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Last time I blogged about LTSP I was using on edubuntu. Now I did a fresh install of Ubuntu and installed LTSP on there. Here goes the how-to partially inspired by the Ubuntu wiki.
sudo apt-get install ltsp-server-standalone openssh-server thin-client-manager-gnome
Now create your LTSP environment on the server with: (Takes about 45min@55kbps, 100MB dowload)
sudo ltsp-build-client
Edit the /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf file to set the server’s IP values:
gksudo “gedit /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf”
Make sure the lines for domain-name-servers and routers match your network setup if you want to give the thin clients Internet access and restart the dhcp server with:
sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart
then do the following to update the SSH server:
sudo ltsp-update-sshkeys
After that, you will be able to boot your first thin client.
Server Maintenance
If the thin clients seem to be having trouble, remove the whole thin client setup with:
sudo rm -rf /opt/ltsp/*
and then install it again with:
sudo ltsp-build-client
Use this if the above doesn’t work http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=195956
Thin client configuration
Fine-tuning thin client configuration. More details and options here http://doc.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/handbook/C/ltsp-client.html
Usually, thin clients on an ubuntu thin client network should work fine out of the box. Occasionally, you would want to fine-tune settings on a client, or alter the settings slightly, either to increase performance, compatibility, or to enable or disable certain features.
Thin client configuration settings are stored in a file called “lts.conf”. It has a strange location, since it has to be accessable to the clients while they boot up. This file is located at “/opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf”. Edit it with:
gksudo “gedit /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf”
and add or modify the entries there. Here you can find additional options to add to this file. Here for USB printers on a thin client.
Booting PXE
If you don’t have bootable Network cards, you can make floppy’s that boot off the server.
Step 1
First identify what network interface card you have in your system.
This can easily be done by booting an Ubuntu live cd on the client and running in a terminal. (low memory machines will need to either open the case and read the chip details on the nic, or try to pause the boot display (use the pause key) and read what the pci device ids are for your network card)
lspci | grep Ethernet
I get the following output from various system I have:
kroekerhome@Kroekerhome:~$ lspci | grep Ethernet
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 7c)
Your output will look similar.
If you want to use a floppy to boot your clients continue, to boot from the hdd or a cdrom, go to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/LTSPBootingClientsWithoutPxe
Step 2
Now we need to go to http://www.rom-o-matic.net/5.4.1/ to generate a boot image for the network interface.
For a boot floppy disk image select .zdsk, (To make a boot floppy)
You will now need to select the correct network driver. i.e.:
for Realtek 8139 = rtl8139: rtl8139
Next select configure.
Make sure PXELOADER_KEEP_ALL is ticked, and it is a good idea to also tick POWERSAVE, ALLMULTI, MULTICAST_LEVEL1, MULTICAST_LEVEL2, and DOWNLOAD_PROTO_TFTM
When done, click get rom
The .zdsk file is a raw floppy image - on Linux you can copy it to a floppy like this:
cat eb-5.4.2-****.zdsk > /dev/fd0
Not sure when this popped up, but Dell is now offering the Inspiron Notebook 1420 N which offers some new cool features like: choosing the laptop color, cor2duo CPU’s, 3 different display types at 14.1″, 1GB RAM, 80GB hard drive, wireless and a 6-cell battery.
Looks to be a bit more high end than the E1501N, therefore also at a higher price, starting at $774, which isn’t bad considering the specs and that it has Ubuntu for an OS.
Seems like Dell isn’t giving up on Ubuntu for a while yet and hopefully never…
At work, we have a Edubuntu Feisty 7.04 server that serves 2-3 thin clients. It also acts as a print and file server.
Setting it up was a piece of cake, I just upgraded it first, installed some additional apps like Thunderbird and then did the following:
Update and upgrade the server:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Remove the old thin client server enivorment:
sudo rm -r /opt/ltsp/i386
Build a new one:
sudo ltsp-build-client
Start the DHCP server, (won’t work without this):
sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart
And it was up and running. Then I made some users I made boot floppies from Rom-o-matic, and booted the thin clients and logged in.
That’s all there’s to it. The only problems I’ve encountered so far are related to printing, with it causing the server to stall at times, but as that mean old printer is 12 years old, I’ll have to forgive it.
Here is a nice review of Edubuntu by Carla Schroder.
Next time, I plan to post on how to set up a decent backup plan with rsync or tar.
A new site has been launched www.ubuntustats.com. It uses some for of AJAX to display the latest posts on the Ubuntu forums, bugs, wiki changes, blogs, news, etc.
Really cool as it updates itself without having to click refresh in your browser, the new posts just apear at the top of each list. Check it out at www.ubuntustats.com.
Last time I blogged about the Microsoft/Xandros deal, but since then, Linspire also got itself hitched with the monopolist.
It’s really too bad that the business oriented Linux providers are one by one falling into Microsofts play-pen. First Novell, then Xandros, Linspire and some other non-Linux related ones, i.e. LG and Samsung.
The big Linux server provider Red Hat is not even considering Microsoft’s advances and neither is Ubuntu, as Mark Shuttleworth stated. As I’m using Ubuntu at the moment, I feel pretty safe but have no qualms whatsoever about moving to another distro if Ubuntu goes that way too.
I have no doubt that Microsoft is in for a big surprise soon, if the Linux community starts uniting to fight the enemy and not themselves.
So Microsoft, consider yourself warned!
LinuxWatch, LinuxWorld and Jeremy’s Blog all show diffirent bits of info on the Microsoft/Xandors deal, for “intellectual property assurance that Microsoft will provide patent covenants for Xandros Linux customers, along the lines of the recent Microsoft/Novell deal”.
“Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos said Thursday his company did not agree that its Linux distribution violates any Microsoft patents”.
Looks like Xandros is going the same way as Novell, let’s just hope that others such as Mandriva and other comercial Linux vendors don’t follow suit. In the words of Jeremy: it should be interesting to see how the community responds to this one.
I work at a Radio station in South America. We use a proprietary audo management suite called ADAS. It works fine, but is expensive, even to upgrade and has a few anoying bugs and is beginning to get slow because of the huge amount of music stored. It runs on some P4’s with moderate hardware and Win2k. Now, that we’ve installed Ubuntu on every computer in the Station except the main broadcastinc PC’s, we’re looking for Linux alternatives. Here are the most promising:
For the production part, i.e. editing, multitracks, recording, ripping, etc.
Audacity is a really nice audio editing app with a lot of features. Thumbs up!
Ardour is a multi-channel recording editing app with tons of features and has great potential in a radio station. Thumbs up!
Jokosher is another multi-channel audio editor, albeight new and still in beta. Worth keeping an eye on.
For the broadcasting part, i.e. playlists, automated 24hour playback, etc.
Campcaster is a new broadcasting solution perfect for a radio station. Is being developed rapidly. Still doesn’t come neer what we’re using, but in a while it’ll be worth some heavier testing on our main broadcasting PC’s. Potential replacement.
Rivendell is another broadcasting app that’s been around for a while, but apears to be developed a bit slow. Lacks a bunch of features and the interface looks a bit cluttered and in need of some polish. Also, they only offer RPM’s or source code, no other binaries, but not relevant. Other than that, I think it’s decent. Just needs more time to develope.
Forget my last post, I ain’t getting a Dell yet… I’ll wait a couple of months and see if Dell starts offering any other models with Ubuntu, hopefully soon.
