On Tue, Dec 04, 2012 at 12:04:01AM -0500, Robert Lefebvre wrote: > >LDM is a piece of software that runs on the client hardware, and uses SSH > >to connect to the server. > > > I don't understand this as we run about forty thin clients and they boot with > PXE and we don't put any software on them?
PXE is used to download software off the network... the software it downloads in an LTSP environment is typically a linux kernel and an initramfs, which in turn load other software off of the network, which typically loads LDM, a piece of software... which connects to the server using other software... I'm telling you, it's software all the way down. LTSP itself is not actually a single piece of software, it's a collection of software to boot an OS off the network- so it can't really be an android app, per se. You could maybe create a chroot environment that was essentially an LTSP installation, or maybe even a chroot from a network mount... and connect to services provided by an LTSP server... > Well I definitely don't understand it but when my current clients boot, PXE > and > LTSP deliver them a login screen, that's all. I'm glad we've developed something that looks so simple on the surface. :) In many ways, LTSP has probably become more complicated than it needs to be, as the codebase has evolved over the years... I've been an LTSP developer for over 7 years now, gotten support for building arm LTSP/qemu on an x86 server in Debian, helped get a couple arm kernel variants into Debian... We've got a long way to go before arm based thin clients are straightforward... though it's looking a lot more feasible than just a few years ago. > That doesn't seem too complicated > to me but since there isn't anything out there yet to use these Android > devices > as thin clients it must be complicated or it would have been done. So it is, and it isn't... There's nothing technically infeasible about it, a very capable person could patch together all the bits and pieces... although supporting arm devices tend to be a bit more fussy as not all the support has been merged in the mainline linux kernel, and while multiple different arm devices could use the same root filesystem, typically each device or family of arm devices requires a separate kernel. The capabilities of a given arm device vary widely, and aren't necessarily consistant (i.e. they may boot from network (with some one-off protocol, or with PXE), or from media such as an SD card, USB, SATA, etc.). They don't tend to be general purpose computers. Some devices are reasonably well supported in distros such as Debian, Ubuntu or others, but many devices are only supported with the customized distro they ship with. And some of those customized distros are more-or-less competant for traditional thin-client purposes, but support is often limited in duration, or limited in functionality- they're more like appliances. It's not the flexibility you get building your LTSP environment from a linux distribution that's more of a known quantity. Because of that, I wouldn't recommend trying to hack on LTSP with the most fussy devices first (i.e. anything ARM based). First, develop a proof of concept for what you want to accomplish with more conventional x86-compatible hardware. Then when you have a firm grasp of what is involved, experiment more wildly. Hope that's helpful. live well, vagrant ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ LogMeIn Rescue: Anywhere, Anytime Remote support for IT. Free Trial Remotely access PCs and mobile devices and provide instant support Improve your efficiency, and focus on delivering more value-add services Discover what IT Professionals Know. Rescue delivers http://p.sf.net/sfu/logmein_12329d2d _____________________________________________________________________ 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
