LTSP Version 4.1.1

For those sites running LTSP-4.1, updating is a simple matter of running ltspadmin and install/Update LTSP Packages screen. The updated packages will be listed, and you can install from that screen.

For those sites not yet running LTSP, installation is exactly the same as LTSP-4.1 installation. Check the Installation Instructions for details on installing.

What's New in LTSP-4.1.1?

Enhancements

• X.org 6.8.2
  The latest release of X.org is now included in LTSP. This brings many updated drivers and enhancements. Take a look at www.x.org/XOrg_Press_Releases/X11R6.8.2.html for more Info.

• Xorg Composite extension
  The new feature in X.org called Composite can now be enabled in lts.conf by adding the following to your lts.conf file:

  
         X_COMPOSITE = Y
  

  This will give you support for things like drop shadows and transparent windows. It's a really cool looking feature, but the performance hit is staggering. You'll need the X Composite Manager (xcompmgr) to enable the features.

• 2.6.9 Kernel included
  We now have included a 2.6.9 kernel in the LTSP packages. We still don't have a simple way to configure swapping over the network. The NFS-Swap patch hasn't been ported to the 2.6 kernels yet, and while swapping over NBD can be used, we haven't had the chance to package it up for easy use within LTSP.

  This 2.6.9 kernel is provided for those people who need the additional capabilities that the 2.6 series brings, but the 2.4.26 kernel is still the officially supported kernel for LTSP.

• Hotplug support for USB devices
  LTSP now includes the ability to plug in your USB devices, such as memory sticks, floppy drives, harddrives and cdrom drives. Just add the setting

  HOTPLUG = Y

  to your lts.conf file, and that will activate the hotplug subsystem. Samba is then used to export those devices back to the server. Take a look at the LocalDrives Wiki Article for more information about how to make those drives available to your user session.

• lts.conf file now supports include directive
  You can now create config files for individual workstations, and then include them into your main lts.conf file. For example:

  
         [Default]
            SERVER = 192.168.0.254
            XSERVER = auto
  
         include /etc/lts.conf.ws001
         include /etc/lts.conf.ws002
         include /etc/lts.conf.ws003
  
         [ws004]
            XSERVER = i810
  

• Ability to pass options to the mount command
  Recently, we've seen problems with servers running a 2.6 kernel and gigabit network card talking 10mbit clients. The default NFS blocksize has been increased in the 2.6 kernels to 32kb. The older 10mbit clients can't re-assemble the fragmented packets fast enough, so timeout errors occur. This can be fixed by passing options to the client, to fine-tune the mount command. For example, if you are using Etherboot, you should add the following to your dhcpd.conf file:

  
          option option-128  e4:45:74:68:00:00;
          option option-129  "MOPTS=nolock,ro,wsize=2048,rsize=2048";
  

  You might also try throwing ,proto=tcp in there, to use TCP instead of UDP.

• DPMS Screen blanking options
  The X_DPMS option has been added to turn on/off the DPMS support in X.org 6.8.2. Also added several options to control the standby, suspend and off time. In summary, the new options for DPMS are:

  
         X_DPMS             = Y/N
         X_DPMS_STANDBYTIME = <number of seconds before entering standby mode>
         X_DPMS_SUSPENDTIME = <number of seconds before entering suspend mode>
         X_DPMS_OFFTIME     = <number of seconds before entering off mode>
  

• USB Printers officially supported
  You could always use a USB printer with LTSP by telling lts.conf that the printer was a Parallel printer, and loading the printer kernel module. New with this release, you can specify PRINTER_x_TYPE = U in the lts.conf file. The printers kernel module will automatically be loaded.

Bug Fixes

• Missing SCREEN_01 in lts.conf
  There is now a default behavior if the SCREEN_01 entry is missing from the lts.conf file. If there is no SCREEN_01 entry, then a RUNLEVEL setting will be checked. If RUNLEVEL = 3, then a default of shell will be assumed for SCREEN_01. If RUNLEVEL = 5, then a default of startx will be assumed. Otherwise, no default will be assumed. In all cases, if the SCREEN_01 entry is missing, a warning message will be displayed on the workstation console.

• PRINTER_x_TYPE off-by-one bug
  The off-by-one bug has been fixed in rc.sysinit for the PRINTER_x_TYPE. The problem was PRINTER_0 was using PRINTER_1_TYPE.

• Additions to the vidlist file
  Entries have been added to the vidlist file to add support for additional chips in the following families: Ati, Cirrus Alpine, Sis, and i810.

• Fixed bad entry in audiolist
  The entry for the trident chipset was incorrectly entered as "trindent". this has been fixed.

• Fixed rdesktop keymap file problem
  The keymaps file for rdesktop was installed in the wrong place, causing rdesktop to fail to find the keymap file.

If you want all the latest, then run ltspadmin and grab the updates.

Thank you, and thanks to all of the developers who have helped on getting LTSP to where it is today
Jim McQuillan - jam@Ltsp.org