[LUG] LTSP, but sort of reverse use.

[Andrew Rogers <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom mentioned K12LTSP in a different thread so I thought I would mention 
my different use of LTSP.

My setup:

Server: 650 MHz 30GB HD. University provided. Mandrake 9.1 (don't tell 
the Uni!). eth0 connected to Uni's LAN, eth1 I added myself.

Client: Self built Athlon XP2000, 256 Mb DDR333MHz RAM. Approx cost (to 
me) £200. No HD,  no CD, no monitor. Not really a terminal.

Why: I need raw processing power for simulations, the Athlon provides it 
at low cost.

The Athlon runs an SSH server, I ssh into the Athlon from my PC and the 
Athlon is the set to run the simulation. The significant difference 
between my use of LTSP and 'normal' use is that my client (the Athlon) 
has no display and thus is not a terminal.

I found it necessary to use files from a Mandrake 9 installation on the 
clients NFS mounted filesystem so that my programs would run. The LTSP 
filesystem was not suitable, but without it I wouldn't have even tried this.

It seems that the K12LTSP is similar to what I did with the Mandrake 9 
filesystem but K12LTSP is based on RedHat 9. I expect the K12LTSP is 
better than my effort with Mandrake, the Athlon doesn't shut down properly.

The LTSP relied on the server running applications displaying them on 
the terminals. My use is the opposite way around, I use my PC as a 
server and display for a number (only 1 at the moment) of fast clients 
that run simulations.

My question is: Using K12LTSP can the clients access a full RedHat 
distro? And do I need RedHat running on the server, or just installed on 
an NFS exported filesystem? At $15 I'm tempted to buy the K12LTSP distro 
CDs.

Anyone else making different use of LTSP?

Regards
Andrew Rogers


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