Citrix Workspace app for Linux 2109 - Technology Preview

Note: This is an Early Access Build shared for the purpose of testing/validation with the intent to make organizations ready for the upcoming release and is NOT advised to be deployed in production environments. 

We are excited to share with you the Early Access Release of our next version of Citrix Workspace app for Linux.

Please provide your feedback here before 21st September 2021.

What’s new with EAR build:   

Session Reliability enhancement

Previously, with HDX Broadcast session reliability, you continue to see a published application’s window if the connection to the application experiences an interruption. 

With this release, you can see the screen changes when session reliability begins. The session window is grayed out and a countdown timer shows the time until the next reconnection attempt. 

Tip: 

You can alter the grayscale brightness used for an inactive session using Reconnection UI transparency level policy. By default, this value is set to 80. The maximum value cannot exceed 100 (indicates a transparent window) and the minimum value can be set to 0 (a fully blacked out screen). 

When a session successfully reconnects, the countdown notification message disappears. You can interact with the desktop as usual. 

Starting with the 2109 release, the session reliability notification is enabled by default. To disable this enhancement: 

1. Navigate to the /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/config/module.ini configuration file. 

2. In the [WFClient] section, modify the following setting: 

SRNotification=False 

Note: This feature is supported only for Citrix Virtual Desktops. 

Using session reliability policies

The session reliability connections policy setting enables session reliability. 

The session reliability timeout policy setting has a default of 180 seconds, or three minutes. If needed, you can extend the time session reliability keeps a session open. It does not prompt you for reauthentication. 

Tip: 

As you extend the amount of time a session is kept open, you might get distracted and walk away from your device. This potentially leaves the session accessible to unauthorized users. 

Incoming session reliability connections use port 2598, unless you change the port number defined in the session reliability port number policy setting. 

For information on configuring session reliability policies, see Session reliability policy settings.

Note: Session reliability is enabled by default at the server. To disable this feature, configure the policy managed by the server. 

Enhancement to logging

Previously, there was no tool available to collect log files in Citrix Workspace app. Log files were present in different folders. You had to manually collect log files from different folders. Starting with this release, Citrix Workspace app introduces the collectlog.py tool, which lets you collect log files from different folders. You can execute this tool using the command line. The log files are generated as a compressed log file. You can download this compressed logfile from the local server.  

Prerequisites 

• Python3  
• Requires additional space to save the logs 

Starting with Version 2109, two new files are added to collect log files using the collectlog.py tool: 

• logcollector.ini file - Saves the name and path of the log file.  
• collectlog.py file – Collects the log files and saves them as cwalog_{timestamp}.tar.gz compressed file. 

By default, the [hdxteams] component is added in the logcollector.ini file to collect log files for Microsoft Teams. However, you can add other components also in the logcollector.ini file using the following procedure: 

1. Navigate to the ${HOME}/.ICAClient/logs/ICAClient.log/logcollector.ini file. 

2. Add the component that you need to collect log files as per the following example: 

[component_name] 

log_name1 = "log_path1" 

log_name2 = "log_path2"  

If you are on Version 2109, collect log files using the following procedure: 

1. Download and install Citrix Workspace app on your Linux machine. 

2. At the command line, navigate to /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/util path. 

3. Run the following command: 

./collctlog.py -h 

The following command usage information appears: 

usage: collect_log [-h] [-c CONFIG] [-a ARCHIVE]optional arguments: 

  -h, --help            show this help message and exit 

  -c CONFIG, --config CONFIG 

                        The logcollector.ini path & file 

  -a ARCHIVE, --archive ARCHIVE 

                        The archive path & file 

4. Run the following commands as required: 

• ./collectlog.py 

Collects log files using the configuration file from the default path and saves them as a compressed log files at the default path. 

• ./collectlog.py -c /user_specified_path/logcollector.ini 

Collects log files using the configuration file from a user-specified path and saves them as a compressed log files at the default path. 

• ./collectlog.py -c /user_specified_path/logcollector.ini -a/another_user_specified_path/ 

Collects log files using the configuration file from a user-specified path and saves them as a compressed log files at the user defined path. 

Note: The default path of the logcollector.ini configuration file is /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/config/logcollector.ini. The default path of compressed log file is /tmp. 

5. Navigate to the /tmp folder and collect the cwalog_{timestamp }.tar.gz compressed file. 

Note: The log files are saved in the /tmp folder with the file name cwalog_{timestamp}.tar.gz. 

Adaptive audio 

With Adaptive audio, you don’t need to configure the audio quality policies on the VDA. Adaptive audio optimizes settings for your environment and replaces obsolete audio compression formats to provide an excellent user experience. Adaptive audio is enabled by default. 

Storebrowse enhancement for Service continuity

Previously, the Workspace connection lease files were synced with files available on the remote server only if you connected using the Self-Service plugin. As a result, the service continuity feature was not supported when you launched apps or desktop session using storebrowse. Most customers use storebrowse to connect to Workspace platform and service continuity feature was not enabled for them.  

Starting with this release, the Workspace connection lease files sync with files available on the remote server when you connect using storebrowse as well.  This helps the customers to access Workspace even when offline. 

Note: This enhancement is available only when service continuity is enabled in cloud deployments. For more information, see the Configure Service Continuity section in the Citrix Workspace documentation. 

This enhancement is not available if you have set the value of AuthManLiteEnabled to True in the $ICAROOT/config/AuthManConfig.xml file.  By default, this value is set to False. 

Addition of a new command 

-o, --synclease 

Description:

Starts to sync Workspace connection lease files with the files available on the remote server for the specified store. This command helps to update the default store and triggers the lease file sync. An error appears if service continuity is disabled. 

Command example on StoreFront: 

Command: 

./storebrowse -o * URL of Store * 

Example: 

./storebrowse –o https://my.firstexamplestore.net 

Global App Config Service (Public Technical Preview)  

The new Global App Configuration Service for Citrix Workspace allows a Citrix administrator to deliver Workspace service URLs through a centrally managed service.  As a prerequisite, you must enable this feature in the AuthManConfig.xml file.  

Navigate to $ICAROOT/config/AuthManConfig.xml and add the following entries: 

<key>AppConfigEnabled</key> <value>true</value>   

For more information on Workspace service URLs settings, see Global App Configuration Service documentation. 

Note: Citrix Workspace app for Linux uses the Global App Configuration Service only to deliver Workspace service URLs. 

EDT MTU Discovery 

Citrix Workspace app for Linux now supports Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) discovery in Enlightened Data Transport (EDT). It increases the reliability and compatibility of the EDT protocol and provides an improved user experience.  

For more information see, the EDT MTU Discovery section in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops documentation. 

Creating custom user-agent strings in network request 

With this release, Citrix Workspace app introduces an option to append the User-Agent strings in the network request and identify the source of a network request. Based on this User-Agent strings request, you can decide how to manage your network request. This feature allows you to accept network requests only from trusted devices.  

Note: This feature is supported on cloud deployments of Citrix Workspace app. Also, x86, x64, and armhf are the supported packages. This feature does not support the Citrix Workspace app for Web 

To customize the User-Agent strings, do the followings: 

1. Locate the $ICAROOT/config/AuthManConfig.xml configuration file 

2. Add a value to the following entry: 

<UserAgentSuffix> </UserAgentSuffix>.  

Example that includes App and Version in the customized text: 

<UserAgentSuffix>App/AppVersion </UserAgentSuffix>. 

If you are adding App and AppVersion, separate them by a forward slash (“/”).  

If the network request is from the UI-based Citrix Workspace App, the following User-Agent appears in the network requests: 

CWAWEBVIEW/CWAVersion App/AppVersion 

If the network request is not from the UI-based Citrix Workspace App, the following User-Agent appears in the network requests:  

CWA/CWAVersion App/AppVersion 

Note: If you are not adding AppVersion at the end of the UserAgentSuffix string, the CWA version is appended in the network requests. 

Restart AuthManagerDaemon and ServiceRecord for the changes to take effect. 

Feature flag management (experimental feature) 

If an issue occurs with Citrix Workspace app in production, we can disable an affected feature dynamically in Citrix Workspace app even after the feature ships. To do so, we use feature flags and a third-party service called LaunchDarkly. You do not need to make any configurations to enable traffic to LaunchDarkly, unless you have a firewall or proxyblocking outbound traffic. In that case, you enable traffic to LaunchDarkly via specific URLs or IP addresses, depending on your policy requirements. You can enable traffic and communication to LaunchDarkly in the following ways: 

Enable traffic to the following URLs 

• events.launchdarkly.com 
• stream.launchdarkly.com 
• clientstream.launchdarkly.com 
• firehose.launchdarkly.com 
• mobile.launchdarkly.com 
• app.launchdarkly.com 

List IP addresses in an allow list 

If you must list IP addresses in an allow list, for a list of all current IP address ranges, see the LaunchDarkly public IP list. You can use this list to ensure that your firewall configurations are updated automatically in keeping with the infrastructure updates.  

For details about the status of the infrastructure changes, see the LaunchDarkly Status page. 

LaunchDarkly system requirements

Ensure that published apps can communicate with the following services if you have split tunneling on Citrix ADC set to OFF for the following services: 

• LaunchDarkly service. 
• APNs listener service. 

Known issues 

• When you uninstall Citrix workspace app, out of date cache files at$HOME/.local/share/webkitgtk might not be removed automatically. As a workaround, manually remove the cache files. [HDX-28187] 
• Attempts to launch desktops or applications using Citrix Workspace app might fail when the Multi-Port policy is enabled on DDC. [HDX-31016] 
• Attempts to launch a session using smart card authentication might fail. The issue occurs with Citrix Workspace app for Linux Version 2104 and later. As a workaround, manually enter the smart card credentials. [CVADHELP-18402] 
• On Ubuntu 20.04, the self-service user interface might not work as expected when using a cloud store. [RFLNX-8155] 

Fixed issues 

• When you open Microsoft Excel through Citrix Workspace app for Linux and navigate to Data -->  New Query, the Data Source Setting pop-up menu might not open as expected.  [CVADHELP-16509] 
• When using VDA Version 2106, the screen sharing feature in Microsoft Teams might fail in Optimized mode. [HDX-34002]