<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=UTF-8"> <META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="GtkHTML/3.2.5"> </HEAD> <BODY> <TT>"R. Scott Belford" <<A HREF="mailto:scott@hosef.org">scott@hosef.org</A>></TT><TT> wrote:</TT> 1. ebnet and UBF floppies do not boot clients. They produce the error "loading 192.168.0.254:/pxelinux.0.......error, not a valid image" The same clients boot great with a PXE enabled NIC. 2. eth0 has to be configured, and dhcp likely has to be edited 3. Clients that work great with K12LTSP will not work as well with Edubuntu. I had to use VESA emulation for some of my workhorses. 4. This is hardly the place just to cry about problems. At the end I have a proposed 'fix.' ---- EdUbuntu does things a little differently than LTSP. LTSP normally boots by etherboot, which is similar in function but not identical to PXE in detail. The etherboot loader normally expects a different file structure than a PXE bootloader. Ubuntu will have a means of producing the appropriate boot floppy for Ubuntu expects a PXE bootloader to run. 1. >From <A HREF="http://www.ltsp.org/README.pxe">http://www.ltsp.org/README.pxe</A> <BLOCKQUOTE> Normally, for Etherboot kernels, the kernel is placed in /tftpboot/lts. But, for PXE kernels, we create a subdirectory in that location that has a name that matches the version of the kernel. For example, in this release of the kernel, we create '/tftpboot/lts/2.4.22-ltsp-1'. Within that directory, we place the kernel, the initrd image, the pxelinux.0 bootloader and a configuration subdirectory. </BLOCKQUOTE> 2.If your primary (ISP connection) is on 192.168.0.x, Ubuntu requires editing. If you control your environment, make sure the LAN with thin clients is allowed to be 192.168.0.x and Ubuntu scripts do everything. No editing required. See an article I wrote for Free Software Magazine about EdUbuntu 5.10: <A HREF="http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/files/nodes/1263/1263.pdf">http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/files/nodes/1263/1263.pdf</A> This is a bit clumsy and lacking foresight, but the vast majority of EdUbuntu installations will either be in small schools or subnets behind a firewall/router so its not that limiting. I did the installation both ways. You want to do it the automatic way, believe me. Since the script is open source, this would be a neat project for one of my students, to tune it up for more general cases. "Here are our defaults. Change them to suit your wishes and click 'OK'". I can see it now. 3. Does LTSP still use XFree86? Dapper uses X.org, perhaps a difference in drivers. I had no difficulty with several clients I tried with 5.10. 4. That's what open source is all about. EdUbuntu is the slickest installation of an X server and client configuration I have ever tried next to K12LTSP. Well, ClusterKNOPPIX was pretty cool, too (OpenMosix terminal server - uses PXE, DHCP and tftp to boot linux clients via the network.). I plan to install EdUbuntu next week in a production environment and I hope it goes smoothly as I have little time and much to do. Of course, life is always more interesting with a few challenges. Ubuntu had some difficulty meeting its target date. I hope some of the glitches will have been hunted down by next week or I will have to do some hunting myself. I would use K12LTSP except I have grown fond of apt and Ubuntu has some particular packages I need. K12LTSP/Fedora likely has them, too, but I know the Ubuntu repository and I have my own copy. <TABLE CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0" WIDTH="100%"> <TR> <TD> <PRE> -- A problem is an opportunity. </PRE> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> </BODY> </HTML>