Re: [K12OSN] different configurations

["Adam J. Melancon" <adammelancon hotmail com>]

Scott,
I think it might be possible to boot up straight to rdesktop.  I'm not to 
familliar with how rdestop works but what we have done is just have X and 
netscape only startup with no window manager and netscape is maximized going 
straight to the card catalog webpage. If they close netscape, X and netscape 
just respawn and put you right back where you were.  And like kris said, we 
have used ipchains to limit certian workstations to only be able to access 
the card catalog website.

In lts.conf we have added a new variable for workstation levels/types.

WS_LEVEL = 1 #just start X and netscape
WS_LEVEL = 2 #we are working on making this twm with netscape and a
             word processor only with printer and floppy access

In rc.local under building the start_ws script we have made it look for this 
WS_LEVEL and based on that it builds the start_ws script in a certian way to 
meet our needs.
If the WS_LEVEL is not present it just boots up to a regular K12LTSP 
terminal.

Even though it's a cool system, we are still tweaking and testing and trying 
to get out a few of the bugs. we'll have to go over step by step how we were 
able to acheive this, and write something up.

Thanks for the reply!

Adam J. Melancon
System Administrator
Vermilion Parish Library

----Original Message Follows----
From: scott hancock k12 mi us (Scott Sherrill)
To: k12osn redhat com
Subject: Re: [K12OSN] different configurations
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 08:38:40 -0500
> We are trying to adapt the K12LTSP to use in a public library environment. 
> The "K12" part is great because we have a lot of students who come in and 
> use the educational software on the "Gates Foundation Workstations" that 
> are currently in use.
>
> The problem we have here is the fact that the card catalog has been 
> converted to a web based system. The four Gates computers get filled up 
> quickly by students or internet "squatters" and patrons can't look up 
> entries in the card catalog.
>
> Well, to our surprise, if you dig deep into how the new LTSP works, it is 
> really easy to roll out a terminal that boots up straight to say netscape 
> (which was left in the /opt/ltsp/i386/usr/local directory). Basically it is 
> an X session, no authentication, and a tweaked netscape. We have added a 
> new function to the lts.conf called WS_LEVEL so that a workstation can 
> either be selected as a regular "terminal" or a "card catalog only" 
> machine.
>
> Through some creative use of IP chains, patrons can only access the card 
> catalog and no where else.
>
> We are going to write up a white paper on this and post it in the future 
> but we would like some other opinions on what we are doing.
>
> Please post to the list so that others can view your comments.
Kris, I think a writeup on how to do the above would be great.
We too have Gates Workstations (our school also houses the Public
Library) but it would be great to have them running through our LTSP
box. Never considered it before - linear thinking I guess:-)
I could see a public kiosk or two type system around the school(s)
for information, I could use it in some classrooms to boot right to
rdesktop (an easier migration for some teachers) ...
Lots of possibilities.
Scott
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