[X2Go-User] thinclient image and automounting usb-devices

[Stefan]

Hi Christoffer,

thanks for answer.

Am Wednesday 07 March 2012 schrieb christoffer krakou:
> Hello Stefan
> 
> The main hurdle in that kind of setup would be connecting to the
> wireless network before you mount the nfs share. I don't know if thats
> even possible

no, that is not what I want to do. I don't want mount the thinclient-root over 
nfs - like the tce over pxe does. 

I just wanted a "local installation" of an thinclient-environment, which 
beheave like the tce.

That's quite easy - how I founded out now. What I've done:

  * Installed  x2gothinclientenvironment to a local debian installation
  * setting up tce in a chroot like described in the wiki 
http://www.x2go.org/doku.php/wiki:components:tce
  * chroot in the thinclient-chroot:

chroot /opt/x2gothinclient/chroot

changing the Boot-method in the initramfs (local instead of nfs)

 vi /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf

    # (...)
    BOOT=local
    # (...)

update-initramfs -u

(I had to install a newer kernel from backports becaus of brandnew hardware, 
simply adjusting /etc/apt/sources.list and upgrade the kernel)

Now installing stuff for wlan

apt-get install wpasupplicant wireless-tools firmware-b43-installer linux-
wlan-ng-firmware atmel-firmware firmware-atheros firmware-brcm80211 firmware-
iwlwifi firmware-linux-nonfree firmware-linux-free firmware-ralink firmware-
realtek libertas-firmware

Configure network:

  vi /etc/network/interfaces
  ~~~~~~~~~~
    # Used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8). See the interfaces(5) manpage or
    # /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples for more information.
    auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback
     
    auto wlan0
    iface wlan0 inet dhcp
       wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
  ~~~~~~~~~~~

And adding the wireless config:

  vi /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
  ~~~~~~~~~~~
    ap_scan=1
    ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
    network={
           ssid="YOUR-SSID"
           scan_ssid=0
           proto=WPA RSN
           key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
           pairwise=CCMP TKIP
           group=CCMP TKIP
           psk=THEPRESHAREDKEY-SECRET-SECRET
  ~~~~~~~~~~~

For facilitate debugging setting up a password:

  passwd

leaving the chroot.

  exit

Now copiing the whole chroot to a harddisk or a usb-stick and install grub on 
the medium. For usb-stick it's easy:

mounting the partition (sdxX) with the chroot (/mnt):

/sbin/grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sdX

Finding out the UUID:

  blkid

Now editing /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg (using the skelet of the existing 
installation) and adding:

menuentry 'x2go thinclient' {
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-0.bpo.1-686-pae root=UUID=UUID-OF-PARTITION ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-0.bpo.1-686-pae
}

Now you have to edit your sessions:

vi /mnt/sdxX/etc/x2go/x2gothinclient_start

Ready.

Of course this is not yet perfect. E.g. it would be great to make the root-fs 
readonly, e.g. with squashfs. But it works so far.

One Problem is the lack of interactivity - if something goes wrong (maybe wifi 
is not running will disconnect during the session) than there is no 
meaningfull error message.

For laptops two additional things would be disirable: interactive wifi-manager 
(like network-manager or wicd) and a display for the battery charge.

So I tried to set up a minimal system with the same funcionality - but with an 
window-manager. This leaded to the problems I described in another mail:
Error: Aborting session with 'Unable to open display

Greetings
Stefan

> On 03/07/2012 11:29 AM, Stefan wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > we plan to set up an x2go-server in a school, where people should have
> > access to with laptops throught wlan.
> > 
> > The laptops will have dual-boot systems an one of them should be a
> > minimal setup with x2goclient (thinclient-image) and wlan access. It
> > would be nice doing usb-automounting in the image - like the
> > ltsp-thinclient environment does.
> > 
> > They should behave thin-client like - only that they can't boot through
> > pxe because of wlan. (For the desktops we still use ltsp - because of
> > features like local apps and automounging ...) So users should not have
> > to open a desktop-environment, starting x2goclient and mount local
> > devices manualy.
> > 
> > Are there any common approaches?
> > 
> > Is automounting working in the tce of x2go?
> > 
> > 
> > Thanks for your ideas.
> > 
> > stefan