[K12OSN] Fedora 9 Live LTSP Server, Beta 1

[Jay Pfaffman]

I think it works (the only client I have to test with seems to have an
unsupported network card), though it wasn't smart enough to save my
Ubuntu boot info, but I suppose I should have known better.

The instructions for configuring the network work, though for some of
our target audience

      " As root, edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethX. "

won't mean anything.  I was also unclear why it was preferable to
create a new device rather than just disable the old one.

The show-stopper for me is that there is no support for PPC clients.
Several schools that I'm working with have piles of old iMacs that
work acceptably as clients & having those machines go from unusable,
un-upgradable machines that cannot print to a network printer into
fast clients is pretty compelling.  (OTOH, not compelling enough for
the last school that I tried it in to keep using them.)

PPC client suport seems important.

On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 2:22 AM, Warren Togami <wtogami at redhat.com> wrote:
> Hey folks,
>
> Below is a LiveUSB or LiveDVD image containing Fedora 9 LTSP server and
> the client chroot pre-installed and pre-configured.  This is the easiest
> way to get started with Fedora LTSP5, or to try it without installing
> onto your hard drive.
>
> Simply boot this Live image and follow the simple README, and you can
> within minutes demo serving of thin clients.  You can also install onto
> a hard drive to create a permanent server.  It is all surprisingly
> self-explanatory once you have booted to the Desktop.
>
> https://fedorahosted.org/k12linux/
> LTSP on Fedora 9 w/ Updates is currently considered to be production
> ready, and development of improved features continues rapidly.  Check
> out our homepage for the latest news and updated instructions.
>
> Download
> ========
> http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/ltsp/beta1/i686/
> This image is based on Fedora 9 w/ Updates as of August 8th, 2008.  It
> seems to work great for me in limited tests.
>
> How to Use LiveUSB?
> ===================
> https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator
> * From Windows you can use LiveUSB creator to make a USB stick bootable
> containing this Live image.  From Linux, within the ISO is the
> livecd-iso-to-disk script which you can use in Linux to make a bootable
> USB stick.  It is highly recommended that you use a persistent overlay
> file of at least 900MB because this reduces the amount of memory needed
> for your demo.  For this reason you should have at least 2GB free on
> your USB stick (~920MB image + 900MB overlay).
> * LiveDVD works, but is not recommended unless you have at least 2GB RAM
> for your demo.
> * Be warned that serving clients from a Live image will eat up your
> overlay and RAM rapidly, causing the demo to eventually fail.  It should
> be fine for a number of client logins.  You should install to your hard
> drive if you want to do more than just a quick demo.
>
> FAQ
> ===
> 1) Why is this not called K12LTSP?
> It is the plan for Fedora LTSP5 technology to be the successor of Eric
> Harrison's highly successful K12LTSP distribution.  However we had
> planned on changing the name to "K12Linux" to be friendlier sounding and
> easier to pronounce when people explain it at educator conferences.
> Unfortunately the naming issue remains a bit uncertain because we have
> not yet received ownership of k12linux domains from the current owner.
> Warren's fault for getting busy and forgetting to follow up in past months.
>
> 2) Is this the only way to install a Fedora LTSP5 server?
> This Live LTSP Server image is only a convenient way for new users to
> get started with Fedora LTSP5.  Note that it is always possible to
> enable LTSP5 on any existing Fedora 9 server by following the
> instructions on the above homepage.
>
> 3) Why not LiveCD?
> LiveCD was not possible because we simply cannot fit Server, Client and
> apps onto a single disc.  If all you have is a CD drive then your
> hardware is unlikely powerful enough to serve as a LTSP server.  In any
> case you should be able to install from the LiveUSB without dealing with
> discs at all.
>
> Release Plan for Fedora 9 Live LTSP Server
> ==========================================
> If we do not run into any serious problems, I plan on doing a Release
> Candidate ISO spin on Thursday, August 21st.  If no problems are found
> with the RC image, then it will be redubbed as "final" without any changes.
>
> I hope to get Fedora branding onto the login screen, and the naming
> issue straightened out before this release.  Delays in the final release
> may occur due to this branding stuff.  In the mean time, this Beta 1
> spin seems to work well for me.  Please give it a try and let me know.
>
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12linux-devel-list
> Please send questions or comments to the k12linus-devel-list.
>
> Warren Togami
> wtogami at redhat.com
>
>
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>
>



-- 
Jay Pfaffman <pfaffman at relaxpc.com>
http://learn.occ.utk.edu/ +1-865-974-0497