ThinClientHowto

Revision 2 as of 2005-07-02 17:29:58

Thin Client How-To

NOTE: This software is currently in a pre-alpha state. This means that you probably won't be happy with it unless you enjoy helping to track down bugs. If you're looking for something production-ready, head over to the [http://www.ltsp.org/ LTSP] site.

Requirements

You will need:

An Ubuntu "breezy" system to be the server (the current development branch, to be released in October 2005)
At least one PXE-bootable system to be a client
A bunch of disk space
A fast network connection, or a local Breezy mirror, or some patience
A DHCP server which is capable of supporting PXE clients, or a separate network segment where you can run a dedicated DHCP server
Command-line familiarity
A sense of adventure
A burning desire to send feedback to [mailto:ubuntu-devel@lists.debian.org ubuntu-devel]

Getting Started

Set up the DHCP server
- If you have an existing DHCP server which can support PXE clients:
  - Configure it to pass a boot filename of /ltsp/pxelinux.0 and a root path of /opt/ltsp/i386
  - For ISC DHCPD, use the following options:
```
filename "/ltsp/pxelinux.0";
option root-path "/opt/ltsp/i386";
```
  - Install ltsp-server on the server: {{{sudo apt-get install ltsp-server`

}}}

If you want to run a dedicated DHCP server on the thin client server:
1. Install ltsp-server-standalone on the server: {{{sudo apt-get install ltsp-server-standalone`

}}}

Replace /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf with the following contents, or adapt to your needs:

authoritative;
subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
  range 192.168.0.20 192.168.0.63;
  option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.1;
  option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
  filename "/ltsp/pxelinux.0";
  option root-path "/opt/ltsp/i386";
}

Build the thin client runtime environment: {{{sudo ltsp-build-client

}}}

This script is hardcoded to use a particular Ubuntu mirror, so you may wish to edit it if you have a nearby mirror

Check /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts and ensure that your host key is associated with your host's IP address. Depending on your /etc/hosts configuration, this may not always be correct automatically (yet). If it looks like this:

servername ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABIwAAAIEArJSaOcb6RCiDi57bzF8x9tAG1gFuhfAAtVFJYbxYxtAyVJFsR+AUj8A3NjaKud4iMOP2LNtAcdEiC/s3nLziMk8N3fDWPl5eGbh38UfVUzV8+qOttK3VO9IZFaK1vo4Xp5kC81jlL3IIUNQHl+0UMqPLv/fyKywqZYuawkp3ask=

then add the IP address like this:

servername,192.168.0.1 ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABIwAAAIEArJSaOcb6RCiDi57bzF8x9tAG1gFuhfAAtVFJYbxYxtAyVJFsR+AUj8A3NjaKud4iMOP2LNtAcdEiC/s3nLziMk8N3fDWPl5eGbh38UfVUzV8+qOttK3VO9IZFaK1vo4Xp5kC81jlL3IIUNQHl+0UMqPLv/fyKywqZYuawkp3ask=

Optionally, create /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf. If you don't create one, reasonable defaults and auto-detected values will be used.
PXE boot the client and see what happens

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