Hello and KDE on LTSP

[Andrew Scott]

Hello all! I am grateful to Matthew East of the Ubuntu documentation project
for pointing me in the direction of this list, as I have a whole bunch of
questions to ask you folks! :)

I am running the i386 desktop install of Ubuntu 6.06 on a new AMD Athlon 64bit
CPU based machine with 'enough' horsepower. [Amongst other things] I installed
Kubuntu desktop as my family [all with user accounts] are used to KDE, and I
must admit it, I like it too. Logins are facilitated through GDM with the
humanlist faces theme as I cannot seem to find ANY KDE faces themes.

This setup was always intended to run the Ubuntu LTSP. I've been watching this
idea for a while now and liked what I saw. Anyway, I installed the
edubuntu-server, ltsp-server-standalone and ltsp-server packages from the
repos, and was very impressed indeed by how smoothly everything went. It did
take a little while to find my way around, learning curve, that's my excuse
anyway :)

I've got a rescued ex-office Dell Optiplex PIII desktop on the kitchen, and
grabbed a bunch of cheap PXE cards from Ebay. And then learned why they were
cheap :( Cut a long story short I wrestled with TFTP. nine year old alpha
firmware, inetd and sysctl settings, and got the thin client working. Sort of.
I'm typing from it now :) If anyone is interested in the story I've left a
messy mile wide trail for all to follow LOL

QUESTIONS
=========

#1: Any idea how I can find / get hold of system logs for the client as it sets
up? Debugging is a mite difficult without this ...

#2: I can power the main machine on, power up the client, see it set up, log
in, everything is fine and dandy. Now, if I log out, and power the client down
[politely], then power he client back up, the client sets up, X comes up, but
it looks like LDM [the LTSP login manager] doesn't start, and I'm back at the
console, with a 'LTSP Login:' prompt. And I cannot log in. At all.
Authentication denied. Power down client [ungracefully], power up again. Same
result. Now, power down client, and power down main machine. Bring main machine
back up again, and lo and behold the client works perfectly again. So I'm
hypothesising that LDM never dies, just fades away, and cannot be reincarnated.
Thoughts?

#3: [As per the tag line] Logging in on LDM brings me in to Gnome desktop.
Gnome is nice, but I want KDE. How can I get KDE? I tried chrooting to
/opt/ltsp/i386 and 'apt-get install kubuntu-desktop' but of course just messed
up my install and had to wipe and rebuild using ltsp_build_client. What am I
missing?

#4: The LDM is very plain and is not intuitive for my family to use. I would
like a faces theme, preferably human-list. How can I arrange for this to
happen? Logging in to a client should present the same experience as logging
into the main machine.

#5: I would like sound on my clients. I've read all the Ubuntu LTSP docs, and a
few more besides. Yes, I am running artsd, and no, I will not be changing my
basic sound architecture after having got it all working on the main machine
otherwise my death will be long slow and painful. And yes, I've read the
disclaimer about LTSP not supporting artsd. Now, I would like to use artsd over
LTSP. How can I do this?

Well, that's for starters. I am sure there will be more :) :)

Thank you all for your consideration and assistance - yes please!! :D

Best regards,
Andrew


	
	
		
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