I re-emphasize the www.ltsp.org approach. In the mid-1990's, I worked with diskless Suns and also tried making several Debian Linux computers diskless. After several weeks identifying files I wanted to keep, sometimes different for each computer, I abandoned that too-time-consuming approach to diskless computers. The Linux Terminal Server Project (ltsp) approach greatly simplifies running computers diskless. You still must configure your DHCP server (configure one file), run the package tftpd or atftpd on your server, configure NFS with permissions to server your diskless computers (one file on your server), configure xdm/gdm/kdm to serve your diskless computers (2 files on your server), and install the operating system files for your diskless computers (in /opt with LTSP's packages). The last part was greatly simplified by LTSP. With LTSP, your disless Linux GUI terminals let you login to your main computer, and only by changing the runlevel can you even see your tranparently running diskless computer (its processes, its mounts, ...). LTSP's default installation has your diskless computers working like X-servers, but without software on a local disk. While you can extend this with LTSP to run software locally, you increase configuration complexities; eg, you must then run Network Information Service (NIS) for usernames/passwords and you must tailor several files for each computer. Without extra configuration, your local computer can rather easily get sound off your main computer into your diskless workstation (if it has a sound card), by running a daemon without needing full NIS user configuration. And you can attach a webcam to your workstation, though I have worked for 2 days trying to get someone else's webcam tar files working in Debian. I bought a diskless workstation 3 weeks ago from a link on ltsp.org, a workstation the size of your outstretched hand yet having audio, USB, parallel, serial, and ethernet ports -- all with a 15 watt power supply and no fans. Magic. This LTSP approach gives "wonder", since so many technical details work so smoothly, and those diskless workstations work seemingly oddly. On Thu, Jan 16, 2003 at 08:42:42PM +0100, Tobias Kraus wrote: > Check www.ltsp.org <Linux Terminal Server Project>. This might help you. > Tobias > > Am Donnerstag, 16. Januar 2003 17:17 schrieb Rodrigo F. Baroni: > > m needing to set a diskless pc, and I have been > > studing the initrd procedure. > > The idea is to have the read-only directories > > mounted on nfs, and others one read-write in > > ram-disks. -- Jameson C. Burt, NJ9L Fairfax, Virginia, USA jameson@coost.com http://www.coost.com (202) 690-0380 (work)
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