[Solved] Installing LTSP on Linux Mint

[bluepenguin]

I would like to document my results of trying out LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project-Thin Client/Server package) on Mint up to the point of successfully installing it without any errors. As of this time, after much googling, I haven't come across steps to do it in Mint. I hope someone interested in doing LTSP in Mint will find some details here useful.

What i tried to do was to let the installation go through its normal course without modifying any of the package scripts and preserving what was intended by the package maintainers.

LTSP is already implemented in Ubuntu. I used that as a starting point (Ubuntu LTSP how to here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/LTSPQuickInstall) - using the latest build of Linux Mint Debian (1) (LMDE 201109). I happen to use the Gnome version since i have downloaded it previously from an earlier test. You may want to opt for Xfce for its low-memory usage. I haven't tried that but i think the procedure will be similar.

Step 1:Getting Started: Installing LMDE, network & other needed packages

I downloaded and installed LMDE (http://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php). Make sure you can browse the Internet after (i.e. Your networking and connection to the internet is ok). Then update your package repositories

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# apt-get update

We are now ready to install the required packages:

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# apt-get install dhcp3-server openssh-server
# apt-get install ltsp-server-standalone

Step 2: We have to tell LTSP scripts that Linux Mint is actually Debian
DON"T run "ltsp-build-client" yet (if you do you'll get a bunch of errors like):

"/usr/share/ltsp/plugins/ltsp-build-client/common/010-chroot-tagging:
line 3: /opt/ltsp/amd64/etc/ltsp_chroot: No such file or directory
error: LTSP client installation ended abnormally"

or

"... add_mirrors: command not found
error: LTSP client installation ended abnormally"

Do a symlink of the plugins directory "Debian" to "LinuxMint"
From root do:

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       # cd /usr/share/ltsp/plugins/ltsp-build-client
       # ln -s Debian LinuxMint


Do another symlink of "Debian-functions" to "LinuxMint-functions"

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       # ln -s Debian-functions LinuxMint-functions


Step 3: It's time to run "ltsp-build-client"

include your target Debian distribution

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   # ltsp-build-client --dist squeeze


Warning: The script will now start pulling packages from the Internet. Please make sure you have a stable internet connection. This may take a while to complete depending upon your connection speed. Suggest you take a pizza break!

Todo: Configure DHCP & NFS test with a thin client

I haven't got the time yet to test the setup with a client machine. I hope someone can try & document that too!

Enjoy!

[proxima_centauri]

* Moved to LMDE forum

[rootchick]

Thanks! It worked for me too. I'm using Mint 13 MATE edition though, so I pointed my symlinks to Ubuntu instead of Debian, and ran ltsp-build-client with --dist=precise. Worked beautifully, and I just successfully booted a thin client from it!

It's gotten so much easier to set up LTSP since the early days.

[Ordinary12]

I'm using Mint 13 also but I have no idea what to change the links to. Can you give us detail intructions on what we need to do to setup LTSP on Linux Mint 13? I followed all the directions but its not working for me. I keep getting a message that says the directory already exists and that the thin client wasn't made.