[K12OSN] Tuning LTSP Performance

[Stephen Crampton]

I'm trying to get a thin-client lab up and running.

Currently, I have a dual-processor AMD CPU with 4 GB of RAM as my server.
The server has a 1 GB Ethernet card.

The server is connected to a 1 GB 8-port Ethernet switch.

I have 7 clients attached.  They have Intel motherboards and are about 1
year old.  They have 512 MB of memory.  They have 100 Mbps Ethernet cards.

Performance is sluggish, which surprises me.  When my students are running
something very lightweight such as kbruch, the machines run fine, however,
if one of them opens up TuxMath or TuxTyping or some other applications,
everything slows way down.

I noticed that there are parameters that can be tuned in lts.conf.  I
reduced the screen resolution to 800x600 and the color depth to 8 bits.
Does anyone have any suggestions for other parameters that might make my
system a little more responsive?

Also, I've been reading wiki pages and mailing list entries regarding
fattening thin clients.  There seem to be two ways of doing it:  (1)
building a new ltsp system "fati386" or (2) writing scripts that execute
particular programs on the client and direct the display to the client's
Xwindows server.

I've spent a number of hours on both approaches without success.  Before I
invest a lot more time, could someone recommend one approach or the other?

Thanks,
Steve

>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/k12osn/attachments/20080829/4fd714af/attachment.htm>