Clients

What's the minimum client

A frequent question I get is: What's the minimum recommended client?.

My basic answer to this question is: Anything with a PCI bus and 32MB of RAM.

The PCI bus isn't a strict requirement, but the video chipsets that they put in the ISA bus based machines are really crappy, and usually not worth the fuss.

You can also get by with less than 32MB of RAM, but you'll almost certainly want to turn on NFS-SWAP in the lts.conf file. It's probably a good idea to turn on NFS-SWAP even with 32MB. It's a great safety net.

-- JimMcQuillan - 23 Mar 2005

Another opinion on Minimum clients

LTSP Clients do not require any specific hardware as such but for two requirements. First, the RAM on the Client should be good enough (128MB is a better choice) and the second is that there should be Network boot facility present in the BIOS of the motherboard and moreover the NETWORK card (along with the BOOTROM) should be supported by the motherboard as I faced some problems when using the network card on the old motherboard. Moreover, we should be very careful if the card is present in the DRIVER database of the OS as many cards are although supported but we need to specify the exact driver which the client requires (in case we are using different cards on different clients).

-- DhirajGaur - 04 Jan 2005

Minimal requirements should probably be updated in regards to recent developments e.g. SSH encryption of LDM connection, etc. For instance, can LTSP even operate on clients with 32MB of RAM anymore? What about 64MB of RAM then? Does this amount remain sufficient if the graphics hardware share the memory as on UMA hardware type? If not, how much extra RAM should we reserve for the boot payload?

-- MartinEric - 18 Jun 2008

Please add information to this page about specific LTSP client hardware

Overall comparison table

Brand	Model	CPU	RAM	Storage	Cost	Comment
Artec	DBE60	Geode SC2200	64MB	32MB Disk-on-Chip	50 EUR
Artec	DBE61	Geode LX	128MB	64MB MTD NAND	?
Artec	DBE62	Geode LX	256MB	(optional)	?	Gigabit Ethernet
Artec	DBE63	Geode LX	SODIMM	IDE Compact Flash card	?	Gigabit Ethernet
DELL	GX280
DELL	Optiplex SX270	Intel Celeron / Pentium 4	128 MB - 2 GB	opt. IDE Harddisk	Ebay 200 - 400 Euro
DevonIT?	NTA 6020P	VIA C3 800Mhz	128 Mb	NA	$150
Diskless Workstations	Jammin 125
DM&P / ICOP / eBox	eBox-II	Vortex86 200 MHz	128 MB
DM&P / ICOP / eBox	eBox-2300	Vortex86/SiS550 200 MHz	128 MB	1 CF Slot, space for a 2.5" IDE disk
D.T.C.
EPATec	eTC	Vortex86 200 MHz	128 MB
EPATec	eTC-2300	Vortex86/SiS550 200 MHz	128 MB	1 CF Slot, space for a 2.5" IDE disk	€ 139
E-Way	TU-40	Vortex86/SiS550 200 MHz	128 MB	1 CF Slot, space for a 2.5" IDE disk	$99/$85
Expert TW (OEM)	Starbox	Geode GX2 466 MHz	128 MB		$90+
Fujitsu Siemens	Futro S300
Fujitsu Siemens	Scovery Xs
Fujitsu Siemens	Futro C
HP	T5125
HP	T5300
HP	T5500
HP	ThinCast 5000
IBM Netvista	N2800 (8364)
IBM Netvista	N2200 (8363)	Geode GXLV 233 MHz	32 MB - 288 MB	1 CF Slot	Ebay ...
IBM Netvista	Model 8362-a53	IBM 603e PPC	up to 64 MB	only via PCMCIA	Ebay ...
IBM Netvista	Model 8364
NorhTec	MicroClient Jr.	Vortex86/SiS550 200 MHz	128 MB	1 CF Slot, space for a 2.5" IDE disk	$120/90

-- SvenERoth - 12 Dec 2006

Note about rebranded clients:

• eBox-II and eTC seem to be identical.
• eBox-2300, eTC-2300, NorhTec MicroClient Jr. and E-Way TU-40 seem to be identical.

-- AxelB - 18 Jan 2007

Commercial Client LTSP compatibility

Repurposed Commercial Clients Table

DisklessWorkstations^?.Com

Jammin 125

To use this thin client with LTSP-4.0 and above, you'll need to set the XSERVER to the proper driver.

The entry you'll need in lts.conf is:

XSERVER = nsc

Make the following change in versions of LTSP < 4.2 Update 5 to load the correct sound module:

Make the following modification to /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/audiolist.

Change the following line:

1078:0103       cx5530          #Cx5530 XpressAUDIO

To:

1078:0103       kahlua          #Cx5530 XpressAUDIO

To use LTSP 5, some manual settings in the lts.conf file are required. It is possible to have the xserver kept to auto (instead of nsc as required in version 4), but had to set the video ram, horizontal, and vertical sync manually. The following settings were for a terminal attached to a Sony Multisync 200sx:

    XSERVER=auto
    X_COLOR_DEPTH=16
    X_VIDEORAM=4096
    X_MODE_0=800x600
    X_HORZSYNC=30-70
    X_VERTREFRESH=50-150

-- BrianEllis - 14 May 2007

LTSP Term 1220 PXE

Booting with LTSP 5 under Ubuntu 6.10/Edubuntu 6.10 causes a kernel panic. To solve this problem, append the following options to the PXE default file, DEFAULT line.

Edit the following file: /var/lib/tftpboot/ltsp/i386/pxelinux.cfg/default

Append the following options to the DEFAULT line:

acpi=force irqpoll

Example before changes: DEFAULT vmlinuz ro initrd=initrd.img quite splash

Example after changes: DEFAULT vmlinuz ro initrd=initrd.img quite splash acpi=force irqpoll

eSeSiX thintune.com client

This thin client contains a flash card that needs to be removed to allow PXE booting. Do not take off the main case - there is a small metal panel held in place with a screw. Remove this and extract the card.

Next, boot the client and hit F2 to get into the BIOS. It is password-protected, and hard-coded to the firmware. The password is: LambKeoghs^?

Once in the BIOS, change its boot parameters to PXE network booting. Save the BIOS.

Finally, enter the NIC BIOS by pressing [shift]F10 when you see the words REALTEK 8139 appear at the top of the screen. Change the boot order to 18h (I think, must check!) telling it to follow main BIOS instructions for booting.

This should allow the client to PXE boot. -- AdamDrake - 01 Dec 2007

Expert Electronics Corp / Symbio Technologies

Symbio Technologies sell a very cheap thin client labeled SYM1110, its an OEM product called Starbox from Expert Electronics Corp in Taiwan with the following features.

• AMD GX2-466 processor on board.
• 128 MB DDR Memory on board
• Small Form Factor ¡V case size 1.26"(W) x 6.58"(H) x 5.1"(D)
• Fan-less, Low Temperature design
• Low-power consumption ¡V 5W typical, 1W standby
• Display resolution up to 1600x1200 (AMD GX2 REDCLOUD chipset based on NSC)
• 4 USB 1.1 ports
• 1 x 10/100Mbps High bandwidth Ethernet
• Diskless with non-volatile storage via Flash-IDE-Chip

Drivers are available for Linux 2.4 installs if not already available from either website. The audio and general chipset is supported in modern 2.6 kernels, however the accelerated video driver is not yet complete due to work on the OLPC project, it is therefore recomended to use the VESA X11 driver.

IBM NetVista clients

NetVista N2800 / Model 8364

Gary Hurley has written an article for EazyTek. You can view the article here: http://www.eazytek.com/netvista/ltsp.php

Just wanted to let everyone know that to get a IBM N2800 is very simple using LTSP, I am running SUSE 9.2 and LTSP, I changed the DHCP to have a host with the correct MAC address, and load PXE. Then I went into the setup utility, although it didn't indicate anywhere it was F1. I changed the authorization setting from RAP to DHCP, and it booted right up.

NetVista N2200 / Model 8363

BREAKING NEWS [2008.04.19]: Just managed to get the IBM NetVista N2200 up and running using LTSP 5 and Kernel 2.6.24.4. - However, the way there was a bit of a drag. Visit the NetVistaN2200 page for details! -- HeGi - 19 Apr 2008

[Note: as of Dec 2007, this client does not appear to work with LTSP5. I have tried for hours and hours to no avail. Something to do with 2.6 kernel not being available for it and 2.4 not working correctly with LTSP5. If you succeed, please let me know, but I recommend you don't waste your time. Try another client or stick to LTSP4.1] -- AdamDrake - 01 Dec 2007

Experiments with netvista Model 8363EXX.This is the work provided by Karl Kappel and augmented by Chris Turner and "John C". Enter the bios using F1 key.You may have to move the jumper on the motherboard if it is password protected..Once in you can hit F5 for advanced configuration options. Go to Configure network settings and make dhcp first network priority..tftp subnet broadcast can remain disabled..

You dhcp server needs to have option 211 enabled. I used these two lines in isc dhcp3 on redhat.

option option-211 code 211=string;
option option-211 74:66:74:70;

At this point tftp transfer should work..By putting blash.2200 in /tftpboot and as filename in dhcpd.conf

you should be able to load the firmware update to most recent (July of 2002).

Add the kernel file provided (vmlinux-2.4.19-LTSP-IBMNC) to /tftpboot/lts and point to it in dhcpd.conf (comment the filename "blash.2200"; When the client boots it should boot to the point where an nfs mount occurs..The IBM firmware does not recognize the root-path directive in dhcpd.conf! Don't forget to restart the services..

The kernel expects to have its root file system where it is booted from.. I futzed with this and think the definitive move was (from /tftpboot) entering ln -s /opt/ltsp/i386 /lts..This allowed nfs mount and brought me up to a shell prompt on the client.

Pehaps the best solution to the root path dilemma is to edit /etc/xinetd.d/tftp and comment the server_args = -s /tftpboot statement..THEN provide the full path to your kernel in filename statement of /etc/dhcpd.conf

Here is a semi-stable link to the tgz provided to me.dont forget the modules folder 2.4.19-LTSP-IBMNC needs to be in /opt/ltsp/i386/lib/modules

http://169.244.61.66/2.4.19-LTSP-IBMNC.tgz

---

Here is another link to a new kernel (2.4.34):

http://www.selfservix.org/index.php?id=22

I've made a kernel patch (nfs-swap) for 2.4.34 (based on the deb patch for 2.4.25) and i'm running LTSP 4.1 and 4.2 with that. I've 4 machines they all are running a modern Linux (BLFS development version). It's quite stable. Test it and send comments to me! Some more info on my website. Have fun!

I've successfully tried kernel 2.6.20.3 on the NS2200. I don't use it as a thinclient but it's a simple task to add the kernel-options that are needed by LTSP.

rabenkind@selfservix.org

---

There is an lts.conf provided to start from (in Karl's tgz). I got the best results by commenting the two lines specifying explicit XF86Config files and adding xserver=nsc. Pardon the punctuation and spelling..Just wanted to get this somewhere safe..

Experimental:Using windows dhcp to pass options..Adding option 211 from command line

netsh
dhcp server
add optiondef 211 BOOTPROTOCOL STRING
#########################################
In windows 2000 dhcp

option 12 netvista1  to pass hostname (does not work)
option 17 10.10.10.254:/opt/ltsp/i386
option 66 10.10.10.254
option 67 /opt/ltsp/i386/vmlinux-2.4.19-LTSP-IBMNC
option 211 tftp

Because windows pads the root path with zeros linux client sees the root-path as /opt/ltsp/i386000.The solution is to ln -s /opt/ltsp/i386 /opt/ltsp/i386000

It appears firmware must be at least 12/06/01 to boot linux..but i have reports the firmware upgrade is not necessary

We're working with etherboot to add support for ltsp-4.2 here at Linuxworld Boston

cliebow@ltsp.org

How is the success? -- SvenERoth - 12 Dec 2006

NetworkStation1000 / Model 8362-a53 ppc architecture

The 8362 (also known as IBM NetworkStation1000) has a special boot loader that requires a customized kernel format. Currently 2.4.x custom kernels are supported. Please visit the NetworkStation1000 page for more details. Also have a look at www.networkstation.cf.net.

-- HeGi - 07 Feb 2007

Fujitsu Siemens

Futro S300

Works just fine with LTSP out-of-a-boz (almost). I just needed to add row for video card in /etc/videolist so LTSP would auto-detect client videocard automatically. Needed row is:

1039:0325       sis

Client normally boots from its internal CompactFlash^? card, so it is required to change manually to boot from network from BIOS. But that's all installation that is needed. These clients are also supports XVideo extension so full-screen video is no problem for them.

Scovery Xs and Futro C

This client works very well with the LTSP. There are no main issues in booting the client, except for choosing the PXE lan boot, and getting rid of the 32MB flash memory that usually comes incorporated.This client comes with no floppy or hard disk, but with rs-232, parallel port, audio, vga, and 2 usb ports. I have 25 Scovery Xs and 40 Futro C working everyday.

I have successfully tested:

Power button turns off computer (works well enabling acpid in ltsp 4.1, but requires kernel compilation for version 3). Audio output works well out of the box. Just install ltsp_sound. Local Apps. Tried to run xscreensaver to minimize network traffic, and worked in lab environment reducing dramatically the network traffic. Parallel printer connected and working as print server.

Not tested:

Accessing USB flash memories through server.

-- AntonioMartins^? - 16 Nov 2005

Wyse 9235LE

The Wyse 9235LE has Windows XPe installed on flash memory. They PXE boot by default, making them a very painless client to get working.

Sound was however a problem and the setting that finally worked was:

   SMODULE_01         = "snd-sb16 isapnp=0 irq=5 dma8=0 dma16=5"

Sound works, USB works, PXE boots out of the box. Remote shutdown (using ltspinfo) does not work.

These units are rather sluggish running Windows XPe and the display (at least on the 15 units we have) is less than crisp. Sadly, there are no miracles running LTSP - both these symptoms persist - I believe this is a limitation of the on-board graphics card; nevertheless these are simple and reliable units, available used very inexpensively from the usual channels.

-- ChrisJRoberts - 15 Jan 2008

A link to Wyse Winterm Information

http://winterm.gaast.net

HP t5000 series

Both the T5125 and T5520 have trouble with the 2.6.17.8 kernal - booting fails early on with a "dhcpdcd failed" error related to the Via Rhine II NIC. Use 2.6.16.1 instead. -- Tim Frichtel

T5125

This client has trouble with Xorg, because the Xorg driver doesn't properly determine the amount of video memory. So, you have to tell it.

Here's the entry you'll need in the lts.conf file:

X_VIDEORAM = 16384

Thanks to Rusek Ondrej and John Ruff for providing this info.

I have this very terminal, rather then specifying X_VIDEORAM, I specified XSERVER=vesa for these units and not only did it properly detect the RAM, but it eliminated a lockup bug, and performed better. -- Richard June

Sound seems to work with these options. -- Asmo Koskinen

SMODULE_01 = soundcore
SMODULE_02 = ac97_codec
SMODULE_03 = via82cxxx_audio 

T5300 and T5500

This client works well with the LTSP. The only known issue is with older BIOS images not being able to PXE boot. The symptom is a failure while downloading either the kernel or initrd image, the download will hang at a random point during one of the transfers. The problem appears to have been fixed in version 1.07 and above.

Its possible to have the system PXE boot without adjusting the boot order by pressing F12 while the system is coming up.

T5530

This worked almost out of the box using LTSP 4.2. Use F10 to enter the bios to change the boot order (it defaults to booting off it's internal flash card). It PXE boots the standard 2.6.17.8-ltsp-1 image.

Just needed these options in ltsp.conf as neither the video or videoram are auto detected. -- Phil Davey

        XSERVER = vesa
        X_VIDEORAM = 16384

The ThinCast 5000 or ThinClient 5000

Clinet works suitably with LTSP. Supports PXE boot and both sound and limited video. Has AMD Geode architecture. Probably the exact same model as some other thinclients as it was made by ImageBank. I had it playing video and music with XINE but then response for everything else went downhill. Works fine for browsing and abiword.

* Press F1 after power-on to PXE boot. * Server type should be nsc but also works as VESA * Sound can be enabled using:

Needed Assistance

• Getting into boot ROM

eBox

eBox-II / eBox-150LS

The eBox-II is probably the cheapest thin client around that works great with LTSP.

Specs:

• Vortex86 200MHz processor with Fan
• Realtek 8100B 10/100M
• 128 MB RAM
• 32MB Shared Video Mem so accelerated drivers can be used (With new BIOS)
• PXE Boot

Sound drivers can be a bit problematic to install but this should be fixed in the latest version of LTSP

In Cape Town we have about 100 units running 24/7 for more than a year now and we have had no fan or heating failures. Running these is cheaper than running refurb PCs.

http://www.msti.com.tw/

-- MarcelBerteler - 31 Aug 2006

DELL

GX280 (with optional RADEON X300 video card)

This client works well with the LTSP. The only issue is related to the eth card possibly not recognised by LTS boot kernel. The solution is to add NIC=tg3 to the kernel parameters in /tftpboot/lts/2.6.9-ltsp-3/pxelinux.cfg/default

A working dual head XF86Config file is available on www.SuperAlberT.it

-- AlberT - 13 Sep 2005

Optiplex SX270

The Optiplex is a small client with some nice features:

• DVI Output
• build-in-graphics (resolution 1280 x 1024)
• silent (but not noiseless) fan
• good relation of price and performance
• build-in dvd-rom (optional)
• boot via pxe

This client could be provided with different Intel CPU's (Pentium IV and Celeron), I am using a Celeron M 1.6 GHz with LTSP-4.2. The technical data could be found on the web site of DELL. A hard disk could be installed but of course is not necessary for LTSP.

The configuration is quite simple. In the /etc/dhcp.conf you have to add the following lines (see also the information about booting with PXE:

# fixed address for optiplex sx270
host name_of_your_optiplex {
  hardware ethernet your_mac_address;
  fixed-address your_ip_address;
# root-path and filename must be adapted to your system
  option root-path "192.168.0.8:/opt/ltsp-4.2/i386";
  filename "/lts/2.6.17.8-ltsp-1/pxelinux.0";}

In the lts.conf only some entries are necessary:

 XSERVER            = auto
 X_MOUSE_PROTOCOL   = auto 
 X_MOUSE_DEVICE     = "/dev/psaux"
 # local devices in the default section or local
 LOCAL_STORAGE = Y
 # sound configuration
 SOUND = Y
 SMODULE_01 = "i810_audio"
 SOUND_DAEMON=esd

With an older version of LTSP and an older kernel you may not reach the normal resolution.

With LTSP-5 sound and local devices (cd-rom, harddisks, usb) are working fine. The Xserver is found automatically, normaly you don't have to make specific configurations.

-- MarkusGoerres - 11 Feb 2007

Compaq Winterm

This information became a little too big for this page so I have created the CompaqWintermLTSP page.

Neoware

Information on the NeoWare thin clients has been moved to the NeowareThinClients page.

Do it yourself thin client

I saw one of the purpose made LTSP workstations from DisklessWorkStations.com at a conference a couple of years ago, and was really impressed. However, the costs of shipping, customs duty, etc made a personal import into Europe prohibitively expensive. On the other hand, it was impossible to buy local alternatives without paying for a copy of Windows CE.

Following a challenge on the LTSP discussion group I decided the only solution was to build my own. I'd never done anything like this before, but it was so easy I thought I'd write up how I did it

-- JPMcC - 23 Mar 2005

The FAT Client!

FAT? yes, it means your windows, Linux or MACOSX user NEEDS that complete fat computer with operating system installed locally to run that FAT application that has no counterpart in Linux, has not been ported to linux or maybe the dude just insists on keeping the habit.

There are many types of access from a pc with a complete operating system; from GUI to GUI, from Boot to GUI choosing LTSP at boot time and from shell to shell.

From GUI to GUI:

This gives you both worlds at the same time, your fat pc with ltsp services

Linux to LTSP server:

Linux of course is native Linux to Linux communication, the sweetest remote access you can ever have. Just run a terminal and run:

X -query server.name.or.ip :1

But of course, if you want that remote Linux GUI in a cute little window, just use Xnest instead of X

Xnest -query server.name.or.ip :1

In both cases ":2" may vary to a higher number depending on the screens you are already working on, your local screen is ":0" and the next one is ":1" so if it's not available, use ":2" and so forth.

Mac OS X to LTSP server:

IMHO, Mac OS X is sweet. Its core kernel is based on a UNIX OS. It includes X, and of course you can just query LTSP!

X -query server.name.or.ip :1

I don't have a MAC so I can't test to see if Xnest is there too

Microsoft Windows to LTSP server:

X-Deep/32

The most beautiful results CarlosUrbieta^? found in Microsoft Windows were with X-Deep/32.

All it does is the regular X -query server, so you do get that feel of locality. Of course it's not as fast as the real thing, but it will do. Once the user sees X at a regular X terminal, he will ask for that too.

Xming

Xming is an X Server for Windows based off the X.org source code. You can combine Xming with XLaunch and PuTTY^? for one-click launching of remote single applications or whole sessions.

When I want to work in Windows and Linux at the same time, I launch the xfce4-panel as a convenient launcher panel.

-- AndrewZ - 05 May 2006

From GUI to GUI Cross-Platform to LTSP server using NoMachine^?

NoMachine^? optimizes the X protocol to improve performance significantly. From NoMachine^?.com: "NoMachine NX is a Terminal Server and Remote Access solution [...]. Thanks to the outstanding compression, session resilience and resource management developed on top of the X-Window system, and the integration with the powerful audio, printing and resource sharing capabilities of the Unix world, NoMachine^? NX makes it possible to run any graphical application on any operating system across any network connection as if you were sitting in front of your computer."

Clients are available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, web browsers, and some handheld devices.

See NoMachine NX and http://freenx.berlios.de/[FreeNX]].

Boot to GUI choosing LTSP

You either choose ltsp or your fat client

Boot to GUI choosing LTSP at Linux boot time

http://rom-o-matic.net/ the same place where you get those eeprom boot images gives you the option to boot from the local hard disk!

Just choose Lilo Bootable ROM (lzlilo) save the file in your /boot directory Add the correct enrty at lilo.conf

image=/boot/thefile.lzrom
label="Linux Terminal"

Save the file and run

# lilo

All as root, once you turn that pc on again, LTSP will be one more option!

Boot to GUI choosing LTSP at MACOSX boot time

Hold down the N key when it starts up and it will look for a netboot. Holding down the Option key while booting will present a boot menu which will include any network servers that serve netboot. You can also use the System Preferences to set the default boot source. A PDF with a description of the Macintosh style netbooting is at http://www.dpi-stl.com/whitep/L31751A_NetBoot_TB_final.pdf. Macs support both server and client netbooting and you can adapt Linux clients or servers to work with them.

Boot to GUI choosing LTSP at Windows boot time

If your computer is dual booting with Linux, you are already using lilo, so go back 2 steps and do it that way.

What ALSO works, is choosing DOS Executable ROM Image (.COM),

For MS-DOS, windows 95, 98, 98SE and related operating systems

get that romomatic ROM image and save it on disk C:\theromimage.COM

Edit C:\CONFIG.SYS and add this to the top:

[Menu]
MenuItem=windows,Microsoft Windows 95/98
MenuItem=linux,Linux (make sure server is running first!)
MenuDefault=windows,10

[linux]
DOS=NOAUTO

[windows]

Edit C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and add this to the top:

@ECHO OFF
GOTO %CONFIG%

:linux
C:\theromimage.COM

:windows

For windows 2000, XP and related operating systems

Open windows' file manager, choose in options to see ALL files right-click boot.ini choose properties UNCHECK "Read Only" checkbox Accept

This will allow you to change the permissions on the boot.ini file. Then, with Notepad, open the boot.ini file.

Hint: You will need to actually type in the filename of the boot.ini file to open it.

Now add the following line below the last line of the file:

C:\theromimage.COM="Linux Terminal"

Save and close the file.

Next, you will need to restore the permissions to the boot.ini file with:

Open windows' file manager, choose in options to see ALL files right-click boot.ini choose properties CHECK "Read Only" checkbox Accept

From shell to shell:

From Linux shell to LTSP shell:

ssh-client comes preinstalled on most linux systems, if you dont have it install with this as root

or compile, google for compile ssh etc

ssh -XC server.name.or.ip

From Mac OSX shell to LTSP shell:

open a terminal and run

ssh -XC server.name.or.ip

From Windows shell to LTSP shell:

There are many clients for windows, but Id recommend putty download putty

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

and connect to the server with it

-- CarlosUrbieta - 30 Apr 2005

VMWare virtual client

The free-of-charge VMware Player is useful for testing and for accessing the terminal server from Microsoft Windows.

1. Install VMware Player
2. If you use the pre-defined LTSP 4.2 virtual machine image, skip to step 6.
3. Define the virtual machine using EasyVMX!. It seems necessary to set Ethernet in bridged mode.
4. If your terminal server boots from PXE, skip the next step.
5. To boot from Etherboot, use the Etherboot media.
6. Run the .vmx file.

If you want to change the Ethernet MAC, just edit the .vmx file with a text editor.

-- AndrewZ - 05 May 2006

Qemu as a client

QEMU can be used as an LTSP client on the server. This is very useful for testing. QEMU takes an option of booting an ISO image and emulating an 8390 ethernet device (PCI NE2000). Command line options set the device and MAC address. The client communicates with the host via the TUN/TAP device and uses the bridging function in the kernel.

• Getting the ISO image

Download the ns8390.iso from www.rom-o-matic.org. You should be able to use either the NBI or PXE boot images. This example uses eb-5.4.2-ns8390.iso

• QEMU

Install the QEMU package for your favorite distribution.

• Starting the bridge

The following commands on the host configure the bridge (run as root). The host has to have a valid address on the LTSP client subnet (here it is 192.168.0.101).

brctl addbr br0
brctl addif br0 eth0
brctl stp br0 off
brctl setfd br0 0
brctl sethello br0 1
ifconfig br0 192.168.0.101
ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig br0 up
ifconfig  eth0 up

• Configure the QEMU interface script

This script /etc/qemu-ifup on the host adds its interface to the bridge configured above.

#!/bin/sh
/sbin/ifconfig $1
/usr/sbin/brctl addif br0 $1
/sbin/ifconfig $1 up

• Configure DHCP

The DHCP server must listen on the bridge. Therefore the DHCP server must start after the bridge has been configured. Add br0 to the DHCP server startup args. Eg: DHCPDARGS="eth0 br0" in /etc/sysconfig/dhcpd and start the server.

• Start the client

To start the client run the following command. Note that it needs to run as rootto be able to create a TUN/TAP device.

qemu -cdrom eb-5.4.2-ns8390.iso -boot d -net tap -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:56

You should see the client boot in a the terminal window.

-- DarrylBond - 20 Jul 2006

IGEL

Igel Winnet 3

A typical terminal client with 32 MB RAM. To work with LTSP booting via PXE is necessary and in the lts.conf you need to choose the following XSERVER:

 XSERVER            = nsc
 X_MOUSE_DEVICE     = "/dev/psaux"
 X_MODE_0 = 1024x768

-- MarkusGoerres - 01 Sep 2006

DevonIT^?

NTA 6020P

The NTA 6020P is easy to get started with. Sound works out of the box. Boots PXE.

I am having trouble with the X Server. Visual artifacts accumulate on the screen while running. I have tried switching to the VIA driver without success. The video device is the VIA VT8623. So far Devon support has been very responsive.

-- JasonChase - 14 May 2007

Visara

1783

I had some troubles with the sound board, it's only supported with OSS, so to make it work I had to install asound.

edit /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/asound.conf and add the following lines :

pcm.oss { type oss device /dev/dsp }

pcm.!default { type plug slave.pcm "oss" }

pcm.dsp0 { type plug slave.pcm "oss" }

ctl.!default { type oss device /dev/mixer }

Make sure the driver is loaded at boot edit /opt/ltsp/i386/modules and add kahlua

The video performance and settings are quite problematic too, so here are my video settings (from lts.conf) :

X_MODE_0=1024x768

XSERVER=nsc

X_COLOR_DEPTH=16

SCREEN_07 = startx

As the machine is based on a Cyrix 233 mhz CPU, the terminal is quite slow because of SSH, to get some better performance, I had to use XDMCP. Don't forget to enable it in your server configuration too.

The Visara terminal is quite alright for a proof-of-concept, but it's a bit slow to boot (up to 9 minutes) and to use with LTSP 5.0.

-- JohanArens - 21 May 2007

Page clean-up proposal

This page is getting long. What do you think about splitting it up into several pages based on these categories:

• thin client hardware
• regular PC hardware used as thin clients
• software fat clients (MS Windows)
• virtual clients (VMPlayer, Qemu, etc)