Re: What we're doing (was Re: [seul-edu] Another app you maylike to see)

[Dan Kolb <dankolb@ox.compsoc.net>]

Ray Olszewski wrote:
> 
> Before you get started, you will also (probably) want to look at these URLS:

Thanks.

>         http://www.ltsp.org/download/index.html

This is the most similar to how I was planning to do it, except their
method is probably far better and less kludgy. But it's more just for
fun to see if I can do it, rather than for anything professional.

>         http://www.silvervalley.k12.ca.us/chobbs/xterms/
>         http://www.menet.umn.edu/~kaszeta/unix/xterminal/index.html
>         http://www.superant.com/   (for the "Diskless Linux Tools" CD
>                                     and the "TinyX Windows System CD")

They're either not quite the setup I had in mind, or don't go into the
detail needed for a step-by-step guide.

> I'll be surprised if you can pull this off with a 386. My experience is that
> X performance is too crummy on anything less that a 486DX40 with 16 megs of
> RAM ... though tastes differ, and what is "too slow" to me may be "works
> just fine" to others.

Booting will be slow. I suppose displaying the information itself will
be processor-dependent up to a point. I've got assorted 386s and 486
bits lying around at home, so I'll give those a go.

> BTW, I've been happy doing this with Monkry Linux, available under
> "distributions" at metalab (ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/).
> You might alo want to look at the "nfsroot" directory.

Thanks. I'll have a look.

> In any case, I'll be interested in seeing your results. Most of these sites
> (including the .ca one the  prior respondent mentioned) seem to use pretty
> old versions of Linux ... a solution that was more turnkey and that used an
> up-to-date distribution and kernel (and set of X servers, WMs, and such)
> would be nice.

Yup. I was planning on that. The workstations might use something
simpler, but all I need is something which will boot and run an X
server. Everything else will come off the file server.

Is there any way of replacing the 'standard' X cross-patch background
with something a little less Moired, or will that require fiddling with
the source code for X?

Dan
-- 
dankolb@ox.compsoc.net  Oxford University Computer Society Secretary

--I reserve the right to be completely wrong about any comments or 
  opinions expressed; don't trust everything you read above--