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Technical Details Behind the LAN-Party Optimized House
New submitter Temporal writes "Yesterday, Slashdot reported on my LAN-party optimized house. But, lacking from the internet at that time were key technical details: How do I boot 12 machines off a single shared disk? What software do I use? What does my network infrastructure look like? Why do I have such terrible furniture? Is that Gabe Newell on the couch? The answer is a combination of Linux, PXE boot, gPXE, NBD/iSCSI, and LVM snapshots running on generic hardware over generic gigabit ethernet. I have even had several successful LAN parties with a pure-Linux setup, using WINE."
...plenty of wine would make a Linux-centric LAN party tolerable, and perhaps even enjoyable.
Why would you ever name a device Crashman? This just seems ominous!
"Which machine do you want to use for the LAN party?"
"Oh, Crashman looks really stable."
It's a fair criticism. I wanted to make the desks lower but I also wanted the monitors to sit higher when folded up, and the desks were getting stupidly deep, so I had to compromise. In practice, though, people aren't typing at these desks, they're gaming, which in my experience (as someone with some RSI problems) is not as sensitive to desk height.
Honestly I'm kicking myself for not having written everything up before going public. The vast majority of people who saw the original post will not see the technical details. :/
It's like you went public beta before working out the kinks~
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"I purchased 12 copies of Windows 7 Ultimate OEM System Builder edition, in 3-packs. However, it turns out that because the hardware is identical, Windows does not even realize that it is moving between machines."
That's google for ya.
Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing -- PXE-booting the whole OS over iSCSI. I'll edit to make that clearer.
Every computer using geek has an Asian girlfriend except me.
How they fuck do they do it?
You have to be white, nerdy, and socially awkward. I've got all three! Come hither, ladies!
I can't imagine a single machine serving out over iSCSI to have performance acceptable to play any modern, intensive game. How's it all work?
I couldn't imagine it either, but it turns out it works fine. Obviously the load times aren't blazingly fast but no one has ever complained about them being slow either.
Note that most games load all data upfront. Once they've done that, the game runs without doing much I/O.
Also note that an iSCSI image can be fully cached client-side, so if you load the same game twice, it's probably going to load directly from RAM the second time. (Most games are 32-bit so there's a good 4GB of RAM in the machines doing not much other than disk cache.)
Release early, release often. I thought that was the way we're supposed to work.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Honestly I'm kicking myself for not having written everything up before going public. The vast majority of people who saw the original post will not see the technical details. :/
A lot of people wouldn't care about the technical details either. You can be a gamer without being a geek.
Kickass house, dude. Pay the AC no attention, envy is not a pretty thing. Thanks for the technical article, there's definitely stuff in there everyone can use, even if they don't have a house purely optimized for LAN parties. In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing additional details, tutorials on setting up the images and the like.
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
You do realize that it is extraordinarily easy to install cat5e wall plates and drops in most modern homes, right?
You can use powertools, have an rj45 modular crimping tool, and know where to buy bulk cat5e right? (If not, can I please verify your geek card...)
All you need is hidden utility closet to house the punchblock and local switch hardware, and you are golden. With how small some of this hardware has gotten, you might even be able to get away with a breakerbox enclosure from lowes, assuming you put some ventilation in it.
My current home was once refit as a beauty salon by the previous owners, and has so may utility hookups in the living room that I could have a christmas tree made entirely of christmas lights and not blow any fuses (hookups for dryer chairs have beefy amp ratings). If I wasn't such an antisocial recluse, and actually had lan party friends to come over I could really do crazy shit with my place too.
But I don't, so I haven't and won't. But if you want to run cat5e in your house, the only thing stopping you is inertia, since as far as I know you don't need an electrician to run the stuff, being so low voltage.
But MS may see 12 systems with the same key live at the same time.
This is a made up story by the liberal media.
Blizzard clearly stated that no one is interested in LAN parties and the whole concept is dead. Please move on. There is nothing here to see.
If all the image needs to do is hold the basic OS and a single game deployment, why not pxe the whole image to a dedicated hardware ram drive, that can make full use of the sata controller?
Acard has a number of such devices, and while pricey, would absolutely floor disk io performance in a game rig.
There are quite a few other devices of this type on the market as well.
Using these in the systems, you could still netload the system images to the game rigs with pxe, but when the image has finished being pushed, just reboot them and you have a bitchin fast row of locally booting systems. Power them off when they need a new configuration pushed.
The question isn't "How", its "Why".. money doesn't seem to be the big issue here, so why not spring for Server 2008R2 and manage all the boxes from there? it does all this updating/registering/etc your hacking together, and for around $800, versus your hourly rate x hours hacking, seems less expensive and the result is a heck of a lot more manageable. I'm all for the do-it-yourself type, but managing disk images? Yeah I can spend my time better elsewhere
I think he's having a mental fault and mixing units.
32mbps = ~4MByte/s
which is better than the ~24mbps I get off Comcast (a solid 3MB/s off Steam content servers, at least until my cablemodem starts having seizures.)
Why bother spending $800 bucks for an OS you may not particularly like the style of anyway? For a task like this, I really don't see a particular advantage that Windows would hold unless all you know is Windows. The tools to do this sort of stuff are trivial to work in Linux (I personally think easier than Microsoft tools, but that may be a preference).
I would give MS the benefit of the doubt on a setup suggesting AD account management, though I haven't tried 389 which may have a nice integrated feel. Standard OpenLDAP+Kerberos realm is a little more work than setting up AD for a relatively small setup, but I see that as superfluous either way for this sort of setup.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
The only thing stopping me from running cat5e in my home is not inertia, it's the large structure made of wood that runs up, down, and horizontally through the walls. Unless I wanted to cut holes in the walls so I could drill pass through holes between floors, there's no way to do it completely in the walls. Of course, you could put up molding in the corners and along the ceiling to hide everything. Some might even go under the carpet (which I did in one room).
sonic.net also has 20Mbps or up to 40Mbps broadband on Adsl+2 but 40 is dual line.
Yes, that's what I have. The 40Mbps dual-line "Fusion". Due to distance from CO, it gets 32Mbps, but it is a consistent 32Mbps.
As the author of Syslinux/PXELINUX I found the article rather interesting and enjoyable. :)
I'm curious as to what sort of latency he gets by extending USB through repeaters and if he uses hubs on his keyboard/mice at the other end? I know HDMI can be run quite a long distance (relatively speaking), but USB isn't made to be run long distances at all. If I remember correctly, there is a maximum distance USB can run before you need to add a hub/repeater. Adding to that, hubs in my experience interfere with peripherals, especially gaming peripherals (fast and high dpi mice). He doesn't really go into much detail besides saying he runs USB and HDMI to his remote stations.
The right way to do it requires no more than a 36' drill bit. If you are ordering online or with a building supply guy who is savvy, what you are looking for is called a bell hanger bit. They are not only quite long, but very flexible. (being largely spring steel, they snap quite easily if you drill too far off axis though) They commonly come in the smaller sizes needed to run simple low voltage lines like thermostats and door bells (hence the name) but can be found in larger sizes needed to run Ethernet. They are just the ticket for cutting a hole big enough for the outlet box and drilling from outside that, down through the base plate and into the cavity below. You then go downstairs and open another small hole and drill down to the basement. Having an assistant is invaluable when fishing the line, s/he can listen for the fish tape knocking in the first floor cavity if there is any doubt at all where your drill came out.
Even with Plenum rated cable, I'd avoid running it in an air duct if there was any way at all to avoid it. It's better to go around, using an extra handful of meters of cable for the longer route, then it is to have the duct cleaning guy get his brushes tangled in it next year. If you do use the duct anyway, use a grommet where it passes through the sheet steel, not only to protect the cable from being cut by the sharp edge, but also to reduce leakage from the ducts into the wall cavities.
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj