LTSP/Quick start

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Introduction

Welcome to openSUSE KIWI-LTSP quick start page, here you will find information that is meant to get you a working LTSP5 server on openSUSE. This guide is meant for users who would be implementing KIWI-LTSP for the first time with no prior Linux system administration knowledge.

The idea of using "prebuilt" image is that you do not require DVD media for the creation of LTSP images and no manual building of images is required.

Step One: Configure Network interface

See Network configuration for LTSP server

Step Two: Installing required packages

Note: Skip this step if you have openSUSE Edu Li-f-e DVD installed as all the required packages are already installed

Pre-built images for 11.2(Recommended). Requires good internet connection as it will download over 180M.

Step Three: Configuring the server

Follow this link if you wish to use Easy-LTSP GUI to configure the server, otherwise continue below.

Make sure all the parameters are as per your network setup in /etc/sysconfig/kiwi-ltsp. The parameters that may need adjustment are: DHCP_RANGE, DHCP_SUBNET, DHCP_IFACE, SERVER_IP, NAME_SERVERS and GATEWAY.

Run the following commands as root to configure everything using pre-built image:

kiwi-ltsp-setup -b #to backup current configuration           
kiwi-ltsp-setup -c

The above command will configure the following services:

DHCP server's /etc/dhcpd.conf
NFS server's /etc/exports (not really required as we are using NBD image)
Configures KIWI configuration in /srv/tftpboot/KIWI/config.default
Configures LTSP configuration in /srv/tftpboot/KIWI/lts.conf
Keeps backup of current configuration in /usr/share/kiwi/image/ltsp/suse-<version>/kiwi-backup->date>.tar.bz2

Advanced configuration information can be found here

Step Four: Post check

Read the output of kiwi-ltsp-setup -c, complete the "manual task" it suggests and fix any errors it mentions
Check status of all the required services, start them if they are not running already:

 rcdhcpd status
 rcsshd status
 rcxinetd status

Run kiwi-ltsp-setup -c after starting sshd for the very first time.

Step Five: PXE boot the clients

Go into the bios of the PC/laptop you wish to use as a thin client, enable onboard LAN bootrom, change boot sequence to boot from LAN first.

Boot up the client, you should now be able to log into the client with the usernames and passwords of the users created on the server. All the packages that are installed on the server would be available in the client session.

Troubleshooting

Please see LTSP Troubleshooting