[K12OSN] Re: Fedora 9 Live LTSP Server, Beta 1

[Warren Togami]

Healy, Patrick wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 Warren Togami wrote:
> <snip>
> Even if you are not going to use it in production yet, I seriously need feedback on it to be sure we're not missing things when people upgrade from LTSP4.2 to LTSP5.
> -----------
> 
> Wow, Warren this is great. 
> I'd planned on trying Ubuntu or Centos on a new installation for fall. 
> But this works now. Out of the box.

Thanks for the detailed report.  Some replies below.

> 
> Server: Intel Q6600 (2.4 GHz quad core) 
> 8 GB Ram (PAE) Gigabyte P35 Motherboard
> (image installed to hard drive, and updated to PAE kernel)
> 
> Thin Client Test Results follow (all PXE)
> 
> Works fine on medium power thin client 
> Celeron 366 MHz, 128 MB Ram, 
> i810 graphics and sound OK
> 1'20" boot time
> 0'16" login time
> (no noticeable difference with 256 MB Ram)
> 
> Barely acceptable on ebox 2300
> SiS 200 MHz, 64 MB Ram plus 64 MB for onboard graphics
> Sound OK (but visualization needed to be off to play music in Totem)
> 3'20" boot time
> 1'10" login time

I have one of these.  I can agree that performance is barely acceptable. 
  This is a pretty terrible machine.  I did get boot down to 42 seconds 
late last year when the Fedora client chroot had a lot less stuff (most 
features including sound, local devices were broken) and with NBD boot 
instead of NFS.  I hear from LTSP 4.2 users that performance was a lot 
better with the ancient kernel and X of that client chroot.  I don't 
know exactly what was different back then or if it would be possible to 
"fix" anything in modern software to reclaim some performance.

How many of these clients do you have?

I'm 90% to making NBD boot a standard option (but not default) of Fedora 
LTSP5.  It should be an option in the next LTSP update that should be in 
the Live Beta 2.

> 
> Here's some random feedback:
> 
> The README file on the desktop was great (there was one typo in the spelling of "persistent")

Thanks.  Petre is working on a revamped HTML version of the README with 
screenshots for Beta 2.  Petre, could you post those at a URL when you 
have a draft so folks here can peer review it?

> 
> It lists the homepage as k12linux.fedorahosted.org, but I believe you'd want to reference 
> https://fedorahosted.org/k12linux

Both work... although I hope to secure k12linux.org before the final ISO 
is released, and we would use that instead.  Or if we cannot obtain 
k12linux.org, then the name of the project will have to change.

Creating the logo and custom login screen for LDM is held up on 
finalizing the name as well.

> 
> I thought that the network changes I performed would persist on install to hard drive, but they needed to be redone.

Yeah, this is a limitation of Fedora Live's design in general.  People 
have to realize that using the Live runtime is ONLY A DEMO or to 
install, but not a mix of the two.

> 
> My live USB booted on my laptop but not on my server, even after trying lots of different BIOS settings. So I burned the iso to DVD for the server trial, and that worked fine.

USB boot is not very well standardized.  Most modern BIOS can handle USB 
boot, but only one of two incompatible ways.  Some machines can boot 
only if you install it to the first partition of the USB disk.  Other 
machines can boot only if you install directly to the disk itself 
without partitions.  Then you have to get the bootloader setup properly 
for that particular target.

> 
> 
> Questions:
> 
> Will there be a 64-bit edition?

I suppose I can do this for Beta 2.

> 
> Will there be Java and Flash and other non-free magic install scripts from k12ltsp?

Fedora can distribute only 100% Free and Open Source Software.  I think 
we can include links though from the new and improved HTML readme's.

> 
> If I install the server at home, then move it to school, 
> what files (resolv.conf etc) will I have to edit to not have nameserver problems?

This is very network dependent and there is no single answer unfortunately.

> 
> Is Fedora 10 just around the corner?

Beta freeze is soon.  Fedora 10 release is within a few months.   I 
don't remember the schedule off the top of my head.

Fedora LTSP release schedules have little to do with Fedora distribution 
release schedules.  We can do these Live LTSP Server spins whenever we 
feel it is in good shape.

Warren Togami
wtogami at redhat.com