In 2007 I posted a guide to installing an Ubuntu LTSP Server. Since then, Ltsp has become a lot easier to install, setup and use.

Installation basically consists of:

• sudo apt-get install ltsp-server-standalone openssh-server

and

• sudo ltsp-build-client (or ¨sudo ltsp-build-client --arch i386¨ if your on a 64-bit system with 32-bit machines)

You will want 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

Then restart the dhcp server with:

• sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart

And do the following to update the SSH server:

• sudo ltsp-update-sshkeys

After that, you will be able to boot your first thin client. On older clients without a ¨Boot from network¨ option in the BIOS, you can use Etherboot or ROM-o-matic. Too write the image to floppy do

• cat filename.extension > /dev/fd0

This  basically all there is on the Ubuntu LTSP wiki page, although there are many more options as far as customization goes.

Originally begun to investigate the possibility of extending the useful life of legacy IT equipment, the Linux Terminal Server Project is now a comprehensive collection of tools for running driveless thin clients with a Linux server. Certainly in its current version 5, if not before, it has blossomed into an useful – and free – terminal/server solution. Read more at http://www.heise-online.co.uk/open/The-Linux-Terminal-Server-Project–/features/112254

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.

Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 4 has been released. Here’s basically what’s been changed since the last alpha:

• Tracker running by default
• Fast user switching
• Deskbar applet on panel
• New OpenOffice.org 2.3
• AppArmor security by default
• Smooth shutdown splash

Screenshots

I’m downloading it right now to try out, hopefully it’s as good as past Ubuntu alpha releases. Hope they can implement a faster boot process as well as shutdown, combine all the configuration setting in a control panel and get a decent automated restricted drivers setup.

The official release notes at https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2007-August/000324.html

I’m trying to think of things that are not in ubuntu currently and would make a nice addition without making it bloated…

• Make Firefox aware of apt:// links that link to ubuntu packages that are installable simply by clicking on the link.

• Set up a more centralized wiki section for all things related to LTSP and Ubuntu thin clients, right now you have to dig through tons of stuff to find what you want.

• Make the Ubuntu wiki browsable in different languages. Right now their spread out across multiple domains not supported by Ubuntu. Someone should look into integrating them into one searchable wiki, although with a customizable search in the language/s that you know.

• Speed up boot. Supposedly this was worked on for dapper and feisty, but is it just me or is there not much of a big diff? There is a lot of junk that starts at boot that isn’t neccesary for most people. Ubuntu should atomatically detect what is required by the computer and leave disabled anything that will not work anyways or is not critical, which bring us to the next point…

• A centralized control panel which also includes something like “bum” to cutomize in a more detailed way what runs at boot. The default “services” app that is included now does not give you very much choice and options. Either improve it or replace it with something better.

There are a lot more issues, but these are the ones that tick me off the most at the moment…

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.

To install LTSP and the thin client manager on Ubuntu, do the following in a terminal:

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!