SecureCRT on RHEL 7.3

[kscurloc]

I've successfully installed SCRT in a RHEL 7.3 server (without a GUI desktop). I can run X11 apps without any issues, except for SCRT. Two issues:

The first is a missing environment variable (which I was able to overcome):

[root@server ~]# SecureCRT
xkbcommon: ERROR: failed to add default include path /usr/share/X11/xkb
Qt: Failed to create XKB context!
Use QT_XKB_CONFIG_ROOT environmental variable to provide an additional search path, add ':' as separator to provide several search paths and/or make sure that XKB configuration data directory contains recent enough contents, to update please see http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xkeyboard-config/ .
[root@server ~]# export QT_XKB_CONFIG_ROOT=/usr/share/X11/xkb
[root@server ~]# SecureCRT

The second has to do with the X11 fonts not appearing:



Any suggestions on both issues? Thanks!

[jdev]

If I understand you correctly you have:

1. A RedHat 7.3 server, which is a headless machine ("without a GUI desktop").
2. You've installed SecureCRT (which version?) on this headless RedHat 7.3 server...
3. ...then you're connecting from another machine (I'm guessing a Mac OS X, from your linked graphic) to the RHEL7.3 machine, say by SSH? (Not sure, you didn't say) and then from there you're trying to launch SecureCRT so that it runs on the RHEL 7.3 box, but displays its GUI on your Mac OS X machine via X11.

Do I have the above correct?

If fonts don't show up in the GUI, could be an issue with the X server not having those fonts available but without X server logging, you'll find it difficult to troubleshoot this one.

I've tested what you're doing (with the exception of I don't have a headless RHEL machine... it's got a GUI desktop), and it works just fine... but my environment may be different than yours.

If you enable XQuartz debug logging, what clues show up therein?

What is it that you're ultimately trying to accomplish by running SecureCRT on the RHEL 7 machine instead of running it locally on your Mac OS X machine and using it to connect to your RHEL7 machine?

--Jake

[kscurloc]

Hey Jake, thanks for following up... here are your answers:

A RedHat 7.3 server, which is a headless machine ("without a GUI desktop").

Correct! Just the base/minimal install with the Xorg packages and fonts installed (xorg-x11-xauth xorg-x11-xinit xorg-x11-apps libXtst xterm)

You've installed SecureCRT (which version?) on this headless RedHat 7.3 server...

Yes, version 8.1.2.

...then you're connecting from another machine (I'm guessing a Mac OS X, from your linked graphic) to the RHEL7.3 machine, say by SSH? (Not sure, you didn't say) and then from there you're trying to launch SecureCRT so

Yes on my Mac using XQuartz. I also tried on a few Windows PCs using Xming and Reflections X with the same issue.

If fonts don't show up in the GUI, could be an issue with the X server not having those fonts available but without X server logging, you'll find it difficult to troubleshoot this one.

Perhaps. Although I did try installing all the fonts that came with Xming and had the same results.

What is it that you're ultimately trying to accomplish by running SecureCRT on the RHEL 7 machine instead of running it locally on your Mac OS X machine and using it to connect to your RHEL7 machine?

Kinda hard to explain... but... we develop software that manages telecommunications equipment used to run cellular/mobile networks. Our software runs on Linux. Most (if not all) of these networks are isolated and/or firewalled off. The only way to get to in and access the network equipment is by ssh tunneling. We are not allowed to connect directly to any of the devices with our own PC or Laptops for security reasons. We could just use the standard ssh cli client that comes with Linux. But there are so many devices on the network, having a manager will really come in handy. So we're testing out SCRT to see if it's a viable solution.

[jdev]

we develop software that manages telecommunications equipment used to run cellular/mobile networks. Our software runs on Linux. Most (if not all) of these networks are isolated and/or firewalled off. The only way to get to in and access the network equipment is by ssh tunneling. We are not allowed to connect directly to any of the devices with our own PC or Laptops for security reasons. We could just use the standard ssh cli client that comes with Linux. But there are so many devices on the network, having a manager will really come in handy.

Have you considered using SecureCRT's dependent sessions functionality to get connected to the devices behind the gateway/jump-host machine?

In such a scenario, you:

1. Install SecureCRT on your own PC/Laptop
2. Set up a session (name it "JumpHost") that connects to your gateway/jump server. If you desire to have it be transparent, use publickey authentication or consider saving your username & password as part of the session config.
3. For each device behind the gateway/jump host, you would set up a separate session where the hostname is the actual IP address of the machine as it's known on the network behind the jump server. In the "Firewall" setting for such a session, choose "Select Session..." and select the "JumpHost" session you created earlier.
4. When you connect to a session created as described in #3 above, SecureCRT automatically establishes a connection to the jump host (using the info in that saved session) and dynamically sets up tunneling to the secondary device so it's transparent.

Here's a graphic that describes this process visually as well as textually:


Do you think this type of solution would work for you rather than embedding SecureCRT on your jump host?

--Jake

[kscurloc]

Thanks Jake. This might be a perfect solution. I'll give it a try and will let you know.

I'd still like to know how to fix my issue, however. Are there a list of package requirements perhaps? Maybe I'm missing one or more?

[jdev]

Originally Posted by kscurloc

I'd still like to know how to fix my issue, however. Are there a list of package requirements perhaps? Maybe I'm missing one or more?

That's the rub... I can't replicate the problem, so it will be very difficult to explain how to solve it.

Can you tell me more precision details about how you installed your OS so that I can walk through the same steps on my side and see if I can get to the part where the failure occurs?

When you say "RHEL 7.3" do you mean actual RedHat Enterprise Linux, version 7.3, or are you referring to CentOS 7.3?

When you say "Just the base/minimal install with the Xorg packages and fonts installed (xorg-x11-xauth xorg-x11-xinit xorg-x11-apps libXtst xterm)", can you provide precision steps for me to follow to ensure that I get to the same spot you're in?

--Jake

[kscurloc]

When you say "RHEL 7.3" do you mean actual RedHat Enterprise Linux, version 7.3, or are you referring to CentOS 7.3?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3, not CentOS.

When you say "Just the base/minimal install with the Xorg packages and fonts installed (xorg-x11-xauth xorg-x11-xinit xorg-x11-apps libXtst xterm)", can you provide precision steps for me to follow to ensure that I get to the same spot you're in?

Sure. I just installed RHEL73 with the "Minimal Install" option under Software Selection during initial installation.

Once I'm able to ssh into the server, I "yum install" the packages listed above. Then I install SCRT.

That's it really. Please don't spend a lot of time of this. It's not a HUGE issue for me. I just thought it might be a bug and figured I'd report it if it were.

[jdev]

What does 'fc-list' report as available fonts to use?

It's probably an empty list, which is why you're seeing nothingness in terms of fonts.

My guess is that if you 'yum install strace' and then run 'strace -tt SecureCRT ~/scrt_strace_log.txt 2>&1', you'll see in that trace log file that there aren't any UI fonts available on your system for SecureCRT to use:

03:54:50.656211 stat("/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1", 0x7fffc9024f90) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
03:54:50.656242 stat("/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1", 0x7fffc9025000) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
03:54:50.656269 stat("/usr/share/X11/fonts/TTF", 0x7fffc9024f90) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
03:54:50.656296 stat("/usr/share/X11/fonts/TTF", 0x7fffc9025000) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
03:54:50.656331 stat("/usr/local/share/fonts", 0x7fffc9024f90) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
03:54:50.656359 stat("/usr/local/share/fonts", 0x7fffc9025000) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
03:54:50.656386 stat("/home/user/.local/share/fonts", 0x7fffc9024f90) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
03:54:50.656413 stat("/home/user/.local/share/fonts", 0x7fffc9025000) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
03:54:50.656504 stat("/home/user/.fonts", 0x7fffc9024f90) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
03:54:50.656541 stat("/home/user/.fonts", 0x7fffc9025000) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

You may simply need to install some GUI fonts, for example:

yum install liberation-sans-fonts

or

yum install gnu-free-sans-fonts

or

yum install dejavu-sans-fonts

...depending on your preference for UI fonts.

Do any of those work for you in terms of allowing SecureCRT to display text within its user interface?


You'll also want to ensure that there are some mono-spaced fonts available for SecureCRT to use within the terminal window.

yum install dejavu-sans-mono-fonts
yum install gnu-free-mono-fonts
yum install liberation-mono-fonts

--Jake

[kscurloc]

BOOM! That did it!!! Works now!!!

Much appreciated!