What’s new history

This article provides information about new features included in the releases that shipped after the 1912 LTSR through the 2204 CR.

What’s new in 2204

Version 2204 of the Linux VDA includes the following new features and enhancements:

Hardware encoding extended to selective codec

Previously available only for the entire screen, H.264 hardware encoding now supports selective use for actively changing regions. This feature offloads CPU video compression consumption to hardware and improves image quality and the number of frames per second (FPS). For information on how to enable this feature, see Graphics configuration and fine-tuning.

Support for logon with a temp home directory

Starting with this release, you can specify a temp home directory for cases where the mount point on the Linux VDA fails. With a temp home directory specified, a prompt shows during a session logon when the mount point fails. User data is then stored under the temp home directory. For more information, see Logon with a temp home directory.

SOCKS5 proxy support for Rendezvous HDX traffic

The Linux VDA now extends SOCKS5 proxy support for establishing Rendezvous connections. For more information, see Rendezvous V1 and Rendezvous V2.

Transparent proxy support for Rendezvous

Transparent HTTP proxy is now supported for Rendezvous. If using a transparent proxy in your network, no additional configuration is required on the VDA.

Support for GNOME Classic desktop

This release adds GNOME Classic as a desktop option that you can specify through CTX_XDL_DESKTOP _ENVIRONMENT in the ctxsetup.sh. For more information, see the Linux GNOME Classic VDA installation article based on your distribution.

App taskbar button grouping

Previously, all taskbar buttons of published applications running in the same session were combined into a single group. Starting with this release, each app appears as a single taskbar button, even when multiple windows for an app are open.

What’s new in 2203

Version 2203 of the Linux VDA includes the following new features and enhancements:

Full support for Rendezvous V2

When using the Citrix Gateway service, the Rendezvous protocol allows traffic to bypass the Citrix Cloud Connectors and connect directly and securely with the Citrix Cloud control plane.

There are two types of traffic to consider: 1) control traffic for VDA registration and session brokering; 2) HDX traffic.

Rendezvous V1 allows for HDX traffic to bypass the Cloud Connectors, but it still requires Cloud Connectors to proxy all control traffic for VDA registration and session brokering.

Standard AD domain joined machines and non-domain joined machines are supported for using Rendezvous V2 with single-session and multi-session Linux VDAs. With non-domain joined machines, Rendezvous V2 allows for both HDX traffic and control traffic to bypass the Cloud Connectors.

For more information, see Rendezvous V2.

Easy install GUI is now available

Previously, you could only operate a command line interface for using easy install. This release offers an easy install GUI that guides you through the following operations:

• Check the system environment
• Install dependencies
• Join the VDA to a specified domain
• Configure the runtime environment

To use the easy install GUI, run the /opt/Citrix/VDA/bin/easyinstall command in the desktop environment of your VDA. For more information, see the Interactive mode section of the Quick installation by using easy install (Recommended) article.

HDX graphics improvement

Thinwire can now improve the numbers of Frames Per Second (FPS) by parallelizing certain tasks, with the overhead of slightly higher overall CPU consumption. This feature is disabled by default. For more information, see the Parallel processing section of the Configure graphics article.

What’s new in 2201

Version 2201 of the Linux VDA includes the following new features and enhancements:

MATE desktop support on SUSE 15.3 and SUSE 15.2

You can now specify MATE as the default desktop for SUSE 15.3 and SUSE 15.2 sessions. For more information about desktop environments, see the installation articles.

Session shadowing feature extended to all supported distributions

The session-shadowing feature allows domain administrators to view users’ ICA sessions in an intranet. Previously available only for RHEL 7.x and Ubuntu 16.04, the feature is now extended to all distributions that the Linux VDA supports. For more information, see Shadow sessions.

Creating local users with specified attributes on non-domain-joined VDAs

When you open a session hosted on a non-domain-joined VDA, the VDA automatically creates a local user with default attributes. The VDA creates the local user based on the user name that you used to log on to Citrix Workspace app. You can now specify user attributes including the user’s User Identifier (UID), Group ID (GID), home directory, and login shell. For more information, see Non-domain-joined VDAs.

Support for Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3

The Linux VDA now supports TLS 1.3. The enable_vdassl.sh script in the /opt/Citrix/VDA/sbin directory lets you enable TLS and set the minimum TLS version. For more information, see Secure user sessions using TLS.

Note:

Starting with this release, you must install .NET Runtime 6.0 before installing the Linux VDA.

What’s new in 2112

Version 2112 of the Linux VDA includes the following new features and enhancements:

Support for Amazon Linux 2 (experimental)

As an experimental feature, we have added Amazon Linux 2 as a supported distribution. For more information, see System requirements.

Full support for HDX screen sharing

Previously available as an experimental feature, HDX screen sharing is now fully supported. You can share the screen of your virtual desktop with session users on other virtual desktops. The screen sharing feature is disabled by default. For more information, see HDX screen sharing.

Rendezvous connection through an HTTP proxy

The Linux VDA now supports establishing Rendezvous connections through an HTTP proxy that uses TCP as the transport protocol for ICA. For more information, see Rendezvous protocol.

Rendezvous proxy authentication

A domain-joined Linux VDA can now authenticate to a proxy server for Rendezvous connections. For more information, see Rendezvous protocol.

Support for adaptive audio

Adaptive audio is enabled by default. With adaptive audio, you don’t need to manually configure the audio quality policies on the VDA. Adaptive audio dynamically adjusts audio sampling bitrates based on network conditions to provide a premium audio experience. For more information, see Adaptive audio.

Support for new Linux streaming target devices

For Linux streaming, the following operating systems are now supported:

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 (SUSE 15.2)

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 (SUSE 15.3)

For more information, see Streaming Linux target devices in the Citrix Provisioning documentation.

Keyboard layout synchronization enhancement

With KeyboardLayout set to Server Default in the WFCLIENT.ini file, the previously selected keyboard layout is retained after you reconnect to a session.

Keyboard input enhancement

We have addressed several issues and added support for more special characters and shortcuts.

What’s new in 2110

Version 2110 of the Linux VDA includes the following new features and enhancements:

Support for SUSE 15.3 and SUSE 15.2

We have added SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 (SUSE 15.3) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 (SUSE 15.2) as supported distributions. For more information, see System requirements.

HDX webcam video compression support for SUSE 15.3, SUSE 15.2, and SUSE 12.5

Users of video conferencing applications running in SUSE 15.3, SUSE 15.2, and SUSE 12.5 sessions can now use their webcams with HDX webcam video compression. For more information, see HDX webcam video compression.

FAS support for MCS-created VMs using PowerBroker Identity Services (PBIS)

You can now use FAS to authenticate users logging on to an MCS-created Linux VDA that was joined to a Windows domain using PBIS. For more information, see Configure Federated Authentication Service and Enable FAS on an MCS-created VM.

Two environment variables are added to ctxfascfg.sh

We have added the following variables to ctxfascfg.sh:

• CTX_FAS_KDC_HOSTNAME: Specifies the host name of the Key Distribution Center (KDC) when you select PBIS.
• CTX_FAS_PKINIT_KDC_HOSTNAME: Specifies the PKINIT KDC host name, which equals to CTX_FAS_KDC_HOSTNAME unless otherwise specified.

For more information, see Run ctxfascfg.sh.

Session launch with credentials different from those used to log on to Citrix Workspace app

After you log on to Citrix Workspace app, you can use different credentials to launch Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops sessions. To enable this feature, run the following command on your Linux VDA:

/opt/Citrix/VDA/bin/ctxreg create -k "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\WinStations\tcp" -t "REG_DWORD" -v "fPromptForDifferentUser" -d "0x00000001" --force
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