CentOS7 Desktop Client?

fausp · July 1, 2018, 6:41pm

I am thinking how to use CentOS7 as ClientOS.
Who uses CentOS in a production environment and can give me a hint?

Atm I started to workout the domain join to NethServer 7.5:

# Open a Terminal and become root:
su

# Install some pakages:
yum install nano realmd oddjob oddjob-mkhomedir sssd adcli samba-common \
samba-common-tools krb5-workstation openldap-clients policycoreutils-python -y

# Get your DNS domain name from the webinterface:
Configuration > Accounts provider > DNS domain name

# Join CentOS-Desktop to AD domain:
realm join --user=administrator ad.example.org

# Check realm:
realm list

# Change and add parts in /etc/sssd/sssd.conf:
use_fully_qualified_names = False
fallback_homedir = /home/%u

override_homedir = /home/%u
override_shell = /bin/bash

# Restart sssd:
systemctl restart sssd

# Add sudoers permission in /etc/sudoers:
administrator@example.org ALL=(ALL) ALL
admin@example.org ALL=(ALL) ALL

# Reboot the CentOS7 Desktop
reboot

# GUI logon with AD-User:
user: <your-AD-username>
pass: <your-AD-userpassword>

robb · July 1, 2018, 10:04pm

It’s all about taste and productivity I think. If you want/need some, a bit more cutting edge, applications and features, you could also opt for fedora(28) as desktop distro.
But I guess your first goal is to get to some kind of protocol to add a (in this case) CentOS based client to NS Samba4 domain.

oneitonitram · July 2, 2018, 3:15am

in my experience, CentOS is more suited as a server os, than a client os. I use it for most things on my server setups, but for client, I just use windows, for business pupose

fausp · July 2, 2018, 6:21am

I am looking for a Windows client alternative. The issue with Linux until now was the lack of bussiness apps. What business segments could work? Examples…

fausp · July 2, 2018, 6:22am

Yes but I think for some cases It can be the best…

bwdjames · July 2, 2018, 8:26am

I believe that this whole viewpoint of the lack of business apps in Linux to be a complete farce cutesy of certain large marketing teams.

I am working in a team where we don’t use any Microsoft products at all and we do very well.

There are loads of alternative options for the Microsoft products, one just needs to do a high-level product comparison and also try not to use the rose-tinted glasses and blinkers that we’re grown used to when using the Microsoft products.

pike · July 2, 2018, 1:18pm

@fausp which kind of client software you’re looking for?

fausp · July 2, 2018, 1:30pm

My Question is can this work on any bussinesses ?

fausp · July 2, 2018, 1:31pm

I have no special usecase, it is more a casestudy…

pike · July 2, 2018, 1:42pm

IMVHO you should create at least one usercase.
“Business Software” is quite hard to define…

bwdjames · July 2, 2018, 5:57pm

Unless there is a business requirement to run certain software for which there is only Windows-based software; then yes, it is applicable to any business.

For an MS Office Suite alternative, there is a choice between LibreOffice, OpenOffice, Calligra Suite, WPS Office and many more. There are lots of options for saving or exporting documents into a format that be read by other companies who use MS Office. The Office suites on Linux shouldn’t have too much of an issue reading the MS Office documents (unless the document is using a lot of VBScript or complicated formulas but these are generally few and far between).

For viewing graphics files and editing graphics files, there is also a wide range, eg. Gimp, Blender, etc.

There are also lots of options to view and create PDF documents.

For audio and video files, there is also a wide range of choices for viewing and editing.

ftaurino · July 5, 2018, 9:17am

Centos 7 could be a useful and complete desktop, if you does not need -local- (to the clients) Windows only applications. You can install latest Libreoffice release, Google Chrome, Skype, Visual Studio Code (or Netbeans/Eclipse), any real programming language you need (even new versions with Software collections or IUS repository), free 2D CAD like DraftSight, a lot of professional photographic/graphic/video/audio tools and find the right driver for almost any device type. And you can also download VirtualBox to emulate Windows on the desktop or use a lot of tools to connect to remote windows pc or servers.
With the right hardware and software, you’ll miss Windows only in few rare case (gaming?).

robb · July 5, 2018, 9:23am

Slight correction on this: In Virtualbox you do not emulate Windows, you run (natively) Windows.

ftaurino · July 5, 2018, 9:37am

Slight slight correction for both: In Virtualbox we do not emulate or run Windows, we virtualize Windows.

hector · July 11, 2018, 2:06am

In Ubuntu with Wine I run sketchup, and windows goodies. jejeje

mark_nl · July 11, 2018, 9:38am

Hi fausp, interesting stuff as planning to switch to AD an join all my linux environments (including arm boards) to the domian.

Has someone tried to make a wheel group in the AD and add sudoers to it. Is this reflected on the client?

EDIT:
old AFAIK stil correct doc about wheel group.

fausp · July 11, 2018, 6:00pm

I will integrate the wheel group into the HowTo, the integration in the AD would be vy cool…

pike · July 11, 2018, 6:59pm

For running virtualized Windows still are necessaries licenses.

I recently used only Xubuntu as Client Enviroment. Someone had some experience with OpenSUSE or Debian?

fausp · July 11, 2018, 7:16pm

# Open a Terminal become root:
sudo su

# Add extra Repositories

# EPEL
yum -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

# NUX
rpm --import http://li.nux.ro/download/nux/RPM-GPG-KEY-nux.ro
rpm -Uvh http://li.nux.ro/download/nux/dextop/el7/x86_64/nux-dextop-release-0-5.el7.nux.noarch.rpm

# Yum update:
yum clean all && rm -rf /var/cache/yum && yum -y update


# Install some pakages:
yum -y install nano realmd oddjob oddjob-mkhomedir sssd adcli samba-common samba-common-tools krb5-workstation \
openldap-clients policycoreutils-python policycoreutils-gui pam_mount authconfig-gtk

# Get your DNS domain name from:
Configuration > Accounts provider > DNS domain name

# Join CentOS-Desktop to AD domain
realm join --user=administrator ad.example.org

# Check realm:
realm list

# Change and add /etc/sssd/sssd.conf:
use_fully_qualified_names = False
fallback_homedir = /home/%u

override_homedir = /home/%u
override_shell = /bin/bash

# Restart sssd:
systemctl restart sssd

# Add sudoers permission:
usermod -aG wheel admin
usermod -aG wheel administrator

# Reboot the CentOS7 Desktop
reboot

# GUI logon with AD-User:
user: <your-AD-user>
pass: <your-admin-password>


--------------- optional ---------------

## Install remote-desktop server
yum -y install xrdp tigervnc-server
systemctl start xrdp
netstat -antup | grep xrdp
systemctl enable xrdp

# setup firewall
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=3389/tcp
firewall-cmd --reload

# setup selinux
chcon --type=bin_t /usr/sbin/xrdp
chcon --type=bin_t /usr/sbin/xrdp-sesman


## Install remote-desktop client
yum install remmina remmina-plugins-*

--------------- optional ---------------

mark_nl · July 12, 2018, 6:33am

Followed your How to On a Fedora from # Install some pakages: (obviously used dnf instead of yum) until # Restart sssd: with success; thanx!
(although one nasty quirk: authentication of screensaver does not work for me.)

Instead of locally adding admin and administrator to the wheel group, i make a wheel group on my Nethserver (wheel@example.org) and added the domain admins group (domain admins@example.org) to it as members and a regular user (i.e.john@example.org) aswel.

On the domain-client (only) the users added to wheel@example.org group (ie admin, administrator and john) have sudo rights