On Fri, 7 Jun 2002, Stew Benedict wrote: > > >>Working on that package now (LTSP). > > > It's actually possible to reproduce the entire functionality of LTSP > > > (complete with all local apps) in around 400k of packages. I've done so; > > > you can find them at www.fensystems.co.uk/RPMS.fensys - download the > > > mkinitrd-net > > > terminal-server > > > RPMs, install and enjoy. > > > Only reason I haven't uploaded them to contribs is because I gave up on > > > waiting for things uploaded to contribs to make it into the distribution. > > That's no excuse!!! If they don't get magically added to contribs, mail > > the cooker list, and if the stuff is useful, someone will surely get it > > in. However, I guess Stew will take a look at this (or can I get cracking?). > > Of course, links to the SRPMs > > (http://www.fensystems.co.uk/SRPMS.fensys/) are usually more useful. > I'll have a look. Sounds like much the same approach I was taking.
It's a fairly neat way to solve the problem. Rather than creating a separate LTSP root, you just export your own root filesystem as read-only and all_squash (i.e. only files accessible to all users are visible on the export). You need to be running in security level 2 for this to work (in 3 and higher mode o+r is missing from many crucial files). This means that any application installed on the server is instantly available to be run as a local app on the diskless terminal. It also uses the stock Mandrake kernel, instead of requiring LTSP kernels. A small patch to Etherboot (which has been added to Etherboot CVS; I have commit access) causes the NIC to identify itself to the DHCP server. The mkinitrd-net package takes care of creating initrds for each network module and sets up the DHCP server so that the correct kernel+initrd automatically gets selected by the Etherboot code. Very painless. Michael
