LTSP on Ubuntu

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Mon, Apr 25, 2005 at 12:17:44PM +0200, Andy Rabagliati wrote:

> On Mon, 25 Apr 2005, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Apr 25, 2005 at 01:50:09AM -0400, Ozitraveller wrote:
> > > 
> > > Skolelinux
> > > http://www.skolelinux.org/portal/product/thinClients/document_view,
> > > already does this, and it's Debian and LTSP based? And wouldn't
> > > all/most of the packages be available in the Debian repositories?
> > 
> > Do you have any pointers to information about how it works, or even how to
> > use it?
> 
> I would be very happy to provide any help needed in getting this to
> work. I have a lot of experience getting LTSP, and its redhat sibling
> project K12LTSP, installed in schools in South Africa.

Great.  Here in Sydney, we're working on specifying thin client
functionality for Ubuntu, in cooperation with several developers from the
LTSP community.  You can follow that work here:

http://udu.wiki.ubuntu.com/ThinClientIntegration

> Briefly, the DHCP server is configured with "filename" and "root-path"
> parameters, enabling a client to boot via PXE or etherboot. This means
> no hard drive is necessary on the client.
> 
> The NFS-mounted root file system identified by "root-path" presents a
> cut down linux filesystem, sufficient to run an X-server only.
> 
> Everybody (K12LTSP, Skolelinux, others) use LTSP as this cut down system.
> 
> The server should enable XDMCP in the X config, probably enable TCP
> access to the fontserver, allow NFS for the clients.
> 
> Skolelinux uses LDAP for authentication, while K12LTSP uses passwd.
> 
> I strongly advise LDAP.
> 
> After booting, a standard X login to the server is provided, and is
> indistinguishable from a regular X login on the server.

I specifically wanted to know how Skolelinux's solution is implemented, and
how it differs from "stock" LTSP (if at all).  Is it simply a Skolelinux
with the LTSP tools installed (and used to create an LTSP chroot environment
for export)?

Does the installer configure LDAP/NFS/XDMCP/etc. out of the box, or are the
LTSP admin tools used for this?

-- 
 - mdz