Setting up a file server for a diskless X-Terminal

[Les Mikesell]

Derek Tattersall wrote:
> Craig White wrote:
>> On Sun, 2007-09-16 at 17:16 -0400, Derek Tattersall wrote:
>>  
>>> I have a large desktop running F7 , the 64 bit version. I also have a 
>>> few bits and pieces of 32 bit hardware lying around, that I could 
>>> make into a diskless X-terminal. I have been reading up on tftp and 
>>> pxeboot and the kernel docs, and I think I can figure out how to set 
>>> up the client machine as a diskless X-terminal, but I am perplexed by 
>>> one thing.
>>>
>>> What is the best way to set up the root file system? I want to set up 
>>> a series of subdirectories on my main machine with the root file 
>>> system, /bin, /lib, /etc, etc. I would like that to be 32 bit F7. I 
>>> would then export those directories by NFS for the diskless client to 
>>> use. Is there a way to unpack the F7 rpms into these subdirectories? 
>>> I don't want to set up an entire partition for this, and go through 
>>> the entire partitioning and install procedure. I just want to use a 
>>> portion of the existing disk.
>>>
>>> Is there an easy way to do this? I have a vague memory that you could 
>>> do this with slackware (this was back in the mid 90's - all my 
>>> memories of that time are vague), is there a way to do this with Fedora?
>>>     
>> ----
>> http://www.ltsp.org
>>   
> 
> Not quite what I had in mind.
> 
> I was looking for a way to install Fedora on the File server.

I'd expect much better performance with the ltsp approach (running only 
X on the client with the desktop and apps on the faster machine) than 
you would have running the 2nd machine as a workstation with everything 
mounted via NFS.

-- 
    Les Mikesell
      lesmikesell at gmail.com