Anyone using LTSP

[bart21]

Hi

 

I am looking at replacing our thinstation with LTSP.

 

sofar i have selected LTSP server and set a client machine to boot to pxe with options

66 10.46.220.23

67 pxelinux.0

 

The client machine gets the address from dhcp, then tries to find the file, but then shows timeout. It is as if it cant find it.

 

any ideas??

nick

[dhicks]

I am looking at replacing our thinstation with LTSP.

 

I didn't have much luck with Thinstation, or LTSP - I wound up trying Slax and then SystemRescueCD for RDesktop terminal server access in the end.

 

The client machine gets the address from dhcp, then tries to find the file, but then shows timeout. It is as if it cant find it.

 

This previous post might contain some clues:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/thin-client-virtual-machines/50757-new-version-ltsp.html

 

That process did wind up with me ditching LTSP, though.

[FN-GM]

Can i ask why you are changing please?

[bart21]

Hardware support for the latest thinstation isnt as good. doesnt have sound driver for Acer Revo.

[bart21]

@dhicks - what did you end up using in the end?

[dhicks]

@dhicks - what did you end up using in the end?

 

I think we found SystemRescueCD to have the best hardware support in the end - it seems to be kept very well up-to-date as far as drivers are concerned, and as long as you also have Firefox and RDesktop you don't really need much else.

[JasonM]

Hi

 

I am looking at replacing our thinstation with LTSP.

 

sofar i have selected LTSP server and set a client machine to boot to pxe with options

66 10.46.220.23

67 pxelinux.0

 

The client machine gets the address from dhcp, then tries to find the file, but then shows timeout. It is as if it cant find it.

 

any ideas??

nick

 

2 Quick questions:

 

1) Have you tried adding a forward slash e.g. /pxelinux.0 . What kind of TFTP server are you using? Do you have RIS or any other kind of Windows deployment services running (RIS/ProxyDHCP can sometimes interfere with "normal" DHCP/TFTP process)

 

2) What audio chipset does the Acer revo have?

I might be able to compile a module for you if you can tell me what driver you need, or post me a device I can play with in the lab.

 

JasonM

[JaSauders]

As somebody who's experienced several different thin client vendors, I'd like to say that LTSP was the only one that even remotely worked in a practical manner. All of our other thin client solutions needed to be rebooted frequently to behave and stay connected, and even at that their boot times were unbearable being upwards of 15 minutes or so for all clients to finally respond.

 

Not only have I not rebooted any of our LTSP servers since I installed them, but when I have rebooted them during setup, their reboot time is just like a regular desktop. It's the only thin client solution I'd ever consider using in the future.

 

Moving along... have you gotten anywhere with it? I did set up LTSP to be on our Windows DHCP, much like you're trying to do, and I had no issues. Are you absolutely positive it is *identical* formatting with the proper slashes and whatnot?

 

Also, have you taken a client (a laptop, or whatever) and plugged in a cat5e line in closer to the server to see if you can eliminate some network hops? You could also (if you're comfortable with this) fire up DHCP on the Linux server and plug a cat5e line directly in to the server with a laptop and see if it boots.

 

I always start small then span out. If it works in the server closet with my guinea pig laptop, then I move outward and eventually to the lab. If it works, I call it a day and we move on to other projects.

 

For what it's worth, it's getting to the point that using the Windows DHCP functionality might not be optimal in our environment. I'm telling you this in case you run into the same thing. It's looking to get to the point where we may have multiple LTSP servers which serve several labs. That being said, if you use the Windows DHCP option you seem to be stuck with one LTSP server. In our environment, we began to VLAN and subnet accordingly. I let my LTSP servers handle DHCP on their own with their own scope, and thanks to VLANing it keeps the traffic segregated. Just some food for thought.

 

Good luck.