[K12OSN] OT-Multiple Knoppix and hostnames

[Les Mikesell]

ssh at tranquility.net wrote:
> There are approximately 500 machines on their network, they won't want 
> to suddenly trust DHCP to "something new".

If you can get someone to add the extra options to the existing DHCP 
server, you don't have to change the server itself.

> I know that dust will be a 
> problem on CD's as well, but it perhaps won't be as destructive as it is 
> to a floppy. So far, they are hellbent on the machines being standalone. 
> They understand the terminal server concept and benefits, but things are 
> already spread out pushing the limits of Cat5 length now, and there's 
> three shifts working around these machines.

If the clients were all in one location, using a 2-NIC server setup 
would solve all your problems.  If you have to run with a single nic 
over your backbone you can test the concept without changing anything by 
booting a machine into knoppix with 'knoppix 2' at the boot prompt so it 
doesn't start X automatically, then use 'X -query server_name_or_IP' to 
    start X with the desktop running on the server.  If that works the 
way you want, you should be able to remaster knoppix to always start 
that way.  Whatever problem you thought you might have with identical 
hostnames won't be a problem in this scenario.  It might be even better 
to build a custom thinstation CD that would run NX, especially if you 
don't have a gig backbone.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    les at futuresource.com