At Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:38:20 -0400 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote: > > I got my hands on a HP t5720. This was designed as a thin-client > workstation (originally Windows XPembedded, talking to a Windows terminal > server). It's not very powerful, with an AMD Geode NX 1500 (1.0 GHz), > 256Mb RAM (16MB used for video) and a 512Mb flash "hard disk". > > I plugged in a USB DVD drive and was able to boot "linux rescue" from > a C5.4 32bit disk, and it basically looks like pretty generic PC hardware. > > So I thought this would be a great device to build as an "instant on" > type device. Well, as close to instant-on as possible :-) This probably > means a standard C5 build is not suitable (too many processes running; > would take a while to start up). So an "X terminal", maybe. > > I look at the LTSP code base, but this looks like it wants to run as it's > own OS; I already have a C5 server in my house, I don't want to build > another one (not even as a virtual image). > > Acting as an X terminal, I'd guess the 256Mb RAM should be sufficient; > it won't be processing much beyond the display locally (although I might > want to enable ssh and add a locally connected printer). The root disk > could be local (512Mb flash) or by NFS. > > What do people recommend for building this? What would have the quickest > power-on-to-ready time? You will *probably* find LTSP's performance disapointing, depending on how beefy your server box is (and what else it is doing) and/or how many of these little boxes you plan to use. See http://www.deepsoft.com/2009/08/setting-up-thin-clients-at-the-wendell-free-library-part-1/ for a detailed look at what I set up at the Wendell Free Library. The machines come up pretty fast. -- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 Deepwoods Software -- Download the Model Railroad System http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows heller at deepsoft.com -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/