On Fri, 7 Jun 2002, Michael Brown wrote:

> 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.
> 

The only issue I see immediately with that is if you're hosting clients
that are other archs.  I was building a seperate ltsp root, from the live
system, which also has the same problem.  I suppose in practice, that
scenario probably doesn't arise that often.

> It also uses the stock Mandrake kernel, instead of requiring LTSP kernels.

Same here.

> 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.
> 

Sound like you've got it all worked out.  Wish I knew this a week ago :)

Stew Benedict

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