Caution: There are some packages which are not fully updated on RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 and by extension on CentOS 5. Be sure to read EL5 Security Policy for the final 3 years and the About/Product page before continue.

Diskless Clients Using K12LTSP

K12LTSP is a GNU/Linux distribution based on CentOS 5 and LTSP 5.0.0EL-0.2. It is specially conceived for networks of diskless clients. It is a viable solution for schools and organizations with low resources that want to provide information services using diskless computers and centralized administration. This page describes how you can set up a diskless client environment using K12LTSP in your organization. This page also summarizes some of the issues you might face in the configuration process and points online references that have been useful for a successful implementation.

Why EL5? -- Because when installed with EL6, the thin clients didn't boot up. Instead, they reported an error message saying processor not supported when they were turned on.

<<TableOfContents: execution failed [Too many arguments] (see also the log)>>

1. Download

The K12LTSP distribution is available for downloading in ISO format from the following locations:

2. Install

The installation process is as usual. Once you've downloaded the iso, burn it in a DVD and boot up the computer with it. This will bring the installation interface which is rather straight forward and guides you through all the installation process.

3. Update

Once you've installed the distribution, it is very important that you update it to the last CentOS version available running the following command:

yum update

4. Configure

Most configuration needs are satisfied by running the following command (as root user):

ltspadmin

This command takes care of creating configuration files with default settings in them and starting related daemons for you. Once you've done with this command, you probably want to look at the files it created in order to customize them.

Relevant configuration files include the following:

/etc/hosts
/etc/exports
/opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf
/opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf.readme
/etc/dhcpd.conf
/etc/dhcpd-k12ltsp.conf
/etc/dhcpd.conf.sample
/etc/sysconfig/dhcpd
/etc/sysconfig/dhcpd.ltsp

5. Test

Once you've configured the system, reboot the server computer, and turn on your thin clients. They should boot up without any trouble and you should be able to do login on them.

6. Issues

Local devices, USB sticks particularly, doesn't work as expected on thin clients. See How to enable USB devices in K12LTSP

This is a read-only archived version of wiki.centos.org