Creating thin clients with Linux or Chronium

[pogson]

That's right. Wireless clients should have a local OS installed. Wireless thin clients have bandwidth issues. There are ways to recuce bandwidth requirements like reducing screen resolution, using NX instead of X, and just virtualizing some major apps instead of the whole desktop.

To virtualize just a single app is simple. Replace the executable on the client with a script that looks like

ssh -Y servername "oowriter"

The "-Y" forwards the window for the application to the client and the application runs on the server. This keeps the user data on the server and off the network so file saves etc. do not clog up the network. preventing pauses.

Experience with Ethernet may be relevant. At 10 mbits/s, a thin client will see jerky behaviour because screen refreshes take an appreciable time. At 100 mbits/s, most users will see a normal desktop. At 1000mbits/s, even video works well. The problem for wireless is that the room shares a single channel unless you take care to put a few clients on each channel and the wireless router can be a bottleneck. I would look into using Wireless N if that's an option and/or using multiple wireless routers. 802.11b/g use overlapping channels so use widely spaced channels may be better. I used to use 1 and 11. You might need 1, 6 and 11 if you need three groups. The bandwidth requirements for non-video at 1024x768 is around 200kbits/s per client for adults doing a fair bit of reading. Twitchy teenagers or elementary children use a lot more graphical bandwidth, perhaps 1 megabit/s per client, so the usage can really impact a wireless setup of thin clients.

If you find tweaking the wireless connectivity problematic, you could look at using the notebooks as conventional thick clients but only using the wireless to share users' files from the server.

[dhicks]

The machines that I'll be using are laptops, so they will be connecting through the wireless. Is it difficult to get them working in this way? They all have HDDs so I think I'll have them booting up from there, instead of PXE. Don't think you can do PXE boot through Wireless. I was thinking of using something like Ubuntu, seems fairly easy to get that one working.

We use Debian, a basic text-only install with XFCE added as the user interface. I have the following notes on setting it up:

Install Debian - text only, no GUI components.
	Set hostname: KSOS
	Root password: ......
	New user: administrator
	Same password
Set minimal boot time in grub settings:
	nano /boot/grub/grub.cfg
	set timeout=0
Install minimal GUI
	apt-get install xfce4
Wireless
	Edit /etc/apt/sources.list:
		Edit line to read:
		deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free
	apt-get update
	apt-get install firmware-ralink wireless-tools wpasupplicant
	chmod 0600 /etc/network/interfaces
	Edit /etc/network/interfaces:
		auto wlan0
		iface wlan0 inet dhcp
			wpa-ssid NameGoesHere
			wpa-psk ......
Auto-logon administrator
	From http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=29333:
		Edit /etc/inittab, Comment out the line:
			1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
		And replace with:
			1:2345:respawn:/bin/login -f administrator tty1 </dev/tty1 >/dev/tty1 2>&1
	Reboot
		Auto logged on as administrator, edit .bashrc, add to the end:
			if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) == /dev/tty1 ]; then
			    startx
			fi
	Reboot
Install Chrome:
	Download from Google, place on to memory stick, load on target machine seems to be best bet - target machine
		doesn't have web browser by default.
	dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb
	apt-get -f install
	rm google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb
Run Chrome
	Set homepage to http://frog/eyfs
Set mouse cursor:
	apt-get install big-cursor
In XFCE: Start menu, Settings, XFCE 4 Settings Manager
	Add item for Chrome:
		google-chrome --incognitio --kiosk

To install rdesktop you'll can probably just type something alogn the lines of "apt-get install rdesktop".

[McChikenhanger]

We use Debian, a basic text-only install with XFCE added as the user interface. I have the following notes on setting it up:

Install Debian - text only, no GUI components.
	Set hostname: KSOS
	Root password: ......
	New user: administrator
	Same password
Set minimal boot time in grub settings:
	nano /boot/grub/grub.cfg
	set timeout=0
Install minimal GUI
	apt-get install xfce4
Wireless
	Edit /etc/apt/sources.list:
		Edit line to read:
		deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free
	apt-get update
	apt-get install firmware-ralink wireless-tools wpasupplicant
	chmod 0600 /etc/network/interfaces
	Edit /etc/network/interfaces:
		auto wlan0
		iface wlan0 inet dhcp
			wpa-ssid NameGoesHere
			wpa-psk ......
Auto-logon administrator
	From http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=29333:
		Edit /etc/inittab, Comment out the line:
			1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
		And replace with:
			1:2345:respawn:/bin/login -f administrator tty1 </dev/tty1 >/dev/tty1 2>&1
	Reboot
		Auto logged on as administrator, edit .bashrc, add to the end:
			if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) == /dev/tty1 ]; then
			    startx
			fi
	Reboot
Install Chrome:
	Download from Google, place on to memory stick, load on target machine seems to be best bet - target machine
		doesn't have web browser by default.
	dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb
	apt-get -f install
	rm google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb
Run Chrome
	Set homepage to http://frog/eyfs
Set mouse cursor:
	apt-get install big-cursor
In XFCE: Start menu, Settings, XFCE 4 Settings Manager
	Add item for Chrome:
		google-chrome --incognitio --kiosk

To install rdesktop you'll can probably just type something alogn the lines of "apt-get install rdesktop".

Thanks dhicks. I was going to try Debian next. Was using Slax today, as it's got all the drivers that makes the laptop go with no problem, buthaving problems installing itfrom the CD to the HDD. It seems that it likes torun as a live CD too much. Thanks for the notes. Will follow them and see how far I get. Thanks.