Answers on booting LTSP clients

[Al Gordon]

On 10/17/05, Eamonn Sullivan <eamonn.sullivan at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'll just to document how I solved the problem of booting clients with
> Breezy's LTSP, in case anyone is interested. I'll also put some of
> this on the wiki (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ThinClientHowto).
>
> On the IBM ThinkPad, choose Intel Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE)
> in the BIOS options, *not* boot from LAN, and it comes right up. You
> need to be connected via a wire, not wireless. There is some work
> going on to boot clients via wireless cards (see
> http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/WirelessLtsp), but I haven't
> tried it yet.
>
> On the Windows desktop -- an HP Pavilion 423.uk -- nothing happened
> when I choose in the BIOS to boot from the LAN (it just booted into
> Windows from the hard disk as normal). I suspect this is because the
> built-in network card doesn't have PXE in ROM. The solution was to
> create a boot floppy or CD (I don't have any floppy disks, and haven't
> in years, so used the CD) on this site: http://www.rom-o-matic.net/
>
> I picked the latest version, chose my network card in the long list of
> supported card and it generates a custom ISO (128K) that I downloaded
> and burned.
>
> The performance is at least as fast as connecting via VNC and it's a
> lot simpler to explain to my kids (just put this CD in and reboot,
> then log in as normal). Sound doesn't work on the client, but I see on
> the LTSP wiki (http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/Sound) that it
> should work, so I'll work on that next.
>
> Cheers to the developers! Very well done. My mind is already churning
> on some interesting side projects using this feature. For example, I
> could buy (cheap on eBay) a thin client or build one myself to add
> another PC cheaply in the kids' bedroom...
>
> -Eamonn

Thanks for the work, Eamonn.  Good documentation is a must in things
like this that people aren't familiar with... yet.

I set up a thin client environment yesterday too, and booted my
Toshiba laptop up onto it.  Worked like a champ.  Although, I've seen
dedicated thin client systems boot before, and they seem to come up a
lot faster.  I'll be checking into that as well.

You and I can bid-war each other on eBay thin client systems.  ;)

--

  -- AL --