Altiris

[Lee_K_81]

Ok, so, a few months ago i managed to get altiris working correctly with a test thin client (thanks _ric) using the HP manageability scripts. Bought a shed-load of hp thin clients, installed altiris's most recent version (6.8 sp1) on a new server, can capture the thin client settings, but deploying seems to be a problem. Everything says the jobs completed properly, but none of my settings (namely the RDP connection ones) are there.

 

Anybody had similar problems? Model of the thin client is HP t5135.

 

Lee

[Ric_]

Yeah... the t5135 doesn't work properly with Altiris... bobbins isn't it?

 

I have posted on the HP/Altiris forum but to no avail

[Lee_K_81]

So the only solution is to manually configure EVERY thin client?

[Geoff]

You can get away without it though. The t5135's are fair idiot proof.

[Ric_]

You can get away without it though. The t5135's are fair idiot proof.

 

True, but it means that the configuration time is increased from 30 seconds per room to 2 minutes per terminal.

[Lee_K_81]

You can get away without it though. The t5135's are fair idiot proof.

Yeah but i still don't want to have to walk round setting the connection settings for 160 thin clients.

[Ric_]

I did try getting the old revision of the software onto the t5135 terminals... it appears that the X settings vary slightly... if you can solve this issue you would be onto a winner

[Geoff]

You can get away without it though. The t5135's are fair idiot proof.

Yeah but i still don't want to have to walk round setting the connection settings for 160 thin clients.

 

Fair enough, I only have 6.

[Lee_K_81]

Grrr i hate HP phone support. Said if it's not a hardware problem then they cant help. Suggested i call altiris.

[Lee_K_81]

Anyone know how to reset factory images on the t5135. Got 2 clients i've knackered trying to push an older image out to. It won't boot to cd or usb. Think i'm screwed.

[Geoff]

For the t5530 there are four ways to reset the unit to factory defaults (ordered in increasing difficulty):

 

1) Click on the button in the Control Panel->System labelled Reset

2) Push & Hold the F9 key during power-up (this is assuming the F9 key was not disabled by the system admin)

3) Install the latest firmware image from HP's support website to a USB disk on key and plug into the t5530 and power-cycle. (this is assuming the USB boot was not disabled in BIOS)

4) Contact HP support to repair unit

[Ric_]

It may simply be that USB boot is disabled (as Geoff suggests) and if you are lucky you haven't completely bricked the unit. Try getting Altiris to change teh boot order in the BIOS (I think that this still works on these units).

[Lee_K_81]

It may simply be that USB boot is disabled (as Geoff suggests) and if you are lucky you haven't completely bricked the unit. Try getting Altiris to change teh boot order in the BIOS (I think that this still works on these units).

 

I'll have a try at getting altiris to change boot order but i doubt it will work, altiris doesnt see them when we switch them on, and they dont recieve altiris's wake-up magic packets. Back to the factory for them i think!

 

Feel as though i've been mis-sold them. Only bought them on the notion that we could use altiris to deploy the image in seconds.

[Ric_]

@Lee_K-81: I know how you feel really. Theer are other options which are very well documented in the deployment guide. You can use an FTP server to send out all the settings for instance. Maybe this would be a better option for you?

 

Ideally, I'd like to have the skills to hack the older firmware (the one for the t5125) so that it will work on the t5135. Maybe someone with superior Linux skills to me will give it a go

[huffy]

Anyone got any bright ideas for the t5135 (Linux) - one of our guys disabled all the boot options apart from LAN... and we don't have a PXE or use Altiris etc., we configure each thin client individually.

 

I'm wanting to reset back to factory settings and wondered if there's a key combination to do this, currently it hangs looking for an IP address.

[Ric_]

@huffy: I think you may need to send the unit back to be reset. Have you tried opening the case up to look for a BIOS reset jumper?

[huffy]

Thanks for your reply, I think opening the case might void the warranty. Not to worry I'll get the unit returned to our supplier, perhaps they can flash the BIOS for us.

 

Cheers

[Lee_K_81]

Thanks for your reply, I think opening the case might void the warranty. Not to worry I'll get the unit returned to our supplier, perhaps they can flash the BIOS for us.

 

Cheers

 

Opening the case and removing the CMOS battery for a few hours does the trick. Didnt notice any way of them detecting that they've been opened.

 

Anybody had any more success with these thin clients? I know HP have released a new image for the t5135 but it still doesnt seem to work with altiris, the new image does seem a bit better however. Still doesnt seem to make up for the fact the mangleability scripts dont work though.

[Geoff]

I just had one unit explode if that helps. Having it RMA'd back to HP as we speak..

[Lee_K_81]

I just had one unit explode if that helps. Having it RMA'd back to HP as we speak..

 

That dont sound too good! I've not had any problems with ours, except the obvious issue with altiris and image deployment. We've got 130 currently in place and none of ours have gone bang yet!

[Geoff]

The sad thing is I only have 5 of them anyway.

[Ric_]

A quick note... HP have changed their product range again but the new t5725 will deploy sensibly with Altiris. These are a little more expensive although Novus have just given me a good price. The terminals are also on 3 for 2 until the end of the month!!!

[Geoff]

I can't find any mention of a 3 for the price of 2 offer on the HP site Ric_. How much are Novus charging you for them?