Sort of OT: network logins
The subject doesn't really explain what I am looking for, but I couldn't
think of a better two-word summary. I know this is a bit off topic, but
I was hoping the collective expertise would provide me with some ideas.
I am looking for an approach to the problem of having multiple
installations of debian on each computer on my lan that I use. While it
is certainly reasonable to have a minimal install on each system,
consisting of a basic debian system, it seems counterproductive to have
to install each program that I use on each workstation, rather than
having such software "served" by a central applications server.
My present setup consists of a fileserver which exports various
directories via nfs, including both a network-wide data store (called
/share, for lack of a better idea), and /home. /home of course contains
all my home directories (for myself and everyone else using our
systems), and on each local workstation I have a full debian install
with all software, and in the /home directory the actual files are
symlinks to the appropriate nfs share.
By way of example, the workstation mounts server:/home onto /nfs; my
home directory on the workstation (/home/nl) is a symlink to /nfs/nl.
This way, no matter which workstation I log into, I have my global
/home/nl directory. Network-wide logins are handled by nis.
Currently, I install all software onto each workstation. It would be far
easier, however, to install it once onto an application server and have
it available to each workstation.
I've thought of two possible solutions:
1) Somehow get apt to install the software to /opt on the server, and
nfs mount /opt to each workstation;
2) Install as usual to the server, and have each workstaiton mount /usr
via nfs from the server;
Since /etc would be local to each workstation, the same install could
conceivably be used by each system with it operating differently because
of different config files (X comes to mind here, since hardware may
differ).
Another issue is that I use KDE. On the plus side, if I edit my kde
menus on one system to point to the appropriate places in /usr or /opt,
then since menus are stored in my home directory, I'll have the right
stuff whereever I log in. A problem, however, is that (as far as I can
tell) KDE does not understand multiple simultaneous logins, and
therefore I risk file corruption (or worse?) if I log in twice to my
account at the same time.
I had thought of solving this latter problem by implementing a login
script to copy /home/<user>/.kde from the server to local storage, and
then a logout script to sync it back onto the server at logout.
Theoretically, I would need to do this for any porgrams that cannot
sucessfully sync shared storage (like evolution), however - so this
isn't really a good overall solution. I am also unsure how to make kde
run a script at session start and end (or if there is even a way to make
this happen under KDE).
Any advice, pointers to references, etc, thoughts greatly appreciated.
nl
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