Iopener as a Thin Client!

Yes, the Iopener* from NetPliance can be used as a Thin Client computer in a Linux/Unix environment.

Using software from the Linux Terminal Server Project (www.LTSP.org), you can turn the Iopener into a diskless thin client computer.
The Iopener includes a 10" flat panel display, a 200Mhz WinChip (x86 compatible), 32MB of RAM, a 16MB Flash disk, a Parallel port, 56K modem and a USB port. All for only $99. From the factory, the unit is loaded with QNX, and configured to dial into the internet.
The Flash ram can be loaded with a Linux kernel and configured to boot up and mount it's root filesystem from Linux/Unix server running LTSP.

Quick overview:

You will need to configure a server to run LTSP. The LTSP downloads are available to load on a Linux** system.
Complete instructions for setting up the LTSP server can be found here .

Load the Linux kernel into the flash ram of the Iopener. Unfortunately, it's not exactly easy. And, you can wreck the Iopener in the process, if you're not careful. The linux kernel MUST support USB ethernet adapters, therefore, you will need to use one of the 2.3 kernels. We have included 2.3.99-pre3, because it worked for us. See below for more detailed instructions.

Loading the Linux kernel on the Iopener.

First of all, we owe a huge thank you to Ken Segler for providing the original information about loading Linux on an Iopener.
There are a couple of things you will need.

Iopener computer. You can buy them from Circuit City, or online at www.iopener.net.

Laptop hard drive. Try www.AffordableComputers.Com You only need the laptop to get the Linux kernel into flash. After that, you can remove the drive.

Special Iopener IDE cable. Ken Segler has them for sale on his site. He sells a complete kit, but you only need the cable.

2.5" to 3.5" harddrive IDE adapter, used to connect the laptop harddrive to a desktop computer, for loading linux on the drive. This is also available from Affordable Computers above.

USB Ethernet adapter. We are using the Linksys USB100TX adapter.

Iopener/Linux flash image. You can download this from the LTSP website. It's on the download page.

Instructions:
Load Linux on the laptop harddrive. You will need the 2.5" to 3.5" adapter to put the drive on a desktop machine. Once connected, load your favorite distribution of Linux on the drive. Do NOT setup X-Windows to run automatically. Make sure you put the iopener/Linux flash image on the drive.

Connect the laptop drive to the Iopener, using the special cable.

Boot up the Iopener. It should boot just fine from the hard drive.
Use fdisk to create the partition on the flash disk.
fdisk /dev/hdb
Delete the existing partitions, and create a new Linux native partition.
Create the ext2 filesystem.
mke2fs /dev/hdb1
Mount the flash disk filesystem.
mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt
Load the image onto the flash filesystem.
cd /mnt
gunzip < /tmp/iopener-1.0.img.cpio.gz | cpio -ivmud
This will load the kernel, some device nodes, and a lilo config file.
Run lilo, to setup the flash disk to be bootable.
lilo -r /mnt
Make sure you include the '-r' flag. This tells lilo to do a chroot to the flash filesystem before continuing.
Shutdown the Iopener, unhook the drive, and hook up the USB Ethernet adapter.

Configure the LTSP server for the Iopener.

Modify the /tftpboot/lts/ltsroot/etc/rc.local script to build the XF86Config file for only 800x600 resolution. (Future versions of LTSP will have configuration options to handle that)

Configure bootp or DHCP on the server to know about the MAC address of the USB Ethernet adapter.

Boot the iopener. It should boot up from the server, giving you an X session.

If you have any problems, you should join the LTSP discussion list and ask questions. The list is available at www.ltsp.org/maillinglists.html .

*	Iopener is a trademark of Netpliance, Incorporated
**	Several people have reported success with LTSP on Solaris, OpenServer and AIX.