Hi Olav,

I've found TFTPD32 to be the best free tftp server out there.  Very flexible and it can run alongside your existing dhcp server or you can run dhcp services off of it directly.
http://tftpd32.jounin.net/tftpd32.html

Edwin A. Silva
Network Administrator
Redeemer University College
Tel: (905) 648-2139 ext. 4460
777 Garner Road East Ancaster, ON L9K 1J4
http://www.redeemer.ca/IT/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Olav Lavell" <olavell-qWit8jRvyhVmR6Xm/wNWPw@public.gmane.org>
To: thinstation-general-5NWGOfrQmneRv+LV9MX5uipxlwaOVQ5f@public.gmane.org
Sent: Wednesday, December 2, 2009 10:42:40 AM
Subject: Re: [Thinstation-general] New Thinstation user

Op dinsdag 01-12-2009 om 15:41 uur [tijdzone +0100], schreef Mike
Eriksen:
> 2009/12/1 Olav Lavell <olavell-qWit8jRvyhVmR6Xm/wNWPw@public.gmane.org>:
> > Hi everyone, I am new to Thinstation (2.2.2) since yesterday and I am
> > really just experimenting at this point. My goal however is to convert
> > 15 Windows XP computers to thin clients in about two weeks. Users will
> > use rdesktop to connect to a Windows 2008 server.
> >
> > I was pleasantly surprised to find such an active mailing list with this
> > project. And I will probably have more (and more specific) questions
> > later, but right now these are some of the things that are on my mind:
> >
> > 1. Installation choices. I will have to decide on the general
> > infrastructure. I understand that loading the Thinstation OS from TFTP
> > will provide the greatest flexibility and manageability, and installing
> > on the clients' HDs will give faster boot times and a less complicated
> > setup. I am leaning toward the centralised solution. Has this already
> > been done (and documented) with Windows 2008 as the server? I am unsure
> > at this point whether all the client PCs support PXE booting (I never
> > checked), so how about starting the boot process from HD and *then*
> > loading the OS from the server?
>
> If you want to use the HD you might as boot the entire OS from it. You
> can still benefit from centralized management by pulling the cinfig
> file(s) off the tftp server. This is a very fast and flexible combo.

Thank you for your reply - again

After some testing, I think I have decided more or less to go the
network way entirely. I am now aiming for zero management on the clients
themselves. I have found the SolarWinds TFTP server programme which is
ugly in my opinion, but simple enough and it seems to work on Win2K8.
Perhaps I will replace it later if I find something better. I am
currently learning how Thinstation finds the configuration files.

I still need to check if all the current workstations support PXE boot.
But it would be strange if they didn't.

> > 2. Install audio drivers and redirect audio in rdesktop, or not? I have
> > already seen that it does work (connecting to a Windows 2003 server) but
> > I am contemplating (doubting) the wisdom of this. I don't have real
> > experience with pure thin client environments and I worry that
> > redirecting audio from the server to the clients (and everyone starting
> > their favourite radio stream or playing MP3s as if they were still on
> > their fat clients) may become too much for the server and/or the
> > network. Any insights? There will probably be a few users moaning if I
> > decide against it...
>
> I think you a right to be worried. Redirected sound hasn't any great
> sucess to me. It works, sort of, but is veru fragile IMHO.

I didn't need much encouragement, but that was it. So audio is out. Let
the moaning begin...

> > 3. So far I am just playing, trying out configurations by building
> > Thinstation on my Ubuntu desktop, burning to CDRW, booting an old laptop
> > with it. This works well now. I found I had to reconfigure Ubuntu so
> > that /bin/sh symlinks to /bin/bash instead of /bin/dash and I am
> > building with "LANG=C ./build" to prevent some warnings from appearing
> > during the process (this is a Dutch localised Ubuntu). Perhaps the
> > scripts could be adapted to make these changes unnecessary?
>
> For testing I can recommend to install virtualbox on your Ubuntu. You
> then run thinstation.iso directly in a window. Makes a much faster
> test cycle.

Testing on the laptop was yesterday. My thinking then was that it would
perhaps be good to try it on physical hardware first, just to get a feel
for it. After reading your message I moved testing to VirtualBox which I
already had installed for other reasons. I now have a "lab" with a
virtual Windows 2008 server and two virtual Thinstations, that I intend
to configure differently. Looking good so far.

I am not sure if anyone would be interested in my notes when I finish my
learning adventure. At the moment I have nothing that is presentable.

> > 4. Transparent use of USB memory sticks in rdesktop sessions. I see many
> > references to this on the mailing list and elsewhere and as far as I can
> > see, several different methods and configuration tweaks are being used.
> > I will definitely need this to be working as well as possible. What is
> > currently the best agreed upon method to provide this functionality in
> > Thinstation 2.2.2? Is there a document?
>
> There is no docs as it is fairly straight forward to setup/use. There
> have been a few bug over time, but let's solve that wheb/if they
> appear.

It works now with modules usb-storage and supermount and package
samba-server in build.conf, and with '-r disk:usb=/mnt/usbdevice' in
SESSION_0_RDESKTOP_OPTIONS in thinstation.conf. So, no further
configuration of Samba is necessary, is that right? If so: cool.

Thanks again, that's it so far.


--
Olav Lavell <olavell <at> xs4all.nl>



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