[X2go-dev] use thin client CPU resources

[John A. Sullivan III]

On Fri, 2010-07-02 at 15:20 +0200, Mike Gabriel wrote:
> Hi x2go-folks,
> 
> here is another question to the developers...
> 
> When talking to school teachers here in Kiel, there was a very central  
> demand to thin client work stations: run application on the thin  
> client hardware.
> 
> in schools this is needed for:
> 
>    o accessing USB-devices like LEGO mind storm robots etc.
>    o starting development environments on the thin client CPU (e.g. eclipse) so
>      that programming of ROBOT devices can be tested locally
>    o play media (DVD, AVI on CD or USB-Stick) on the thin client
>    o start firefox locally (but with the user's profile), esp. because of flash
>      media, but also animations on websites
> 
> As I know, in LTSP there is a solution for that (a weird bash script  
> called ltsp-localapp or so).
> 
> My question: is there also an idea or an approach for x2go how local  
> CPU usage of thin clients could be implemented? I suppose, there is no  
> implementation yet, is it?
> 
> My basic idea of how it could be done:
> 
>    o mount $HOME of the x2goserver on the client via sshfs, this mount  
> should be
>      tunneled through the main SSH connection (I know this is the other way
>      round compared to x2goprint spool dir and shared folders... this  
> might need
>      some work and ideas before we go into deatails)
>    o issue a script call on the thin client
>    o set some environment variables on the thin client from within this script
>      ($HOME, $USER etc.)
>    o let the x2goclient start the local app (like firefox, vlc,  
> mplayer, eclipse)
> 
> As this is probably the most needed feature herearound I'd love to go  
> into detail with this issue sometime in August/September.
> 
> Plz let me know what you think,
> Mike
> 
> 
I could see a great use for this with multimedia/video files - John