How To: NoMachine on Arch Linux

NoMachine allows you to access a graphical desktop of a computer over the network. Unlike some other remote desktop solutions, NoMachine does not require an intermediary server to establish the connection.

Recommended System Requirements

Hardware

• Intel Core2 Duo, AMD Athlon Dual-Core or equivalent
• 1 GB RAM
• 110 MB free disk space
• Network connection

Software

• A desktop environment must already be installed.

This app is not developed in the open, so only its developers know how it works. It may be insecure in ways that are hard to detect, and it may change without oversight.

Download

If you want to install NoMachine on a Arch Linux distribution, download the compressed NoMachine tar package from the web site. You can head over to their downloads page to see what other products/services they offer NoMachine Downloads or head straight to the Linux download page Linux Binaries

Verify

The NoMachine team provides a md5 signature for verifying the packages you download form their website.

md5sum <pkgName>_<pkgVersion>_<arch>.tar.gz | grep <md5_signature>

Example using latest package as of this post

md5sum nomachine_9.0.188_11_x86_64.tar.gz | grep d8fed96bce337b13b602593b850a432e

Output: d8fed96bce337b13b602593b850a432e *nomachine_9.0.188_11_x86_64.tar.gz

Extract

Install NoMachine or any of the server packages:

If you want to install to the default location /usr/NX ensure that package is placed there. Alternatively /usr/local/bin/ and /opt can be used.

In this tutorial /usr/local/bin is used to extract the installation package. While the installation directory will be in /opt

Extract the archive in the /usr/local/bin/ directory:

cd /usr/local/bin/
sudo tar xvzf <pkgName>_<pkgVersion>_<arch>.tar.gz  

cd /usr/local/bin/
sudo tar xvzf nomachine_<pkgVersion>_<arch>.tar.gz  

Install

Read all scripts that you wish to run, especially those that require privileged access.

Run the nxserver script:

Adding the redhat flag after --install option is required when installing on Arch and Arch-based distros as its not officially supported.

Use --install option for installation.

cd NX 
sudo NX/nxserver --install redhat 

Alternatively, Using non-default location like /opt.

sudo NX_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt /usr/local/bin/NX/nxserver --install redhat

Cleanup your directory:

cd /usr/local/bin/
sudo rm -rf nomachine_<pkgVersion>_<arch>.tar.gz README.md

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Install via AUR:

There is a nomachine package on the Arch User Repository maintained by runnytu if you want to give that a try.

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Post-Install:

Some useful environment variables for your rc file:

# Environment Variables
# Exporting the Installation directory for NX  
export NX_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt
# Adding NX to PATH.
export NX_HOME=/opt/NX
export PATH=$PATH:$NX_HOME/bin

nxserver --version

Output: NoMachine - Version <VERSION_NR>

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Update

Use --update option to update your installation.

# This script executes another located in /etx/NX/
sudo /opt/NX/bin/nxserver --update
# Assuming you added $NX_HOME to your path
sudo $NX_HOME/bin/nxserver --update
sudo nxserver --update

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Uninstall

Use --uninstall option to uninstall your installation.

sudo /opt/NX/scripts/setup/nxserver --uninstall
# Assuming you added $NX_HOME to your path
sudo $NX_HOME/scripts/setup/nxserver --uninstall

Then remove the NX directory.

sudo rm -rf /opt/NX

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