[K12OSN] wireless_ltsp. it works.

[ssanders at coin.org]

wow Les, that's great! i couldn't get it to work with Damn Small Linux,
it wanted a parameter i didn't give it (scrolled up beyond screen and
couldn't see). since DSL is so very minimal, i couldn't
cat /var/log/messages because messages is 0 bytes. i tried it with
Knoppix 3.7 and it worked great. it picked up my USB mouse, also. here's
what i did, for those not familiar with Knoppix.

press F2 at splash, <enter>      knoppix 2 you'll boot to a shell

netcardconfig <enter> get your wifi card working. i entered a valid
192.168.0.x address, set gateway and dns to 192.168.0.254, left
everything else default.  netcardconfig will then take you to the
wireless part, i entered my ESSID, channel and WEP key, left everything
else default. you should be able to ping the server from command line
now.

X -query 192.168.0.254  and it came right up, and with USB mouse!

comments: DSL at runlevel 2 shows using only 29 meg of RAM, it can
allegedly run a blackbox GUI on a 486 with 16 meg of RAM! you would
probably need more than that for LTSP display, but this would be great
for many old junkers to potentially be used.

Knoppix 3.7 shows 49 meg used, still pretty light. but as Les mentioned,
Knoppix works with a tremendous variety of hardware. where the official
wireless_ltsp is intended for Lucent/Orinoco/Hermes I only, i can now
use the SMC card, which is 200mw compared to my old Hermes I card's 30
mw. greatly increases it's sphere of influence.

where the wireless_ltsp is a very easy 'just boot the floppy' situation,
the Knoppix way means you have to do a little manual configuring. not a
problem, but not always the most convenient. on all Knoppix variants you
can save your configuration/home directory to any media, HD/USB
key/floppy. i don't know how to save config from runlevel 2 (i've always
done it from X), but you can retrieve it upon bootup with knoppix
myconfig=/dev/sda1 (for USB key, for example). 

i have to leave now, i'll play with it later. probably if you save the
netconfig while the GUI is running, you can load it while booting to
runlevel 2 later.   

Jim, i saw in your comments from a couple of years ago, that the kernel
had outgrown a floppy, which would be a problem for wireless_ltsp. now
that it's a couple of years later, perhaps most junk laptops will
usually have a CD now, and putting the more current boot image on a CD
would be more viable now.