Edubuntu, Linux Terminal Server and thin clients
Magic on your LAN
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Short URL: http://fsmsh.com/1263
- 2006-08-30
- Server side | Intermediate
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Another alternative is dual 60 client servers giving more flexibility, speed, and some redundancy for lower cost but more maintenance. This would require networking of the file system, which is a little more complex than an Edubuntu installation. The dual core processors need an SMP (Symmetric Multi Processor) kernel installed. If you install with that CPU it may be automatically configured. If you add a dual core processor, you’ll need to install the right kernel manually. The command sudo apt-get install linux-amd64-k8-smp will install the latest kernel for AMD64 on a VIA K8 chipset for multiple processors. Of course, if you have a different architecture, you can look it up on the Ubuntu web site.
What an LTSP client wants
If you can keep the fans turning, almost any PC will do. PCs with fans use more power than is necessary and act as vacuum cleaners, accumulating dust bunnies that jam fans, and interfere with flow of air over chips and heat sinks. 64MB and 100MHz is enough. Configure the BIOS to boot from the network. Most PCs made before 1998 will not automatically do a network boot, so you will need to install a bootloader on the hard drive, floppy or CD. You can use a Universal Boot Disc from ThinStation which comes with drivers for most common NICs or you can custom make a bootloader from Rom-O-Matic. Pick your NIC and choose your output format, .zdsk for a bootable floppy image or .liso for a bootable CD image. There are more advanced options available. You can create the floppy discs on your server with the command: sudo dd if=image_file of=/dev/fd0. With a cdburner, you may use the cdrecord command from the commandline (terminal) or a graphical interface like nautilus-cd-burner which can be accessed from the “Go” menu item of the file browser. Click on “CD creator”. You drag and drop or copy and paste the file icon for the CD image file to the window.
If there are not enough old machines to use as clients, or the space saving convenience of LCD monitors and ultra-low-power clients is desired, one can shop in a very competitive market. Chip maker VIA Technologies, Inc. makes a family of CPUs that serve very well as thin clients and use so little power they don’t need fans. If you are adventurous, you may purchase a mini-motherboard with an Epia CPU installed. The low powered versions need no fans and the motherboard is 17cm X 17cm and can fit into a tiny case that bolts to the back of an LCD monitor. Such motherboards are available for about CAD$110 CAD. A power supply that converts 12V DC or 110V AC to ATX costs about CAD$50 for the fanless kind. You can put this in a cheap case for less than CAD$50 and add CAD$30 of RAM and you get a client costing CAD$240 plus a monitor, keyboard, mouse and fifteen minutes of your time. This will save you about CAD$150 from the price of a complete thin client. Still, an old used machine may be bought for less than CAD$100.
Installing Edubuntu on the server
To install Edubuntu, obtain a CD by download. Burn the file appropriate to your hardware to a 700MB CD.
Edubuntu installs all of the software with only a few questions relating to LTSP:
- Primary network interface:
eth0oreth1? Usuallyeth1will be on the motherboard andeth0in the expansion slots. - What is the IP address? Use something in 192.168.0.x and you get good defaults with no editing required. Typically, choose 192.168.0.254 or 192.168.0.1, to leave lots of space for printers, clients and so on
- What is the netmask? Use 255.255.255.0
- What is the gateway? Leave blank or use IP address of gateway to the WWW
- Name server address? I usually install my own name server, but a novice should use the one for WWW connections or leave this blank
To set up the other NIC for WWW access, do so from the GUI once you log in. Since the clients run on the server, they will have internet access. One complication for this is that the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server, which you are setting up to serve your private LAN, needs to be told to ignore DHCP requests on the eth1 interface. The default behaviour is to listen on all interfaces. To change this, edit as root /etc/default/dhcp using the command: sudo gedit /etc/default/dhcp. Add these lines:
# On what interfaces should the DHCP server (dhcpd) serve DHCP requests? # Separate multiple interfaces with spaces, e.g. "eth0 eth1" INTERFACES="eth0"
You will then need to restart the DHCP server with the command: sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp restart.
Your private LAN will likely need several connections to eth0. Typically, this is done by connecting eth0 to a network switch. I recommend that eth0 be connected to a gigabit per second port, if your switch has one. That way, the server can send data for several clients to the switch and the switch gives the data to the clients at their rates. This is mostly important for booting or animation. If a group walks in and everyone boots, you may save many seconds by using this gigabit connection. For a NIC on the PCI bus, 1Gbps uses most of the capacity of the bus for short bursts, so avoid putting many other extensions on the PCI bus with your gigabit NIC. Many motherboards have a gigabit NIC (likely, eth1) built-in and connected to a bus other than the PCI bus. Check your manual to be sure. A big advantage of the 64 bit motherboards is that the NIC on the motherboard, the IDE and SATA drives may all do transfers at once. On most 32 bit boards, someone will have to wait because the PCI bus has a much smaller bandwidth.
Managed switches with two gigabit ports and 24 10/100 automatic ports such as ASUS GIGAX1024P are quite inexpensive. For a classroom, an eight port switch will do.
Bandwidth problems are unlikely if the gigabit connection is used. The typical cable subscriber can stream pretty well and this is hundreds of times the bandwidth from the server and ten times the bandwidth from the switch. With this arrangement many users all feel they have complete control of the server. It is magical the first time you see it. The plain X protocol used to connect the screen of the user to the server does some unnecessary chattering. So setups with lots of activity may benefit from compression and redundancy removal with the NX protocol. Free software for NX has become available and it’s still developing rapidly. The 64 bit version may be available in 2006.
Conclusion
Anyone can set up a Linux Terminal Server on a good machine in under an hour with Edubuntu and connect it to a private LAN with a bunch of clients. Given sufficient resources on the server, this is a very cost effective solution for a home, classroom, computer lab, and offices of small to medium size. A large organization will have to choose between a very expensive hot server or a cluster of lesser machines sharing the load. The latter is almost certainly less expensive to purchase, but may require somewhat more maintenance.
Images of the installation of Edubuntu default
These images were screenshot captures made during the installation simulated by the Bocks emulator.
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Biography
Robert Pogson: Robert Pogson has worked with computers since 1968 as a student, accelerator technician, inventor, and teacher. The revelation in 1999 that PCs rarely crashed without some help from software lead to his adoption of free software on GNU/Linux. Since 2003 he has been using a Linux Terminal Server in remote northern Canadian schools using available PCs in labs and classrooms.
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Edubuntu, Linux Terminal Server and thin Clients
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Wed, 2006-08-30 16:19.
Vote!Robert:
We are getting close to coming few circle. When the 386 came out we could run 512, yes five hundred and twelve, users on a single server.
BTW, it would be nice to have a one-shot printable version of the whole article.
Henry Keultjes
Database Scientifics Project http://www.ncolug.org/ppc.htm
Mansfield Ohio USA
great article
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Wed, 2006-08-30 20:04.
Vote!I was wondering how this would handle applications that were very graphics intensive? Applications that relied heavily on the performance of a graphics card.
Domenic
You can run the graphics
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Mon, 2006-09-04 21:28.
Vote!You can run the graphics application on the terminal, but it takes some setup. Google for local applications or local apps on ltsp.org or ubuntu's site.
missing
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Wed, 2006-08-30 20:46.
Vote!What is missing between steps 24 and 25? Where is the LTSP configuration stuff?
Ditto the missing
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Fri, 2006-09-01 12:44.
Vote!Those missing steps are keeping me from using this.
It is automatically done if
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Mon, 2006-09-04 21:27.
Vote!It is automatically done if you have two ethernet connections live, one to the internet and one to a switch to your thin clients. You need the internet side not to be 192.168.0.x as that is what is assumed for the LAN on which your thin clients reside. If you cannot have this arrangement, you need to see the LTSP documentation.
Mobility
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Thu, 2006-08-31 08:53.
Vote!Great, except for when you want your employees/students/etc to be able to take their work away from the room. In this case you want a "thick client" via laptop, etc. Thin clients would be the answer to almost everything if it weren't for the mobility issue.
Mobility
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Thu, 2006-08-31 19:24.
Vote!Actually, that's about to improve radically. Obviously if you have a central file server the student can go across the school, login and see their files.
However, more to the point, Edubuntu/LTSP are introducing support for using USB keys on thin clients in the upcoming October release. Details here.
Mobility
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Tue, 2006-12-26 15:39.
Vote!In that case, you authenticate yourself to a file server via LDAP, the files are sent to you, and the files go back into the central server once the work is finished.
"Citrix". citrix allows
Submitted by Anonymous visitor (not verified) on Fri, 2007-06-08 01:30.
Vote!"Citrix". citrix allows users to connect to a location outside of the network using upto 128 bit encryption for the connection. citrix homepage: http://www.citrix.com/lang/English/home.asp
the article was overall pretty descent, and is a major advancement for the linux and business world. I like the overall low cost of ownership, and i would love to show my boss, and work on this sort of project in our company.
TFTP.
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Thu, 2006-08-31 11:47.
Vote!TFTP is Trivial, not Tiny.
tftp
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Thu, 2006-08-31 16:12.
Vote!like this comment ;)
Not really, any
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Tue, 2007-03-27 00:42.
Vote!Not really, any disinformation is bad information.
Other LTSP products
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Thu, 2006-08-31 18:45.
Vote!Great article about LTSP and thin clients!
I know Symbio Technologies (www.symbio-technologies.com) has sold lots of LTSP-based products into Canada, along with thin clients for much less than CA $350. Removable media, 16-bit stereo sound, and video all work quite nicely (due in no small part to the wonders of X.org). LTSP is great, and if you want something supported and canned, Symbio's a good place to look.
Fanless clients / limited by the monitor cost
Submitted by Terry Hancock on Fri, 2006-09-01 17:01.
Vote!These are getting really nice.
I saw a manufacturer site recently selling a unit that's about the size of a conventional half-height disk drive (who remember full-height anymore).
For something like US$120 each (they're cheaper in quantity), you get a tiny box with a 166MHz+ CPU, 128 MB RAM, a Compact Flash slot (to replace a hard drive), USB, keyboard, serial I/O slots, 2D/Multimedia accelerated graphics, and audio (I don't think it has 3D acceleration). Since they run Puppy Linux on it, it must have Linux drivers for the hardware. Also, it's supposed to run from about 0 to 60 C (32 to 140 F) with no fan and will bolt onto the back of a standard VESA LCD monitor.
(Note this partially answers the 'graphics intensive' question above -- multimedia applications are supported, but not really 3D).
In my experience, you can usually find used CRT monitors for US$40 to US$60, but they're a false economy, because they lose definition over time ("fuzz out", I call it) and become unusable in much less than the lifetime of an LCD monitor (provided you don't poke the LCD panel with something -- they really need lexan or glass covers for these things!). I just found a used 17" LCD for US$130 from an online shop, which is probably a better deal. $200 is not an uncommon new price if you go to the right suppliers.
So, yeah, the client is going to cost US$300—but US$200 of that is probably the LCD monitor! Monitors aren't very price-flexible, but fortunately, they last longer and obsolesce slower than most other computer equipment, so they tend to be good investments. I probably upgrade CPUs every 2-3 years, but I hardly ever get rid of monitors. Keyboards and mice may eventually be a problem, but they're in the US$10 range, so it'll be awhile before they start to impact the flexibility of client prices.
So the next step, if any, is to bring down the cost and increase the durability of LCD monitors. Of course, the One Laptop Per Child project (and therefore Quanta) is doing that. I wonder if we'll see spin-off LCD monitors based on the same LCD panel (or same technology).
The Open Graphics Project is also really close to manufacturing their first open hardware FPGA prototyping cards. In a year or so, they may be talking about doing the ASIC (consumer-targeted) cards, and selling the chipset to embedded developers, which might well mean inexpensive clients like this with basic 3D acceleration, so you could actually run CAD software (or Blender) over these kind of clients.
PDF
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Tue, 2006-09-05 00:36.
Vote!is there anyway I can get this tutorial as a .PDF? Thanks..
Yes there is...
Submitted by admin on Tue, 2006-09-05 02:28.
Vote!This article comes from issue 13. If you become a subscriber (which is free) then you can download the issue in PDF format here by clicking on the download link.
Dual-Head thin client
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Tue, 2006-09-05 20:28.
Vote!The only "stressful" thing my workstations currently do is provide dual-head video - the main reason why the $250 thin-client has not been an option for me.
Now I see SUN has dual-head thin clients - http://www.sun.com/sunray/sunray2fs/ - about $500, I think, plus 2 17'' LCDs.
Does anybody have experiences with such a setup?
- bunk
Sun Ray on Linux
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Sat, 2006-10-07 03:48.
Vote!Hi,
Yes, Sun Ray clients are a great way to go, and you can get them working off a linux server.
Go to http://www.sun.com/software/sunray to download the server software.
It is trivially easy to install on Solaris 10, RHEL, or CentOS 3.3. If you want to install on something other than that then there is a little bit of work involved.
The other one is K12LTSP; it inspired Edubuntu
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Sun, 2006-09-17 00:13.
Vote!Hello folks,
There is another turnkey LTSP distribution called K12LTSP, maintained by Eric Harrison (he also contributes to Edubuntu). K12LTSP came out in, I believe, 2001 and currently has two versions:
1.) Fedora Core-based
2.) CentOS-based
I happen to use the CentOS-based one at home, and I have a couple of schools using the Fedora-based ones. Here are some reasons why you might want to consider trying K12LTSP:
A.) It supports both EtherBoot *and* PXE-boot simultaneously. That means all those old Pentium-133's, too, can be used as thin clients, totally seamlessly, right alongside the new PXE-booting thin clients.
B.) It also supports not just x86 thin clients, but also Power Mac thin clients, *simultaneously*, on the same network segment (I and several others have verified this!).
C.) It's even easier to install a K12LTSP server than it is to install Windows XP, let alone something like Windows Server 2003. It's all integrated seamlessly into the Red Hat installation process. Good default settings were chosen, so yes, you can click through all the defaults, and boom, you're done.
Now, I'm not knocking Edubuntu; I use and demo it myself, and I'm sure glad it's here. However, K12LTSP has simply been around a few more years and therefore is more mature at this point (e. g. simultaneous EtherBoot and PXE and x86/PMac client support). Now, Edubuntu can easily be made to do these things, too; it's basically just a tweak to /etc/dhcpd.conf and copying over /opt/ltsp/ppc. I have tried this, and it does work.
With either distro (Edubuntu or K12LTSP), the cost savings are the same, and the benefits are the same. You'll do well with either, and above all, YOU WILL BE FREE OF THE BSA, MICROSOFT, AND APPLE. I know; we got hit with an audit, and it wasn't fun.
Graphics-intensive may not be an issue anymore, soon
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Sun, 2006-09-17 00:22.
Vote!Remember that Intel recently open-sourced their integraded 3-D graphics drivers for use in X.org. That means that your graphics-intensive applications should now work just fine if you have an integrated Intel chipset. Finally, Intel's learning to play nice!
I recommend that everyone who's looking at buying new thin clients ask the manufacturer if they use an integrated Intel chipset. Another good option, for those who are using older PC's as thin clients, is the ATI Radeon 7500/8500 (yes, they're still very much around), and the Matrox Millennium G400/G450 (yes, they're around, too). Both video cards provide quite fast 2-D and 3-D video support.
STAY AWAY FROM NVIDIA *ANYTHING*, AS WELL AS ANY RECENT ATI CHIPSET (9200 and greater). You are limited to the S-L-O-W VESA driver with these chipsets. The reason is that both ATI and nVidious decided to no longer play nice with the Free/Open Source community and refuse to allow us to write drivers for their chips. We'll see how long that lasts now that Intel has seen the light; Intel's too big for them to ignore.
tweaks for ppc on ltsp
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Mon, 2007-01-01 02:12.
Vote!could you tell me where to find the info to do the tweak to add ppc on ltsp?
PPC on LTSP
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Thu, 2007-04-05 15:00.
Vote!Mandrake (now Mandriva) had this a long time ago. I have not used their system lately.
Debian has a neat setup. Their distro covers ppc, i386 and AMD64 as well as others and they have provided packages to setup up thin client environments for any architecture running on a server of any architecture (boggling...). Search for LTSP in descriptions of packages for testing at packages.debian.org . ltsp-client-builder is the key. You run it and it creates the LTSP environment on the server for whatever client you want. You have to set up your DHCP server to point the ppc client at the right environment and kernel, I suppose. I have not tried it.
So, you can run your LTSP server on AMD64 and serve clients of Pentium I's, ppc, i386, whatever. This is sweet for schools that have working inventory, but the new fanless thin clients and LCD monitors are the way to go sooner or later.
Nvidia
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Mon, 2006-10-02 02:27.
Vote!What? I thought Nvidia played best with Linux. Mine sure does. I CAN NOT go along with your Nvidia "ANYTHING" statement. I've had more trouble with ATI.
html?
Submitted by Kletskous on Sun, 2006-11-12 21:52.
Vote!Very nice article! I would like to make it available as a tutorial on our website. The easiest way for that is to have it available in html format. Woud that be possible?
Catharina
http://www.open-of-course.org
Should be a little more detailed!
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Sun, 2006-12-31 08:57.
Vote!Namaste,
Nice article, and i can see that it has been intentionally explained in such a way that newbies can follow it.
So my question is, if you went so far as to use ultra-simple language to explain to newbies, why don't you explain:
1)What is a NIC? and how to configure/use one?
2)What is the procedure on any one thin-client (entire setup process with screenshots would be ultra helpful).
3)And finally any problems/ special-case scenarios (most common ones), that would occur in a thin-client setup and how to deal with it.
I am having a Computer institute, and am planning to shift atleast one of my labs (30-PCs) to a thin-client based environment, using Edubuntu.
If you can help, with my above questions, please email me at kenthomson799(at)yahoo(dot)com. I would be highly obliged if i can setup a lab of 30PCs, running on a central server with the process you described.
The point is setting up stand-alone PCs, with Windows XP has been so familiar to me, that i cannot think of any other options, and your article certainly has helped me. If you can spare some time, please answer my above questions in detail.
Thank you,
and yeah, Nice Article!
Details
Submitted by Anonymous visitor (not verified) on Mon, 2007-07-30 14:23.
Vote!"1)What is a NIC? and how to configure/use one?
2)What is the procedure on any one thin-client (entire setup process with screenshots would be ultra helpful).
3)And finally any problems/ special-case scenarios (most common ones), that would occur in a thin-client setup and how to deal with it."
NIC is Network Interface Controller. It is best to have two or more for the LTSP setup. If you have two, one will be the "primary" connecting to the ISP, and one will be for the LAN. The EdUbuntu setup should do this automatically after you declare one to be the primary.
On the thin client you can
1)Set the BIOS to boot PXE
2)Set the BIOS to display a menu in which PXE is one choice
3)Set up a floppy/CD/hard drive/flash boot loader from http://rom-o-matic.net
It can happen that the driver for the video/NIC on the thin client is not working. In /opt/ltsp/.../etc/lts.conf on the server you can edit in a choice for driver. vesa usually works but may not have the best resolution. Most thin clients have fairly common NICs so I have not seen a problem, but you can often install a driver in the chroot of the client or compile a kernel with a driver if it is open source. That is a lot of work unless you have a ton of clients with this problem.
THIN CLIENTS terminals where to get those machines?
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Mon, 2007-01-15 08:45.
Vote!Hi.
Somebody knows where to buy those thin clients, which I put on the back of LCD??
I found http://www.bosanova.net/thinclient/rbt366-iseries.html but it costs 395 USD!
It's really a lot!
Anybody knows alternatives?
Think Clients - where?
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Thu, 2007-02-08 15:09.
Vote!Try http://www.norhtec.com/products/index.html - I have not got one but they seem to be good.
low cost client
Submitted by technosaurus (not verified) on Sun, 2007-07-15 04:34.
Vote!try http://www.ewayco.com
they have every kind of thin client you could want including a $150 tablet version as well as the $120 norhtec client for $99 (as low as $75 in bulk orders) 200 Mhz @128Mb RAM, plus fanless via systems and p4 ... awesome prices but shipping is from overseas, so bulk orders are a better deal.
please send me how to config the client server in lab
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Thu, 2007-02-08 04:47.
Vote!hi friend please send me please send me how to config the client server in lab.
i am 6 th ec student,and u give me your ideas on ptl_pratik@yahoo.co.in.
please reply fastly,because i must need.ok
thanxs in advance.
(afterthought) that's called support dude
Submitted by gvy on Fri, 2007-11-09 09:45.
Vote!...and you don't substitute thousand thanks for thousand dollars for that kind of consulting. if you "must need fastly" then be prepared to either search/read/learn "fastly", or pay upfront.
free software isn't about all-free consulting, as free time is sparse.
PS: of course this comment is only for similar fastly students :) providing them with what they urgently request might just defile them into consumers, not creators.
PPS: just in case, we run LTSP virtualized in OpenVZ containers (described on ltsp.org wiki CaseStudies and on freesource.info wiki in Russian+details).
--
Michael Shigorin
Dead link
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Sun, 2007-02-25 19:45.
Vote!Can't get to the http://www.norhtec.com/products/index.html.
Anyone knows other places to buy?
serlis
http://blog.lsmnetworks.com/
Try
Submitted by Anonymous visitor on Wed, 2007-03-14 00:32.
Vote!Try http://www.wdlsystems.com
Thanks.
Submitted by Garry (not verified) on Fri, 2007-04-20 20:06.
Vote!Thanks.
article
Submitted by PK (not verified) on Sun, 2007-04-29 11:05.
Vote!Thanks for great article. Greetings
Managing users in Kubuntu
Submitted by Luka Manser on Wed, 2007-04-18 16:18.
Vote!Hello,
is this possible in Kubuntu also? My friend installed it on his laptop. Any kind of help is great. If anyone has nay kind of pdf or manual I wolud appreciate if you post a link. I googled but found nothing.
Thanks,
Luka Manser
re
Submitted by Pozycjonowanie (not verified) on Sun, 2007-04-29 10:58.
Vote!Brilliant idea Robert. btw. I really enjoyed reading all of your posts. It’s interesting to read ideas, and observations from someone else’s point of view… makes you think more. Keep up the good work. Greetings
application questions
Submitted by Anonymous visitor (not verified) on Fri, 2007-05-11 04:47.
Vote!I have a call center that I am converting to Linux. I want thin clients and all of this sounds good on both the client and server side.
What I am worried about is the actual running of the apps. We have to have more than just the boxes networked; they have some crappy windoze call center apps running on it as well.
So I don't know enough about how to get it to work on the server with say 50 people potentially hitting it. I have heard of crossover and wine; can anyone comment on how a multi-user environment will work in terms of actually running executables? If it was just a single user, I would try to get it to work with crossover and/or wine and at least see how that stuff works. Need to tap into the mult-user capabilities here while at the same time allowing for multiple users to hit it without crashing it or their workstations...
My recommendation is probably going to be them finding another application to run everywhere in the call center on Linux, NOT a windoze app. Can anyone recommend any good applications that are suited to call centers? Need something that allows the user to take a call and log it.
Any info is appreciated. THANKS!
edubuntu or ubuntu
Submitted by redryan (not verified) on Sun, 2007-07-01 03:28.
Vote!Hi very great article and thank you for making this...
I would like to know which is the best one to use the edubuntu or ubuntu server. I am confused which to use for a set up of 30 thin clients.
via epia
Submitted by redryan (not verified) on Sun, 2007-07-01 03:29.
Vote!in using via epia where do you put the power switch or the dc power jack
LTSP + wine?
Submitted by Sherwood Botsford (not verified) on Wed, 2007-07-04 22:46.
Vote!We have two applications the require windows or mac emulation.
1. Accelerated Reader. This program works through a web interface, but requries both current versions of QuickTime and Adobe Reader. The latter is not a problem. The former may be. I'm trying to convince them to remove the QT requirement.
2. The Learning Equation. This runs on every version of winsnooze since '95, so I expect it to run under wine. Does anyone have experience with running windows software under wine in an LTSP environment? Presumably this will up the ante on memory and CPU per client.
Accelerated Reader via Firefox
Submitted by Anonymous visitor (not verified) on Sun, 2007-08-26 15:49.
Vote!If you have the new web based version of accelerated reader, then you can access it from linux with the firefox browser. Instructions for this are on Suse's web page. However, if you have the 6.x version of the application, which installs to a workstation, then you are in the same boat I am, and I am trying to find a way to make that work in a thin client environment as well, but I have heard it has been done on linux also.
J
no benchmark but a success story
Submitted by gvy on Fri, 2007-11-09 09:57.
Vote!we did run windows apps (particularly a bookkeeping one known as 1C in exUSSR) with WINE@Etersoft on ALT Linux based LTSP5 implementation, although I don't remember RAM consumption (we use dualcore server with 4 gigs so it was easy not to spot even considerable chunk of it being eaten up immediately...); based on previous experience with hooking a few terminals onto a linux workstation where one or more users would need to run office/mail/browser apps and one user would need a legacy windows app running under wine, up to three users would live ok in 512M (with icewm-based lightweight desktop).
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Michael Shigorin
Thin -Clients and server.
Submitted by Anonymous visitor (not verified) on Thu, 2007-09-20 12:42.
Vote!I am trying to set up a language learning lab I can potentially set up a maximum of 30 thin clients and 15 thick or fat earthnet clients. My Idea is to have the fats run windows vista Ultima with local licensed software and then use Guadalinux from a dual boot or somekind of virtual machine. I need both so I can teach them at the school running windows 2007 professional software. The rest of the Thin clients would need to run video, sound, recording etc windows apps. This may be asking too much for a swap file. I invision a motherboard with a quad e6600 4 gigs of ddr2 800 ram two 500 gig sataII drives with two gigabyte nics. two lan switches with 24 gigabyte ports. I have installed cat6 gigabyte cable. I was thinking about aquiring miserable used pentium IV and then getting the cheapest lcds I can find for them. I would like to repacage them though so they all look the same maybe that isn´t such a good Idea maybe in the end a small fanless system would be best. I don`t have a clue how to go about setting this all up which is why I am trying to find out if is do able in the first place. Any insight would be appreciated thanks
LTSP
Submitted by Stephen Walder (not verified) on Thu, 2007-09-20 18:09.
Vote!There is a great supplier we use in the UK, they are the cheapest I've come across as yet and they have good customer service (www.thinstore.net)
The school I work at have bought over 30 thin clients from them.
Its also well worth checking what deals HP have on, the first deal we took advantage of was a £10 17" monitor deal when purchasing a £200 thin client, then a 3 for 2 offer on all thin clients.
We are having great success so far integrating a thin client network into our primary school. LTSP is excellent, we also use Windows Terminal Server for the apps that don't run on Linux.
It may be worth checking my blog if you plan to setup a thin client network in your school or want to switch to Linux.
http://stephen-walder.blogspot.com/
ramdisks
Submitted by Anonymous visitor (not verified) on Wed, 2007-12-05 21:17.
Vote!Can anybody reading this see any benefits (in a classroom environment) in setting up a reasonably sized ramdisk on the server for holding a large file such as a video file? I did this to prevent thrashing the HDD for a demo setting where I had the Codebreakers divx playing back on each thin-client, but wondered if the practice had any use in a classroom setting! Unmounting the ramdisk releases the memory, but you can remount it again when needed, giving control over viewing and censoring.