[K12OSN] Introducing ourselves

[Gianugo Altieri]

    Dear All,

    we run a tiny engineering company in the biomedical field, and we 
wish to share our experience with K12. Being born only last January, we 
started our computer network straight with Fedora 10 and K12 from the 
very beginning. Our configuration is:

Server:
Intel Coreduo 2.5 GHz - 4 GB RAM - 160 GB disk - dual 1Gbps LAN cards 
running Fedora 10

3 Clients:
Intel ATOM littlefalls 2 - 2 GB RAM - diskless - 1 Gbps LAN card

    Starting with the LiveUSB image, and following instructions, I was 
able to setup a working LAN in less than half an hour. Instructions were 
really easy to follow and everything worked as expected. I was amazed!
    Then I copied the live image to server's disk, and loaded the server 
with all the necessary software packages from the Internet, and it 
worked fine. Internet and the outside world are connected through the 
first LAN port (ETH0) while LTSP terminals are connected through second 
LAN port (ETH1) and a Gbps switch.
    I have a couple of wishes in my list, for K12. First of all, I would 
like to be able to connect printers to thin clients. In fact, for safety 
reasons, server resides in a closed room, and it would be impractical to 
connect a printer to it. A convenient location for printers would be 
beside clients, but it seems clients cannot "see" USB printers, or at 
least our HP laser. Strangely enough, clients recognize USB pen-drives, 
but not USB external DVD readers, so I can't figure out why some USB 
peripherals are working ad some aren't.
    Second problem is a fat client I wish to link. It runs Fedora 8 with 
some legacy software. I'm trying to let it "open a window" on the server 
for a graphical login, and also vice versa, i.e. let the server (and 
therefore the thin clients) open a graphical login on it. The problem is 
that I don't know how to do it. If I connect the fat client to LTSP LAN, 
it grabs an IP, but that's all. It doesn't even "ping" the server, let 
alone opening a remote desktop on it. Any suggestion?
    I will read through K12 mailing list to see if somebody has already 
met and solved such problems, but if meanwhile some suggestions arrive, 
I'd be really grateful.

    Gianugo Altieri
    Filignano, Italy