Class Room LTSP with Edubuntu
LTSP with edubuntu 6.06 is as easy as 1,2,3!
Literally it is! with 3 easy steps I’ve got some of the computer of at my Lab up and booting the edubuntu 6.06 server. Some….? Well.. actually there was some problem booting the older Pentium 2 computers. I’ve got an error that says that the client can’t find the PXE Server. I’ll discuss those later at the troubleshooting section of this story of my edubuntu way to ltsp glory…
Here we go, I start my first step with configuring the /etc/ltsp/dhcp.conf to suite my current network
$sudo gedit /etc/ltsp/dhcp.conf
Assuming that the server’s ip address is 197.168.7.1
authoritative;
subnet 192.168.7.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.7.220 192.168.7.250;
option domain-name “lab.stsn.ac.id”;
option domain-name-servers 192.168.7.1;
option broadcast-address 192.168.7.255;
option routers 192.168.7.1;option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
filename “/ltsp/pxelinux.0″;
option root-path “/opt/ltsp/i386″;
}
Second step, start my dhcp server
$sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp start
And then the Third one is the last step :
Set your clients to boot from the network, this can be done in two ways : change the BIOS settings to make the client boot from the net, almost every new computers that have an on-board network interface support this feature. Or for a computer or network interface that doesn’t support network boot, you can build a startup disk to boot ltsp client’s, here is a great site for creating a boot image http://rom-o-matic.net
That’s it !?!
Well… I wish it was my last step that night, but faith took me the other way, the new AMD Sempron 3000+ computers boot right away without any problem but my lab only had 4 of those and the others are old compaq intel pentium2 PC’s that are unused coz the just can’t take life as a today computer 
. And in my case the trouble is to boot the PXE server with them even tough they can automatically detect the dhcp server.
I’ve found a great thread at the ubuntu community forum that discuss this matter and found out that the old version of intel LANdesk Service Agent II firmware 0.99 caused this problem. And heres another good link : http://syslinux.zytor.com/hardware.php#network.
These are the steps that i went through :
- Step 1: Edit /etc/inetd.conf. Since I already installed and configured the Ubuntu ltsp server packages, then I have a line for tftp there. Add “-r blksize” to the end of this line, save and exit. NB Do not waste your time with /etc/default/tftpd-hpa – this has no effect on the running of the service as it is started by inetd.
- Step 2:Edit /etc/sysctl.conf. Add the line “net/ipv4/ip_no_pmtu_disc=1″save, exit and reboot.
Then those pentium II zombies came to life!!!!
Credits to steps above goes all to v4169sgr, the guy who had a hard time finding this solution 
After all clients are up and running i had another problem! I can’t login with the username and password that i made from the administration panel!!!
Later i found out that the ltsp system was located at /opt/ltsp/*architecture*/ then I do these steps :
$ sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/*architecture*/
$ sudo adduser *username*
note that you have to have make the same username both from the administrator control panel and from the steps above.
From then my Lab runs edubuntu LTSP without any trouble at all!
My second attempt to install edubuntu 6.06 is at a cyber cafe, and all that I’ve done is just those three easy steps i’ve mentioned earlier! nothing more! I didn’t encounter any of the trouble I’ve found earlier at my Lab! I’ve set up the cyber cafe into a edubuntu ltsp network in under half an hour! All of the clients were IBM Netvista’s with intel P3-800Mhz 128 Mb SDRAM that is slow like hell when it runs on Windows , but now they run as fast as the server!
In my opinion Edubuntu’s LTSP can be the solution for schools or labs or library’s that are searching for a cheap but powerful solution to aid their need for IT education, besides the easiness of the LTSP I havent found any linux distribution with an education application suite that are as good as Edubuntu’s.
Salam.
the best nih tutorialnya. Kayanya bagus nih klo dibikin tutorial secara step by step, soalnya pasti berguna bangat.
March 6, 2007 at 4:15 pm
This blog is really superb!!! Thank you for you work! Good Luck.
March 9, 2007 at 10:39 pm
@imtheface
boleh, kalo emang perlu gwe bikinin tutorialnya ndi,
kalo emang ada maanfaatnya gwe dengan seneng hati membantu!
@inez wells
thanx!
March 14, 2007 at 12:51 pm
wah2… pada semangat bikin LTSP- nya, btw pernah nyoba tapi di slackware
March 23, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Alow ada yang bs bantu ga?, gw coba setting ltsp di distro kubuntu tapi pas mau boot client ada error nfs over tcp not available from 192.168.3.0, access is denied. abiz itu client itu langsung berhenti total ga mau ngeboot. btw ip address server gw 192.168.3.0.
untuk jalanin ltsp itu apa aja seh yg harus di configure?
May 22, 2007 at 8:30 am
Thank you for writing that up! It was just what I needed.
June 7, 2007 at 3:56 am
Assalamualaikum WrWb
Setelah saya install edubuntu lalu seperti di blog ini saya coba edit sudo gedit /etc/ltsp/dhcp.conf namun dhcp.conf koq nggak ada ya…? yang ada “dhcpd.conf” , apa anda nggak salah ketik, atau saya yg harus “merename” “dhcpd.conf” jadi “dhcp.conf”, mohon bimbingannya step by step maklum newbie , moga siswa kami bisa merasakan nikmatnya OS linux.
Jika berkenan beri kami bimbingan via mail saya, moga berkenan
Wassalam
Vulkan Abriyanto
http://www.geocities.com/vulkan_abr/vulkan.html
June 8, 2007 at 1:30 am
vulkan—>bener yang itu (dhcpd.conf).edubuntu mang siep buat server ltsp,cma perlu configurasi dhcp-nya aja…
johan—>192.168.3.0. bukannya alamat jaringanmu?? ganti 0 dengan angka laen?? coba kamu baca buku tentang tcp-ip
August 5, 2007 at 3:36 pm
hii…
gw dah cba di edubuntu 7 server…
tpi, client nya g mo boot…
cuman yng gw rada heran… client tuh dah dapet ip dari server tpi, g mo lanjut…
gimna ya….?
September 6, 2007 at 12:47 pm
bagus banget…. untung gw cari dulu, btw server nya specnya apa yah ?? bisa gak yah pake LAN PCMCIA ???
November 15, 2007 at 4:07 am
My thin client screen turns black when its ready to log on the edubuntu server
March 4, 2008 at 2:14 am
Pingback: Membangun LTSP Bersama Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon « C3MY BLOG
The way you have narrated about the Installation of Thin clients It seams to be easy but I am finding it difficult
I got the EDUBUNTU 8.04 server CD but during installation by pressing F4 I do not get the option to install as LTSP , only NORMAL option is comming
what is the right CD for Installation.
June 12, 2008 at 8:57 am
Ravinder,
Download Edubuntu 8.04, but not the server iso and try again it should work.
June 13, 2008 at 9:03 pm
I am trying to set up on Edubuntu 8.04 thin client network for my classroom. I finally got the DHCP server to work, but I am stuck. The client starts to load with the Ubuntu splash/loading screen, then drops to a Busybox shell. It either has something to do with DNS or TFTP. The solutions I’ve tried on the ubuntu forums haven’t worked. You are the first person I have found that has actually gotten an Edubuntu network functioning. Good job. I blogged about the problem with more details on http://schoo20.siglersite.com. Any ideas?
James
June 14, 2008 at 3:45 am
thank you very much, found some very useful tips here!!!!
cheers!
September 6, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Pingback: Membangun LTSP Bersama Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon « c3my Gooo… blog
Pingback: Membangun LTSP Bersama Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon « C3myNotes
saya juga punya masalah yang sama mas… Saya Pake Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)… Setelah proses instalasi selesai, saya coba booting LTSP clientnya dengan Laptop Acer (Seri nya lupa) tapi yang jelas speknya Intel Core 2 Duo… Berhasl dengan baik…
Tapi saat saya coba dengan LTSP Client berspek Pentium II, dia ngadat… Trus ada keterangan seperti ini :
Kernel Panic…. dst
Please bantu saya dong mas… maklum nubie…
June 28, 2010 at 1:33 pm
terus terang saya belum pernah coba lagi deh untuk pentium II, tetapi beberapa waktu lalu pentium III generasi awal (yang prosesornya bentuk cartridge) masih bisa, apakah semua client yang tersedia Pentium II semua? kalau memang butuh ada alternatif nih namanya Thin Client UTC55 (silahkan search digoogle) bisa didapat di mangga dua seharga 600rban
July 7, 2010 at 6:50 am