Re: Cheap hardware X-terms?

[Chris Hobbs <chobbs@silvervalley.k12.ca.us>]

<nolurk>

Ray Olszewski wrote:

> Ideally, you'd want an installer that fits on a floppy, boots, then accesses
> a server to get the rest of what it needs for a full install. Not hard to do
> in concept -- the rub it that if all the systems aren't standardized (they
> aren't likely to be if we're talking about salvaging used, donated
> euqipment), the installer has to be able to deal with different video cards
> (hence different X servers), different monitors, different NICs and settings
> (IRQ and i/o base), and varying amounts of hard disk space.

Well, as most of you know I'm deploying 120 terminals in this type of setting
now using Jacques Gelinas' xtermkit (http://www.solucorp.qc.ca/xterminals/).
The kernel he ships has support for NE2000 and 3Com 509B cards. The beauty of
the system is that settings for X servers are stored on the NFS server, meaning
that individualized disks aren't neccessary for each machine, as long as the
NIC's are the same. At $10 for a no-name NE2000 clone, this is a very good
solution.

It solves the problem of dealing with varied equipment by only requiring you to
standardize on the network adaptors - mix and match video cards and monitors to
your heart's content :-). Don't like the NIC's Jacques compiled in? Build a new
kernel!

The xtermkit assumes a DOS partition on the existing hard drive, and creates a
swap file on it, though my goal is to have enough memory in the computer to
prevent it having to swap in the first place...

I'm interested in the concept of burning boot roms with the same info as the
floppy, but have neither the equipment or the knowledge to do it. Someone
somewhere pointed me to a source to have them made, but the NIC's with custom
roms would have cost something like $100/ea - way out of line compared to the
overall cost of the project - floppies are cheap! :-)

Hope this helps a bit - we should be installing the first of the terminals in
about 2 weeks - just waiting on furniture now!

Chris Hobbs
Silver Valley Unified School District

</nolurk>