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I’m working on setting up a router/firewall which and will document the process to put on this Blog, so stay tuned.
Also I hope to make a beautiful backup solution where rsync would backup different computers on our network twice a week and delete the real old backups after a while. This’ll be kinda difficult to decide whether I’ll have the server pull the data off or the workstations send their data to the server. Probably the latter as then there is less chance of interruption.
I’m also going to be setting up Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon on our LTSP server, hopefully that’ll work even better than it does now, and faster. Should be interesting.
Stay tuned for more guide and tutorials and random stuff soon.
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
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.
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.
Jeremy, the founder of Linuxquestions.org anounced in his latest Blog post that he had received an email from a Dell employee. The email stated the Dell will be releasing the E520, 1505 and XPS 410 models next Thursday, 5/24, with the Ubuntu flavour of Linux.
Although some doubt the validity of the email, we can only hope that it’s valid and come thursday, we’ll see…
Read the original post here.
If your reading this your most likely using Windows. Almost everyone uses it so it’s good, right? WRONG!
It might be OK for the people that wouldn’t know a monitor from a computer, but the a-bit-over-average-user might have noticed that Windows, be it ‘98, 2000, ME, XP, VIsta, whatever,is not so great as they’d like to think.
Why is this? I’ll tell you why… Do you ever wonder that after you bought a new Computer with the newest greatest XP on it that after a couple of months it slows down? Have you noticed that sometimes for no apperent reason the computer get’s terribly slow and the red light is blinking on the front of the computer? Have you ever gotton a “Send error Report” error? and often? Do you have to spend $$ to update your anti-spyware and maintain it a lot? Do you have viruses? Do you have to buy a new copy of windows for every new computer you get? Do you have to pay hundreds of dollers for Microsoft Office?
If you answered “yes” to some of these questions than you are “dependent” on Microsoft. Why should you give them your money and time if you can get something better for free.
Your probably wondering what it is, or maybe not. I use it and I can satisfactorily answer “NO” to all of the above questions.
It’s “Linux“, Ok that wikipedia article might not look very cool, but this might help you understand it better. Read up and get into the computer revolution!
Ok, you’ve been hearing about Linux lately and wondering, why would I want to change from windows, it does what I want. Yeah right…
Just tell me how many hours you spend on updating and scanning with all your anti-virus and anti-spyware, etc.? How long does it take you to defragment your Hardrive? How many times has a program you were using crash without reason? How much did you pay for Windows?
While your thinking that over, I’ll tell you one thing, you don’t have to worry about any of that in Linux. Hey, I normally would not have time to be writing this if I used Windows, plus I have people calling me to help them because their computer does weird stuff. Believe me, it’s frustrating.
So, why NOT linux? Why Windows?
http://www.getgnulinux.org/ is a great site about Linux and how to move to it. Check it out!
Google Earth has been released for Linux! Here's a review of it. Unlike Picasa for Linux, it's a native port, which meens it doesn't rely on wine for it to run.
Here is a list of important Linux-related tutorials (in no particular order) that a newbie to Linux can and should read.
The Linux Guide for Windows Users
The Linux Terminal - a Beginners’ BashRute User's Tutorial and Exposition
The Linux Documentation Project
Google Labs released Picasa for Linux this week. Check it out at http://picasa.google.com/linux. It's still in Beta but it looks almost exactly like the Windows release .
Here are some screenshots of what it looks like:
Are you a slave to Micro$oft? Does it matter? Read this article at lobby4linux and find out. http://blog.lobby4linux.com/index.php?/archives/71-MS-Assaults-Customers-with-First-Wave-of-Attacks.htm
Finished reading? Still think the same way as before? Comment here.
