1

Arm has a limited support for server packages on Linux but is it possible to use ARM board i.e Raspberry Pi or Banana Pi(it uses Armhf instruction set rather than dated Armv6 used by raspberry pi) as a LTSP terminal server?

If so, how? Everywhere on internet it talks about raspberry pi as thin client but no where it talks about it as a server.

AceofSpades
  • 143
  • 6
  • *Arm has a limited support for server packages on Linux* -> I think you need to explain what you mean here. ARMv7 (e.g., banana pi and your average smartphone) support is complete; you can do anything w/ ARMv7 you can with x86. ARMv6 (e.g., the raspberry pi) support is less universal but I still fail to see how it lacks "server packages". – goldilocks Nov 23 '14 at 23:55

1 Answers1

2

Here's the output from apt-cache search ltsp on raspbian (Debian Wheezy compiled for the armv6 raspberry pi):

fts-ltsp-ldap - LDAP LTSP module for the TFTP/Fuse supplicant
fts-opsi - LDAP LTSP module for the TFTP/Fuse supplicant
ldm - LTSP display manager
ldm-server - server components for LTSP display manager
ldm-themes - Collection of themes for the LTSP login manager
ltsp-client - complete LTSP client environment
ltsp-client-core - basic LTSP client environment
ltsp-controlaula - classroom management tool - LTSP client version
ltsp-docs - LTSP Documentation
ltsp-server - basic LTSP server environment
ltsp-server-standalone - complete LTSP server environment
ltspfs - Fuse based remote filesystem for LTSP thin clients
ltspfsd - Fuse based remote filesystem hooks for LTSP thin clients
ltspfsd-core - Fuse based remote filesystem daemon for LTSP thin clients

The ltsp-server-standalone package is mentioned here "if you want a complete LTSP server with all the bells and whistles". So the answer to your question, "How to use ARM as LTSP server?" is: Exactly the same way you do it anywhere else. They even have a wiki.

That said, if you are looking to use a raspberry pi, or a banana pi, or any other low power ARM system for this purpose, you are almost certainly going to be disappointed. These machines can support a desktop for themselves, but they simply do not have the power or the RAM to do it for multiple clients. I could be wrong of course -- good luck!

goldilocks
  • 86,451
  • 30
  • 200
  • 258
  • I am not a Linux expert but I would assume replacing packages that has i386 with armhf would do the trick? – AceofSpades Nov 24 '14 at 00:47
  • I am asking this because wiki doesn't talk about Arm at all. Does it mean I might have to compile some of the packages for arm? – AceofSpades Nov 24 '14 at 00:51
  • 1
    It doesn't mention it because it doesn't matter. The software is exactly the same, just compiled for a different architecture. If you are running linux on an arm machine, then you have an arm install and any packages added by the package manager will be for that; likewise on x86 or anything else. If I `apt-get install` anything from that list, it will be the armv6 hard float version. If that were not available, `apt` would not list the packages. So no, you don't need to compile anything. Just use the package manager. – goldilocks Nov 24 '14 at 00:54