K12Linux.org
[ K12LTSP.org | Downloads | Installation | Configuring Server | Configuring Clients | FAQ's & More ]

Checklist:
___ Install the Terminal Server Software (See Installation and   Configuring Server for help...)
___ Connect ethernet cards to hubs and network
___ Test for a working network connections
___ Boot!  ;-)
___ Add software

When you install your K12LTSP server software you will be ready to plug in your workstations. If you are using the default installation options, you won't need to do any configuration at all. Your terminals should boot right away. If you're using older PCs see the "Legacy Howto" section for tips on making boot disks and configuring for non-standard X-servers.

Note: If you're a new Linux user I'd suggest that you spend some time with the helpful documentation on the Red Hat Linux and Fedora sites:

More documentation on configuring your clients is in the FAQs and More section .

server diag. Connect ethernet cards to hubs and network:

Your server comes configured for two ethernet cards. One for terminals and another to connect to the Internet. You'll have to determine which is which.

eth0 connects to hub for terminals

eth1 connects to your network

You have a 50/50 chance of guessing correctly! ;-) I would suggest plugging in one card to your network before booting. If it gets an address via dhcp running on your network, it's eth1. If it ends up with a static ip address of 192.168.0.254 then you'll know it's eth0.


Test for a working network connections:

Want to know how to see the ip addresses??? Try this simple command from a terminal window on the server: ifconfig This will show you the current status of any active network cards. (Note: you'll need to be logged in as root.)

For more on Linux network management see our admin guide at: http://k12linux.org/netadmin/

Now that you know which card is which, plug eth0 into the terminal hub and eth1 into a port on your network. Your Terminal Server will automatically manage the ip addresses on the terminal side (eth0) and route all Internet traffic through the second ethernet card (eth1).

If you don't have dhcp running on your network you can assign any static ip address to eth1 via the control-panel. If you don't know how to do this see the admin guide mentioned above. ;-)

Test your network connection by using ping. Example ping www.yahoo.com For more help on configuring your network settings see the admin guide .

Making Boot Disks for Legacy PCs
There are two ways a client can boot.
 
 1) bootp - Bootp is used when the ethernet card has a programmed boot rom onboard. You can emulate an ethernet bootrom by booting from a floppy disk created from the http://www.Rom-O-Matic.net site. We've done much of this for you and have included floppy boot images in a folder of your installed K12LTSP server.

Take a look in /tftpboot/lts/boot/bootroms . You'll find disk images there for many popular cards. If you don't see your ethernet card head for the Rom-O-Matic site and download the righ image. It's easy to move the image to a floppy. Just type cat eepro100.lzdsk > /dev/fd0 to send the boot image to a floppy disk. (The example uses eepro100 card. replace this with the right image for your card). You can buy ethernet cards with boot roms all ready for K12LTSP from http://www.disklessworkstations.com/ .

2) PXE booting - PXE is an Intel boot protocol often called Wired for Management (WfM). All you really need to know is that there is one file to edit when selecting boot kernels. The kernels are in  /tftpboot/lts/pxe and the file that determines which one is used is in /tftpboot/lts/pxe/pxelinux.cfg in a file called default .

The NIC from www.thinknic.com and the Intel D810emo Flex motherboard are good examples of products that support the PXE boot protocol. You can make PXE floppy bootdisks from the Rom-O-Matic site too.

With the old version of K12LTSP you had to edit the  /etc/dhcpd.conf file to list PXE or BOOTP as the default boot type. You don't have to do this anymore! DHCPD 3.0 will answer both types of boot requests.

To watch your terminals logging in you can run the tail command on your server:
tail -f /var/log/messages  - This will let you watch the log file scroll by as terminals acquire ip numbers and login.

Special Note for NIC computers: You'll need to add an entry in your lts.conf file found in /opt/ltsp/i386/etc for the best NIC video resolution and sound.
Example:
[nic_01]
        XSERVER         = Xvesa
        SMODULE_01      = cmpci


Adding Software:
When you login as root you'll see links on the desktop to software you may want to add to your system.