Thin Client technology - Linux Terminal Server Project HOWTO
The text below was copied with permission from post by Harry Mangalam, UCI, to UC-CSC Mailing List
I typed up the notes I took as I was evaluating the LTSP for Lab and
Office deloyment, added a few introductory paras and got this:
http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/LTSP_HOWTO.html
Feedback, criticism, corrections, and suggestions how to improve it
welcome. If you have additional links that should be added, let me
know.
Those at UCI are welcome to visit for a demo until the hardware gets
redeployed. I’ve tested with 64bit PCs netbooting 64 & 32bit OSs, and
an old 32bit PIII laptop netbooting the 32bit OS.
From the introduction:-————-
There are many technologies tempting your wallet these days with
promises of secure, easy, efficient, low-cost, scalable desktop
computing. Many of these are based on virtualized Windows, with
proprietary technology at each layer of the whole solution. (Tom Holub
and crew evaluated this Windows-based onion/parfait at Berkeley in
2008-2009.)
I say … meh.
Linux and the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) have provided this
kind of technology for at least a decade for free. It is being used in
large rollouts in the 3rd world where the technology cost issue is
most important and in the 1st world where the human costs are the main
issue. Before you sink $thousand$ trying to stack proprietary
technology upon proprietary technology, why not see what some free
software can provide? If you have the (minimal) hardware, you can have
an LTSP system up and running in about 2 hours. No licenses, no
signatures, no faxes, no crippleware, no POs, no RFPs, no bids, no
lawyers. And surprisingly few tears.
Table of Contents1. Introduction2. Assumptions3. Pre-Requisites3.1. Prep work3.2. Hardware3.3. Software4. Installing the LTSP server4.1. Installing a preconfigured LTSP system4.2. Installing over an pre-installed system5. Creating the client OS6. Server vs Client Applications7. Changing the client BIOS to PXE-boot8. Booting the client9. Upgrading & Changing the client OS10. Adding / upgrading applications11. Adding storage12. Multimedia to LTSP clients13. Shared printers.14. Local storage devices15. Handling Application versions16. Adding LDAP, Kerberos, NIS/NFS17. LTSP coexistence with Windows apps18. Thin Client Promotion, Propaganda, Discussion19. Copyright notice