Downloading and Installing LTSP, version 2.09pre3

October 5, 2001 - James McQuillan jam@Ltsp.org

 

Changelog

Downloading

There are several packages that make up the LTSP. Knowing the purpose of each package will help to ensure that you will only be downloading the pieces that you need.

There are 3 major groups of packages for LTSP. They are: Core, X Windows and Local apps. We broke the packages into groups, because of functionality. Some people wanted to install LTSP and just run character based apps. So, we pulled X windows out of the core. And local apps is an optional feature. Not everybody has workstations that are powerful enough to run apps locally. So, we figured that we'd make the local apps support an optional package.

In addition to the major packages described above, there are also some other packages, adding additional features to the LTSP system.

Installing

Each of the packages include an INSTALL or README file, describing how to install. Basically, just put the packages in the /tmp directory, and un-tar them.

  cd /tmp
  tar xvzf lts_core-2.09pre3.tgz
  cd lts_core
  ./install.sh
    
The lts_core package has an additional step of running ltsp_initialize to enable the services required for a remote workstation to connect to the server.

The lts_core package MUST be the first package installed. After that, the installation order doesn't matter.

Package Size
lts_core-2.09pre3.tgz 1.4mb
lts_kernel-2.09pre3-6.tgz 3.3mb
 
lts_x_core-2.09pre3.tgz 11.0mb
lts_x_fonts-2.09pre3.tgz 8.9mb
 
lts_localapps-2.09pre3.tgz 1.0mb
lts_local_netscape-2.09pre3.tgz 13.0mb
 
ltsp_initrd_kit-2.09pre3.tgz 1.0mb
ltsp_util_src.tgz 65kb
 
ltspwebcam-0.1.tgz 428kb
ltspsound-0.1c.tgz 215kb
lts_scanner-0.01.tgz 950kb

Core packages

At a very minimum, you will need to download the lts_core and lts_kernel packages. This will give you enough to boot the workstation and run a character based Telnet to the server. Basically, a good replacement for a dumb terminal connected via Ethernet.
lts_core-2.09pre3.tgz (1.4mb) The "Core" package of LTSP. This package is required
lts_kernel-2.09pre3.tgz (3.3mb) The kernel package that will be downloaded to the workstation

X Windows packages

If you want to run X Windows (A very good GUI), then you will need to download the X core package. That will give you all of the drivers for XFree86 4.1.0.

It is recommended that you also download the X Fonts package. This package has been separated from the X Core package, because some people choose to use an X Font server. A Font server requires some additional configuration on the server, to enable it to serve fonts to a workstation. So, unless you really know what you are doing with X Font Servers, you should probably download the X Fonts package.

lts_x_core-2.09pre3.tgz (11.0mb) The The basic X Windows components (including the XFree86 4.1.0 drivers)
lts_x_fonts-2.09pre3.tgz (8.9mb) The X fonts package.

Local Apps Packages

If you have a workstation with a bit of horsepower, you can utilize some of that power by running applications locally, on the workstation. A small Pentium, PII, or Celeron based workstation with at least 64mb of ram is a pretty good candidate for running local apps.

To run local apps, you will also need to setup NIS (Network Information Services) on the server. You will need that so that when you use rsh to execute the application on the workstation, it will be able to authenticate you.

Currently, the only application package that we have is Netscape. Additional packages are planned in the future, as well as documentation describing how to build local app packages.

lts_localapps-2.09pre3.tgz (1.0mb) Local apps support. This package contains the pieces that make local applications possible
lts_local_netscape-2.09pre3.tgz (13.0mb) Netscape 2.78 pre-configured for installation as a local application
Once the Netscape local app package has been installed, you can run it by getting a shell session on the server and running this:

    HOST=`echo $DISPLAY | awk -F: '{ print $1 }'`
    rsh ${HOST} MOZILLA_HOME=/usr/local/netscape \
                /usr/local/netscape/netscape     \
		-display ${DISPLAY}
      

Miscellaneous Packages

If you are going to be building your own custom kernels for the workstations, then you will need the ltsp_initrd_kit package. This package contains the scripts and root filesystem hierarchy that makes up the initial ram disk (initrd) that is downloaded along with the kernel, when the workstation boots.
ltsp_initrd_kit-2.09pre3.tgz (1.0mb) The scripts and files needed to build the Initial Ram Disk (initrd) for the kernel
There are several utility programs that were written for LTSP, including getltscfg, ltsprtd, pci_scan, prep_swap and startsess. The ltsp_util_src package contains the source code for those utilities.
ltsp_util_src.tgz (65kb) The source code for the utilities that were written specifically for LTSP

Contributed Packages

Webcam package

The webcam package was created by Andrew Williams. He put together all of the pieces you need, including documentation to connect a Web cam to your workstation and serve up pictures.
ltspwebcam-0.1.tgz (428kb) The scripts and files needed to support a web cam on an LTSP workstation.
The ltspsound package was originally created by Boris Reisig, then modified by Andrew Williams to work with the 2.09 series of LTSP.
ltspsound-0.1c.tgz (215kb) The scripts and files needed to support a sound card on an LTSP workstation.
The lts_scanner package was developed by Robert Stanford, to allow you to connect a Scanner to a workstation and scan in documents.
lts_scanner-0.01.tgz (135kb) The scripts and files needed to support a scanner on an LTSP workstation.