[Voyage-linux] Re: PXE Voyage as replacement for Thin Client? (Matt Signorello)

[Andy S]

>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Matt Signorello <msignorello at gmail.com>
> To: voyage-linux at voyage.hk
> Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:13:07 -0500
> Subject: [Voyage-linux] PXE Voyage as replacement for Thin Client?
> Hey Guys,
>
> So I have been researching this for the past few weeks in some spare
> time at work and would love to have the opinion of this community as I
> would like to base all of my network appliances on Voyage.
>
> Long story short - I just moved to a new house and there are network
> jacks in the kitchen, bedroom, basement, etc and I would like to have
> a way to provide a full web browser (flash and all) to machines around
> the house. Specifically I have found a few small form factor thin
> client terminals that support PXE and a traditional think client
> implementation that should be more than suitable to do this task and
> probably more.
>
> LTSP (Linux terminal server project) looks to be pretty cool and
> basically would let me do what I want to do out of the box.. However,
> many people have stated the while the solution works.. its quite
> lacking in regards to any kind of interactive website compatibility as
> well as video / audio playback in general.
>
> I have come up with a new idea: Boot into a complete voyage system
> through PXE and then just run X and firefox / whatever on the thin
> client with all of the source binaries, scripts, home folders etc
> being located on my server. I understand that the main downside would
> be that the thin client hardware would take on all of the processing
> (thus defeating the main goal of thin client) however I have been able
> to use my little 500mhz alix-clone to do basically everything ive
> thrown at it. I don't have a VGA port so I don't really know how a
> fluxbox WM and firefox / openoffice would perform. Although -- Many
> cheap thin clients on ebay (less than $150) seem to have a 1ghz +
> processor...
>
> -----
>
> Some additional notes -- I just don't want to have a tower or mini
> machine everywhere for the basic tasks that we use the systems for. I
> would like to be as energy conscious as possible and I am the only
> main power user anyway..
>
> However my girlfriend and I often would like to check our gmail, look
> up recipies etc from the kitchen and bedroom but find the laptops to
> be a bit clunky and get in the way if they are on the counter... Only
> reason I didn't get netbooks was becase I was able to obtain some
> small 10" touch panel displays and wallmounts basically for free but
> no other hardware so I need to source some kind of "pc" anyway.. and I
> think it would be pretty cool to essentially take any PC / Laptop I
> want and have it boot into my pre-defined environment..
>
> ----
>
> So that is pretty much what I am after - Looking for any comments and
> suggestions that can be provided.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Matt
>
>
>
I think you will find that current LTSP 5 functionality will entirely meet
your needs - as long as the thin clients meet bare min standards. Latest
Ubuntu-server install disk has LTSP install as option at boot, and OpenSuse
also has very advanced LTSP install and options. So long as the hardware you
are using for the thin client has reasonable graphics ability - if you
require video streaming, and you have the min ram installed (?256mb?) you
should be fine.

If you only wish to run a kiosk mode install - there are options for this as
well - you can find documentation on this in the LTSP manual:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23672541/LTSP-Manual as well as Debian/Ubuntu/Suse
docu projects.

If you really want to go light weight - why not have a look at Tiny Core's
netboot possibilities:
http://wiki.tinycorelinux.com/Netbooting
Not tried this myself yet though...

A
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