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Follow UsWe have created a new install option for implementing
terminal services. We use the latest version of LTSP (Linux Terminal Service
Project) for it. On the client side you just need a Pentium I with 64 MB and PXE
(Pre boot-eXecutable Environment) LAN interface. It doesn't require any hard
disk, because it boots from the LTSP server.
| Important Note: |
| We recommend identical hardware on all your nodes if possible. This makes life much easier when configuring for drivers. |
Installing
Boot from PCQLinux 2006 CD # 1 and start the installation process. From the
install options select the “Server” option. Then select “Terminal
Server” and press next to setup PCQLinux 2006 server with terminal services.
Before starting the installation, PCQLinux installer will show you the packages
that you have selected. From the package selection list, select Network
services, Legacy Network and Gnome and KDE desktop environment with KDE and
GNOME development. You need to install the updates and dependencies from the
LTSP site before you can start working.
Updating
Boot the machine into the GUI and login as root. Make sure it is connected
to the Internet. Now, type “ltpsadmin” from the command line. Here, select
“Install/Upgrade packages”. It will directly connect your machine to the
Linux Terminal Server Project's site and download the latest upgrades. The
installer will also ask you for the install path; type '/opt/ltsp' and press
enter. When prompted, select all additional packages from the list shown, by
pressing 'A' and then 'Q'. Press Enter to confirm.
The packages will be downloaded and installed. Then,
select 'Configure LTSP' from the installer. You will be shown eleven
options, one for each service. Select all services and enable them. It
will automatically configure them.
| R-Desktop from diskless clients |
| It is quite possible that you need to access windows applications on the terminal desktop and not Linux applications. LTSP gives you an option for serving Windows desktops to diskless nodes. For this, ensure that a Windows server with terminal services (and enough licenses) is connected to your PCQLinux 2006 terminal server. Now just open /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf file on the PCQLinux 2006 terminal server (the one we saw earlier to configure the Linux clients) and replace the entries with the ones given below. RDP_SERVER = 192.168.3.29 #(Windows Terminal Server) RUNLEVEL = 7 X_COLOR_DEPTH = 15 SCREEN_01 = rdesktop Change the IP address 192.168.3.29 above to that of your Windows server. Now when the client starts up, you will get the Windows terminal login. |
Configuring DHCP server
Configure the DHCP server so that diskless clients get their IP address
assignments. For this open /etc/dhcpd.conf. This assumes that your server is on
the 192.168.3.x network and its own IP address is 192.168.3.38 and 192.168.3.1
is the address of the gateway. Change these values to suit your own network
settings. It should look like this.
ddns-update-style
none;
default-lease-time
21600;
max-lease-time
21600;
option subnet-mask
255.255.255.0;
option broadcast-address
192.168.3.255;
option routers
192.168.3.1; #<-- Router or Gateway IP
option domain-name-servers
192.168.3.38; #<-- LTSP Server IP
option domain-name
"ltsp.pcquest.local";
# <--domain name
option root-path
"192.168.3.38:/opt/ltsp/i386"; #<-- NFS Share
In option domain-name, pcquest will be replaced by the
hostname you have given to the server during installation. Now add the following
lines at the end of the file and save the file.
option option-128 code 128 =
string;
option option-129 code 129 = text;
subnet 192.168.3.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range dynamic-bootp
192.168.3.80 192.168.3.253; # <-- DHCP IP Range
filename
"/lts/2.4.26-ltsp-3/pxelinux.0"; #<- Boot image File
}
Restart the DHCP server using the '# service dhcpd
start' command.
Configuring your clients
Now open /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf file on the terminal
server, and confirm that the entries are as given below
SERVER = 192.168.3.38 (IP address of PCQLinux machine running Terminal
service)
XSERVER
= auto (Xserver driver for client machine)
X_MOUSE_PROTOCOL
= "PS/2"
X_MOUSE_DEVICE
= "/dev/psaux"
X_MOUSE_RESOLUTION
= 400
X_MOUSE_BUTTONS
= 3
USE_XFS
=
N
RUNLEVEL
= 5
X_MODE_0
= 800x600
SCREEN_01 = startx
This assumes a GUI on the client with 800x600 resolution.
You can change it to suit your requirement. The XSERVER parameter is set to
'Auto', because we could be using clients having different display
hardware. Then issue the following commands:
# chown root:root /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/build_x3_cfg
# chmod 0755 /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/build_x3_cfg
Next enable GDM services on the terminal server to serve
GUI to the clients. To do so, open /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf file and scroll down to
change the values of the entries to what is given below.
Enable=true
HonorIndirect= true
MaxPending?= 4
MaxPendingIndirect?= 4
MaxSessions= 16
MaxWait?= 15
MaxWaitIndirect?= 15
DisplaysPerHost= 2
PingIntervalSeconds= 15
Port=177
Willing=/etc/X11/gdm/Xwilling
Save these entries in the gmd.conf and then issue the
following commands
# gdm-safe-restart
# service xfs restart
With this, your LTSP server is ready to serve diskless
nodes. Connect the diskless nodes to the network and boot them from their PXP
LAN card. In few seconds you will get a GUI login screen on the nodes. Give the
user name and password to login and you will get default Gnome interface on the
nodes.