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Posted to user@guacamole.apache.org by Fabián Rodríguez <ma...@member.fsf.org> on 2018/02/01 20:36:31 UTC

New user, Debian HowTo, some suggestions

Hello,

Many thanks for this software, it's proving very useful and I am happy I
was able to replace other similar proprietary software in a particular
situation I was dealing with.

I'd like to suggest some improvements, I preferred no to use the bug
tracker yet for this. Here is my short list:

  * In Settings > Users > $USER > Permissions, I'd like to be able to
    set two extra permissions:
      o access sessions History tab
      o access Active Sessions tab
  * When using the filter to find connections, I'd like to see which
    Group they belong to (if any). Sometimes I have connections with the
    same name in different groups, the current filtering results don't
    show group membership
  * Timezone for each user should be the same as the server's by default
    (or have an option to use the same as the server's)
  * When clicking on a group checkbox, the selection should also include
    all members of the group, either checking or unchecking all boxes. I
    have some large groups (40+ connections) and it would be faster to
    be able to include/exclude all connections in any given group.
  * Selecting a connection in a group is not enough to give access, the
    group also needs to be checked which is not obvious (perhaps it
    should be automatic)

My recent setup of Guacamole on a Debian server wasn't easy as the
packages are outdated and some manual configuration was required.

I've shared my notes for Debian server installation here if anyone is
interested:

https://wiki.debian.org/Guacamole

Any comments for improvement are most welcome. The goal was to use as
much as Debian provides in terms of official packages and long term use
(and support). I took the opportunity to file a few bug reports in Debian.

Cheers,

F.

-- 
Fabián Rodríguez
http://debian.magicfab.ca


Re: New user, Debian HowTo, some suggestions

Posted by Fabián Rodríguez <ma...@member.fsf.org>.
Hi,


On 01/02/18 04:24 PM, Nick Couchman wrote:
> [..] Yeah, but if you have requests for improvements, they should go
> into JIRA.

OK, will do next time - thanks for clarifying.

>  
>
>       * In Settings > Users > $USER > Permissions, I'd like to be able
>         to set two extra permissions:
>           o access sessions History tab
>           o access Active Sessions tab
>
> Can you explain why you think it is useful to have these as separate
> permissions?  I guess I can see this for auditing, perhaps, if you
> want users that have the ability to only audit connections and
> connection history, but I'm curious what your use-case is.

It's sometime required to provide a manager access to history and active
sessions without giving them full admin rights (change/add
users/connections).


>       * When using the filter to find connections, I'd like to see
>         which Group they belong to (if any). Sometimes I have
>         connections with the same name in different groups, the
>         current filtering results don't show group membership
>
>
> That's because the idea of "groups" is not implemented at all in
> Guacamole right now.  There is a current JIRA issue, already, for
> adding groups to Guacamole.  See:
>
> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GUACAMOLE-220

I think I wasn't specific enough. I am referring to connection groups,
not user groups. I may have used the wrong term (folders?), sorry.

>  
>
>       * Timezone for each user should be the same as the server's by
>         default (or have an option to use the same as the server's)
>       * When clicking on a group checkbox, the selection should also
>         include all members of the group, either checking or
>         unchecking all boxes. I have some large groups (40+
>         connections) and it would be faster to be able to
>         include/exclude all connections in any given group.
>
> This also already has a JIRA issue - I'm not sure that I agree that
> checking a top-level box should result in all children being checked -
> there are situations where you want to, for example, assign
> permissions to a user to access a connection group (load-balanced,
> maybe) but not give them any access to the underlying connections.  I
> do agree that there needs to be a way to select all children more
> easily than you can right now.  See:
>
> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GUACAMOLE-181
>
>       * Selecting a connection in a group is not enough to give
>         access, the group also needs to be checked which is not
>         obvious (perhaps it should be automatic)
>
> This depends on what you're trying to do, but see the point above. 
> This behavior is intentional.

I am not sure how to indicate this otherwise, but it's not intuitive. I
tested this with 2 sysadmins and they both highlighted this - it's not a
huge issue after our initial setup is done, for sure.  The issue seems
to reflect what can be improved. Is there a mechanism in the project to
make a donation or fund this development otherwise?

>     My recent setup of Guacamole on a Debian server wasn't easy as the
>     packages are outdated and some manual configuration was required.
>
>     I've shared my notes for Debian server installation here if anyone
>     is interested:
>
>     https://wiki.debian.org/Guacamole <https://wiki.debian.org/Guacamole>
>
>
> Cool :-).
>
> -Nick

Thanks again to everyone involved in this, I hope to be able to
contribute back as time/knowledge permits.

- F.

-- 
Fabián Rodríguez
http://fsf.magicfab.ca/


Re: New user, Debian HowTo, some suggestions

Posted by Nick Couchman <vn...@apache.org>.
On Thu, Feb 1, 2018 at 3:36 PM, Fabián Rodríguez <ma...@member.fsf.org>
wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Many thanks for this software, it's proving very useful and I am happy I
> was able to replace other similar proprietary software in a particular
> situation I was dealing with.
>
> I'd like to suggest some improvements, I preferred no to use the bug
> tracker yet for this. Here is my short list:
>

Yeah, but if you have requests for improvements, they should go into JIRA.


>
>    - In Settings > Users > $USER > Permissions, I'd like to be able to
>    set two extra permissions:
>    - access sessions History tab
>       - access Active Sessions tab
>
> Can you explain why you think it is useful to have these as separate
permissions?  I guess I can see this for auditing, perhaps, if you want
users that have the ability to only audit connections and connection
history, but I'm curious what your use-case is.


>
>    - When using the filter to find connections, I'd like to see which
>    Group they belong to (if any). Sometimes I have connections with the same
>    name in different groups, the current filtering results don't show group
>    membership
>
>
That's because the idea of "groups" is not implemented at all in Guacamole
right now.  There is a current JIRA issue, already, for adding groups to
Guacamole.  See:

https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GUACAMOLE-220


>
>    - Timezone for each user should be the same as the server's by default
>    (or have an option to use the same as the server's)
>    - When clicking on a group checkbox, the selection should also include
>    all members of the group, either checking or unchecking all boxes. I have
>    some large groups (40+ connections) and it would be faster to be able to
>    include/exclude all connections in any given group.
>
> This also already has a JIRA issue - I'm not sure that I agree that
checking a top-level box should result in all children being checked -
there are situations where you want to, for example, assign permissions to
a user to access a connection group (load-balanced, maybe) but not give
them any access to the underlying connections.  I do agree that there needs
to be a way to select all children more easily than you can right now.  See:

https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GUACAMOLE-181


>    - Selecting a connection in a group is not enough to give access, the
>    group also needs to be checked which is not obvious (perhaps it should be
>    automatic)
>
> This depends on what you're trying to do, but see the point above.  This
behavior is intentional.

>
>
> My recent setup of Guacamole on a Debian server wasn't easy as the
> packages are outdated and some manual configuration was required.
>
> I've shared my notes for Debian server installation here if anyone is
> interested:
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/Guacamole
>

Cool :-).

-Nick