How to install Amazon Workspaces Linux Client for Fedora

workspaces-linux-client-rpm.md

Amazon Workspaces Linux client - RPM installation

Overview

The good news is that there is an Amazon Workspaces Linux client. If you happen to use Ubuntu, you can use the [official instructions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/workspaces/latest/userguide/amazon-workspaces-linux-client.html#linux_setup Amazon Workspaces Linux client docs). But what if you're on an rpm-friendly distribution like Fedora or CentOS?

alien to the rescue.

How to

Get the .deb package

Download the file from the Workspaces Linux client page.

wget "https://d3nt0h4h6pmmc4.cloudfront.net/workspacesclient_amd64.deb"

Create rpm

If you don't have alien, get it.

sudo dnf install alien

To avoid an error file / from install of ... conflicts with package from ..., we need to repackage manually.

sudo alien -rgv workspacesclient_amd64.deb

Now, remove the %dir / entry from the spec file and other entries it shouldn't own:

sudo vim workspacesclient-*/workspacesclient-*.spec

Build the rpm package.

cd workspacesclient-* && sudo mv *.spec ../ && \
    sudo rpmbuild --buildroot $(pwd) -bb ../workspacesclient-*.spec && \
    cd -

Did it work?

sudo rpm --query --info --package ./workspacesclient-*.x86_64.rpm 

You should see output like this...

Name        : workspacesclient
Version     : 4.0.1.1302
Release     : 2
Architecture: x86_64
Install Date: (not installed)
Group       : Converted/misc
Size        : 94362389
License     : see /usr/share/doc/workspacesclient/copyright
Signature   : (none)
Source RPM  : workspacesclient-4.0.1.1302-2.src.rpm
Build Date  : ...
Build Host  : ...
Summary     : Amazon WorkSpaces Client for Ubuntu 18.04
Description :


(Converted from a deb package by alien version 8.95.4.)

Install

sudo dnf localinstall workspacesclient-*.x86_64.rpm

If it worked as expected, you should see the executable installed as /opt/workspacesclient/workspacesclient. You should also see a shortcut.

Dependencies

If you see dependency errors like the ones below, you may need to perform these steps on an Ubuntu/Lubuntu image.

Error: 
 Problem: conflicting requests
  - nothing provides mono(Microsoft.Win32.SystemEvents) = 4.0.1.0 needed by workspacesclient-3.0.7.470-2.x86_64
  - nothing provides mono(System.Buffers) = 4.0.2.0 needed by workspacesclient-3.0.7.470-2.x86_64
...

Specifically:

1. Set up a (virtual) instance (using an Ubuntu-ish x86 image, e.g., https://lubuntu.me/downloads/).
2. Set up alien in that virtual instance (as described above) to get an RPM.
3. Install that RPM on Fedora.