Configure a RHEL Desktop for Session Collaboration

To use the Session Collaboration feature on a RHEL 9.x or 8.x desktop, you must perform the configuration steps described in this article. For RHEL 8.x desktops, you must install the required GNOME Shell extension to enable AppIndicator support. For RHEL 9.x desktops, you must install the EPEL repository, the libappindicator-gtk3 package, and the required GNOME Shell extension.

Enabling Session Collaboration on a RHEL 9.x Desktop

To enable the Session Collaboration feature and make the Session Collaboration icon available on a RHEL 9.x desktop, complete the following procedure.

1. Install the EPEL repository.

   yum -y install [https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm](https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm)
   

2. Install the libappindicator-gtk3 package.

   yum install -y libappindicator-gtk3
   

3. To enable AppIndicator support, download the required GNOME shell extension to the RHEL 9.x system.

   1. Download the GNOME shell extension from https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/615/appindicator-support/. Select 40 for the shell version and 42 for the extension version.

   2. Extract the contents of the downloaded package and rename the extension directory as appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com (the "uuid" value in the metadata.json file in the package).

   3. Use the mv command to move the appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com extension directory to this location: /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions.

      By default, the appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com extension is only readable to the root user. To support Session Collaboration, you must make this extension readable to other users as well.

4. Make the metadata.json file in the appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com directory readable to all users.

   chmod a+r metadata.json
   

   Proceed to the next step of this procedure, based on your desktop pool type.

   • If you are configuring an automated full-clone desktop pool, go to step 5.
   • If you are configuring any other type of desktop pool, go to step 6.

5. (For automated full-clone desktop pools) Make the appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com extension readable to all users.

   1. Open the extension configuration file for editing.

      vi /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-extensions
      

   2. Modify the configuration file to include appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com in the enabled-extensions list, as shown in the following example.

      # List all extensions that you want to have enabled for all users
      enabled-extensions=['background-logo@fedorahosted.org' , 'appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com']
      

   3. Run the following sequence of commands.

      chmod 755 /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-extensions
      dconf update
      

   The session collaboration feature is now enabled for the desktop. You can skip the remaining steps of this procedure.

6. (For desktop pools besides automated full-clone) Make the appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com extension readable to the logged-in user.

   1. Install gnome-extensions-app.

   2. In the desktop environment, restart GNOME Shell by pressing the following sequence of keys on the keyboard.

      Alt+F2
      r
      Enter
      

   3. In the desktop environment, run gnome-extensions-app and then enable AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support. The session collaboration feature is now enabled for the desktop.

Enabling Session Collaboration on a RHEL 8.x Desktop

To enable the Session Collaboration feature on a RHEL 8.x desktop, complete the following procedure.

1. Download the required GNOME shell extension to the RHEL 8.x system from https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/615/appindicator-support/.

   • For RHEL 8.0, select 3.28 for the shell version and 26 for the extension version.
   • For RHEL 8.1 and later, select 3.32 for the shell version and 29 for the extension version.

2. Extract the contents of the downloaded package and rename the directory as appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com (the "uuid" value in the metadata.json file in the package).

3. Use the mv command to move the appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com directory to this location: /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions.

   By default, the metadata.json file in the appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com directory is only readable to the root user. To support Session Collaboration, you must make this file readable to other users as well.

4. Run the command to make metadata.json readable to other users, as shown in the following example.

   chmod a+r metadata.json
   

5. Install gnome-tweaks.

6. In the desktop environment, restart GNOME Shell by pressing the following sequence of keys on the keyboard.

   Alt+F2
   r
   Enter
   

7. In the desktop environment, run gnome-tweaks and then enable KStatusNotifierItem/AppIndicator Support.