Linux Deployment Reference

Steps to Install .NET on Linux (Ubuntu)

To install the cross-platform .NET runtime on a Linux machine, follow the steps below. Choose the version that matches your FrameworX release: .NET 8 for FrameworX 10.1.4 and earlier, .NET 10 for FrameworX 10.1.5 and later. The instructions are based on the Ubuntu distribution, but can be adapted for other distributions.

Update existing packages:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Install the required packages:

sudo apt install -y wget apt-transport-https

Add the Microsoft Package Signing key:

wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/$(lsb_release -rs)/packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb

wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/$(printf "%.2f" $(lsb_release -rs))/packages-microsoft-prod.deb

wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/$(awk -F= '/DISTRIB_RELEASE/{print $2}' /etc/upstream-release/lsb-release)/packages-microsoft-prod.deb

Update the repositories: 

sudo apt update

Install the .NET SDK that matches your FrameworX version.

For FrameworX 10.1.4 and earlier — install .NET 8:

sudo apt install -y dotnet-sdk-8.0

For FrameworX 10.1.5 and later — install .NET 10:

sudo apt install -y dotnet-sdk-10.0

10.1.4 and 10.1.5 can be installed side-by-side on the same machine as isolated runtimes.

Verify the installation:

dotnet --version

FrameworX Setup on Linux

The UBUNTU version used for testing was 22.04. It was also tested with Debian 12. Other Linux distributions that support the matching .NET runtime should work as well, but there may be differences in how you install .NET.

Step 1

The cross-platform .NET runtime should already be installed on Linux — .NET 8 for FrameworX 10.1.4 and earlier, .NET 10 for FrameworX 10.1.5 and later. If not, go back to the section "Steps to Install .NET on Linux (Ubuntu)."   

The Windows computer that runs the Designer also needs the matching .NET Desktop Runtime, even though the solution runs on Linux. Scripts in a Multi-Platform solution are compiled by the Designer, not on the Linux server. See Script Compilation Target.

Step 2

Download the TWebServices bootstrap from the FrameworX GitHub repository into the folder that will hold FrameworX on Linux, for example /home/<user>/FrameworX. This folder becomes the FrameworX root on Linux: TWebServices runs from it, and the product files are installed below it in Step 4.

git clone https://github.com/tatsoftdocs/FrameworX-v10.git ~/FrameworX
cd ~/FrameworX

If you don’t have git installed, use the following command:

sudo apt install git

Step 3

On Linux, run TWebServices so the Windows computer can connect. Inside the FrameworX root folder from Step 2, run the following command:

sudo dotnet TWebServices.dll

After you run this command, it should show you in the terminal that it is running and what is the IP and Port.

Step 4

After that, simply run FrameworX.exe on Windows, connect to Linux in “Server Information” > “Remote Server” > add the IP and port (it will be shown when you do the command in step 3), “Upgrade Product…” with the options you want to install on Linux (for example: HTML5, Designer/Remote, Protocol Drivers, etc.). Solution Center copies the product files from the Windows installation to Linux and writes them into the fx-10 folder below the FrameworX root, in the Linux layout described in Folder Layout on Linux.

Step 5

Finally, click “Upload File…”, and upload the file you will use in the Linux environment. It is important to notice that the project has to be created with the multi-platform option.

The solution 'MySolution' targets Windows (.NET Framework 4.8) and cannot run on this computer (Linux).

Open the solution in Designer, change the target platform to Multiplatform in Solution Settings, run a Build All, and try again.

Folder Layout on Linux

Linux and macOS always run the .NET 10 runtime, and the folder layout differs from Windows:

For example, on Linux: <root>/TWebServices.dll, <root>/fx-10/TServer.dll, <root>/fx-10/TRemoteDevice.dll. There is no net10.0 subfolder on Linux.

Remote Devices on a Linux Computer

A FrameworX server can start a Device module on another computer as a remote device. The server asks TWebServices on the receiving computer to start TRemoteDevice from that computer’s fx-10 folder, and the remote device then connects back to the server.

Supported combinations

• Linux server to Linux receiver.
• Windows server to Windows receiver.
• Windows server to Linux receiver: supported from FrameworX 10.1.6. In earlier versions a Windows server cannot launch a remote device on a Linux receiver.

The receiver must be installed as described on this page, so that TRemoteDevice is in <root>/fx-10/ and TWebServices runs from <root>.

Network ports

Folders TWebServices serves

TWebServices file services only read, list and write files under these folders:

• The temporary folder of the computer.
• The FrameworX root folder, where TWebServices runs, including fx-10 below it.
• The folders listed in MachineSettings/SearchPaths.txt. Folders you add to the solution folder list in Solution Center are stored in this file.

A request for any other path is refused, and so is a link that points outside these folders. TWebServices reads SearchPaths.txt when it starts, so restart TWebServices after changing it. Remote launch only starts TRemoteDevice, TStartup and TRunModule from the product folder.

Pythonnet for Python scripts

If Python scripts are to be used, pythonnet is essential. There are two options from this point: installing it globally or inside a virtual environment. Follow the steps below for both options:

Installing in a Virtual Environment: 

Run the following command in the terminal to create the virtual environment (venv) in the current folder:

python3 -m venv ./venv_pythonnet

Once created, activate the virtual environment with the command below

source ./venv_pythonnet/bin/activate

After activation, upgrade pip to ensure compatibility and access to the latest packages:

pip install --upgrade pip

With the environment active and pip upgraded, install pythonnet:

pip install pythonnet

If you choose this option, you must run TWebServices.dll within the same virtual environment. Otherwise, FrameworX will not be able to locate the pythonnet module.

Installing Globally:

Check your python version 

python3 --version

Based on your Python version, install the following packages to ensure that pythonnet can compile and run correctly:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y \
    python3-pip \
    python3.12-dev \
    build-essential \
    clang \
    libpython3.12 \
    libpython3.12-dev

Now install pythonnet using the following command.

 sudo pip3 install pythonnet --break-system-packages

Note: The --break-system-packages flag is required due to recent changes introduced by python.org. [More information can be found here.]

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