Version: 1.0.1
Revised: January 16th 2002
Maintainer: Mark Watts
The most recent version of this document can be found in the FAQ section of the Mandrake Mosix Terminal Server Project.
LTSP is the Linux Terminal Server Project.
It provides the 'glue' for allowing Thin Clients (pc's that use no local storage and boot over a network) to boot into a remote X session on a Linux server. All programs are run on the server but all output is sent to the Thin Client. This is a great way of reviving old 486's and low end Pentium class machines.
This HOWTO is designed as a walk-through for installing a basic LTSP system on a Mandrake 8.1 server, and getting a single remote client connected.
For the client pc, you will need:
% dd if=/path/to/rom-image of=/dev/fd0 bs=1024
For the server pc, you will need:
On the Linux box, the following services need to be installed and started (%service blah start):
% urpmi tftp-server % urpmi nfs-utils % urpmi portmap % service portmap start
We will be making some changes to dhcpd.conf later on so don't worry about starting dhcpd yet
Ok, we now need to get the LTSP files to install. These can be obtained from the LTSP download page.
You will need:
Download the files to a suitable directory and unpack them (eg /tmp)
% tar zxvf ltsp_core-3.0.0-i386.tgz % tar zxvf ltsp_kernel-3.0.1-i386.tgz % tar zxvf ltsp_x_core-3.0.1-i368.tgz % tar zxvf ltsp_x_fonts-3.0.0-i386.tgz
Next, change to the 'ltsp_core' directory that has just been created, and run the install.sh script
% cd ltsp_core % sh install.sh
It will ask you if you want to use the network settings it suggests, say yes and let the script finish.
Now, change to /opt/ltsp/templates and run ltsp_initialize
% cd /opt/ltsp/templates % ./ltsp_initalize
Finally, change to each of the other directories that were created
(ltsp_kernel et
al) and run install.sh as before.
Assuming you unpacked in /tmp:
% cd /tmp/ltsp_kernerl % sh install.sh % cd /tmp/ltsp_x_core % sh install.sh % cd /tmp/ltsp_x_fonts % sh install.sh
You have now installed LTSP on your server. Yay! Now we need to configure it.
For this part, we need to modify some files, specifically /etc/hosts, /etc/dchpd.conf and /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/ltsp.conf.
First we'll change /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf. Open up that file in your favourite text editor and scroll to the [Default] section. The SERVER variable should ve set to the IP address of the server you are using (192.168.0.1 in our case). You will want to edit this file if you want to add more than one client pc. We will be using 'ws001' as our client. As you can see, this is set to automatically detect the X settings to use and to boot the client into runlevel 5 (graphical login). The settings are fairly self explanitary as you can see.
Now we need to modify /etc/hosts to add the IP addresses of the server and client. The file should look like the following:
127.0.0.1 localhost 192.168.0.1 ltsp-server # Or whatever your server name is 192.168.0.5 ws001
Now for the slightly complicated bit. I'll go through my /etc/dhcpd.conf and explain the settings:
#Sample dhcpd.conf file for LTSP ddns-update-style adhoc; default-lease-time 21600; max-lease-time 21600; option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0; option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255; option routers 192.168.0.1; option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.1; option domain-name "myltsp.com"; option root-path "192.168.0.1:/opt/ltsp/i386"; #option option-129 code 129 = text; shared-network WORKSTATIONS { subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { } } group { use-host-decl-names on; option log-servers 192.168.0.1; host ws001 { hardware ethernet 00:D0:B7:B0:48:CB; fixed-address 192.168.0.5; filename "/ltsp/vmlinuz-2.4.9-ltsp5"; #option option-129 "NIC=natsemi"; } }
The important line is the 'hardware ethernet' line. This should contain the ethernet (mac) address of the network card in the client pc. Use the Rom-O-Matic boot disk to determine what to put in here.
If all goes well, you can start dhcpd now
% service dhcpd start
Now reboot your client pc with the Rom-O-Matic image. You *should* be presented with an X login with the default window manager. Login using an account on the server and enjoy!
Of all the things to configure, dhcpd.conf can cause the most problems. If dhcpd fails to start, check in /var/log/messages for the error (dhcpd is good like that). My main problem was to do with missing out a '}' near the end of the file.
LTSP help (if you can't see the answer on the LTSP website) can be obtained in #ltsp or #mandrake-ltsp on irc.openprojects.net