New instant boot - diskless Linux OS with built in Office su

[mark.hopgood]

I wanted to know if anyone is interested in trying this.

We've made Linux boot very easy - just need any PC that will boot on a network using PXE.

 

The Hopnetix Linux distro has the open ofice suite built in and is customisable. I've spent a few months working on it and already have it up and running in a couple of establishments.

 

The Linux network boot PC (no hard disk = less electricity = greener) can be used for the following:

 

1. connection using rdp to windows terminal services / linux

2. vnc connection

3. open office

4. citrix ica client

5. sun SGD thin client

 

PCs to run this can be found for £160 but you can use any PC

 

anyway I'm looking for people to try this so I'd appreciate a reply / PM

[Midget]

Chuck it my way and I'll try it out on a classroom which i've taken offline for repairs to see how well it works.

 

What's it based on? Knoppix I assume? What size is it?

[webman]

I'm interested too.

[mac_shinobi]

me 3

[Geoff]

Sounds good to me. Whats the url for the download?

[CyberNerd]

sounds great, where do we get it?

[openhgs]

A quick google says http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/General_Live_Diskless and yes it is Knoppix based.

[StewartKnight]

A computer without a harddrive... things really have come full circle!

[mark.hopgood]

OK, thanks for the interest - i've finally got round to setting up a server with enough bandwidth to host the image (KNOPPIX)

 

Here's the instructions on obtaining the hopnetix / plasmanetix diskless OS

and installing the server on any windows machine.

 

installing hopnetix / plasmanetix server and testing

 

requirements

- 2gb free disk space

- LAN network connection

 

download from

 

ftp://ftpw.plasmanet-uk.com/plasmanetix.exe

 

username: plasmanetix

password: plasmanetix2005

 

run plasmanetix.exe and it will ask you for a password

 

password: plasmanetix2005

 

click install - leave the path as c:\pnuk\plasmanetix

 

(alternative location for the plasmanetix folder

copy s:\software\plasmanetix contents to c:\pnuk\plasmanetix

or obtain from CD)

 

1. start launch_plasmanetix.bat

2. start tftpd32.exe - plasmanetix is now running

3. install textpad from c:\pnuk\plasmanetix\sw\txpeng502.exe - install to

 

c:\pnuk\programs

4. configure c:\pnuk\plasmanetix\pxelinux.cfg\default - right click the file and

 

choose textpad

- change the line that starts with

ammend nfsdir=192.168.0.19

- so that 192.168.0.19 is replaced with the current ip address of this (server)

 

machine

 

PXE boot a machine connected on this server connected via a LAN - you can use the

virtual machine provided to test this

 

5. install VMWare player from c:\pnuk\plasmanetix\sw\VMware-player-1.0.3-34682.exe

 

- install to c:\pnuk\programs

 

6. launch vmware and choose the virtual_machine\hopnetix\hopnetix.vmx file

 

optional - Configuring plasmanetix digtal signage player

 

7. configure the PlasmaNetix player for attaching to your PlasmaNet server

 

- change the c:\pnuk\plasmanetix\KNOPPIX\index_en.html

- so the line:

var PlasmaNet_URL = "http://192.168.0.20/plasmanet78.nsf/frame?openagent&z.linux";

- reflects your plasmanet server and channel

 

8. configure the hopnetix client network configuration so the internet gateway is defined

- change the c:\pnuk\plasmanetix\KNOPPIX\resolv.conf

- make sure the line nameserver reflects the ip address of your dns gateway for the internet

- use texpad and make sure the file is saved as type UNIX

[TomBrooklyn]

So... how's it working for everybody?