Linux Terminal Server Project Tested by : C.V. UDAYASANKAR mail id: udayasankar.0606@gmail.com The Linux Terminal Server Project adds thin client support to Linux servers. It allows you to set up a diskless workstation environment with not much effort. LTSP is a flexible, cost effective solution that is empowering schools, businesses, and organizations all over the world to easily install and deploy thin clients. Requirements: Ubuntu Linux 11.04/11.10/12.04 /13.04 machine with two or one network adaptors to act as your main LTSP server. Network switch / hub Router with internet connection Thin client computer. Change your available network adaptor IP to a fixed entry. Most local network already use the 192.168.0.xx range of IP addresses, but the default install of LTSP relies on this range being available. In this tutorial we will set up the LTSP network on the 192.168.1.xx range. You also need a separate network adaptor with internet access during the install process. The LTSP server install wants to install it's own DHCP server, so if you have a router with it's own DHCP server it could cause conflicts if in the same network IP range. So what to do is change your unused LAN port's IP address to a fixed IP in another IP range. For example my setup has a router with a DHCP server running on 192.168.0.1, and provides the Internet access on the system. I changed my other LAN adaptor's IP to 192.168.1.1, this will be used for the LTSP network. NOTE: For some reason the DHCP server does not want to start correctly on system startup if the network adaptor's IP is not set in the network interfaces config file. (see 1d. below)
1a. Go to Network Connections and select the LAN network adaptor you intend to use for your thin client network and click edit.
1b. Change your adaptor to use Manual IP and set a new fixed IP for the adaptor and save. This will be your LTSP server IP.
1c. Set the fixed IP for the network adaptor the classic way to ensure the DHCP server starts correctly. Add the information for your network adaptor that you selected in 1c. as shown below. We added eth0 with a static IP of 192.168.1.111 sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8) auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 192.168.1.111 netmask 255.255.255.0 network 192.168.1.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255 gateway 192.168.1.1 dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1 dns-search
1d. Change the Network Manager config file to allow control of your network adaptor with fixed IP. For some mysterious reason if you enter the IP manually in the interfaces file, Network Manager ignores them and you cannot use the Network Manager to control the adaptor any more. So we have to enable it. Change the "managed=false" to "managed=true" as seen below. sudo gedit /etc/networkmanager/networkmanager.conf
2. Install the LTSP server. sudo apt-get install ltsp-server-standalone openssh-server
3. Edit the DHCP configuration for your LTSP server to match your chosen IP range. In this case 192.168.0.xx changes to 192.168.1.xx. sudo gedit /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf
4. Select the network interface/s for the DHCP server Add the network devices you would like the DHCP server to run on. In this case we changed the value of INTERFACES to include eth0 sudo gedit /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server 5. Restart the DHCP server sudo /etc/init.d/isc-dhcp-server restart 6 Build the i386 (32bit) LTSP Thin/Client This step builds the 32bit Thin Client Ubuntu 11.04 image needed to boot the thin clients on the network. This step downloads and installs all the 32bit Ubuntu client elements. Could take a while. sudo ltsp-build-client --arch i386
7 Reboot your new LTSP server to complete LTSP server install At this point your Ubuntu LTSP server should be up and running. You should be able to boot a Thin Client via the network. After reboot make sure that the DHCP is running correctly. Open a Terminal Window and enter: sudo /etc/init.d/isc-dhcp-server status Tip: If after this point you change your IP address on the LTSP server you need to enter the following : sudo ltsp-update-sshkeys sudo ltsp-update-image --arch i386 8. Set up Thin Client Admin user Replace the adminname with your admin user name. sudo -s -H chroot /opt/ltsp/i386 useradd -m adminname -G sudo passwd adminname exit exit Lock the admin account's password sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386 passwd -l adminname Update the client image sudo ltsp-update-image --arch i386 9. Set up a Thin Client User Account 9a. Open Users and Groups Make sure you have gnome system tools installed as this has been removed in Ubuntu 12.04. sudo apt-get install gnome-system-tools
In Ubuntu 12.04 search for Users and Groups under applications after installation. 9b. Click Add to add new user account
9c. Add new username details 9d. Add new user password
9e. Change User Advanced Settings -> User Privileges
10. Boot your Thin Client from the Ubuntu LTSP server Connect your Thin Client computer or Virtual Machine to your LTSP network Switch/Hub. Alter the Thin Client Machine BIOS Boot settings to boot from LAN / Network. Boot the machine. If all is set up correctly you should see the following Ubuntu LDM login screen on your Thin Client. You will be able to login with your newly created Thin Client username and password.