Client Sizing
From K12LTSP Wiki
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Minimum requirements
- 16M Ram - 8M will not let the client login to a GUI desktop (KDE, GNOME, or IceWM).
- With an Apple PowerMac thin clients (e. g. PMac 5200's), you need 32MB DRAM. 16MB won't even let it boot the kernel.
- A decent video card - a PCI card with at least 2M of ram highly recommended
- A common network card - a name brand 100Mb PCI card is highly recmmended, preferrably with PXE or bootrom
- CPU speed doesn't matter
- Avoid ISA cards if at all possible
FAQs
Q. Any pointers on using 486s?
A. I have a couple of ancient compaq Prolinea 466 (486/66 w/40MB RAM, 10/100 NICs) that would have surely ended up in the trash, but they make fine thin-clients. How much would you pay for one of those?$5? LOL
The Prolinea 466 has one PCI slot (in which went a 10/100 NIC) and on-board Cirruc Logic video (I had to change to XSERVER=XF86_SVGA in lts.conf to get it to play). It also has 8mb onboard RAM, I added another 32MB in the 4 slots for 40MB RAM total. Plenty to run it as an LTSP thin-client and it works nicely... Amazingly enough you can bump this old dog all the way to 128MB RAM. Not practical in any scenario, IMO. A 486 with 128MB RAM--but the BIOS/arch. will support it.
Q. I would like to understand my options for thin client hardware. If you could setup your LAN again which thin client hardware would you buy? Would you buy or build?
A. One option:
- Via EDEN board based client. Build your own. They can be totally silent with no moving parts .... my favorite case for via eden board is Casetronic 2677R. it is small, comes with a good power supply and has enough air mobility to run fine with the fan disconnected. It has one drawback - it is expensive. I have been buying 'micro-tower' cases (the size of the Lindows wal-mart special) for about $20 compared to $65-$75 for 2677R. julius
- I just bought three mini-itx main-boards with 2688 cases and 256Mb RAM assembled them, and put them on my server. Up and running - no installation at all.
Q. Would you buy or build?
A. Check out the prices for pre-assembled and in parts. I was able to the the components much cheaper than the same as in complete machines, so I assembled myself. I'ts not that much work in assemblying the above machines. I'd same I'd be able to put together 6-8 maschines pr hour at least if I had to assemble many maschines in a batch. Please bear in mind that I have no drives (cd/hdd/fdd) in the maschines, so you only need to put in the mainboard, add RAM and connect 5 connectors to the mainboard.
I just recently bought a diskless, fanless, computer from idot.com for $202 it really works great. Normally I buy Pentium computers from one or another of the local used computer stores for less than $50 If it doesn't have a pci nic then I have to add that I remove the hard drive and boot from floppy. they work great, but diskless fanless is so much better. Sudev Barar
Really small clients
I recently tried "MicroClient Jr" Thin Client, from http://www.norhtec.com for $120 plus shipping, work great and are fanless with only a small foot print. See picture on Flickr. They are slow on delivery though and take up to four weeks.
MicroClient Jr follow-up
(By K12user)
The MicroClient Jr is a very nice thin client indeed. It is a rebranded eBox-2300, available from WDL Systems and others for as little as $ 90. I have recently ordered from Norhtec and they ship through DHL. I received my set of five MicroClients within a week after my credit-card authorisation form cleared.
Tip: in the Bios change video memory from 8MB to 32MB; and another tip from the K12 mailing list:
To get 1280x1024 resolution you will need the following fix for eBox 2300:
- http://www.redhat.com/archives/k12osn/2004-November/msg00719.html
- Add to default section of lts.conf:
X_COLOR_DEPTH = 16
X_HORZSYNC = "60"
X_MODE_0 = "1280x1024"
Now if someone could tell me how to get the sound working ... I haven't managed to get it working using the K12wiki.
