Wyse Firmware Management woes on Linux VSFTP

Hello all,

First time post here, figured I'd share some success that I found no answers on the web and hours of banging my head against the wall to figure out. One thing I learned is that for what ever reason if a thin client firmware file is sitting atop a file system in linux such as ext3 ext4 etc... When the thin client grabs the file i.e (DOVE_boot or C10LE_wnos)  it will return an error "Invalid File Format". First step was to see if the problem was with a corrupt file then I performed other troubleshooting steps and research to no avail. Dell Premimum Tech Support could not figure it out either. What I did know is that it would work if pointed to a windows FTP server using iis. I did not want to do this as I have a multi profile set on my Linux ftp server.

My Configuration.

CentOS7 

[root@###### ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS Linux release 7.2.1511 (Core)
[root@###### ~]# vsftpd -version
vsftpd: version 3.0.2

ThinClients:
Cluster of T10's and C10LE's

I have each group of thin clients segregated out by Linux usernames and each ftp account is locked to the users /home/~ folder. So lets say we want to set up two departments with thin clients.

Sales and IT.

Set up each thin client manually to point to the central configuration server "Linux FTP". Lets say you have the users setup in linux so 

Userid: sales

Pass: salespass

UserID: IT

Pass: ITpass

Centrtal config would be like below

Server: 192.168.x.x/wyse
UID: sales
Pass: salespass

Inside of each of the home folders you will create first at the root wyse then > wnos this will hold your wnos.ini file

so lets look at it

/home/sales/wyse/wnos/wnos.ini

/home/IT/wyse/wnos/wnos.ini

We want to update the firmware in Sales due to an upgrade on a Netscaler in Citrix, now the Sales thin clients can no longer connect. A firmware update may fix this, but we do not want to update the firmware for the IT users. Here's the secret below.

Create a share on a windows desktop or server. Add ntfs and share permissions to a local or domain user lets say 

user: ftp

pass: ftp 

share is \\server1\wyseftp

Place your firmware files i.e C10LE_wnos and DOVE_boot in this share

then on your linux server ensure that you have samba-client and samba-common installed.

on centos its

#yum install samba-client samba-common

after the install create a folder in your /mnt/ directory

lets say

#mkdir /mnt/ftp

now edit your fstab

vi or nano /etc/fstab and insert the line like below with your information.

//Server1/wyseftp /mnt/ftp cifs username=sales,password=salespass,domain=####,sec=ntlm 0 0

now we will create a directory in the sales directory and mount AGAIN

#mkdir /home/sales/wyse/wnos/Firmware

This creates a new folder called "Firmware" now we mount!

mount --bind /mnt/ftp/ /home/sales/wyse/wnos/Firmware

now you will see any files on the windows share through linux with it sitting in a ntfs file system.

Make sure you have your wnos.ini file in the users home directory i.e.

/home/sales/wyse/wnos/wnos.ini 

and that it contains "autoload=1 or autoload=2"

i.e.

PlatformConfig="T Class" Firmware=Firmware/Dove_boot
PlatformConfig="C Class" Firmware=Firmware/C10_wnos
autoload=2

^^^^Ensure that this is at the top of the wnos.ini file^^^^

Some helpful links to set up centos and vsftp for some noobies below. The best thing I love is this is 100% absolutely free.

http://www.liquidweb.com/kb/how-to-install-and-configure-vsftpd-on-centos-7/http://linoxide.com/how-tos/centos-7-step-by-step-screenshots/

 I have worked with Linux\Unix for roughly 7 years and still love it even being a Windows Sr. Systems Administrator.

Sorry for the horrid write up, I normally don't post in forums anymore.