Not sure if this helps, but I have booted an Acer Aspire One off of an Ubuntu 8.10 live USB key. I think I used wired ethernet like that, but I'm not 100% sure. So possibly a newer kernel would help you. Perhaps Ubuntu 8.10 or K12Linux. I'd try K12Linux, since it sounds like it's pretty easy to test LTSP with that distro using the live cd.
-Rob On Thu, Mar 05, 2009 at 06:58:03AM -0800, [email protected] wrote: > > Hello all! > > I stumbled upon the Acer Aspire One Netbook as a prime candidate for our use > in a school environment. Before I go about describing the problems, maybe > some of you are interested in reading the backgrounds. > > I have been researching the possiblity of having all students of our school > equipped with their own (cheap, small, silent) laptop device. It should be > light enough to be taken home, simple in technology (no quadcore/150gb per > person-overkill), small form factor for use in class (no 18" wide-screen), > usable keyboard, silent (again: NO quadcores) and modest in battery > consumption. The Acer One notebook with Linpus Linux and 8gb SSD meets most > of these criteria very well. Its start up time is really impressive, too. > > So each student could buy such a device. Some students will have their own > machines which they may want to use. So when used in class -- the laptops > should be hooked up as a thin client in order to assure that everyone has the > same (functional!) environment. So nobody has to take care of the machines' > support as long as they can boot. As possible extension, I would like to > study how far these machines are suitable as fat clients. > > This is how far my project idea has come. For when I started testing, the > netbook refused the PXE-booting. > The error messages on terminal 1 were: > > Clocksource tsc unstable (delta = -[2^32 -1]ns) > > Time: hpet clocksource has been installed > > NET: Registered protocol familiy 17 > > ipconfig: eth0: SIOCGIF INDEX: No such device > > ipconfig: no devices to configure > > /init: .: 1: Can't open /tmp/net-eth0.conf > > Kernel panic / not syncing: Attempted to kill init! > > Switching back to terminal 7 or 8 (the graphical login screen) I read: > > nbd-event [1500]: run_program: '/sbin/modprobe' abnormal exit > > After several hours of reasearch first on the clocksource issue (which turned > out to be harmless and easy to fix; simply add clocksource=hpet in > pxelinux.cfg/default - interesting what all one learns during such trouble > shooting sessions!) it turned out that there must be an issue with the > Realtek RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller. > > As far as I understand the following bug report in Launchpad point to the > fact that some kernels do not handle that NIC well > (https://bugs.launchpad.net/openvz-kernel/+bug/225749). > > The on-board Linpus Linux uses kernel 2.6.23.9lw. The server uses Kernel > 2.6.24-23-generic with LTSP5 on Ubuntu 8.04. So off i go and update the > kernel in the chroot /opt/ltsp/i386 to 2.6.24-23-generic as well. I think it > used to be 2.6.24-16-generic. At least that is what I see in > /var/lib/tftboot/ltsp/i386 pointed to by nbi.img.old. (So the above error > messages are with that kernel.) > > I seem to manage, at least my Pentium IIIs still boot. The error message has > changed, though. It ends in a kernel panic as well but the error message is > different. So much different that I do not see any starting point for the > trouble shooting. I put screen shots on my blog (http://kszsm.ch.vu/ -> > Varia). If somebody knowledgeable could have a look at them I would be very > grateful! > > As far as I understand, the problem is not LTSP-specific. A possible solution > however, should work in the LTSP-setting. Neither is within my limited reach. > I understood that the rtl8102 module somehow is the trouble maker. Some > sources suggested adding this module to the initram which I tried in the > chroot but -- not knowing at all what I was doing -- could not see any hope > in, so I abandoned it. > > My questions: > 1.) Does anybody have similar troubles with the Acer Aspire One netbook used > as a thin client? Does anybody have it working like it should? In what > setting? > 2.) Does anybody see a good starting point to solve these problems? Am I > completely missing something? > 3.) If it was the rtl8102 module, how could I get it into the chrooted > image/kernel/whatever? > > Your help is very much appreciated, thank you! > > > = = = = = = = = = > Stefan Müller Wildi > Unterhof 5 > CH-6208 Oberkirch > +41 41/920 3336 > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > 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 > _____________________________________________________________________ > Ltsp-discuss mailing list. To un-subscribe, or change prefs, goto: > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ltsp-discuss > For additional LTSP help, try #ltsp channel on irc.freenode.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 _____________________________________________________________________ Ltsp-discuss mailing list. To un-subscribe, or change prefs, goto: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ltsp-discuss For additional LTSP help, try #ltsp channel on irc.freenode.net
