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FOG Client installation options

Windows Client

Prerequisites

For running the FOG client on Windows you need the .NET Framework
version 4.0+

Each FOG server version comes with it's own FOG client. You can
download the client from the FOG Web UI:

  • Log in on the client machine, open a browser and browse to the Fog
    Web UI.
  • On the bottom of the Web UI, click on the link 'FOG Client' (you
    don't have to log in).
  • Select Your installer

MSI Installer

Smart Installer

Run The Installer

Info

The following steps follow the msi installer wizard.
The Smart Installer wizard is similar

Note

You may get a 'Windows protected your PC' popup. In that case you have
to convince windows that this installer is safe to run. Click on 'More info' and 'Run anyway'.

  • At the Welcome screen, click on 'Next'

  • Accept the terms in the License Agreement (it's the GPL license, so
    why not) and click on 'Next'

  • Fill in required fields:

    • Server Address: type in the hostname or IP address of the FOG
      Server.
    • Web Root: leave this to /fog
    • Leave the other options as they are
    • Click 'Next'
    • Leave the destination folder as it is and click 'Next'
  • Click on 'Install' and say 'Yes' at the UAC prompt.
  • Once the wizard has been installed, click on 'Finish'.

Now the FOG client has been installed. In the Task bar there should be a
new icon:

This icon tells you the version of the FOG Client and helps handle the
notifications to the end user.

FOG client silent installation

If you would like to create a silent installation to deploy the fog
client here is an example of a powershell script that would do that for
you

Note

This script assumes that you can access your fogserver by the default name of fogserver which can be a hostname or a dns alias

#download the client installer to C:\fogtemp\fog.msi
Invoke-WebRequest -URI "http://fogserver/fog/client/download.php?newclient" -UseBasicParsing -OutFile 'C:\fogtemp\fog.msi'
#run the installer with msiexec and pass the command line args of /quiet /qn /norestart
Start-Process -FilePath msiexec -ArgumentList @('/i','C:\fogtemp\fog.msi','/quiet','/qn','/norestart') -NoNewWindow -Wait;

MSI Switches

  • USETRAY= defaults to "1", if "0" the tray will be hidden
  • HTTPS= defaults to "0", if "1" the client will use HTTPS (not
    recommended)
  • WEBADDRESS= defaults to "fogserver", this is the ip/dns name of
    your server
  • WEBROOT= defaults to "/fog"
  • ROOTLOG= defaults to "0", if "1" the fog.log will be at
    C:fog.log, otherwise %PROGRAMFILES%FOGfog.log

Example of a silent MSI installation:

msiexec /i FOGService.msi /quiet USETRAY="0" WEBADDRESS="XX.XX.XX.XX"

Smart Installer Switches

Note

All switches with --{OPTION} can also be used as /{OPTION}

  • --server= Specify the server address. Default is fogserver
  • --webroot= Specify the webroot. Default is /fog
  • -h or -https Use https for server communication
  • -r or -rootlog Put fog.log in the root of the filesystem
  • -s or --start Automatically start the service after installation.
    Linux only
  • -t or --tray Enabled the FOG Tray and notifications
  • -u or --uninstall Uninstall the client
  • --upgrade Upgrade the client
  • -l= or --log= Specify where to put the SmartInstaller log

Windows Services

An installed client consist of two services: the FOGService and the
FogUserService.

  • FOGService: Runs under the LocalSystem account and performs all
    tasks like running snapins, change hostname, etc..
  • FogUserService. The user service is run in a user's context and
    helps with notification popups and user level tasks.

Logging

You can find the fog log at C:\Fog.log and the user service log at
C:\users\username\.fog_user.log

Uninstall

There are various ways to uninstall the client:

  • Uninstall via 'Programs and Features' or 'Apps & Features'
  • Uninstall via MSI. Example:

<!-- -->

msiexec /i FOGService.msi /quiet

  • Uninstall using the SmartInstaller. Example:

<!-- -->

SmartInstaller.exe uninstall

Linux client

Linux Client Pre-requisites

  • Mono: latest stable build
  • xprintidle: This dependency is optional. If not installed AutoLogOut
    will not run. xprintidle basically just returns the idle time of an
    x window, therefore on a system without a GUI it is not needed and
    should not be installed. It should be available in standard package
    managers. E.G. apt-get, yum, or dnf

Install Mono

Many distributions come with an out of date version of mono in their
package manager. Therefore, do not attempt to install via your package
manager without the below modifications or take a look at the
instructions found on their website:
https://www.mono-project.com/download/stable/#download-lin-centos

Debian

sudo apt install apt-transport-https dirmngr gnupg ca-certificates
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF
echo "deb https://download.mono-project.com/repo/debian stable-buster main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-official-stable.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mono-complete

Ubuntu

sudo apt install gnupg ca-certificates
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF
echo "deb https://download.mono-project.com/repo/ubuntu stable-bionic main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-official-stable.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mono-complete

CentOS

rpmkeys --import "http://pool.sks-keyservers.net/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x3fa7e0328081bff6a14da29aa6a19b38d3d831ef"
su -c 'curl https://download.mono-project.com/repo/centos8-stable.repo | tee /etc/yum.repos.d/mono-centos8-stable.repo'
yum install mono-complete

OpenSUSE and SLES

You can install mono using SUSE One-Click files:
http://download.mono-project.com/repo/mono-complete.ymp

Others

The FOG Client can be installed on any platform that can run the latest
stable build of mono. To install:

  • Check your package manager for mono-complete. After installing it
    run mono --version. Ensure the version is at least 4.2. If not,
    remove the package.
  • If your package manager had an old version of mono, see here for how
    to compile mono

If your system either has systemd or initd the client will be
automatically configured to run on startup. If your system does not have
either, you will need to configure your system to run the manual start
command below on startup.

To manually start and stop the service:

sudo /opt/fog-service/control.sh start
sudo /opt/fog-service/control.sh stop

Installing fog-client SmartInstaller

Each FOG server version comes with it's own FOG client. You can
download the client from the FOG Web UI:

  • Log in on the client machine, open a browser and browse to the Fog
    Web UI.
  • On the bottom of the Web UI, click on the link 'FOG Client' (you
    don't have to log in).
  • Select the SmartInstaller and download it
  • Run the installer with mono:

<!-- -->

sudo mono SmartInstaller.exe

The client will install to /opt/fog-service.

The service is automatically configured to run on startup. To manually
start and stop the service:

sudo systemctl start FOGService
sudo systemctl stop FOGService

Limitations

  • The FOG Tray is currently incompatible on linux systems. Regardless
    of what you set during installation, it will not run.
  • The following modules / features are not yet supported:
    • Active Directory joining
    • PrinterManager

Linux Client Logging

The log is located at /opt/fog-service/fog.log.

Uninstall Linux Client

To uninstall:

sudo systemctl stop FOGService
sudo mono SmartInstaller.exe uninstall

OS X Client

OS X Client Pre-requisites

  • Mono: use the latest stable build.

Installing Mono

Installation

Each FOG server version comes with it's own FOG client. You can
download the client from the FOG Web UI:

  • Log in on the client machine, open a browser and browse to the Fog
    Web UI.
  • On the bottom of the Web UI, click on the link 'FOG Client' (you
    don't have to log in).
  • Select the SmartInstaller.
  • Install the SmartInstaller with mono:

<!-- -->

sudo mono SmartInstaller.exe

  • Reboot the system to complete the installation.

The service is automatically configured to run on startup. To manually
start and stop the service:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freeghost.daemon.plist
sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freeghost.daemon.plist

OS X Client Limitations

The follow modules / features are not yet supported - PrinterManager

OS X Logging

You can find the client log file in /opt/fog-service/fog.log

Uninstall OS X Client

To uninstall:

sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freeghost.daemon.plist
sudo mono SmartInstaller.exe uninstall
Last update: 2023-07-24