This is an installation kit for linux based X terminal. This kit use a RedHat 5.0, 5.1 or 5.2 cdrom and install a set of packages in /xterminals/root. It installs around 60 megs of stuff. All X terminals are sharing this root. Further, this is read-only. No X terminal needs to write there, even when configuring a new terminal. This kit may be installed on almost any distribution that can run the rpm command. The fact that the X terminal will run some parts of redhat 5.x does not affect the operation of the server itself. This kit has been installed on a redhat 5.0 server and a redhat 4.2 server. So I guess it will work on SuSE and Caldera, and probaly anything. Principles ========== The kit is install in /xterminals/root. Each X terminal has a private directory in /var/xterminals. When configuring an X terminal, this directory must be read-write (NFS server). The X terminal will create itself its own private directory there, using its IP number as the name of the private directory. Once configured, the private directory may be turned back read-only. During normal operation, the X terminals do not need any write access at all to the NFS server. In /etc/exports, you will need the following lines /xterminals/root (ro) /var/xterminals *(rw,no_root_squash) Once the X terminals are configured, you can change that to /xterminals/root (ro) /var/xterminals (ro) On the server, you do -update /etc/exports as shown above -install a dhcp server which will provide the IP numbers to X terminal. Or read the file /usr/src/linux/documentation/nfsroot.txt to see how you can assign an IP number to a client -Mount the redhat 5.x cdrom -run the provided setup.sh script -if no errors, run the setup-post.sh script -build a boot floppy using the makeboot.sh script. This will ask few questions. -restart your NFS server so it rereads the updated /etc/exports. On most system, this is done using these commands /etc/rc.d/init.d/nfs stop /etc/rc.d/init.d/nfs start or killall rpc.nfsd rpc.mountd /usr/sbin/rpc.mountd /usr/sbin/rpc.nfsd The kernel supplied contain ethernet drivers for ne2000 and 3c509. The kernel configuration is supplied so you can recompile a kernel with the proper driver sets. Some work has to be done to support "initial ramdisk", allowing the usage of modular kernel for the x terminal boot disk. Boot a PC with the floppy -it should get its IP number from the dhcp server -it will mount the root directory -it will complain that the private directory does not exist -it will try to create it (/var/xterminals must be writable at this point). -if it succeed, it will suggest to run the xconf scripts. -the xconf script ask you for the partition where to create the swap file. The kit assumes that X terminals are old Dos/Windows machine and will set a swap in the DOS partition. It is needed for machine with 4 megs and recommended for machine with 8, although it should probably not swap. -After few question, the RedHat Xconfigurator is started to configure X. -once the xconf script is completed, reboot -the reboot should now -see the private directory and mount it -setup the missing swap file in the previously selected partition -run the xgo script and there you are with a graphical login. On the server you must run xdm (X display manager). This is normally done by selecting runlevel 5 (for graphic + network mode in linuxconf). If you do not intend to run X on the server itself, go in /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers and comment out the :0 ... line This kit is fairly new and some polishing is needed, but you should be able to install a bunch of X terminals without having to hand edit anything. Also, I recommend you run an X font server on the server. To do this, create a file /etc/conf.xfs which contains catalogue=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic and start the X font server like this /usr/X11R6/bin/xfs -config /etc/conf.xfs & Some notes: If you are using ApplixWare, the X terminals need access to some special fonts. Add in the font server configuration the line /opt/applix/axfonts/all_pcf at the end (after cyrillic,) and restart the font server. Every X terminal will be able to use Applix. Check the license though :-) Have fun!