[mythtv-users] Mythbuntu 9.04, Boot On LAN, DHCP c\o pfSense

Tortise tortise at paradise.net.nz
Sun Oct 25 01:52:38 UTC 2009


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Perkins" <mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk>
To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2009 1:24 AM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Mythbuntu 9.04, Boot On LAN, DHCP c\o pfSense


Tortise wrote:
> Finally got this booting
>
> Server MCC:
> Diskless Server:
> Select CPU architecture of your clients: i386
> Apply  (Wait hours!)
> Choose image
> i386
> Commit changes (use the underlying defaults)
>
> pfSense:
> DHCP Server serving IP's to named MAC addresses
> Enable Network booting
> Server address: {Whatever}
> Enter the {ERROR =IP address from the network boot server} boot image reference:   /ltsp/i386/pxelinux.0
>
> Frontend(s)
> Enable PXE boot on LAN function (details depend on system - either using motherboard BIOS if there or BootonLAN capable NIC)
> Seem to boot into a generic image.
>
> At the moment I have two diskless front ends and both will boot at same time.  Kewl.
>
> Presumably they each have their own Desktop, file set, config etc(?)
>
> Now need to presumably configure each with vdpau etc.  I guess I have to add in JYA's repo into synaptic with his keys etc into 
> each
> frontend.
>
> Nice to get rid of the greatest FE noise, the HDD's.  Boot speed is also better than HDD, which was a pleasant surprise!  Some
> smarts don't seem to be there, for example typing sensors usually gives a prompt telling what to install, however not so in the
> images.
>

>You probably ought not to be booting LTSP clients if you want them to run mythfrontend. Since all LTSP processes effectively run on 
>the server, you would
be faced with running several mythfrontends on the same host, which could get interesting.
==============
I am not sure this is correct?  Seems to me the image is downloaded and run with all the processes being run on the FE?  ltsp just 
happens to be the directory that the diskless FE is under, not sure that makes it ltsp?


>Not to mention, LTSP uses the remote X functionality to display the desktops on the thin clients, and myth does too much for that 
>to work properly.
I know, I've played around with that in the past.
===============================
Again I am not sure this is a true thin client configuration, I note there are two distinct image file sets under 
/var/cache/mythbuntu-diskless/overlay/
If it were a true thin client situation, wouldn't all the vdpau stuff be run on the server, and the changing images sent over the 
LAN - and the LAN wouldn't have the capacity to send 1080i yet this plays fine on the FE, suggesting to me most of the work 
continues to happen on the FE.

>It is perfectly possible to serve both from the same system, however. I run a host which serves both LTSP clients and a diskless 
>mythfrontend.


I think you should be booting minimyth (http://minimyth.org/) for your front
ends.
========================
OK, why?

 It is a relatively straightforward matter to add in the required files alongside those installed by the LTSP functions. You would 
also need to add
extra lines to dhcp.conf to handle your dedicated mythfrontend clients. Because of this, I don't let my pfSense firewall run the 
dhcp, it's all handled by the
master server, which in any case has to run tftpboot and other services for the
thin clients. This has the added advantage of keeping the configuration all on one machine.
=======================
Running diskless seems to conserve all config files on the server also.  Server CPU load seems unaffected to brief testing.  What's 
the distinction you see?

pfSense seems ok as dhcp server in default form , so long as there is only one boot file server.  More would get interesting.

I appreciate you input Mike, thank you. 



More information about the mythtv-users mailing list