date: 2015-09-09 01:10:10 -0700 summary: > Multiple auth extensions, file browsing, VNC audio and file transfer, RDP performance flags.
binary-war: “guacamole-0.9.8.war” : “http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/guacamole/current/binary/guacamole-0.9.8.war”
extensions: “Database Authentication” : “http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/guacamole/current/extensions/guacamole-auth-jdbc-0.9.8.tar.gz” “LDAP Authentication” : “http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/guacamole/current/extensions/guacamole-auth-ldap-0.9.8.tar.gz” “NoAuth (Disabled) Authentication” : “http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/guacamole/current/extensions/guacamole-auth-noauth-0.9.8.tar.gz”
source-archives: “guacamole-client-0.9.8.tar.gz” : “http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/guacamole/current/source/guacamole-client-0.9.8.tar.gz” “guacamole-server-0.9.8.tar.gz” : “http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/guacamole/current/source/guacamole-server-0.9.8.tar.gz”
documentation: “Manual” : “/doc/0.9.8/gug” “guacamole-common” : “/doc/0.9.7/guacamole-common” “guacamole-common-js” : “/doc/0.9.8/guacamole-common-js” “guacamole-ext” : “/doc/0.9.8/guacamole-ext” “libguac” : “/doc/0.9.8/libguac”
The 0.9.8 release of Guacamole is the first release to allow multiple authentication extensions to be loaded simultaneously. Administrators can now, for example, authenticate users against LDAP while storing connection data in MySQL or PostgreSQL.
Guacamole 0.9.8 also features major improvements to the file transfer interface, allowing the filesystem hierarchy of the remote system to be browsed directly within the Guacamole menu, as well as fully stabilized and documented support for audio and file transfer for VNC using PulseAudio and SFTP respectively.
One major shortcoming of Guacamole in past releases was that it could only use one authentication mechanism at a time. LDAP, MySQL, etc. were supported, but only exclusively with respect to each other. If you wanted to authenticate against LDAP while storing connection data in MySQL (a very common request), the only solution was to create your own hybrid authentication extension.
Guacamole now supports loading multiple authentication extensions at the same time, and allows each extension to provide data for a user account, even if that user account didn't come from that extension. More information on exactly how this can be configured is provided in the manual.
In addition to traditional drag-and-drop, files can now be transferred by browsing a hierarchy of folders within the Guacamole menu. This file transfer support has been extended to the point that it can even be used with VNC through a secondary SFTP connection.
Though Guacamole has supported audio within VNC using PulseAudio in previous releases, that support was experimental, and had known issues. All known issues with Guacamole's support for PulseAudio alongside VNC have now been fixed, and this support is considered stable. The manual has been updated to document configuration of both Guacamole and PulseAudio to provide audio for VNC.
The various options provided by RDP for configuring user experience, possibly to the detriment of connection bandwidth usage and speed, are now supported. Wallpaper, theming, smooth text, desktop composition, etc. can all be explicitly enabled, though group policies on the RDP server can still override these settings.
Past releases of Guacamole provided SSH and telnet support which rendered all text as gray-on-black by default. Normal terminal colors were still supported, of course, but the default text would always be gray-on-black. Guacamole 0.9.8 adds the ability to specify a color scheme for SSH and telnet connections, including higher-contrast options like white-on-black which are easier to read.
If using the database authentication extension, use of individual user accounts can now be restricted to specific times of day or configured to automatically become valid/invalid after specific dates.
For ease of configuration, connection parameters within the administration interface are now organized into logical sections. What used to be a sea of miscellaneous options for each protocol is now organized by category.
Thanks to the generous contributions of Mathias Müller, Norbert Klaus, and Serena Soldati, Guacamole now has support for three additional languages: Dutch, German, and Italian. These, or any supported language, will automatically be selected by Guacamole when it is used for the first time in a browser configured to prefer that language.
The telnet protocol provides for sending a “break” to the remote end, but it was previously impossible to send this signal using Guacamole. Unlike Ctrl+C and similar keyboard shortcuts, which actually result in control codes, “break” is more low-level and is commonly necessary to control running processes within a telnet session to a network appliance.
To send “break” over telnet within Guacamole, you can press either Pause, Break, or Ctrl+0.
In addition to the above major improvements, several minor improvements and bug fixes have also been made in 0.9.8, including low-level improvements to the Guacamole tunnel, the ability to override the standard encoding of the VNC clipboard, and automatic creation of the RDP drive directory.