I got my hands on a HP t5720. This was designed as a thin-client workstation (originally Windows XPembedded, talking to a Windows terminal server). It's not very powerful, with an AMD Geode NX 1500 (1.0 GHz), 256Mb RAM (16MB used for video) and a 512Mb flash "hard disk". I plugged in a USB DVD drive and was able to boot "linux rescue" from a C5.4 32bit disk, and it basically looks like pretty generic PC hardware. So I thought this would be a great device to build as an "instant on" type device. Well, as close to instant-on as possible :-) This probably means a standard C5 build is not suitable (too many processes running; would take a while to start up). So an "X terminal", maybe. I look at the LTSP code base, but this looks like it wants to run as it's own OS; I already have a C5 server in my house, I don't want to build another one (not even as a virtual image). Acting as an X terminal, I'd guess the 256Mb RAM should be sufficient; it won't be processing much beyond the display locally (although I might want to enable ssh and add a locally connected printer). The root disk could be local (512Mb flash) or by NFS. What do people recommend for building this? What would have the quickest power-on-to-ready time? -- rgds Stephen
>What do people recommend for building this? What would have the quickest >power-on-to-ready time?Well, you could use thin station, I have used it in the past and its pretty slick...
On 4/14/2010 2:38 PM, Stephen Harris wrote:> I got my hands on a HP t5720. This was designed as a thin-client > workstation (originally Windows XPembedded, talking to a Windows terminal > server). It's not very powerful, with an AMD Geode NX 1500 (1.0 GHz), > 256Mb RAM (16MB used for video) and a 512Mb flash "hard disk". > > I plugged in a USB DVD drive and was able to boot "linux rescue" from > a C5.4 32bit disk, and it basically looks like pretty generic PC hardware. > > So I thought this would be a great device to build as an "instant on" > type device. Well, as close to instant-on as possible :-) This probably > means a standard C5 build is not suitable (too many processes running; > would take a while to start up). So an "X terminal", maybe. > > I look at the LTSP code base, but this looks like it wants to run as it's > own OS; I already have a C5 server in my house, I don't want to build > another one (not even as a virtual image).LTSP doesn't install another OS on the server - it PXE-boots one to client devices with just enough to run X as a thin client. That would probably work for you - or whatever local install you can do that doesn't start X and once it is up, do 'X -query server'.> Acting as an X terminal, I'd guess the 256Mb RAM should be sufficient; > it won't be processing much beyond the display locally (although I might > want to enable ssh and add a locally connected printer). The root disk > could be local (512Mb flash) or by NFS. > > What do people recommend for building this? What would have the quickest > power-on-to-ready time?This probably isn't what you want, but my favorite for quick access is a windows or mac laptop that handles sleep mode gracefully and let it sleep instead of powering off. Then when it wakes up and gets a network connection (in a few seconds), fire up the NX client from www.nomachine.com to connect to a freenx session on your server - which you can disconnect and re-connect as needed with everything on the desktop still running. Some of the more current linux distributions might handle sleep mode but you'd either have to install a local window manager or work to get it to run the nx client in a bare X session. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com
Install the image for a t5725 from a USB stick. Very cool. http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3221864&taskId=135&prodTypeId=12454&prodSeriesId=3221863&lang=en&cc=us&submit=Go%20%BB -- M Reynolds McClatchey Jr VP Engineering and Inventory Southern Aluminum Finishing Co Inc 404-355-1560 x222 Voice 1581 Huber St NW 404-350-0581 Fax Atlanta GA 30318
At Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:38:20 -0400 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote:> > I got my hands on a HP t5720. This was designed as a thin-client > workstation (originally Windows XPembedded, talking to a Windows terminal > server). It's not very powerful, with an AMD Geode NX 1500 (1.0 GHz), > 256Mb RAM (16MB used for video) and a 512Mb flash "hard disk". > > I plugged in a USB DVD drive and was able to boot "linux rescue" from > a C5.4 32bit disk, and it basically looks like pretty generic PC hardware. > > So I thought this would be a great device to build as an "instant on" > type device. Well, as close to instant-on as possible :-) This probably > means a standard C5 build is not suitable (too many processes running; > would take a while to start up). So an "X terminal", maybe. > > I look at the LTSP code base, but this looks like it wants to run as it's > own OS; I already have a C5 server in my house, I don't want to build > another one (not even as a virtual image). > > Acting as an X terminal, I'd guess the 256Mb RAM should be sufficient; > it won't be processing much beyond the display locally (although I might > want to enable ssh and add a locally connected printer). The root disk > could be local (512Mb flash) or by NFS. > > What do people recommend for building this? What would have the quickest > power-on-to-ready time?You will *probably* find LTSP's performance disapointing, depending on how beefy your server box is (and what else it is doing) and/or how many of these little boxes you plan to use. See http://www.deepsoft.com/2009/08/setting-up-thin-clients-at-the-wendell-free-library-part-1/ for a detailed look at what I set up at the Wendell Free Library. The machines come up pretty fast. -- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 Deepwoods Software -- Download the Model Railroad System http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows heller at deepsoft.com -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/
Stephen Harris wrote:> So I thought this would be a great device to build as an "instant on" > type device. Well, as close to instant-on as possible :-) This probably > means a standard C5 build is not suitable (too many processes running; > would take a while to start up). So an "X terminal", maybe. >check out DSL, Damn Small Linux. entire system fits on a 50MB flash or credit card sized miniCD. runs X and everything. uses busybox and uClinux userspace utils, TWMN is the window manager, it should be able to run as an X terminal, rdesktop, etc.