Anyone tried LTSP to salvage an old Pentium?

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morglum
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Anyone tried LTSP to salvage an old Pentium?

Post by morglum » Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:24 am


Gojira-X
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Post by Gojira-X » Sun Dec 14, 2008 12:49 pm

To be honest, the guy could have also installed windows XP on the pentium 133 so long as he had enough ram or patience. I have seen Windows XP installed on a Pentium 133 with 96mb of ram before.

I suppose running Windows XP using LTSP will mean better performance as the faster C2D is doing all the heavy processing and the pentium is basically a dumb terminal.

bonestonne
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Post by bonestonne » Sun Dec 14, 2008 1:56 pm

with all the effort of that, you might as well sit down at the Core 2 Duo.

all he did was prove that it could work, with the aid of a newer computer.

P1 is dead. P2 is dead unless it's a Xeon and it's run in at least pairs, P3 can run linux well, P4 is the "older" standard.

if you need to use a host machine to run the OS, you aren't running it on a P1.

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Sun Dec 14, 2008 2:05 pm

bonestonne wrote:if you need to use a host machine to run the OS, you aren't running it on a P1.
Yes. He might've well just used a KVM and have the virtual machine be displayed at the other monitor.


Now that would have been the green way of doing it (because the P1 is using power).

morglum
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Post by morglum » Sun Dec 14, 2008 7:55 pm

Everyone:

He used 1 server for 1 client, but he could have used it for 10 clients...
Like this person did for a medical office in brazil.

Computers use energy in their life, but they also require *a lot* for when being manufactured.

If you can run 10 old pentium 1 computer and achieve exactly the same as if you had bought 10 new ones, which is possible if all you do is browsing/office, then you saved a lot of energy and ressources

+ your thin clients dont even hard HDD (save more energy)

good for schools, libraries, (work?)..

The Gangrel
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Post by The Gangrel » Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:11 am

bonestonne wrote:with all the effort of that, you might as well sit down at the Core 2 Duo.

all he did was prove that it could work, with the aid of a newer computer.

P1 is dead. P2 is dead unless it's a Xeon and it's run in at least pairs, P3 can run linux well, P4 is the "older" standard.

if you need to use a host machine to run the OS, you aren't running it on a P1.
Thinking like this is very sad.

Firstly, 2 or 15 users can't just sit down at the C2D, the point is expandability.

Taking easy to find, cheap, previously manufactured equipment and making it usable again, not to mention centralizing maintainence and reducing wasted CPU cycles on the C2D should be applauded rather than derided.

angelkiller
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Post by angelkiller » Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:45 am

The Gangrel wrote:Firstly, 2 or 15 users can't just sit down at the C2D, the point is expandability.
I think that if you actually expand on this idea and actually use multiple low end computers, this would make sense. But I agree that with only one client, it doesn't make sense. It's an interesting proof of concept though.

The Gangrel
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Post by The Gangrel » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:05 am

angelkiller wrote:But I agree that with only one client, it doesn't make sense
Of course it makes sense.

If you have another person in the house who wants a computer of their own, whose usage won't be particularly demanding and you have a P1 laying about, it saves the cost of another computer and lets you recycle a previously unused PC.

Of course more clients=more sense, but one client still makes sense.

angelkiller
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Post by angelkiller » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:13 am

The Gangrel wrote:Of course it makes sense.

If you have another person in the house who wants a computer of their own....
Good point. One client would make sense in this situation. I kinda assumed that he did this so he could make use of the P1. Bad assumption.

teststrips
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Post by teststrips » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:24 am

edit - first post can't include links
Last edited by teststrips on Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

teststrips
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Post by teststrips » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:24 am

This time with links included

so basically he's turned his old machine into a terminal.

there are plenty of other options to turn your old machine into a terminal....
http://www.thinstation.org/
http://diet-pc.sourceforge.net/
http://www.rdesktop.org/

You don't even have to have a linux host - most of the above support RDP... and if you want your standard, Windows XP machine to support more than one session at a time there are plenty of hacks to allow this such as http://www.golod.com/2005/10/enabling-m ... tion-2005/

morglum
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Post by morglum » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:31 am

teststrips wrote:This time with links included

so basically he's turned his old machine into a terminal.

there are plenty of other options to turn your old machine into a terminal....
http://www.thinstation.org/
http://diet-pc.sourceforge.net/
http://www.rdesktop.org/

You don't even have to have a linux host - most of the above support RDP... and if you want your standard, Windows XP machine to support more than one session at a time there are plenty of hacks to allow this such as http://www.golod.com/2005/10/enabling-m ... tion-2005/
Interesting stuff.

I believe that the person I linked to uses rdesktop, I'ld need to re-read it.

There are many terminals around. The person I linked to is interesting because it's a windows terminal, so your users dont need to learn linux..

teststrips
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Post by teststrips » Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:37 pm

I just read the actual article (only skimmed before) - he's basically using linux as a host to run virtualbox which is then RDPed into. If you are using XP as a host, all you need to do is the above mentioned hack, and create sepearate users for each person who wants to connect (or different users for each station and auto-login)

I ran an old p2 that I had for a long time as a terminal to my XP machine. This was otherwise known as my wife's PC.

I've since bought two actual terminal devices similar to this one... you'll easily be able to pick up a completely silent terminal box for under $20 shipped if you watch for auctions... monitor/mouse/and keyboard become the most expensive parts. http://cgi.ebay.com/WYSE-WINTERM-MICROS ... 0106600051

Some of these terminal devices even support touch panels - I don't know the model, but my brother has one that he mounted inside of a wall as part of a home automation system for controlling lights, celing fans, the thermostat, etc.

morglum
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Post by morglum » Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:15 pm

teststrips wrote:I just read the actual article (only skimmed before) - he's basically using linux as a host to run virtualbox which is then RDPed into. If you are using XP as a host, all you need to do is the above mentioned hack, and create sepearate users for each person who wants to connect (or different users for each station and auto-login)

I ran an old p2 that I had for a long time as a terminal to my XP machine. This was otherwise known as my wife's PC.

I've since bought two actual terminal devices similar to this one... you'll easily be able to pick up a completely silent terminal box for under $20 shipped if you watch for auctions... monitor/mouse/and keyboard become the most expensive parts. http://cgi.ebay.com/WYSE-WINTERM-MICROS ... 0106600051

Some of these terminal devices even support touch panels - I don't know the model, but my brother has one that he mounted inside of a wall as part of a home automation system for controlling lights, celing fans, the thermostat, etc.
edit:
teststrips -- this is getting more interesting by the minute.



never mind the questions; ive done my homework.

just ordered a wyse to test thinstation. awesome stuff.

teststrips
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Post by teststrips » Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:02 am

hey - if you have a kill-a-watt (or other power meter) - measure it for me... Often wondered how much power these use... I'm assuming something low like 20 watts or less, but it would be neat to know for sure (without having to buy a $20 power meter)

morglum
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Post by morglum » Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:34 am

teststrips wrote:hey - if you have a kill-a-watt (or other power meter) - measure it for me... Often wondered how much power these use... I'm assuming something low like 20 watts or less, but it would be neat to know for sure (without having to buy a $20 power meter)
Will do, I can get them for free at the library.

Just to make sure, I *can* run Thinstation on a Wyse Winterm 1200Le,right?
And the whole point of thinstation on wyse is that it will be faster than Wise's embedded OS when connecting to my hacked windows xp?

Thanks
S.

teststrips
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Post by teststrips » Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:35 am

I'm not sure if that particular model is X86 based or not.. not finding much in the specs, however you shouldn't HAVE to load any special firmware on it - it supports RDP out of the box - you'll likely be able to put in your XP machine's Host name or IP address in as a "terminal server". My model allows me to save a default username and password to connect with. My units basically auto-connect and auto-login when turned on with the Wyse firmware.

Limitations for these types of boxes wind up being display resolution (though 1280x1024 is pretty good) and most units won't allow you to plug in things like USB drives to transfer files, etc... (you have to actually put the USB drive in the HOST machine, not the client)

teststrips
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Post by teststrips » Thu Jan 15, 2009 6:40 am

was curious how things went with your thinstation

psiu
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Post by psiu » Thu Jan 15, 2009 2:02 pm

bonestonne wrote:P1 is dead. P2 is dead unless it's a Xeon and it's run in at least pairs, P3 can run linux well, P4 is the "older" standard.
P3 can run Windows XP perfectly fine. P2 will be noticeably slower but a P3 or early Athlon can cruise right along. Especially with a newer hard hard drive and plenty of memory.

morglum
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Post by morglum » Thu Jan 15, 2009 2:19 pm

teststrips wrote:was curious how things went with your thinstation
haha - dont mention it
i didnt get a pwoer supply with the wyse winterm.. :/

A friend of mine should give me an old 1999 computer anytime soon. She doesnt even know what it is.. My guess is p3 / celeron.. we'll see.

xan_user
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Post by xan_user » Thu Jan 15, 2009 4:55 pm

I skipped the ubuntu ltsp visualization step and just use xp pro with multiple concurrent rdp hack.
Then used a puppy cd image from the fallowing site to install thin clients on some p2's.
Setting up a Windows/Linux Hybrid "Thin" Client
Works great! thin clients boot right to rdp logon screen.

morglum
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Post by morglum » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:41 am

xan_user wrote:I skipped the ubuntu ltsp visualization step and just use xp pro with multiple concurrent rdp hack.
I'm about to do just that too, sounds easier for the windows part. The thing is , if I ever want to deploy this on a larger, (and legal scale), I'll probably need to built a edubuntu server on the side. I'll cross he bridge when I get there.
xan_user wrote: Then used a puppy cd image from the fallowing site to install thin clients on some p2's.
Setting up a Windows/Linux Hybrid "Thin" Client
Works great! thin clients boot right to rdp logon screen.
Thinstation (linux) does pretty much that too. Have you tried both, care to compare them for me/us? :)

I've installed thinstation on an older athlon with a k7s5a motherboard (not that thin actually) just to test it. It goes straight to the linux desktop, where I can choose whatkind of server I want to connect to.

I didnt work hard on it, but I couldnt get the sound to work on the client station.

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