[K12OSN] Edubuntu Edgy Eft on PowerPC server--some problems
Terrell Prude' Jr.
microman at cmosnetworks.com
Thu Apr 12 02:51:07 UTC 2007
OK folks,
I finally got around to trying out Edubuntu Edgy Eft on a dual-1.3GHz
PowerPC box. I did a default Edubuntu install, no fancy stuff like I
normally would do. :-) The server boots fine. The apps--Firefox,
OO.o, TuxMath, and so on--work fine. However, it has some problems with
the LTSP implementation.
1.) The /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf file refers to a TFTP-boot path of
/ltsp/i386, where pxelinux.0 is supposed to live. However, this path
does not exist at all...anywhere...on the hard disk. Thinking that it
might simply be a typo, I even did a "find / -name 'pxelinux.0' -print",
and nada.
2.) The /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf file points to an option root-path of
/opt/ltsp/i386. However, there is only an /opt/ltsp/powerpc, which
isn't referenced at all in dhcpd.conf.
3.) There is no apparent way to swap eth0 and eth1 like there is with
Red Hat-type distros. The kernel views my 3Com 10/100 NIC as eth0 and
the built-in Gig-E interface as eth1; these should be reversed. Yes,
this one happens on x86 as well, and I know that Debian has this
problem, too.
Makes it kinda hard to PXE-boot thin clients when there are no TFTP boot
files or pivot_root target. :-)
Now, can I manually fix these issues and make the server boot some thin
clients? Sure, of course. But for those who are considering using a
PowerPC box (e. g. a multi-core Xserve, PowerMac G5, or IBM p-Series) as
a LTSP server, be aware that if you use Edubuntu, you will be in for
some manual, and non-trivial, tweaking afterwards. Shame, too, because
I rather like the power efficiency and flexibility of PowerPC hardware.
--TP
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