconnected
FRSA052263 - Dynamic handling of the full-screen attribute in the X11 agent
FRSA052265 - Dynamic navigation of the main window's viewport in the X11 agent
FRSA052264 - Dynamic handling of the main window's size in the X11 agent
FRSA052268 - Implementation of the RANDR extension in the X11 agent
FR04C00878 - Improving the GLX support in the nxagent
FR04C00876 - Adding the CTRL+ALT+S keystrokes combination in the nxagent
FRSL042160 - Support for shared memory extension in nxagent
FRSL042198 - All agent parameters should be read from the 'options' file of the NX transport
FR05C00886 - Adding a user interface to specify if the nxagent is running in -slow or -fast mode
FR05C00907 - Implementing automatic session closing after specified time of inactivity
FRSA052270 - Dynamic handling of the full-screen attribute in the RDP agent
FRSA052271 - Dynamic handling of the main window's size in the RDP agent
FRSA052272 - Dynamic navigation of the main window's viewport in the RDP agent
FRSL042147 - Suspending a NX session with a running Windows 2000 VMWare freezes RDP session
FRSA052358 - The nxdesktop component should always enable RDP image cache by default
FR05C00887 - The nxagent should paint the window background on framebuffer
TRSL042226 - Starting a session on Linux and resuming it on Windows may cause part of the screen to be occluded
TRSL042206 - Compression filters in nxagent seems to be applied also to X cursor pixmaps
TR03C00819 - In some circumstances the keyboard is frozen
TR03C00821 - During the nxagent screen initialization the return value of OpenScreen is not properly checked
TRSL041940 - The nxagent may crash when running the x11perf program
TR05C00900 - The libX11 library parses the hostnames prefixed by 'nx' in an incorrect way
Download
NoMachine NX products
The latest editions of the all the NX commercial products are available here:
http://www.nomachine.com/download
NoMachine NX OSS components
Together with the commercial NX products, NX 1.5.0 includes updates to the following OSS components:
nxproxy-1.5.0-9
nxcomp-1.5.0-63
nxcompext-1.5.0-16
nxuexec-1.5.0-3
nxspool-1.5.0-1
nx-X11-1.5.0-15
nxagent-1.5.0-86
nxwin-1.5.0-3
nxauth-1.5.0-1
nxviewer-1.5.0-14
nxdesktop-1.5.0-59
nxesd-1.5.0-3
nxssh-1.5.0-19
nxscripts-1.5.0-9
nxsensor-1.5.0-5
Sources of OSS NX components can be downloaded here:
http://www.nomachine.com/sources
Please refer to the ChangeLog of each specific package for information about all changes introduced since version 1.4.0.
The NX Development Team
