VirtualHere on Debian

Submitted by VMCosco on #1

Admittedly, I have went down a rabbit hole here. I have very little knowledge of Linux. I am running a Debian VM on a Windows Server 16 host for the sole purpose of Home Assistant. I followed a guide to install Debian w/ GUI and was able to get Hass.io running n Docker. I have the VirtualHere server running in WinServer 16 and am able to connect to it from my Windows guests. Now comes my ignorance...

I downloaded the AMD64 version of the client for GUI. Not sure if I want that or command line only. Now I have no idea what to do? Where do I put the executable (it is sitting in downloads now)? How do I run it (when i try i get a "no application installed for executable files" message)? How do I get it to run at boot up? These are probably such basic questions that Googling doesn't even turn much up.

Submitted by VMCosco on Sat, 2019/02/09 - 07:01

#2

The issue seems to be that I cannot get vhuit64 to launch. With some help from the r/Debian folks, i was able to set the file properties to "execute as program", but when I select run, nothing seems to happen. Any help would be appreciated.

Submitted by Michael on Sat, 2019/02/09 - 10:43

#3

Does your Debian VM have graphics or is it just all text?

Submitted by VMCosco on Sun, 2019/02/10 - 08:07

#4

I installed the GUI version. I attempted to follow the fix in the link below but that doesn't seem to be working. I'm not sure if I run the "export" command after I run the "sudo cat" command or what. When i run sudo cat /root/.bashrc a bunch of text scrlls and the prompt goes right back to victorc@debian-HA:~$ Then i run export DISPLAY=:0 and the prompt comes back. The I run sudo Downloads/vhuit64 and I get a message saying "error: unable to intialize GTK+, is DISPLAY set properly?"

https://www.virtualhere.com/comment/3724#comment-3724

I wish I was not so Linux ignorant. It is very frustrating

Submitted by Michael on Sun, 2019/02/10 - 08:53

#5

You dont need to run any export command.

I think possibly you may not know enough of linux to get this going. It sounds like you dont have a gui available in your linux.

You can use the console version of virtualhere however that requires a license purchase, if have purchased a license you can follow the instruction here https://www.virtualhere.com/linux_console

Submitted by VMCosco on Sun, 2019/02/10 - 11:10

#6

I have a GUI. I downloaded vhuit64 and it is sitting in my Downloads folder. I went into properties and checked the box to say "execute as program". When I double click the file, nothing happens. The interface does not pop up. I have only went in the console to try to fix the problem of the client not starting. I have Debian running in Hyper-V so I am viewing the Debian GUI via the "Connect" window in Hyper-V.

Submitted by Michael on Sun, 2019/02/10 - 11:45

#7

OK you probably arent running it with sudo

open "Terminal" then type

sudo ./vhuit64

Submitted by VMCosco on Mon, 2019/02/11 - 01:27

#8

Thanks for the continued help. When i run:

cd Downloads
sudo ./vhuit64

I get:

Error: Unable to initialize GTK+, is DISPLAY set properly?

Submitted by Michael on Mon, 2019/02/11 - 11:07

#9

I did the following

1. Installed debian 9 from here https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/
2. I opened terminal and typed 

wget https://www.virtualhere.com/sites/default/files/usbclient/vhuit64
chmod +x ./vhuit64
su -
cd /home/michael
./vhuit64

and it worked, it opened the virtualhere client, i clicked on a USB disk i had attached to one of the servers and the disk then appeared accessible in debian.

If you are not familiar with linux ,I would strongly suggest you use ubuntu instead of debian. Ubuntu is a more user friendly version of debian. (Note: debian doesnt even come with sudo anymore, whereas ubuntu does on installation)

Submitted by VMCosco on Mon, 2019/02/11 - 23:53

#10

Thanks. When I follow that everything works until I get to ./vhuit64. I still get the Unable to intialize GTK+, is DISPLAY set properly. Do you think that is because I am running Debian as a Hyper-V guest and accessing it through the Hyper-V Connect function? Maybe I will just try blowing up my Debian VM and going with Ubuntu

Submitted by Michael on Tue, 2019/02/12 - 07:07

#11

I dont know im not that familiar with hyperv. Just use ubuntu instead

Submitted by VMCosco on Tue, 2019/02/12 - 12:53

#12

I guess I was was just nt intended to use this application. After getting it running just fine in Windows, Linux seems to be my downfall.

I installed a fresh Ubuntu 18 guest on Hyper-V. Followed your instructions above:

wget https://www.virtualhere.com/sites/default/files/usbclient/vhuit64
chmod +x ./vhuit64
su -
cd /home/victorc
./vhuit64

I got a file cannot be found message.

I went into files, found vhuit64, double-clicked and the client does not open.

I would be really curious if anyone else is having this problem. The client is working fine on a Windows 10 Hyper-V guest.

Submitted by VMCosco on Tue, 2019/02/12 - 13:55

#13

I was able to get vhuit64 running by installing libgtk2.0-0.i386. After doing that, your commands worked. I still can't run but double-clicking the icon. Not sure why.

Two final questions:

1) Can I set the client to run when Ubuntu boots?
2) If I have to start from terminal, is there a way to issue the commands so that I do not have to keep terminal open? Right now, if I close terminal, the client exits as well.

Thanks!!

Submitted by Michael on Tue, 2019/02/12 - 19:33

#14

1. Yes, use .bashrc
2. append & to the command

Submitted by StanB42 on Fri, 2021/08/27 - 11:00

#15

Sorry this topic is 2 years old but I just saw it. When running the client on Debian/Linux, you must give root permission to access X. Use the command
$ xhost local:root
before envoking the client.

Submitted by hello_world.c on Mon, 2024/03/25 - 20:03

#16

Sorry this topic is now 5 years old (!) but still an issue. The comment from StanB42 helped a lot but in addition, if you want to autostart the GUI client, you need to add the vhuit64 and modprobe executables to sudoers for your user to allow executing them as root without entering a password. If you need a single command to autostart, calling xhost and vhuit64 through bash like this will do the trick (adjust the paths with your own of course):

/usr/bin/bash -c "/usr/bin/xhost local:root; sudo /usr/local/bin/vhuit64 &"