My Experiences installing LTSP

By Niklaus
June 2, 2003

1)Download the packages from ltsp. I downloaded the TGZ. Download the
latest kernel.Install it on the server. The machine is Server-A.

2)Now make sure you have dhcp-server and tftp server on your Server-A.Go
to /opt/ltsp/install_scripts/CONFIG and change the settings as appropriate
to your network.Now run ltsp_initialize.

3)Then copy /etc/dhcpd.conf.example to /etc/dhcpd.conf and check whether
everything is correct.

4)Check for /etc/exports. Try adding a sync option beside squash .After
adding sync it looks like (ro,no_root_squash,sync).

5)See that your client is properly listed in /etc/hosts.

6)Get the etherboot image from rom-o-matic for your client .I downloaded
it from rom-o-matic.

7)Do dhcpd restart,xinetd restart .The tftp server should be running. You
can verify this by netstat -anp | grep ":69 " and dhcp server by netstat
-anp | grep ":67 " for dhcp. If dhcp is not working try restarting it . If
tftp is not working then you have to enable tftp in /etc/xinetd.d/tftp
.See the flags for disable.It should be disable = no. Restart xinetd.

If both the servers are running.

8)If you are very sure then leave the runlevel as 5 in your
/opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf .Better change the Default RUNLEVEL to 3 and
also the ws001 to 3.We are configuring now only for ws001.

9)Under [ws001] under XSERVER add X_MODE_0 appropriately. My conf was
XSERVER = auto X_MODE_0 = 800x600 40 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628
+hsync +vsync

10)Now see on the server if display managers are running by netstat -anp |
grep ":177 " . I am running gdm. That should do.


11)Go to the client and reboot . Boot with etherboot image.

12)You should get a bash prompt. Type start /tmp/start_ws at the bash
prompt.

You should have the Display manager working fine.

Problems that i had.

First i setup up the netmask as 255.255.255.0 instead of 255.255.255.192
and then then the etherboot got stuck and didn't download the kernel it
said loading /lts/vmlinuz-2.4.19-ltsp .... and then stood there
forever.When the tcpdump was seen it was not able to download the file .It
was asking for the 1st block of file and after some attempts it quit.


Then after changing the netmask it downloaded the kernel in 3 secs on
10Mbps lan.After that i had panic.It was due to nfs. I had rerun the
install script so i add error .Check for /etc/exports reviewed that it had
/opt/ltsp/i386 and i didnt have /opt/ltsp/i386 instead i had
/opt/ltsp/i386.1 i renamed it as i could see home etc bin tmp var in
/opt/ltsp/i386.1. Then i fixed the client name in /etc/hosts. There was a
typo.

It booted. Now i had initially left the runlevel at 5.So it booted and X
didn't have the resolution X shut the monitor. So i changed the runlevel
to 3 and added the X_MODE_0 and the restart the client.

Now i got a bash prompt on the client.I did sh /tmp/start_ws i got X
server and mouse cursor but grey screen. I didn't have display manager
running on my server. I started gdm with gdm-config and gdm-restart.
WARNING!!gdm-restart killed all x windows and other X apps. netstat -anp |
grep ":177 " showed me gdm was running . I rebooted the client it was
fun.It worked. That was end of story.

Some commands like w don't work on bash prompt but in X it is better than
working on the server.