Install Horizon Agent on a Linux Machine

This documentation page describes how to install Horizon Agent on a Linux machine. Installing Horizon Agent allows you to deploy the machine as a remote desktop.

Prerequisites

• Verify that the Linux machine is prepared for desktop use. See Prepare a Linux Machine for Remote Desktop Deployment.

• If you plan to install Horizon Agent using the tarball installer, review the optional parameters for the install_viewagent.sh setup script. See Command-line Options for Installing Horizon Agent for Linux.

• If you plan to install Horizon Agent on a virtual machine, open a Terminal window. You can run the Horizon Agent installation commands from the Terminal.

• If you plan to install Horizon Agent on a physical host machine, open a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to the machine. SSH is the recommended method for running Horizon Agent installation commands on a physical machine. In addition, stop the X server and Gnome Display Manager as described in Prepare a Physical Linux Machine for Desktop Deployment.

Horizon Agent Installer

The Horizon Agent installer is available in two different formats:

• The .tar.gz installer package supports installation on all Linux distributions. This installer is not digitally signed.
• The .rpm installer package supports installation on RHEL 8.x machines only. This installer is digitally signed.

If you are upgrading Horizon Agent from an existing version, see the instructions in Upgrade Horizon Agent on a Linux Machine.

CAUTION:

If you plan to use NVIDIA GRID vGPU, you must configure 3D graphics features on the Linux virtual machine before you install Horizon Agent. If you install Horizon Agent first, required parameters in the xorg.conf file are overwritten, and the 3D graphics features do not work.

See Setting Up Graphics for Linux Virtual Machines. Install Horizon Agent after the 3D graphics configuration is completed.

For a 2D graphics configuration, you can install Horizon Agent after you complete the steps in Prepare a Linux Machine for Remote Desktop Deployment.

Install Horizon Agent Using the Unsigned Tarball Installer

Note: For a RHEL 8.x machine, you also have the option to install Horizon Agent using a digitally signed installer. See the procedure described later in this article.

1. Download the Horizon Agent for Linux installer package from the Horizon download site in Customer Connect.

   From the Horizon page for its download components, navigate to the Horizon for 64-bit Linux entry.

   Download the Horizon Agent installer tarball (.tar.gz file). The tarball's name contains the string horizonagent-linux-x86_64-YYMM-y.y.y-xxxxxxx, where YYMM is the marketing version number, y.y.y is the internal version number, and xxxxxxx is the build number.

2. Unpack the tarball for your Linux distribution. For example:

   tar -xvzf *horizonagent-linux-x86\_64-YYMM-y.y.y-xxxxxxx.tar.gz*
   

3. To support certain features, install the required drivers as follows.

   • To support the USB Redirection feature, install the VHCI driver as described in VHCI Driver for USB Redirection.
   • To support the Real-Time Audio-Video feature, complete the procedure described in Install the V4L2Loopback Driver on a Linux Machine.

4. Navigate to the tarball folder and run the install_viewagent.sh script as a superuser. Include the command-line parameters for any optional features that you want to install.

   For more information, see Command-line Options for Installing Horizon Agent for Linux.

   For example, to install Horizon Agent with automatic acceptance of the General Terms and with both the Real-Time Audio-Video feature and USB Redirection feature added:

   sudo ./install_viewagent.sh -A yes -U yes -a yes --webcam
   

   Note:

   If you are installing Horizon Agent on a physical machine, you must include the -M no parameter to specify unmanaged mode as described in Prepare a Physical Linux Machine for Desktop Deployment.

5. Type Yes to accept the General Terms if you run install_viewagent.sh without specifying the -A parameter.

   The installer does not run unless you accept the General Terms.

6. Allow the installation to proceed without interruption.

7. Restart the Linux machine for the changes to take effect.

8. Verify that the viewagent service is started by running the following command.

   sudo service viewagent status
   

(RHEL 8.x) InstallHorizon AgentUsing the Digitally Signed RPM Installer

Note: If you are installing Horizon Agent on a machine running a Linux distribution other than RHEL 8.x, do not use these instructions. Instead, use the procedure described earlier in this article.

1. Download the Horizon Agent for Linux installer package from the Horizon download site in Customer Connect.

   From the Horizon page for its download components, navigate to the Horizon for 64-bit Linux entry.

   Download the Horizon Agent RPM package (.rpm). The RPM package's name contains the string horizonagent-linux-YYMM-y.y.y-xxxxxxx.el8.x86_64, where YYMM is the marketing version number, y.y.y is the internal version number, and xxxxxxx is the build number.

2. Navigate to the folder of the downloaded RPM package and run the installer, for example:

   sudo rpm -ivh horizonagent-linux-YYMM-y.y.y-xxxxxxx.el8.x86_64.rpm
   

3. Allow the installation to proceed without interruption.

   Note: The RPM package automatically installs Horizon Agent with the default feature options. After the installation, you can add features to the Horizon Agent configuration by running the ViewSetup.sh script.

4. Restart the Linux machine for the changes to take effect.

5. To support certain features, install the required drivers as follows.

   • To support the USB Redirection feature, install the VHCI driver as described in the "VHCI Driver for USB Redirection" section of System Requirements for Horizon Agent for Linux.
   • To support the Real-Time Audio-Video feature, complete the procedure described in Install the V4L2Loopback Driver on a Linux Machine.

6. To add more optional features to the Horizon Agent configuration or modify the configuration, run the ViewSetup.sh script as described in Command-line Options for Installing Horizon Agent for Linux.

   For example, to add both the Real-Time Audio-Video feature and USB Redirection feature, locate the ViewSetup.sh script in the Linux machine (typically in a bin directory within the /usr/ structure). Then change to that directory and run the script command.

   sudo ViewSetup.sh -U yes -a yes --webcam 
   

   Note:

   If you are installing Horizon Agent on a physical machine, you must include the -M no parameter to specify unmanaged mode as described in Prepare a Physical Linux Machine for Desktop Deployment.

7. After installation, verify that the viewagent service is started by running the following command.

   sudo service viewagent status