Just a thought, are there any existing projects for any distros for 
'minimalist' kernels/friends? For example, would we be able to take 
anything from Xubuntu and use it in Ubuntu chroot, without having to 
think about using a completely different distro?

It feels to me like we're trying to backtrack to the 4.2 days, wanting 
to take *complete* chroot control back, and, well, I'm sure there were 
some pretty good reasons to move away from that model (already described 
previously in the thread). Maybe there's a happy medium here that 
involves existing distro projects for older/smaller systems (like I 
said, Xubuntu for Ubuntu being one of the 'minimalist, low power' 
projects) :)


Cheers,
Jordan/Lns


Rob Owens wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 10:35:28PM -0800, Nicholas Metsovon wrote:
>   
>> You know, this has all been real interesting.  I downloaded Damn Small Linux 
>> (DSL) tonight.  I have a real old laptop that I've wanted to find a better 
>> way to have it connect to our LTSP server for when I have to travel.
>>
>> I tried just the embedded version running on Windows, and it confirmed that 
>> applications on the LTSP server would run just fine using ssh -X, if I 
>> wanted to make some sort of menu system (or a whole bunch of links) to call 
>> whatever programs I wanted to run.  And I could even run multiple programs 
>> at the same time that way.
>>
>> Then I had the idea to ssh -X to the LTSP server, calling NX client.  I used 
>> it to log right back into the LTSP server, and wha-la, I had my full LTSP 
>> desktop!  
>>
>> So, theoretically, a person could install DSL on some of these old 
>> computers, and upon startup have it call NX (or FreeNX, if you need more 
>> connections and don't want to pay NX for them).  DSL didn't ask me for a 
>> password, so when the NX login dialog box shows up, it'd be like the first 
>> and only time the user would be asked to log in.  Then, gee, you'd be 
>> connected to the LTSP server very much like a regular LTSP implementation.
>>
>>     
> An even easier way is to run DSL in text mode (I believe you type:  DSL 2   
> at the boot prompt), then run X like this:  X -query myltspserver
>
> That'll give you a full desktop gui from the ltsp server.  I have to give 
> credit to Les Mikesell on the K12LTSP list for teaching me this trick years
> ago.
>
> www.thesymbiont.com has a boot stick device which does basically what we have 
> discussed.  It loads a basic local operating system, and then connects to
> an LTSP server, and NX server, a VNC server, etc.  It costs money, but the 
> money goes to a company that participates in LTSP development.
>
>   
>> Granted, theoretically, you'd have an operating system on the clients that 
>> you might have to maintain; but I think that'd be minimal.  (With the 
>> embedded approach, you could probably get away from all of that.)  At the 
>> same time, you'd still have all of the advantages of having your LTSP server 
>> as the one machine you have to maintain for software & security updates.
>>
>>     
> I'd just run it off the live cd and leave it at that.
>
>   
>> You might have to tweak your DSL gui a little bit if you wanted to do away 
>> with it's menu and desktop, etc. -- but this might not be a bad solution for 
>> some of those old PC's out there.
>>
>> One thing - remote sound from the LTSP server didn't work on the embedded 
>> DSL when I ran it.  But when you're trying to eek out a little more life 
>> from some really old machines, you might just have to be happy without some 
>> of the bells and whistles.  (Forgive the pun, please!)  'Not to say that one 
>> might not be able to overcome that with a little work.
>>
>>     
> I agree that not all features are necessarily required for the older clients. 
>  I think it's important to provide basic computing needs on old hardware,
> but things like flash and sound can probably be done without (or at least 
> come later).
>
>   
>> It's something to consider...
>>
>> --
>>
>> Of course, I'd like to think that there should be a way to take the DSL 
>> image, feed it back to a normal LTSP thin client at boot-up, so it doesn't 
>> even need to be installed on the client, and somehow connect to the server 
>> from it.
>>
>> --
>>
>> So, Rob, if you have a couple of weeks off, does any of this sound like 
>> anything you'd like to play with?  Maybe it could be like an add-in 
>> contribution for LTSP users needing this kind of remedy.
>>
>>     
> I'll see what I can come up with.
>
> -Rob
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA
-OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise
-Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation
-Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD
http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H
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