Trouble with PXE Boot; Fedora 17

[Adrin Gharakhani]

Hello; I'm new to LTSP and generally a novice to Linux. I installed all LTSP-related packages using Fedora 17's Add/Remove Software (GUI). I then followed the instructions on the k12linux site.

1) Everything on the server side installed "properly", except for step 8: there is no ltsp-server-tweaks on my system. I don't know if this is relevant to my problem or not. Anyway, I'd appreciate a hint as to where I can download and install ltsp-server-tweaks

2) The client setup step failed because I'm running F17. If there are instructions I can follow to successfully complete the latter, I'd really appreciate the link. (I'm using the workstation only as a server, and I have a fairly powerful diskless thin/zero client, which I just purchased for remote computing purposes)

3) My system is 64-bit (and so is F17). Is there any reason ltsp defaults to 32-bit even though there are x86-64 ltsp directories/files as well? Is there a way to just stick with x86-64?

4) The main reason for this thread, which I assume/hope is independent of the above three "issues", is the fact that trying to PXE boot via the Virtual Machine fails (so does PXE booting from the diskless client, of course) with the message "No DEFAULT or UI configuration directives found!". The following are the last few lines before the error message, and googling the latter didn't turn up anything useful for me:

(text in brackets are my comments)

[IP address is assigned]
BOOTIF= [hexadecimal numbers]
SYSUUID= [hexadecimal numbers]
TFTP prefix: /ltsp/i386/
Trying to load: pxelinux.cfg/default ok
No DEFAULT or UI configuration directives found!
boot: [blank space]


The following is the content of the "default" file

prompt 0
label linux
kernel vmlinuz.ltsp
append rw initrd=initrd.ltsp selinux=0 root=dhcp quiet rhgb


The following are the relevant ifcfg files

[***@vortex network-scripts]# more ifcfg-p1p1
UUID="36f1f167-eeef-45ad-9a03-9a1567b985a7"
NM_CONTROLLED="no"
BOOTPROTO=none
DEVICE="p1p1"
ONBOOT="yes"
TYPE=Ethernet
DEFROUTE="yes"
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6INIT=no
NAME="System p1p1"
HWADDR=10:BF:48:07:6F:6C
BRIDGE=ltspbr0
USERCTL=yes

[***@vortex network-scripts]# more ifcfg-ltspbr0
# Sample Configuration for Initscript Driven Bridge
# Put this into /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ltspbr0
#
# Warning: Deleting ifcfg-ltspbr0 alone to disable ltspbr0 will cause you
# problems, because it will come back the next time you upgrade the
# ltsp-server package.
#
# Comment out these two lines to disable ltspbr0.
ONBOOT=yes
IPADDR=172.31.100.254

DEVICE=ltspbr0
TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=static
STP=off
DELAY=0.1
USERCTL=no
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ARP=yes

Thank you very much, in advance, for helping me get started

adrin

[Gianluca Cecchi]

Hi,
For the last point you defined a label named "linux" but no default one, so
I think you have to type
linux
At "boot:" prompt and enter
And see if it boots or gives any error

[Adrin Gharakhani]

Thank you Gianluca,

The prompt indeed wanted a "linux" input at the boot prompt. However, it went to the next line and searched for "kernel vmlinuz.ltsp" and couldn't find such a file. I actually did a global search for vmlinuz.ltsp and didn't find it in my system either. So, something is definitely wrong in the fedora installation package. This package was installed directly from the fedora 17 repository, so I would have expected it should be self contained, unless the step that involves ltsp-server-tweaks (which I didn't perform because that file is also missing) is a prerequisite.

If anyone can provide a copy of their ltsp-server-tweaks script for centos I'd appreciate it. Perhaps I can use that as a template for fedora

adrin

Hi,
For the last point you defined a label named "linux" but no default one, so I think you have to type
linux
At "boot:" prompt and enter
And see if it boots or gives any error
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[Gianluca Cecchi]

Post by Adrin Gharakhani
Thank you Gianluca,
The prompt indeed wanted a "linux" input at the boot prompt. However, it
went to the next line and searched for "kernel vmlinuz.ltsp" and couldn't
find such a file. I actually did a global search for vmlinuz.ltsp and didn't
find it in my system either. So, something is definitely wrong in the fedora
installation package. This package was installed directly from the fedora 17
repository, so I would have expected it should be self contained, unless the
step that involves ltsp-server-tweaks (which I didn't perform because that
file is also missing) is a prerequisite.
If anyone can provide a copy of their ltsp-server-tweaks script for centos
I'd appreciate it. Perhaps I can use that as a template for fedora

I currently have not an ltsp environment with Fedora 17 but I do have
fedora 17 (with ip 192.168.1.141 in example files below) configured to
allow pxe booting + dhcpd/tftp services necessary to boot kernel over
the lan.
In fact I used it to install a Fedora 18 on a server with PXE boot and
this configuration
my config

When I had to provide this kind of installation service I installed
these packages:
Jan 19 15:18:45 Installed: 2:xinetd-2.3.15-1.fc17.x86_64
Jan 19 15:18:45 Installed: tftp-server-5.2-2.fc17.x86_64
Jan 19 15:21:59 Installed: syslinux-4.05-1.fc17.x86_64
Jan 19 15:22:54 Installed: 12:dhcp-4.2.4-16.P2.fc17.x86_64


- xinetd installed and enabled
[***@ope46 ~]# systemctl status xinetd.service
xinetd.service - Xinetd A Powerful Replacement For Inetd
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/xinetd.service; enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat, 26 Jan 2013 10:20:01 +0100; 1h 15min ago
...

In case you have to:

# systemctl enable xinetd.service
# systemctl start xinetd.service

- tftpd service enabled through xinetd
see your /etc/xinetd.d/tftp
I changed mine putting
disable = no

and restarting xinetd service

- dhcpd installed and enabled
[***@ope46 ~]# systemctl status dhcpd.service
dhcpd.service - DHCPv4 Server Daemon
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/dhcpd.service; disabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
Docs: man:dhcpd(8)
man:dhcpd.conf(5)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/dhcpd.service

in my case it is disabled because I use it only when necessary not to
conflict with dnsmasq used by libvirtd providing dhcp functionality to
its virtual machines

my dhcpd.conf lines:

allow booting;
allow bootp;
ddns-update-style interim;
ignore client-updates;
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255;
range dynamic-bootp 192.168.1.200 192.168.1.240;
next-server 192.168.1.141;
filename "pxelinux.0"; }

here the next-server ip is the one of my server providing tftpd..

- tftp root directory on fedora 17 is /var/lib/tftpboot/ by default
(it should match entry in /etc/xinetd.d/tftp
in my case default one for f17:
server_args = -s /var/lib/tftpboot
)

In my case I only need a default entry for tftp clients that I change
when necessary.
see docs for mac based ones or more complex configs


[***@ope46 ~]# ll /var/lib/tftpboot/
total 32032
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27900268 Jan 19 15:52 initrd.img
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26460 Jan 19 15:34 pxelinux.0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 20 16:53 pxelinux.cfg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4862486 Jan 19 15:52 vmlinuz

[***@ope46 ~]# ll /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 153 Jan 20 16:53 default

vmlinuz and initrd are the Fedora 18 installation ones, downloaded
over the wire by clients to run anaconda
the "default" file contains

[***@ope46 ~]# cat /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
default pxeboot
timeout 50
label pxeboot
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img repo=http://192.168.1.141/f18
ks=http://192.168.1.141/anaconda-ks.cfg

(I also provide httpd service through the next-server server that is
my tftp server and I install f18 through kickstart)

Please notice that
[***@ope46 ~]# rpm -qf /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.0
file /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.0 is not owned by any package

In fact I copied there from syslinux package:
cp /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /var/lib/tftpboot

So, keep from my env what can be of help for your LTSP config.

HIH,
Gianluca

[Adrin Gharakhani]

Thank you Gianluca,

I followed your instructions (similar to the instructions on the fedora site), and I was initially unable to read the initrd.img file. After a long set of experiments I finally found out that the read permissions were not set properly for the default initrd.img. So, heads up to others who might encounter a similar problem: change the read permission to allow all to read.

So, finally, I passed the "golden gate", but now I have a hardware incompatibility problem. I don't know if I should continue this thread or create a new one. I'll continue, for now:

I'm getting a message that my zero client is unable to boot because "This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU"

My workstation is x86-64 and apparently the new zero client that I bought is i686. Any suggestions how to go about correcting this problem? (does fedora 17 provide i686 compatibility?)

I have to add that my sole interest is to move my workstation to another building (on the same LAN), but I want my zero client set up such that I'm "in front of the workstation", with _full_ access to all capabilities of the x86-64 kernel (there is only myself; this is not a multi-client environment)

Thanks all for your help and suggestions

adrin

Post by Gianluca Cecchi

Post by Adrin Gharakhani
Thank you Gianluca,
The prompt indeed wanted a "linux" input at the boot prompt. However, it
went to the next line and searched for "kernel vmlinuz.ltsp" and couldn't
find such a file. I actually did a global search for vmlinuz.ltsp and didn't
find it in my system either. So, something is definitely wrong in the fedora
installation package. This package was installed directly from the fedora 17
repository, so I would have expected it should be self contained, unless the
step that involves ltsp-server-tweaks (which I didn't perform because that
file is also missing) is a prerequisite.
If anyone can provide a copy of their ltsp-server-tweaks script for centos
I'd appreciate it. Perhaps I can use that as a template for fedora

I currently have not an ltsp environment with Fedora 17 but I do have
fedora 17 (with ip 192.168.1.141 in example files below) configured to
allow pxe booting + dhcpd/tftp services necessary to boot kernel over
the lan.
In fact I used it to install a Fedora 18 on a server with PXE boot and
this configuration
my config
When I had to provide this kind of installation service I installed
Jan 19 15:18:45 Installed: 2:xinetd-2.3.15-1.fc17.x86_64
Jan 19 15:18:45 Installed: tftp-server-5.2-2.fc17.x86_64
Jan 19 15:21:59 Installed: syslinux-4.05-1.fc17.x86_64
Jan 19 15:22:54 Installed: 12:dhcp-4.2.4-16.P2.fc17.x86_64
- xinetd installed and enabled
xinetd.service - Xinetd A Powerful Replacement For Inetd
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/xinetd.service; enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat, 26 Jan 2013 10:20:01 +0100; 1h 15min ago
...
# systemctl enable xinetd.service
# systemctl start xinetd.service
- tftpd service enabled through xinetd
see your /etc/xinetd.d/tftp
I changed mine putting
disable = no
and restarting xinetd service
- dhcpd installed and enabled
dhcpd.service - DHCPv4 Server Daemon
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/dhcpd.service; disabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
Docs: man:dhcpd(8)
man:dhcpd.conf(5)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/dhcpd.service
in my case it is disabled because I use it only when necessary not to
conflict with dnsmasq used by libvirtd providing dhcp functionality to
its virtual machines
allow booting;
allow bootp;
ddns-update-style interim;
ignore client-updates;
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255;
range dynamic-bootp 192.168.1.200 192.168.1.240;
next-server 192.168.1.141;
filename "pxelinux.0"; }
here the next-server ip is the one of my server providing tftpd..
- tftp root directory on fedora 17 is /var/lib/tftpboot/ by default
(it should match entry in /etc/xinetd.d/tftp
server_args = -s /var/lib/tftpboot
)
In my case I only need a default entry for tftp clients that I change
when necessary.
see docs for mac based ones or more complex configs
total 32032
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27900268 Jan 19 15:52 initrd.img
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26460 Jan 19 15:34 pxelinux.0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 20 16:53 pxelinux.cfg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4862486 Jan 19 15:52 vmlinuz
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 153 Jan 20 16:53 default
vmlinuz and initrd are the Fedora 18 installation ones, downloaded
over the wire by clients to run anaconda
the "default" file contains
default pxeboot
timeout 50
label pxeboot
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img repo=http://192.168.1.141/f18
ks=http://192.168.1.141/anaconda-ks.cfg
(I also provide httpd service through the next-server server that is
my tftp server and I install f18 through kickstart)
Please notice that
file /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.0 is not owned by any package
cp /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /var/lib/tftpboot
So, keep from my env what can be of help for your LTSP config.
HIH,
Gianluca
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For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>

[Burke Almquist]

Post by Adrin Gharakhani
Thank you Gianluca,
I followed your instructions (similar to the instructions on the fedora site), and I was initially unable to read the initrd.img file. After a long set of experiments I finally found out that the read permissions were not set properly for the default initrd.img. So, heads up to others who might encounter a similar problem: change the read permission to allow all to read.
I'm getting a message that my zero client is unable to boot because "This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU"
My workstation is x86-64 and apparently the new zero client that I bought is i686. Any suggestions how to go about correcting this problem? (does fedora 17 provide i686 compatibility?)
I have to add that my sole interest is to move my workstation to another building (on the same LAN), but I want my zero client set up such that I'm "in front of the workstation", with _full_ access to all capabilities of the x86-64 kernel (there is only myself; this is not a multi-client environment)
Thanks all for your help and suggestions

You built a 64 bit environment for the clients too, which is almost never what you want to do. Make sure you set the chroot to 32 bit when you start building your clients.
https://fedorahosted.org/k12linux/wiki/Tips

[Adrin Gharakhani]

Burke,

Right now I'm outside the LTSP realm; my attempt with the latter failed, so I tried what Gianluca suggested and just tried the basic steps of setting up a pxe boot (I don't think I've done any client building, per se). I would have really preferred to use something like LTSP but unfortunately it doesn't support fedora 17 (the client side stops at fedora 14, which is an unacceptable option for me).

So, right now I have a 32-bit thin/zero client and a x86-64 F17 OS installation on my workstation. The 32-bit version of F17 is unfortunately not acceptable for what I do (and use), so I can't change the ecosystem of my workstation. The only real solution for me is something that would allow me to connect my 32-bit zero client to my 64-bit OS, but I don't know if/how it's possible (perhaps some sort of a compatibility software or something).

Any hope of getting LTSP for F17?

Thanks

adrin

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Hash: SHA1

Post by Adrin Gharakhani
Thank you Gianluca,
I followed your instructions (similar to the instructions on the fedora site), and I was initially unable to read the initrd.img file. After a long set of experiments I finally found out that the read permissions were not set properly for the default initrd.img. So, heads up to others who might encounter a similar problem: change the read permission to allow all to read.
I'm getting a message that my zero client is unable to boot because "This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU"
My workstation is x86-64 and apparently the new zero client that I bought is i686. Any suggestions how to go about correcting this problem? (does fedora 17 provide i686 compatibility?)
I have to add that my sole interest is to move my workstation to another building (on the same LAN), but I want my zero client set up such that I'm "in front of the workstation", with _full_ access to all capabilities of the x86-64 kernel (there is only myself; this is not a multi-client environment)
Thanks all for your help and suggestions

You built a 64 bit environment for the clients too, which is almost never what you want to do. Make sure you set the chroot to 32 bit when you start building your clients.
https://fedorahosted.org/k12linux/wiki/Tips
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[Burke Almquist]

Post by Adrin Gharakhani
Burke,
Right now I'm outside the LTSP realm; my attempt with the latter failed, so I tried what Gianluca suggested and just tried the basic steps of setting up a pxe boot (I don't think I've done any client building, per se). I would have really preferred to use something like LTSP but unfortunately it doesn't support fedora 17 (the client side stops at fedora 14, which is an unacceptable option for me).
So, right now I have a 32-bit thin/zero client and a x86-64 F17 OS installation on my workstation. The 32-bit version of F17 is unfortunately not acceptable for what I do (and use), so I can't change the ecosystem of my workstation. The only real solution for me is something that would allow me to connect my 32-bit zero client to my 64-bit OS, but I don't know if/how it's possible (perhaps some sort of a compatibility software or something).
Any hope of getting LTSP for F17?
Thanks
adrin

I don't know about LTSP support on F17, most of the work on LTSP and Fedora/EL6 has been done by Warren Togami.
I think I might just try to install it on F17 or F18 and see if I can as least spot what has been broken. I've just been messing around with LTSP on EL6 since that seems to mostly be stable and working, and I don't have any pressing reason to be using F17 or 18.

I'm curious what you need in Fedora 17 that isn't in EL6.

[Adrin Gharakhani]

If by EL you mean RHEL, then it's just too expensive for me (a one-person operation). If you mean SL (scientific linux), then last I checked it runs a much older version of gcc than I can accept. Fedora always keeps up with the latest and greatest. This is really ironic - a "scientific" OS falls way behind wrt compiler updates. Also, the upgrades are not frequent enough (based on what little I know about it), so even if a newer version becomes available today, I'd have to wait much longer for the next update. Finally, I am by NO means even at the entry level when it comes to OS stuff - I really just want to focus on my work using something I feel very comfortable with by now (because of the regular updates and improvements)

BTW, I installed the i386 version of vmlinuz and initrd.img, and the zero client passed that test; moved on to the next stage - it apparently wants more "stuff" from the installation package to get started (but I haven't figured out how I can dump the terminal output to know what exactly is going on at each stage). So, I'm still stuck and the saga continues :)

thanks

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Hash: SHA1

Post by Adrin Gharakhani
Burke,
Right now I'm outside the LTSP realm; my attempt with the latter failed, so I tried what Gianluca suggested and just tried the basic steps of setting up a pxe boot (I don't think I've done any client building, per se). I would have really preferred to use something like LTSP but unfortunately it doesn't support fedora 17 (the client side stops at fedora 14, which is an unacceptable option for me).
So, right now I have a 32-bit thin/zero client and a x86-64 F17 OS installation on my workstation. The 32-bit version of F17 is unfortunately not acceptable for what I do (and use), so I can't change the ecosystem of my workstation. The only real solution for me is something that would allow me to connect my 32-bit zero client to my 64-bit OS, but I don't know if/how it's possible (perhaps some sort of a compatibility software or something).
Any hope of getting LTSP for F17?
Thanks
adrin

I don't know about LTSP support on F17, most of the work on LTSP and Fedora/EL6 has been done by Warren Togami.
I think I might just try to install it on F17 or F18 and see if I can as least spot what has been broken. I've just been messing around with LTSP on EL6 since that seems to mostly be stable and working, and I don't have any pressing reason to be using F17 or 18.
I'm curious what you need in Fedora 17 that isn't in EL6.
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For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>

[Burke Almquist]

If by EL (RHEL, CentOS or SL)
you mean RHEL, then it's just too expensive for me (a one-person operation). If you mean SL (scientific linux), then last I checked it runs a much older version of gcc than I can accept. Fedora always keeps up with the latest and greatest. This is really ironic - a "scientific" OS falls way behind wrt compiler updates. Also, the upgrades are not frequent enough (based on what little I know about it), so even if a newer version becomes available today, I'd have to wait much longer for the next update. Finally, I am by NO means even at the entry level when it comes to OS stuff - I really just want to focus on my work using something I feel very comfortable with by now (because of the regular updates and improvements)

Ahh, so you have something that needs a newer version of GCC. Makes sense. does CentOS 6.3 have it by chance?

BTW, I installed the i386 version of vmlinuz and initrd.img, and the zero client passed that test; moved on to the next stage - it apparently wants more "stuff" from the installation package to get started (but I haven't figured out how I can dump the terminal output to know what exactly is going on at each stage). So, I'm still stuck and the saga continues :)

Sorry I haven't been more help.

[Adrin Gharakhani]

Post by Burke Almquist

If by EL (RHEL, CentOS or SL)
you mean RHEL, then it's just too expensive for me (a one-person operation). If you mean SL (scientific linux), then last I checked it runs a much older version of gcc than I can accept. Fedora always keeps up with the latest and greatest. This is really ironic - a "scientific" OS falls way behind wrt compiler updates. Also, the upgrades are not frequent enough (based on what little I know about it), so even if a newer version becomes available today, I'd have to wait much longer for the next update. Finally, I am by NO means even at the entry level when it comes to OS stuff - I really just want to focus on my work using something I feel very comfortable with by now (because of the regular updates and improvements)

Ahh, so you have something that needs a newer version of GCC. Makes sense. does CentOS 6.3 have it by chance?

Nope, centos is generally worse!!! (older versions of gcc have bugs for what I need, and the newer ones have the much more advanced capabilities that I can utilize)

I'm now tempted to take one of two routes:

(1) say goodbye to LTSP and try DRBL, which apparently has at least an unstable version for F17

(2) just put a full i386 on a USB stick, pxe boot the zero client off this stick, and use NX server/client to connect it to my workstation. I was told earlier (or read somewhere) that LTSP would be faster than NX on a LAN, but in my case "fast" is meaningless :)

If you do get a chance to play with F17 and find out what the problem and the fixes are, I'd truly appreciate it

Post by Burke Almquist

BTW, I installed the i386 version of vmlinuz and initrd.img, and the zero client passed that test; moved on to the next stage - it apparently wants more "stuff" from the installation package to get started (but I haven't figured out how I can dump the terminal output to know what exactly is going on at each stage). So, I'm still stuck and the saga continues :)

Sorry I haven't been more help.
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[Burke Almquist]

Something worth considering, you could always just to plain old remote X sessions from a fully installed client that boots from a USB stick.
Any Linux that can boot the client. LTSP just gives you stuff like sound, local devices, etc. Remote display, KB and mouse is already part of linux.

[Adrin Gharakhani]

Remote X won't work - it is extremely slow for graphics intensive applications (like flow visualization, etc). But I've tried NX recently, and it is surprisingly really fast. I would, however, prefer to use the CPU/GPU resources of the zero client as much as possible to free up the workstation to perform computations, etc. This was one main reason I was looking into LTSP :(

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Something worth considering, you could always just to plain old remote X sessions from a fully installed client that boots from a USB stick.
Any Linux that can boot the client. LTSP just gives you stuff like sound, local devices, etc. Remote display, KB and mouse is already part of linux.
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[Burke Almquist]

So are you have a big workstation with lots of horsepower you want to run this stuff on, you just would like to access it from a remote computer? Then NX might be the best option here.

[Adrin Gharakhani]

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So are you have a big workstation with lots of horsepower you want to run this stuff on, you just would like to access it from a remote computer?

Yes, precisely

Then NX might be the best option here.

Except that I remember from somewhere that LTSP is supposed to be faster than NX on a LAN

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[Burke Almquist]

Post by Adrin Gharakhani

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So are you have a big workstation with lots of horsepower you want to run this stuff on, you just would like to access it from a remote computer?

Yes, precisely

Then NX might be the best option here.

Except that I remember from somewhere that LTSP is supposed to be faster than NX on a LAN

This is probably true. X is actually very responsive over a good LAN connection. 100mbit on the clients and 1gbit on the server should provide plenty of bandwidth. The advantage of NX is on connections that have greater latency and less bandwith (over the internet for example) as opposed to a 100mbit or gigabit speed LAN.

LTSP 4.0 used XDMCP to establish a remote X Session. No security (I mean it's on a switched network, but ARP spoofing would make traffic sniffing possible) and no compression.

LTSP 5.0 has moved to tunneling over SSH. This adds some security, and the use of built in SSH compression, but requires just slightly more horsepower from the client. You CAN specify the use of the SSH tunnel only during the login process in the lts.conf file (this is the default on some distros). This lowers the burden on the client hardware while still protecting the user's password over the wires. All the X traffic itself is unencrypted if you choose this though, so it's not the best for security. Best on a small and closed network.

NX also uses SSH for security but has it's own compression that is much more effective than the built in SSH compression. The work of doing the compression is only worth while if the connection is slow enough or has high enough latency. Otherwise you are just burning CPU cycles for no performance gain, and actually the overhead of the higher compression would introduce more latency that it fixes over a faster connection.

Post by Adrin Gharakhani

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[Radek Bursztynowski]

Adrin,

K12Linux installation instruction
(https://fedorahosted.org/k12linux/wiki/InstallGuide) says:
"Fedora 15+ WILL NOT WORK". I don't know is this Fedora status changed.

I recomend you CentOS 6.3.

Best regards,
Radek
---

Post by Adrin Gharakhani
Hello; I'm new to LTSP and generally a novice to Linux. I installed
all LTSP-related packages using Fedora 17's Add/Remove Software (GUI).
I then followed the instructions on the k12linux site.
1) Everything on the server side installed "properly", except for step
8: there is no ltsp-server-tweaks on my system. I don't know if this
is relevant to my problem or not. Anyway, I'd appreciate a hint as to
where I can download and install ltsp-server-tweaks
2) The client setup step failed because I'm running F17. If there are
instructions I can follow to successfully complete the latter, I'd
really appreciate the link. (I'm using the workstation only as a
server, and I have a fairly powerful diskless thin/zero client, which
I just purchased for remote computing purposes)
3) My system is 64-bit (and so is F17). Is there any reason ltsp
defaults to 32-bit even though there are x86-64 ltsp directories/files
as well? Is there a way to just stick with x86-64?
4) The main reason for this thread, which I assume/hope is independent
of the above three "issues", is the fact that trying to PXE boot via
the Virtual Machine fails (so does PXE booting from the diskless
client, of course) with the message "No DEFAULT or UI configuration
directives found!". The following are the last few lines before the
error message, and googling the latter didn't turn up anything useful
(text in brackets are my comments)
[IP address is assigned]
BOOTIF= [hexadecimal numbers]
SYSUUID= [hexadecimal numbers]
TFTP prefix: /ltsp/i386/
Trying to load: pxelinux.cfg/default ok
No DEFAULT or UI configuration directives found!
boot: [blank space]
The following is the content of the "default" file
prompt 0
label linux
kernel vmlinuz.ltsp
append rw initrd=initrd.ltsp selinux=0 root=dhcp quiet rhgb
The following are the relevant ifcfg files
UUID="36f1f167-eeef-45ad-9a03-9a1567b985a7"
NM_CONTROLLED="no"
BOOTPROTO=none
DEVICE="p1p1"
ONBOOT="yes"
TYPE=Ethernet
DEFROUTE="yes"
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6INIT=no
NAME="System p1p1"
HWADDR=10:BF:48:07:6F:6C
BRIDGE=ltspbr0
USERCTL=yes
# Sample Configuration for Initscript Driven Bridge
# Put this into /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ltspbr0
#
# Warning: Deleting ifcfg-ltspbr0 alone to disable ltspbr0 will cause you
# problems, because it will come back the next time you upgrade the
# ltsp-server package.
#
# Comment out these two lines to disable ltspbr0.
ONBOOT=yes
IPADDR=172.31.100.254
DEVICE=ltspbr0
TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=static
STP=off
DELAY=0.1
USERCTL=no
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ARP=yes
Thank you very much, in advance, for helping me get started
adrin
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[Adrin Gharakhani]

Radek,

Thanks for the note. Yes, I saw that note as well, but I also remember reading somewhere that LTSP works on fedora 17 (or there is hope for it). Plus, LTSP is in the fedora 17 repository, so I would have expected it should work. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons I cannot use CentOS.

If you provide the centos version of ltsp-server-tweaks and can send me the directory where vmlinuz.ltsp resides (is it a link to something else?) that might be a good start.

I hope I can get this thing working soon!

Thanks

adrin

Post by Radek Bursztynowski
Adrin,
K12Linux installation instruction
"Fedora 15+ WILL NOT WORK". I don't know is this Fedora status changed.
I recomend you CentOS 6.3.
Best regards,
Radek
---

Post by Adrin Gharakhani
Hello; I'm new to LTSP and generally a novice to Linux. I installed
all LTSP-related packages using Fedora 17's Add/Remove Software (GUI).
I then followed the instructions on the k12linux site.
1) Everything on the server side installed "properly", except for step
8: there is no ltsp-server-tweaks on my system. I don't know if this
is relevant to my problem or not. Anyway, I'd appreciate a hint as to
where I can download and install ltsp-server-tweaks
2) The client setup step failed because I'm running F17. If there are
instructions I can follow to successfully complete the latter, I'd
really appreciate the link. (I'm using the workstation only as a
server, and I have a fairly powerful diskless thin/zero client, which
I just purchased for remote computing purposes)
3) My system is 64-bit (and so is F17). Is there any reason ltsp
defaults to 32-bit even though there are x86-64 ltsp directories/files
as well? Is there a way to just stick with x86-64?
4) The main reason for this thread, which I assume/hope is independent
of the above three "issues", is the fact that trying to PXE boot via
the Virtual Machine fails (so does PXE booting from the diskless
client, of course) with the message "No DEFAULT or UI configuration
directives found!". The following are the last few lines before the
error message, and googling the latter didn't turn up anything useful
(text in brackets are my comments)
[IP address is assigned]
BOOTIF= [hexadecimal numbers]
SYSUUID= [hexadecimal numbers]
TFTP prefix: /ltsp/i386/
Trying to load: pxelinux.cfg/default ok
No DEFAULT or UI configuration directives found!
boot: [blank space]
The following is the content of the "default" file
prompt 0
label linux
kernel vmlinuz.ltsp
append rw initrd=initrd.ltsp selinux=0 root=dhcp quiet rhgb
The following are the relevant ifcfg files
UUID="36f1f167-eeef-45ad-9a03-9a1567b985a7"
NM_CONTROLLED="no"
BOOTPROTO=none
DEVICE="p1p1"
ONBOOT="yes"
TYPE=Ethernet
DEFROUTE="yes"
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6INIT=no
NAME="System p1p1"
HWADDR=10:BF:48:07:6F:6C
BRIDGE=ltspbr0
USERCTL=yes
# Sample Configuration for Initscript Driven Bridge
# Put this into /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ltspbr0
#
# Warning: Deleting ifcfg-ltspbr0 alone to disable ltspbr0 will cause you
# problems, because it will come back the next time you upgrade the
# ltsp-server package.
#
# Comment out these two lines to disable ltspbr0.
ONBOOT=yes
IPADDR=172.31.100.254
DEVICE=ltspbr0
TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=static
STP=off
DELAY=0.1
USERCTL=no
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ARP=yes
Thank you very much, in advance, for helping me get started
adrin
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For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>

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[Radek Bursztynowski]

Adrin,

You can find in attachement CentOS ltsp-server-tweaks. This file
resides /usr/sbin directory.

vmlinuz.lts is a symlink to vmlinuz-2.6.32-131.6.1.el6.i686.thinclient,
and both reside /var/lib/tftpboot/ltsp/i386 directory.

If you will force Fedora 17 to work with LTSP - please send me these new
with the truck to success.

Best regards,
Radek

Post by Adrin Gharakhani
Radek,
Thanks for the note. Yes, I saw that note as well, but I also remember reading somewhere that LTSP works on fedora 17 (or there is hope for it). Plus, LTSP is in the fedora 17 repository, so I would have expected it should work. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons I cannot use CentOS.
If you provide the centos version of ltsp-server-tweaks and can send me the directory where vmlinuz.ltsp resides (is it a link to something else?) that might be a good start.
I hope I can get this thing working soon!
Thanks
adrin

Post by Radek Bursztynowski
Adrin,
K12Linux installation instruction
"Fedora 15+ WILL NOT WORK". I don't know is this Fedora status changed.
I recomend you CentOS 6.3.
Best regards,
Radek
---

Post by Adrin Gharakhani
Hello; I'm new to LTSP and generally a novice to Linux. I installed
all LTSP-related packages using Fedora 17's Add/Remove Software (GUI).
I then followed the instructions on the k12linux site.
1) Everything on the server side installed "properly", except for step
8: there is no ltsp-server-tweaks on my system. I don't know if this
is relevant to my problem or not. Anyway, I'd appreciate a hint as to
where I can download and install ltsp-server-tweaks
2) The client setup step failed because I'm running F17. If there are
instructions I can follow to successfully complete the latter, I'd
really appreciate the link. (I'm using the workstation only as a
server, and I have a fairly powerful diskless thin/zero client, which
I just purchased for remote computing purposes)
3) My system is 64-bit (and so is F17). Is there any reason ltsp
defaults to 32-bit even though there are x86-64 ltsp directories/files
as well? Is there a way to just stick with x86-64?
4) The main reason for this thread, which I assume/hope is independent
of the above three "issues", is the fact that trying to PXE boot via
the Virtual Machine fails (so does PXE booting from the diskless
client, of course) with the message "No DEFAULT or UI configuration
directives found!". The following are the last few lines before the
error message, and googling the latter didn't turn up anything useful
(text in brackets are my comments)
[IP address is assigned]
BOOTIF= [hexadecimal numbers]
SYSUUID= [hexadecimal numbers]
TFTP prefix: /ltsp/i386/
Trying to load: pxelinux.cfg/default ok
No DEFAULT or UI configuration directives found!
boot: [blank space]
The following is the content of the "default" file
prompt 0
label linux
kernel vmlinuz.ltsp
append rw initrd=initrd.ltsp selinux=0 root=dhcp quiet rhgb
The following are the relevant ifcfg files
UUID="36f1f167-eeef-45ad-9a03-9a1567b985a7"
NM_CONTROLLED="no"
BOOTPROTO=none
DEVICE="p1p1"
ONBOOT="yes"
TYPE=Ethernet
DEFROUTE="yes"
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6INIT=no
NAME="System p1p1"
HWADDR=10:BF:48:07:6F:6C
BRIDGE=ltspbr0
USERCTL=yes
# Sample Configuration for Initscript Driven Bridge
# Put this into /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ltspbr0
#
# Warning: Deleting ifcfg-ltspbr0 alone to disable ltspbr0 will cause you
# problems, because it will come back the next time you upgrade the
# ltsp-server package.
#
# Comment out these two lines to disable ltspbr0.
ONBOOT=yes
IPADDR=172.31.100.254
DEVICE=ltspbr0
TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=static
STP=off
DELAY=0.1
USERCTL=no
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ARP=yes
Thank you very much, in advance, for helping me get started
adrin
_______________________________________________
K12OSN mailing list
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>

_______________________________________________
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