Small (hopefully) thin client issue

[Geran]

Hi all, just hoping I could get some help with a thin client issue for my school. We recently installed the new Gutsy Gibbon onto our server and it's having a small issue. We used to run Feisty Fawn, but decided to upgrade. Everything seems to be ok minus the fact that thin clients cannot boot successfully. They stop and ask for ltsp login, something I thought was supposed to be provided automatically. Any help would be greatly appreciated, this server is quite important to our school.

Many thanks in advance. :)

[MrFSL]

Not sure how to help you but if you find time would you please post the overall configuration (hardware, server, number and make of thin clients, etc) of your Ubuntu thin client system; as well as your overall success? :)

I'm just interested thats all.

[Geran]

It's an HP Pavillion Media Centre with quad processor at 2.40 ghz with 3072 MB of memory and a 640 GB hard drive. The network devices are both at 100 mbps (I don't remember the brand). This connects to a 32 port 100 mbps switch via it's uplink port to about 20 IBM computers that act as thin clients. The IBMs themselves are quite old, they were designed for windows 2000. It works great, aside from this glitch which I highly doubt had anything to do with the set up.

[gwilm]

Success - we have had a lot of success with the setup described by Geran - for two months, notwithstanding our novice status, we have run the computer lab relatively problem free. The server has crashed twice; each time, we had it running by the next morning. We have plans to expand to 60-100 stations within the next few months - we are merely waiting to upgrade our server hardware so that we can handle all of the traffic with reasonable speed.

[MrFSL]

I have worked with thin client systems in a few different systems. These were mostly Sun based thin clients - but it has been a few years since i dealt with it.

Let me ask, what advantages do you think you have seen using this thin client model as apposed to the more typical Client / Server topology?

What did you think of the setup (time, resources, configuration, compatibility) using a modern a feature filled GNU Linux distro such as Ubuntu?

Lastly (if you have the time) did you start this program using Ubuntu or did you use other Linux distros prior? if so how does it compare.

Hopefully you will have the time to respond. I could see how a thin client system might be utilized in my current position and would greatly appreciate the feedback.