[K12OSN] K12Linux EL6 Preliminary Feasibility Assessment

[burke at thealmquists.net]

I know I didn't expect you to ever get i586 clients working on EL5. I think anyone who wants that is better off using ubuntu/debian, or ltsp 4 on el5.

"Warren Togami Jr." <warren at togami.com> wrote:

>I did some quick hacking of LTSP upstream on SL6 in order to determine 
>what works and what is broken.
>
>GOOD
>====
>* Installed /opt/ltsp/i386 with lots of error messages.
>* WORKING: Client Login to GNOME desktop.
>* WORKING: Remote sound, Youtube video played with audio in sync.
>
>BAD, BUT I KNOW HOW TO FIX
>==========================
>* LOTS OF ERROR MESSAGES DURING BOOT
>* nc syntax seems to have changed (?)
>* qemu-kvm changed to discourage direct use.  SDL-mode longer supported. 
>  This means ltsp-vmclient cannot be used anymore as method for rapid 
>thin client testing.  I suspect this could be worked around by manually 
>modifying a virt-manager VM configuration to connect to ltspbr0 and PXE 
>boot.
>* nbd-server changed, need to redo how LTSP handles both the client and 
>server side of NBD.
>* Wow.  My documentation on k12linux.org sucks a lot.
>
>BAD, NOT SURE HOW TO FIX YET
>============================
>* BROKEN: Something is seriously wrong with pxelinux.  I was able to 
>manually boot only by typing in parameters.
>* BROKEN: K12LINUX themed ldm is broken.
>* BROKEN: Remote USB storage (ltspfs)
>* CONFUSING: Various parts of GNOME desktop like PackageKit are confused 
>because ConsoleKit has no awareness of ssh logins, manifesting in 
>various broken dialogs and annoying pop-up login screen during every 
>user login.
>* BROKEN: Crippling blocker issue with locked screens, need to talk to 
>GNOME developers ...
>
>BAD, LIMITATIONS OF EL6 HARDWARE SUPPORT
>========================================
>i686 with PAE minimum means the majority of existing LTSP client 
>hardware are unsupported.  Additionally, EL6 kernel lacks nbd.ko.
>
>Partial Solution: Kernel-only replacement for /opt/ltsp/i386.  i686 
>without PAE with nbd.ko included would support *more* hardware, but 
>still a large percentage of LTSP client hardware that is i586 will not work.
>
>Full Solution: Rebuild 500+ client packages to i586 or use Debian for 
>/opt/ltsp/i386.  Either option is bad because of significant effort to 
>initially create it, and long-term support issues.
>
>Analysis
>========
>This is significantly more broken than I expected.  Worrisome are the 
>broken parts of GNOME, because we likely cannot get patches into 
>upstream EL6, and any patched packages that we ship ourselves will be a 
>long term maintenance burden.
>
>I will do a little more feasibility testing later, but I already can say 
>that this is looking like too much work for the previous cost estimate.
>
>In short: Yes, this appears feasible.  But it will be a LOT of work to 
>make it an acceptable solution.
>
>Warren Togami
>warren at togami.com
>
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