Linux on HP Thin Clients.

Vidar writes "HP has a line of thin clients, however, only one of these run Linux. But, being generic x86 hardware, you can install Linux on them. And it has been done, running Damn Small Linux from the flash of those devices. The article has a complete walkthrough for the procedure, as well as some toughts on the topic. It can be added that the rdesktop client is quicker than Microsoft's own RDP client. Also, with Linux it is easy to upgrade remotely, or even change to an entirely new protocol. Once one terminal is upgraded, the rest is done with dd and a USB stick!"

Comments

Thin client...

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't this defeat the purpose of a thin client to INSTALL something on it?

I'm partial to the SunRay approach myself (boo- hiss). Or some kind of net boot approach like PXES or LTSP.

That way you just tell the thin client where to look and it just pulls the minimum off the network and runs apps on the server.

Re:Thin client...

[sbryant]

RTFA!

Quote:

no, the t5000's don't have floppy, cdrom or anything else. They can, however, boot from USB or Network (PXE).

So, "some kind of net boot approach" is definately possible.

-- Steve

Hmmm...

[Jemima's Witness]

my toughts exactly!

how to do multiple installs?

[supersuckers]

Once one terminal is upgraded, the rest is done with dd and a USB stick!

Well, it may be easy to infer how to do this,but the article linked did not suggest or instruct how to do this.

Re:how to do multiple installs?

[jericho4.0]

dd if=/dev/usb of=/dev/flash count=64M

Or something like that.

Playing catch up to Sun?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does Sun offer the only true modern stateless thin-client that has no OS, uses encrypted protocols, and is suitable even for DoD installations?

Not a thin client

[Photar]

How exactly is a $600 PC running windows XP a thin client?
I suppose that makes the Mac Mini or an older iBook a thin client too.

Ok, great. Now what?

[skwirlmaster]

So you bought a thin client for ~400-500 dollars. You installed linux on it... Great.
400 could get you a propper PC. and you could put it to better use.
Personally I would use a thin client as a thin client.
A ITX system could get you about the same energy savings. So really my question is why that hardware? Was it free?

Re:Ok, great. Now what?

[vidarlo]

So really my question is why that hardware? Was it free?

Besides, these look damn nice, take small space, uses little power and is sexy? But yes, I did not pay for HW. Nor did I get it.

Been there, done that

[Yonder Way]

It works great. About a year ago I used LTSP on top of CentOS Linux to run a bunch of HP thin clients. I PXE booted the thin clients which worked great. You have to add a couple of options to the LTSP config file to work with the Via chipset on the HP thin client but it's a no brainer and works well.

Re: Chubby client...

[Master Bait]

We gained a TON of useable bandwidth by putting Firefox, Flash plugin, and the RealOne player on our terminal's USB flash sticks. Real and Flash never supported network sound anyway, so now remote users can waste internet time with sound-enabled Flash cartoons too. The downside is having to use nfs for the R/W home directory. The terminals still boot off the server.