[mythtv-users] Best options/howto for diskless frontends

[Mike Perkins]

On 24/10/12 21:33, Thomas Mashos wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 1:22 PM, Patrick Ouellette <pat at flying-gecko.net> wrote:
>> On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 12:46:34PM -0700, Michael Drons wrote:
>>> I had a backend crash and switched linux distro & upgraded mythtv in the process.  My backend is now running Ubuntu and mythtv .26.  I now need to upgrade my frontends, which are diskless.
>>>
>>> They are running gentoo, but was thinking of switching distros also.  Anyone have a recommendation on a distro that supports diskless mythtv frontends.
>>>
>>> I have been struggling now for 2 days trying to get LTSP working (following these instructions: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MythTV/Install/Hardy/Diskless), but I seem to have many errors as it does not work.  Everything I find in google references onlder versions of Ubuntu (I am running 12.10) on the backend.
>>
>> I'm running LTSP frontends on Ubuntu 12.04 and can tell you the document you
>> reference is not necessarily accurate.  At least for me the server
>> configuration for the NBD service was incorrect.  NBD server changed the
>> way it works and uses a name model as opposed to a network port
>> model for the shares and the Mythbuntu LTSP scripts were not updated for that.
>> I also have to make sure the NBD server's IP address is specified for the PXE
>> boot on the client (use the -S <ip address> option on the ltsp-update-image
>> command).
>>
>>>
>>> My only requirement is that the frontends boot quickly.  The gentoo FE boot from power on to mythtv ready in about 45 seconds with no hibernation or sleep configured.
>>
>> Right now my LTSP config hangs a bit looking to configure the already
>> configured network.  I haven't bothered fixing it yet.
>>
>>>
>>> A nice to have would be for the frontends to share the nfs partition (currently have 3 diskless fe).  My current setup takes a lot of disk as each FE has its own root nfs mount point.
>>
>> The unionfs model in LTSP handles this well.  All your frontends can share
>> a common NBD root, while individual customizations for each front end can
>> reside on the NFS partition (all transparent to the end user).
>>
>
> Did you make the changes to the scripts or just do it manually? I
> don't use LTSP, but we can fix the scripts if someone knows what the
> issues are.
>
For reference LTSP under Debian "Just Works". Once I figured out which chicken 
to sacrifice (the docs are a little obscure for my liking) I just ran the 
scripts and it all worked out of the tin.

I wouldn't dream of running a front end that way, though. You would have to make 
it a 'local app' since there's no chance in hell you can run the video over 
remote X from the server*. For a workstation LTSP is fine, though.

* It's perfectly possible to run the setup and walk through the front-end menus 
screens via LTSP. Just don't try and watch anything that way.

-- 

Mike Perkins