Please note the following items:

I wanted the thin clients to have Unity 2D, so that is why the lts.conf/LDM instructions are in there. My second network card for the internal LTSP network is eth1 – yours might be different, so change the related entries in /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server and /etc/network/interfaces if needed.

I used 192.168.22.X for my internal LTSP network, but you can have something else entirely like 10.10.22.X for example. If you decide to go with something different please remember to update the /etc/network/interfaces address and /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf accordingly.

INSTALL LTSP IN UBUNTU

Open terminal window
- sudo bash & enter password
- apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y
- apt-get install ltsp-server-standalone openssh-server
- gedit /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server
      add eth1 as follows:
           INTERFACES=”eth1″
      save and exit
- gedit /etc/network/interfaces
      add the following under the existing auto lo entry
           auto eth1
           iface eth1 inet static
                address 192.168.22.1
                netmask 255.255.255.0
      save and exit
- ifup eth1
- gedit /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf
      change all 192.168.0.X to 192.168.22.X
           I use gedit’s replace function: 168.0 > 168.22
      save and exit
- /etc/init.d/isc-dhcp-server restart
- ltsp-update-sshkeys
- ltsp-build-client –-arch i386
- /etc/init.d/nbd-server restart
- /etc/init.d/isc-dhcp-server status
- gedit /var/lib/tftpboot/ltsp/i386/lts.conf
      add the following:
           [default]
           LDM_DIRECTX=True
           LDM_SESSION=”gnome-session –session=ubuntu-2d”
      save and exit
- Reboot system for good measure

Click user icon/name top right of ubuntu desktop
- click user accounts
- click unlock (top right of window)
- enter password and authenticate
- click + sign (bottom left) to add new user account
- account type = standard
- full name = tc1 (for thinclient1 – use whatever you want)
- click create
- click account disabled to right of password
- add password and retype to confirm
- click lock (top right of window)

Hook up thin clients, select network boot, and login

If you can’t login because client says ‘response from server, restarting…’ try the following:

Open terminal window
- sudo bash & enter password
- ltsp-update-sshkeys
- sudo ltsp-update-image
- /etc/init.d/nbd-server restart
- reboot clients and try to log in

1) Close Chrome

2) Open \User Name\Library\Application Support\Google\Chrome\Local State in a text editor

3) Look for the line “itms”: true,

4) Delete this line and Chrome will prompt you (via the External Protocol Request box) to open iTunes links again

-OR-

5) Change the true to false and iTunes links will open without prompting

**Disclaimer** Remember to save the Local State file after making the change in steps 4 or 5. Don’t do a save-as or it could change the file type and screw things up.

Since I was using the portable apps version of Chrome the path in step number 2 was \Chrome\Data\profile\Local State. I made the mistake of completely skipping step 1 and tried to edit the file when Chrome was open. I couldn’t initially understand why the process wasn’t working after shutting the browser down and starting it back up. The file kept reverting back to its original state. Duh – everything worked fine once I closed Chrome, made the change, and launched the browser again.

The first unit I received was defective and couldn’t really play anything. The replacement player they sent is awesome. It is an 8GB unit (expandable to 12GB with SD card), can display 260K of color, has a screen resolution of 400×240 at 3”, and fits perfectly in my palm. While it does play a variety of video formats, you have to be very careful of what codecs the video uses as well as the bitrate.

I became educated very quickly on how these two items work together. Just to make things simple, I now run all my video through the viDrop (wickly awesome and free) conversion program and use a modified ‘Generic Rockchip 400×240 High’ preset configuration. It re-encodes the video at the proper resolution using the XVID codec, mirrors the video’s original FPS, and uses a bitrate of 600.

A good thing to remember when re-encoding for this player – always try to use original video with a higher resolution and higher bitrate than what your end product will have (it will look way better after conversion than going the other direction).

So far the video has ranged from very good to stunning. While I mostly use my player to watch Revision3 shows when I take walks at work, it also plays MP3 files, can display text, has a voice recorder, has a radio tuner, and can be used as a picture viewer.

• Signed up for a free DynDNS account and domain
• Bought an easy to remember dot com domain name at GoDaddy
• Forwarded my GoDaddy domain to my DynDNS domain
• Got my Windows XP server machine ready for use
• Assigned a static IP address to my XP machine on my home network
• Forwarded the right ports on my router to my webserver
• Opened up the right ports on my XP machine’s firewall
• Downloaded and installed DynDNS’s dynamic IP updater client
• Setup and secured The Uniform Server software to host my site
• Completed database setup and WordPress install for blogging

In addition to this, I wanted some advanced functionality. I set up Windows remote desktop so I can access the server from anywhere I have an internet connection. To secure this feature, I also installed OpenSSH. I didn’t realize until later that the SSH software also allowed me to run a secured FTP server for file transfers between machines. Sweet! For those interested, here are the articles I used to accomplish all this:

http://tinyurl.com/27l9t6 (Domain Name)

http://tinyurl.com/5mohge (Router/Firewall)

http://tinyurl.com/av55ub (The Uniform Server)

http://tinyurl.com/a9cnt (WordPress)

http://tinyurl.com/6y6ym (Remote Desktop)

http://tinyurl.com/d67p63 (OpenSSH Setup)

http://tinyurl.com/bgr5f (OpenSSH SFTP)

I found a great article by Tony Northrup on how to accomplish this task. It easily guides you through setting up the IIS components, changing the web TCP port (if you so desire), router forwarding, firewall exception reminder, and how to connect to a remote desktop. I ran right through it and had my remote connection up and running in no time. Now I can securly access my home server from anywhere the internets are.

I have been searching here and there for a lightweight linux distro that would recognize my wireless card and respond promptly with the hardware I have. After a few failed attempts with other distros, I reluctantly downloaded the latest (4.1.2) Puppy Linux release and was pleasantly surprised.

The live CD booted up quickly (after a few general system questions) and blew me away when I easily configured my wireless card to hook up to my network. The card’s lights did not turn on, but the connection worked none-the-less. This was a first for me.

I was so impressed that I decided to install Puppy on my HD and boot time took approximately 1 minute – power button to desktop – very nice! Opening programs is very snappy and I couldn’t be happier. Thank you Puppy Linux! I can’t wait to hop on and cruise Digg stories and chat with my peeps in Facebook!

During the process of problem solving the failing motherboard issue, I acquired a dual core E2200 processor. I decided to stick that in the new motherboard and completed the surgery last night. Everything went great and when I powered the system up, all I had to do was put the driver CD in the tray and everything loaded back up as normal. Thank the stars I didn’t have to do an OS reinstall!

I read the 45GMX has some good overclocking potential. With the great luck I had with the P35A  in this area, I can’t wait to start tinkering with the BIOS.

/usr/share/applications/ Screen & Graphics (icon)

After you use your file manager to navigate to the applications folder, you click on the Screen & Graphics icon to bring up a  simple GUI. I manually chose a generic LCD that displayed at 1024×768. After I made my selection the system told me I had to reboot or something. I did that and was greeted by my new (larger) screen resolution after I logged in. Sweet!

]]> http://mojotechblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/fluxbox-screen-resolution/feed/ 0 mojotechblog http://mojotechblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/virtualbox-guest-additions-build-essentials/ http://mojotechblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/virtualbox-guest-additions-build-essentials/#comments Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:39:44 +0000 mojotechblog http://mojotechblog.wordpress.com/?p=190 ]]> I have been playing with VirtualBox and setting up a minimalist Ubuntu install with the Fluxbox window manager. I did a basic command line install off a live CD, so I ended up with a very small hard drive system foot print – perfect for adding whatever programs I wanted.

I also wanted to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions module to get the cool benefits of the seamless interface and mouse integration. When I tried to do this, I received some error message that the system needed the build and header files for my kernel. I first had to find out what kernel I was running and then I had to get the files. This is how I did it…

In a terminal, I ran the following command which told me I was running kernal 2.6.24-19-generic:

uname -r

I then ran the following command to install the needed files:

sudo aptitude install build-essential kernel-header-2.6.24-19-generic

After the data was downloaded and installed, I tried the Guest Additions again and everything went as smooth as butter. Now I can pop in to and out of my Ubuntu guest with ease.

fbsetbg -f /home/ubuntu/.fluxbox/backgrounds/debian1600.png

After examining my startup file again, I noticed that there was another command a few lines down from my wallpaper location that set the background color to black like so:

/usr/bin/fbsetroot -solid black

This black background line might have been inserted automagically when I tried to load the wallpaper without the proper program to do so. After the system alerted me to this error, I installed the Eterm package that was required and went about adjusting the startup file without really looking at it. It is now fixed and I have purdy wallpaper!