LTSP

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< Education

Google Summer of Code 2008 Idea

What is KIWI-LTSP?

What is LTSP

The Linux Terminal Server Project adds thin-client support to Linux servers. LTSP is a flexible, cost effective solution that is empowering schools, businesses, and organizations all over the world to easily install and deploy desktop workstations. A growing number of Linux distributions include LTSP out-of-the-box.

Shiny new thin-clients and legacy PCs alike can be used to browse the Web, send e-mail, create documents, and run other desktop applications. LTSP not only improves Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), but more importantly, provides increased value over traditional computing solutions. LTSP workstations can run applications from Linux and Windows servers.

Visit LTSP home page for more information.

What is KIWI

The openSuSE KIWI Image System provides a complete operating system image solution for Linux supported hardware platforms as well as for virtualisation systems like Xen Qemu or VMware. KIWI features distribution independent design, support for virtual systems, network deployed images, live CDs, thick clients and now with kiwi-ltsp diskless clients too.

Visit KIWI home page for more information.

KIWI-LTSP utilizes ease of deployment and management provided by KIWI to bring our awesome distribution openSUSE 10.3 to everyone that wishes to use thin client computing.

Why not just call it LTSP, is it a fork?

We use lot more of KIWI imaging technology than the normal integration of LTSP5 in any distro. We have used KIWI as the foundation that gets LTSP5 on openSUSE. So we got best of two different worlds coming together in form of KIWI-LTSP.

KIWI-LTSP is nothing more than LTSP5 implementation on openSUSE, all the LTSP5 packages we use are the same as used by all other distributions that has LTSP5 support, in fact you can find Fedora 8 packages built from the same source tarball in server:ltsp openSUSE Build Service repository.

What is required

Version: 10.3

and above

• Any decent desktop/server with about 1 GB of RAM per 5 thin clients.
• Thin client can be any PC which is PXE boot capable, 128 MB RAM is desired, but you can test lower and see if it works for you.
• There is a limit to number of clients that can boot up from a single server, A server with 4Gb of ram can host 60 thin clients.
• LTSP server/clients are best assembled on their own network. Do not use production server for experimenting with kiwi-ltsp.
• openSUSE 10.3 or openSUSE 11.0A2 and above i386 DVD media or an iso image. (Any other media will not work, including internet repository)
• Server connected to the internet for getting the packages to install.
• SSH, tftp, dhcp, nfs etc services running and ports open in firewall on the server. It is best to disable firewall on the interface serving LTSP.

Installing packages

For openSUSE 10.3

For openSUSE Factory

Pre-built images(Recommended)

Or if you prefer command line way of installation

	Run the following commands as root (openSUSE 10.3): zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/server:ltsp/openSUSE_10.3 ltsp zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Tools/openSUSE_10.3 tools zypper in kiwi-desc-ltsp

	Run the following commands as root (openSUSE Factory): zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/server:ltsp/openSUSE_Factory ltsp zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Tools/openSUSE_Factory tools zypper in kiwi-desc-ltsp

Please confirm that you have the latest kiwi packages before proceeding. Check against the versions posted here and here.

Configuration

We currently try to create a new tool which makes configuring LTSP easy. This is a Goole summer of code project.

Launch YaST -> /etc/sysconfig Editor -> System -> Kiwi-ltsp

• Fill in the correct installation path, ideally a path where the DVD media/iso is mounted for example "/mnt/10.3". Or a network installation path such as "http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.3/repo/oss/"
• Fill in network configuration information like server IP address, gateway and DNS. Make sure that the network interface used is specified as "Internal Zone" in firewall or disable firewall.
• Select the correct DHCP interface if you have more than one on the server.
• Leave the things you are not sure as default including all the paths mentioned. Once you are done you are ready to create the image.

	Run the following command as root to build images and configure everything: kiwi-ltsp-setup -s

	Run the following command as root configure everything if using pre-built image: kiwi-ltsp-setup -c

The above command will take quite some time depending on your server so grab a cup of coffee. All the required services such as NFS, NBD, TFTP and DHCP will be configured. Make a backup of your configuration if you wish to preserve your configuration or use one of the other switches available with kiwi-ltsp-setup command.

It's time to boot the first client. which should leave you at the LDM (LTSP display manager) screen where you should be able to login with users created on the server.

To power down the client, just logoff from the session and select shutdown from LDM.

Local device support

All the local devices that LTSP provides support for are available:

Harddisk/USB/CDROM devices

Local devices are auto-mounted. They are mounted in /tmp/.$USER-ltspfs

Sound support

Sound can be played on the thin clients without any manual configuration.

Printers

Not tested yet.

Customizing thin client behaviour

If for some reason the default configurations do not work, you can modify /srv/tftpboot/KIWI/lts.conf as mentioned in Edubuntu handbook] as per your requirements.

Note: If you have to log in the client OS, the root password is 'linux'. LDM login uses username and passwords of server users.

LTSP 4.2 on openSUSE and SLED

Many schools have opted to add thin clients to their networks to save on hardware and software expenses. Here is an example of adding LTSP 4.2 to SLED 10, the steps regarding the installation of server packages from SLES can be skipped when using openSUSE.

Additional informations, Tips

An extra benefit of using openSUSE for LTSP in an existing NetWare school network is that the Novell client for Linux can be installed enabling use of existing network home directory structures, iPrint, Zenworks and more.

• To make everyone comfortable with the theory and tasks, here is a theory paper: http://doc.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/edubuntu/handbook/C/ltsp-theory.html
• How Does KIWI-LTSP work?
• Project wiki for developers
• LTSP_Old obsolete instructions

Attention Developers

If you are a developer and would like to contribute to this project, please visit Novell Forge Wiki.