Inquiry from the New Guy

[Justin Bennett]

do you want them to have gnome running, the ability to use the menus and
such, run other programs, or just that one program. You could just fire an
X server and the client, nothing else, no taskbar, no menu. All they can
do is use that client.

Charles H. Root, III said:
> Thanks everyone for the replies...
>
> To clarify, I don't really have it all figured out... ha ha.
> I get it conceptually, but the devil is in the details. And yes,
> all the PC's are identical, will be using DHCP and I'm going with
> RedHat 8 and GNOME.
>
> A KickStart install would be very cool philosophically, but a bit
> messier with the post install scripts that I'm relatively
> clueless about. If deadlines become an issue then I'll probably
> just utilize Ghost.
>
> Regarding modifications to /etc/rc.d/rc.local file, I'm not sure
> what to put in there to fire off the X server, window manager and
> Citrix ICA Client, whose executable (by the way) resides at:
> /usr/lib/ICAClient/wfica. The only un-commented line in there now is:
> touch /var/lock/subsys/local
>
> So I'll research and tinker a bit but feel free to pass along a
> sample config :). I've setup Linux and Solaris DNS, web & FTP servers
> but I admit it, I'm no SysAdmin yet... Working on it though!
>
> I've been experimenting with unloading all the extra daemons &
> services that wont be needed for a workstation such as this. I'm
> trying to make it as lean as possible.
>
> Thanks again!
>
> Best,
>
> chaz
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nflug at nflug.org [mailto:owner-nflug at nflug.org]On Behalf Of
> Justin Bennett
> Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 3:57 PM
> To: nflug at nflug.org
> Subject: Re: Inquiry from the New Guy
>
>
> sounds like you have it all figued out but the network install correct?
> You could also just start it in runlevel 3, and then in
> /etc/rc.d/rc.local (kinda like autoexec.bat run an x server, window
> manager, and your client). I can give you some help there.
>
> Redhat offers KickStart which you can initiate from a network boot
> floppy.You can do a NFS or FTP or HTTP install off the network, and run
> post install scripts to do your special stuff.  It sounds like all the
> pc's are the same? They doing DHCP? if so you could do something like a
> Symantic ghost to roll them out, load one up store the image file on a
> network, create a msdos network boot floppy boot the PC and run ghost
> off the network. We do this for our PCs but ghost will do linux also.
> (this is not as cool as kickstart though, but it may be tough to write
> all the scripts to do all the post install tasks you want).
>
> Justin
>
> Charles H. Root, III said:
>> Greetings All:
>>
>> I'm looking for some pointers regarding a Linux workstation rollout
>> project I am working on. Here's the scoop:
>>
>> ASG has over 600 existing PC's running MS DOS 6.2, NIC & mouse drivers
>> and the ICA Client for DOS. You power them up, autoexec.bat launches
>> the ICA Client and you are presented with a Windows login screen.
>> Simple configuration and a perfect end user experience for our
>> environment. Over 90% of our staff gets their desktop environment from
>> a Citrix server farm.
>>
>> However, I have another 100 or so used workstations we've purchased
>> arriving soon. They are IBM 300GL PII 350's, 64 MB RAM, NIC and 4GB
>> HDD. And (of course)
>> no OS. Obviously, I don't want to spend over $20,000 in WinXP licenses
>> just to
>> dumb them down to MS-DOS.
>>
>> What I wish to accomplish is to build a Linux based PC that boots
>> directly to
>> X Windows and the ICA client (bypassing the Linux login) and present
>> the end user with a Windows login prompt from our Citrix server farm,
>> just like our existing DOS workstations.
>>
>> I've gotten some recommendations from Chad Robinson (A Linux Journal
>> magazine
>> contributing writer), an RHCE from UB and a few folks on the web. The
>> flavor of
>> these recommendations is:
>>
>> * Do a minimal RedHat 8 install.
>>
>> * Remove the getty statements in /etc/inittab to bypass the Linux
>> login prompt.
>>
>> * Run the ICA Client as a shell in either run level 4 (Kiosk mode) or
>>   run level 5 (X Windows).
>>
>> After I get a stable workstation config on one PC, the next step is to
>> do network installs on the remaining units. They don't have CD-ROM
>> drives.
>>
>> I've got management buy-in so I'm good there. I've already migrated
>> our DNS, FTP and web server over to RedHat.
>>
>> Comments, tips, concerns? I'm admittedly a little inexperienced in a
>> customized
>> rollout like this. I'd love to hear your thoughts and see if anyone
>> else locally
>> is doing this sort of thing.
>>
>> Thanks for your time,
>>
>> Charles H. Root, III
>> MIS Network Manager
>>
>> Account Solutions Group
>> 205 Bryant Woods South
>> Amherst, NY  14228-3608
>>
>> v: 716-564-4991
>> f: 716-564-4440
>>
>> www.accountsolutionsgroup.com
>
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------
> Justin Bennett
> Red Hat (Linux) Certified Engineer
> Network Administrator
> Dynabrade Inc.
> 8989 Sheridan Dr
> Clarence, NY 14031
> 716-631-0100 ext 215


-- 
-------------------------------------------
Justin Bennett
Red Hat (Linux) Certified Engineer
Network Administrator
Dynabrade Inc.
8989 Sheridan Dr
Clarence, NY 14031
716-631-0100 ext 215