LTSP-4.2

LTSP-4.2 update 4

August 23, 2006 - a very small set of updates is available for LTSP-4.2

This update contains the following fixes/enhancements:

• udev rules: - Part of the local devices subsystem
  • Fixed a problem that was caused by the un-partitioned media fix in update-3. It was causing an extra floppy icon to appear whenever a USB memory stick was inserted.

• esound: - Part of the audio subsystem
  • Added a patch to esd to allow it to NOT lock the connect to the first user logged in. This fixes the issue where the 2nd user to log into a thin client couldn't use sound without rebooting the terminal.
  • Added -as 1 to the invocation of esd to allow multiple sound applications to connect to the sound server. This fixes some syncing issues that many people saw.

LTSP-4.2 update 3

August 12, 2006 - a new round of updates is available for LTSP-4.2 to fix a number of issues

This update contains the following fixes/enhancements:

• udev rules: - Part of the local devices subsystem
  • Fixed a problem caused by update-2. The names we chose for the floppy and cdrom mountpoints are special names for the Gnome file system and it caused an extra set of icons to appear on all desktops.
  • Added support for un-partitioned USB Memory sticks to be properly recognized as a local device.

• sane: - Scanner Access Now Easy
  • Updated SANE from version 1.0.17 to 1.0.18

• rdesktop: - RDP Client
  • Applied a patch from Gideon Romm that fixes a (no space left on device) problem with using local devices via rdesktop.

• vidlist:
  • Added an entry for a GX2 video chipset

• initramfs:
  • Added a VCI string of LTSP-i386 to the dhcp request so that the dhcp server will know it's an LTSP terminal requesting an IP address.
  • Added the uli526x network card driver.

• kernel:
  • Upgraded to the 2.6.17.8 kernel.

• ltsp_kernel_kit
  • The ltsp_kernel_kit is now available for downloading. This is a set of tools for preparing a kernel for use with LTSP terminals. It includes the config files for the current and past LTSP kernels and it also includes the contents of the initramfs. So, if you are building your own kernel for LTSP, you'll need this kit.

LTSP-4.2 update 2

July 5, 2006 - a new round of updates is available for LTSP-4.2 to fix a number of issues.

This update contains the following fixes/enhancements:

• ltsptree - base root filesystem for LTSP
  • Changed default value of PRINTER_x_WRITE_ONLY from N to Y. This fixes default behavior of lp_server to work properly with the 2.6.x series of kernels.
  • Added a VideoRam patch so that a default VideoRam will be specified for i810 series video chipsets. (Thanks to Eric Harrison)
  • Added VNC options to allow use of VNC to attach to remote terminals (Eric Harrison)
  • Fixed broken DPMS functionality in build_x4_cfg. (Thanks to John New)
  • Fixed the problem with startx getting an error while trying to load the agpgart kernel module when in fact, the agpgart driver has been compiled into the kernel.
  • Fixed the order that the printer modules are being loaded in rc.sysinit.

• udev rules:
  • Changed the default name of the removable devices when a volume label is missing. The old name was readonly or readwrite. The new (better) names are floppy and cdrom.

• rdesktop:
  • Updated rdesktop from version 1.4.0 to version 1.4.1. (Thanks to Gideon Romm)

• SANE - Scanner Access Now Easy
  • Updated to the latest stable release of SANE, version 1.0.18.

• libusb - Userspace library for USB devices (Needed for SANE)
  • Updated to from version 0.1.9 to 0.1.10a to work with the latest version of SANE.

• ltspfsd - LTSP File System daemon, used for local devices:
  • Fixed an authentication problem when more than one screen is setup for running X.

• lbuscd - LBUS Client-side daemon:
  • Fixed a double-free issue when user sessions disconnect, which caused problems on 2nd and subsequent logins.
  • Added more verbose diagnostic messages going to syslog when there's a problem with detecting a device.

• VNC - Virtual Network Client
  • Added the VncModule for the Xserver for remote desktop shadowing

• pciutils
  • Added lspci to the LTSP tree. This utility can be very useful for figuring out what hardware is in a thin client

• Kernel
  • Upgraded to the latest Linux kernel. Version 2.6.17.3.
  • Enabled support for up to 4Gb of ram in the thin client. Previously, only the first 1Gb was recognized.
  • Enabled ide-floppy so that ZIP drives can be used as a local device.

Installing these updates is easy with the ltspadmin utility. Make sure you have at least version 0.17 of ltspadmin.

LTSP-4.2 update 1

April 17, 2006 - a round of updates is now available for LTSP-4.2 to fix a number of small issues.

The following updates are now available:

• ltspcfg version 0.16 (part of ltsp-utils-0.25)
  • Added the proper location for the kdmrc file for Kubuntu-breezy.
  • Added 'ddns-update-style' line in dhcpd.conf.sample, for FC5.
  • Fixed configuration of kdm and gdm for many distros, including Ubuntu Breezy & Dapper and Fedora Core 5.
  • Fixed 'Enable' detection of Xdmcp for kdm.

• vidlist
  • Added several i810 entries for proper auto-detection of i810 chipsets.
  • Added several nv entries for proper auto-detection of nvidia chipsets.

• startx
  • Changed behaviour of the 'XRAMPERC' option to default to 100. Also, if it is set to 100, then it won't do the 'ulimit' command. This was causing problems with i810 chipsets on 64mb or lower machines.

• Linux kernel 2.6.16.1-ltsp-2
  • Added sis7019 audio driver.
  • Removed savage framebuffer driver. This caused problems for Xorg.
  • Fixed problem with booting the kernel on Jammin-125 workstations.

If you are interested in installing these updates, you should first install the newest ltsp-utils package, then run 'ltspadmin' and choose the updated packages you wish to install.

New features of LTSP-4.2

LTSP-4.2 offers lots of great improvements, including:

• Redesigned local device support based on ltspfs and lbus. Currently, USB Memory sticks, USB CDRom, IDE CDrom and floppy drives are supported. With local devices enabled, when you insert a memory stick or a CDRom, an Icon appears on the desktop that is browseable. Remove the memory stick or CDrom, and the icon disappears.

• We've reduced the amount of memory needed on a thin client by about 7mb. This is really significant for low-memory machines.

• Updated to the 2.6.16.1 kernel.

• Swap over NBD. We've used NFS-Swap in the past, but that's not available in the 2.6.x series kernels. We wrote a new ltspswapd daemon that runs on the server, to provide NBD swapfile management.

• udev has completely replaced devfs. This causes a significant speedup in the boot time, and better hotplug capabilities for local devices.

• ltsp_kernel_kit makes the building of custom kernels much easier.

• initramfs has replaced initrd. This is a more flexible and efficient initial ram disk.

• SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) is now included in LTSP, so you can plug scanners into the thin clients, and access them from anywhere on the network.

• Multi-head X - The ability to have multiple video cards and multiple monitors connected to a single thin client. Very handy for extreme programming, where you just need more space to open up more windows.

• Faster client booting. We've really made some great progress here. By switching from devfs to udev, and by making lots of improvements to the startup scripts, we've decreased the boot time dramatically. On our test workstations (LTSP T-170's from DisklessWorkstations.com), we've gotten the boot time down to 22 seconds! That's 22 seconds from pressing the power button, to having a graphical login screen. THAT is fast.

Installation of LTSP-4.2

You MUST install a new version of the ltsp-utils package. At least version 0.20 of the ltsp-utils package (containing version 0.15 of ltspadmin) is required.

LTSP-4.2 must be installed to a new directory. You cannot do an in-place upgrade. But this is actually a great way to do it. You can install LTSP-4.2 into a new subdir, such as /opt/ltsp-4.2, and then update the filename and root-path entries in dhcpd.conf to point to the new LTSP tree. This is a great way to test it, because you can change those dhcpd.conf entries for individual workstations very easily. Meanwhile, your other workstations will continue to function using the older version of LTSP.

To install LTSP-4.2, following these instructions:

1. Download and install the latest ltsp-utils package
   (ltsp-utils was updated to version 0.25 on April 17th, 2006)
   • Debian - Download official deb
   • Debian - Download deb
   • Ubuntu - Download deb
   • Redhat/Fedora - Download RPM
   • Slackware - Download TGZ (contributed by martijn at inlv dot org)
   • Others - Download TGZ

2. As root, run ltspadmin.

3. If you have a previous version LTSP already installed, it is recommended that you install the ltsp-4.2 packages into a separate directory, such as: /opt/ltsp-4.2. You can configure this with the ltspadmin utility.

4. Install ALL of the packages

5. Choose the 'Configure LTSP' menu item, which will cause it to run the ltspcfg utility. Use this utility to setup the services.

Installing from the LTSP_4.2u2 ISO image

An ISO image of the LTSP-4.2u2 packages has been created for those who want to download a single file, and install it on multiple servers, without requiring additional downloads.

Installing LTSP from the ISO image:

1. Download the ISO image from the ISO download page. Save it on your system. For this example, we'll put it in /tmp.

2. Make sure you are either logged in as root, or you've switched to super user using su - (Notice the '-', it's important)

3. Run md5sum on the downloaded file, and make sure the result matches the number in the .md5sum file that accompanies the ISO image.

md5sum <ISO Image Name>

4. Mount the ISO image, using the loopback device:

mount -o loop /tmp/ltsp-4.2u2-0.iso /mnt

5. Install the ltsp-utils package. It's included in the ISO image.

If your system is RPM based (Redhat, Suse,Mandriva...) you can install the ltsp-utils RPM package:

cd /mnt/ltsp-utils
rpm -ivh ltsp-utils-0.25-0.noarch.rpm

Or, if you've got a Debian based system, you can install the .deb package:

cd /mnt/ltsp-utils
dpkg -i ltsp-utils_0.25_all.deb

Or, if your system doesn't support either the RPM or the DEB package, you can install teh TGZ package:

cd /mnt/ltsp-utils
cp ltsp-utils-0.25-0.tgz /tmp
cd /tmp
tar xvzf ltsp-utils-0.25-0.tgz
cd ltsp-utils
./install.sh

6. Run *ltspadmin as root.

7. From the main menu in ltspadmin, choose:

Configure the installer options

8. Specify the pathname to the files:

file:///mnt

Notice that the value MUST be in the form of a URL, and also, notice that there are 3 slashes '///'. The first 2 slashes are part of the URL specification ("file://"), the 3rd slash is for the root directory on your server.

9. Leave the remaining options as is.

10. If you have a previous version of LTSP (Pre-LTSP-4.2) already installed, it is recommended that you install the LTSP-4.2u2 packages into a separate directory, such as /opt/ltsp-4.2. You can configure this with the ltspadmin utility.

11. Install ALL of the packages.

12. Choose the 'Configure LTSP' menu item, which will cause it to run the ltspcfg utility. Use this utility to setup the necessary services.

13. Unmount the ISO image from /mnt:

umount /mnt

Please report any problems you have with this ISO image to the ltsp-discuss mailing list, or contact me on the #ltsp IRC channel on irc.freenode.net.

Installing Local Device access

Instructions for installing localdev support on your LTSP server are on the LTSP-42-LocalDev page.

---

Building LBE

If you are interested in build LTSP from source, you'll need to build the LBE. Take a look at this document for information on building the LBE for LTSP-4.2.

-- JimMcQuillan - 18 Mar 2006