LtspConvergence

Summary

The upstream LTSP project is currently maintaining a large number of source packages and a complete build environment that are needed to build the "official" LTSP binary packages. This list of packages includes glibc, kernel, init, X.org, bash and much more. The MueKow specification outlines a new method of creating the LTSP binaries that are executed by the thin client. Ubuntu's implementation of LTSP is based on the MueKow specification.

The existence of 2 different versions of LTSP has created some confusion within the LTSP community and without a clear statement of the direction of LTSP, it could be perceived as a lack of leadership within the project.

Unfortunately, the Ubuntu implementation of LTSP isn't quite "feature complete" compared with upstream LTSP, version 4.2. In order for the LTSP developers to shift over to the Ubuntu implementation as the standard reference implementation, several issues need to be addressed.

Implementation

There are a number of issues that need to be addressed, before we can abandon the current upstream LTSP method and Before Ubuntu's LTSP can be a 1:1 replacement, a few problems remain to be solved. Both LTSP and Ubuntu should be able to work towards solving these in the next few months, with a target of edgy of being a "beta" for a replacement of the current LBE (LTSP Build Environment).

Outstanding issues

  • While running X over SSH is a simple method of encrypting the X traffic, doing so puts a heavy strain on the server. This causes a scaling problem when deploying LTSP in schools and businesses, where the workstation-to-server ratio is on the order of 50:1 or more. It has even been reported that there are huge performance issues when running only a single thin client trying to view a website with flash animation.
  • Local device support (Works in Edgy)
  • Local printing. (No plan yet, but should be simple to implement)
  • Etherboot support (Goal for Edgy)
  • Scanner support (???)
  • rdesktop for client. (???)
  • network swap (Goal for Edgy)
  • Needs to run 64 meg clients w/o swap, 32mb w/swap. (64 meg implemented since dapper, 32 meg+swap planned for edgy)
  • Boot times. LTSP-4.2 can boot a thin client from power-on to login screen in 25-30 seconds.
  • Switch ltsp.org to launchpad for bugtriage
  • Switch ltsp.org to bzr to get it included in the supermirror
  • Add functionality to launchpad to create ltsp.org tarballs on a timebased schedule as well as on demand

CategorySpec

LtspConvergence (last edited 2008-08-06 16:15:58 by localhost)