Thin-clients (X terminals) and getting audio on it

Feb 6 05:28 UTC 2009

Hey, I got my hands on a demo thin client for a few days to play with at
home (It runs Ubuntu - they didn't even know that, the funny thing is
that the solutions-provider knows even less!). 

Anyway, getting the desktop up and running was pretty easy with my
Debian box, but I'm fiddling with audio and having a hard time getting
that to work..

I checked the HOWTO's and the web. There is something called the LTSP
project (has built in support for audio), but I can't use that because
the TC (thin client) uses Ubuntu, and LTSP looks like a lot of work in
terms of getting it to work with this client. Other than that, you can
install something like ESD, aRts, or NAS at the client end, and stream
the audio from the server - problem is that I'm worried about f!ing up
the thin-client by installing pkgs on it; also I couldn't figure out
what pkg-manager Ubuntu uses???

Anyway, after poking around I discovered it had ALSA already installed..
so is there a way to use that?? Any comments/feedback on all this..

response 2 of 32:

Feb 7 11:25 UTC 2009

umm.. not exactly.. it's a thin client, it's supposed to only contain
whatever the server provides. Basically mplayer would run on the server
and the display would be exported to the thin-client.. so.. the Ubuntu
is a heavily stripped down version, with just some basic tools
(ifconfig, ps, X, etc).

*sigh* it's b0rking with the Debian at wrk.

response 4 of 32:

Feb 8 02:32 UTC 2009

Well I vaguely remember that it had a 500MB flash drive with 2
partitions: windows+syslinux and Linux-Ubuntu with (<100MB)

response 6 of 32:

Feb 8 05:18 UTC 2009

I thought you could write to them 10,000 times or so before they failed. What
exactly does this thing look like?

response 8 of 32:

Feb 8 15:15 UTC 2009

It came with a small Ubuntu already installed?  Can you stick in an external
USB hard drive and boot to it and use your own software?  Or just run
additional programs from external devices?

response 10 of 32:

Feb 9 03:07 UTC 2009

What is GDM?

response 12 of 32:

Feb 10 02:16 UTC 2009

seriously this is disgusting, the guys selling the client only know how
to do it on WindowsCE, so I have to hoof it and I'm not even getting
paid for all this. I've got it working and I'm finding it hard to
let-go.. was wondering what kind of performance you'd see, and if the
switch will die first (I'll need to plot cpu/memory/netwrk usage)..? How
the heck do you measure memory usage in Linux even! I'll use Xming to
load the server :)
They've got a quad processor :) :) with 2GB RAM and a 6-10Mbit link
:)for "downloading" Debian :) In fact i ran out of movies to dl because
I wasn't aware of the names..

response 14 of 32:

Feb 10 04:27 UTC 2009

Re #13: very funny. use exmap instead. there are some articles by Lunas
Lubos (KDE dev) on why ps and free sux.

response 16 of 32:

Feb 13 13:27 UTC 2009

Re #15: Sindi, free isn't going to be of much use - it clubs usage. The
thing is that with thin clients, usage is going to be bursty, so they
would need to plot usage over a month (MRTG for that), but data
collection has to be accurate (vmstat 2 :)). With 25 users/server,
running Xming on the client (XP - they don't have enough thin clients),
it should be a accurate..

Pfft, GTK may "waste" memory, but data presented nicely can save time
given that we aren't the Borg just yet. I like your minimalistic life
thing, but ya shouldn't turn into a sloth.. (consumes very little, but
winds up not "doing" much). Mind you, I haven't exactly got exmap
working.. it requires a kernel compile on Debian, and I'm feeling lazy.
Debian rocks! It's rock solid! My TFT was f!ing up on Fedora 10 and I
put Etch on it and bingo! And apt-get -t seems to be an interesting
option. I think I'd better give up on Fedora permanently!

response 18 of 32:

Feb 13 13:57 UTC 2009

Man! Managers blabber like deranged loons (Virtualization)! Grr! How
could virtualization solve fundamental CPU/Mem issues! And that guy is
drawing 9 lakhs in salary and comes in at 9AM! I had to go to the
clients place, and it's not even my project, and this guy was saying
"they don't know anything, relax etc etc" and we got our asses handed to
us! None of our guys knew anything about Linux and obviously the client
had the 2-team-leads (Java-devs) interrogating us and this manager-bozo
had got the requirements wrong even (apparently JBOSS/MySQL was supposed
to run on a per user basis!)

response 20 of 32:

Feb 13 16:06 UTC 2009

We used XP to print a photo because it has the printer drivers, but it takes
much much longer to boot or accomplish anything else.  My linux can boot in
under 10 seconds from when you push the on button.  Lynx loads instantly. 
Knoppix or Ubuntu are nearly as slow as Windows, loading all sorts of
irrelevant junk, and I find guis annoying and they force you to use a mouse
which also slows down everything.

response 22 of 32:

Feb 15 04:25 UTC 2009

I installed linux to a laptop with 96MB RAM that runs at 120MHz.  16MB is also
adequate if not running a graphical browser.  Lynx runs in one console and
if you want to see a previous page you hit backspace and choose from history
(or back arrow for previous page).  My linux is Basiclinux based on Slackware.
I normally don't use X at all, just to run OPera if I need javascript at some
page.  Otherwise lynx, if I need embedded graphics link2s.  I don't use wine,
or java, or yahoo mail.  I don't download mail, I use pine at grex or sdf.
I can burn CDs.  I don't have a DVD burner.  I can play dvds with mplayer on
a 500Mhz machine with -hardframedrop, using X or svga.  I use Xvesa but a
larger X would be faster (accelerated) though taking more memory.  I use pico
as a text editor (or e3pi) or nano if I want more features.  Or vi.  Or Jim's
4K DOS text editor under dosemu, which will also run a 35K DOS 3D CAD program.
Lynx can access fastmail account (so can any other browser with SSL support).

I set up the laptop to dual boot 2K or linux.  A few seconds to the boot menu,
then 9 sec to load linux.  Takes longer with a larger partition (this one is
about 100MB) because it checks the drive briefly.  In 75MB I have links2,
links2, lynx, elinks, opera (I could add dillo and netrik and arena), and
mplayer.  I forget if that includes timidity midi player (takes up a lot of
space with patch files).  I can listen to streaming mp3 or ogg or rm files,
or watch low-bandwidth internet TV.  I can burn CDs, display images, print
them with netpbm or ghostscript, display pdfs with ghostscript using svgalib
program svp as a frontend (or xpdf but it is slower and needs X).  I have
kermit with ftp, dbclient and dropbear (ssh client and server) telnet, httpd,
wget, and many other things.    I have an excel to html and a powerpoint to
html convertor, and a word to text convertor, and a collection of fonts (I
can convert Russian from .doc to something readable with linux).  I have
msmtp, an authenticating mail program, and base64 to encode attachments.  CD
and wave players.  PDA software.  scp for secure file transfer.

A small window manager jwm (or icewm) with calendar and clock and menu, and
an X-based viewer xli.  I rarely use it.

I have pcmcia support and can use modem or network card or other cards.;
I have gone online at the library with the laptop.  2K was taking 13 minutes
to boot until I unchecked all the startup items (including AVG) and half the
processes using msconfig from XP - I don't have a LAN, or smartcard, or UPS,
etc.  Got it down to 2.5minutes, but adding back a virus checker added another
3 minutes.  My linux does not need antivirus.

It does not come with 50MB of printer drivers so I have not succeeded in
printing color photos in the correct colors, but I can print them in black
and white just fine.  

I have sqlite database and sqlite spreadsheet.  A small console calculator
plus the graphical one.  Magicpoint presentation software.

I run out of memory rotating large photos in less than 90 degree increments,
or trying to view large websites with Opera, in 24MB memory.  But even 96MB
is not enough to keep Win2K from slowing to a crawl.  

There is a solitaire game and a few others.  I don't do games.
I can view files in Russian, Greek, Armenian, and other console fonts.
I can view various numbers of lines and columns.

I can do almost all of this without a mouse.
I can use this as a terminal plugged into a serial port, or via a network
card, or parallel port, or wirelessly, with kermit or ftp or ssh, or as a
server, to share a modem connection or do file transfer.  I can network with
Windows and run linux programs in Windows that way (use linux as a server).

response 24 of 32:

Feb 16 15:31 UTC 2009

installpkg, removepkg in the 'newer' version of my linux, or a little script
'pkg' that simply untars on / and runs the install script in the 'older' one
and remove things manually.  But I don't install entire packages, I just copy
over what I need, symlink, and make sure I have dependencies.  You can edit
the menu of any window manager with a text editor.  I have never tried to read
a chm file.  svp is a nice svgalib frontend for ghostscript to read pdf, or
you can convert it to bitmap or extract the images or text.  pdb is a palmos
database and I have compiled some convertors and sql.  I have never had to
view an avi, just dvds.