The Linux Terminal Server Project: Thin Clients and Linux

Linux makes a great platform for deploying diskless workstations that boot from a network server. The LTSP is an open source project to create the administration tools that will make setting up a diskless workstation easier. This document provides a description of how a diskless workstation works, describes how to obtain the ltsp distribution and how to install the LTSP.

This project was born out of the need to solve a problem for a customer who needed a terminal that could communicate with both an IBM AS/400 and a Unix application server. It needed to run TCP/IP, it needed to be inexpensive, and it needed to be easy to maintain. As a plus, it should allow the user to browse the web, and allow them to read and send email. We could have used PC's running windows, the software is certainly available, but the cost would have been high. Both in terms of the initial investment, and in supporting and maintaining the PC's over time. We decided that a diskless workstation running the Linux kernel and X-Windows would fit nicely as a solution to the customer problem. We didn't really invent anything new here, we searched the web and found the etherboot and netboot packages. Then we found an inexpensive ne2000 network interface card that had an eprom socket. We searched and found an affordable eprom burner, figured out what kind of eprom chips to buy, learned about bootp, xdm, nfs-root and all kinds of other things. Then, we put it all together. Initially we tried it on an old 486 PC we had lying around and it worked pretty well. So, we installed a server and 11 workstations. The customer loved it. They ordered an additional 22 workstations, and they will probably add many more in the future. ( 16 June 2000 Update: They now have over 100 workstations) After several months, and virtually no support problems with the workstations, we have decided to share our solution with the rest of the world. The package we developed works very well for our uses. Hopefully, it will solve problems for others as well.