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LTSP

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Welcome to the LTSP 5 world on openSUSE. Here you will find all the information required to get started.

Contents

Google Summer of Code 2008 Idea

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What is KIWI-LTSP?

What is LTSP

The Linux Terminal Server Project adds thin-client support to Linux servers. LTSP is a flexible, cost effective solution that is empowering schools, businesses, and organizations all over the world to easily install and deploy desktop workstations. A growing number of Linux distributions include LTSP out-of-the-box.

Shiny new thin-clients and legacy PCs alike can be used to browse the Web, send e-mail, create documents, and run other desktop applications. LTSP not only improves Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), but more importantly, provides increased value over traditional computing solutions. LTSP workstations can run applications from Linux and Windows servers.

Visit LTSP home page for more information.

What is KIWI

The openSuSE KIWI Image System provides a complete operating system image solution for Linux supported hardware platforms as well as for virtualisation systems like Xen Qemu or VMware. KIWI features distribution independent design, support for virtual systems, network deployed images, live CDs, thick clients and now with kiwi-ltsp diskless clients too.

Visit KIWI home page for more information.

KIWI-LTSP utilizes ease of deployment and management provided by KIWI to bring our awesome distribution openSUSE to everyone that wishes to use thin client computing.

Why not just call it LTSP, is it a fork?

We use lot more of KIWI imaging technology than the normal integration of LTSP5 in any distro. We have used KIWI as the foundation that gets LTSP5 on openSUSE. So we got best of two different worlds coming together in form of KIWI-LTSP.

KIWI-LTSP is nothing more than LTSP5 implementation on openSUSE, all the LTSP5 packages we use are the same as used by all other distributions that has LTSP5 support.

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What "extra" does KIWI bring to LTSP?

  • We use KIWI imaging technology to create boot as well as client images.
  • We can use "prebuilt" images as KIWI's netboot image provides feature of serving config files through tftp server.
  • Idea of using "prebuilt" images is that users do not have to build their own images, so the DVD media to build chroot image is not required.
  • As KIWI provides facility to create different kind of images, we can create Live CD or USB stick image for the LTSP clients, these images work on LTSP5 server running on other distributions too.
  • Some LTSP implementations require manual configuration of services, kiwi-ltsp-setup script provides all the tools necessary to build images and configure services.
  • KIWI-LTSP provides easy way to create diskless distributed build farm using Icecream
  • Apart from NFS and NBD root, KIWI-LTSP supports AoE also.
  • With AoE it is possible to serve multiple images of different kinds from single server, including network booting Fatclient images.
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What is required

Image:susemini.png
Version:
11.0
 and above
  • Any decent desktop/server with about 1 GB of RAM per 5 thin clients.
  • Thin client can be any PC which is PXE boot capable, 128 MB RAM is desired, but you can test lower and see if it works for you.
  • There is a limit to number of clients that can boot up from a single server, A server with 4Gb of ram can host 60 thin clients.
  • LTSP server/clients are best assembled on their own network. Do not use production server for experimenting with kiwi-ltsp.
  • openSUSE 11.0 and above i386 DVD media or an iso image. (Not required if using prebuilt image. Any other media will not work, including internet repository)
  • Server connected to the internet for getting the packages to install.
  • SSH, tftp, dhcp, nfs etc services running and ports open in firewall on the server. It is best to disable firewall on the interface serving LTSP.
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Quick start guides

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Try KIWI-LTSP Live server DVD

Download it from here

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Installing packages

1-click.png Pre-built images for openSUSE 11.1(Recommended). Requires good internet connection as it will download over 150M.

1-click.png Pre-built images for openSUSE 11.0(Recommended). Requires good internet connection as it will download over 130M.

1-click.png For openSUSE 11.0 (Only for developers)

1-click.png For openSUSE Factory (Only for developers)

Or if you prefer command line way of installation

Image:Shellscript.png Run the following commands as root (openSUSE 11.0): 
zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/server:ltsp/openSUSE_11.1 server:ltsp
zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Tools:/Devel/openSUSE_11.1 openSUSE:Tools
zypper in kiwi-ltsp-prebuilt
Image:Shellscript.png Run the following commands as root (openSUSE Factory): 
zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/server:ltsp/openSUSE_Factory server:ltsp
zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Tools:/Devel/openSUSE_Factory openSUSE:Tools
zypper in kiwi-ltsp-prebuilt
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Configuration

Follow this guide to configure KIWI-LTSP and all the required services

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Tips and Tricks

Tips and Tricks page. The information about customizing thin client behaviour, configuring printer, local devices and other useful tips.

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Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting information here

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LTSP 4.2 on openSUSE and SLED

Many schools have opted to add thin clients to their networks to save on hardware and software expenses. Here is an example of adding LTSP 4.2 to SLED 10, the steps regarding the installation of server packages from SLES can be skipped when using openSUSE.

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Additional information, Tips

An extra benefit of using openSUSE for LTSP in an existing NetWare school network is that the Novell client for Linux can be installed enabling use of existing network home directory structures, iPrint, Zenworks and more.

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In the News

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Communicate

Please use one of the mailing lists from here or IRC Freenode #kiwi-ltsp channel.

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Attention Developers

If you are a developer and would like to contribute to this project, please visit Novell Forge Wiki.

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See Also

Retrieved from "http://en.opensuse.org/LTSP"
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