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OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs, using KACE K2000 as PXE?

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  OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs, using  KACE K2000 as PXE? Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2016-12-05 21:10 +0100
    Re: OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs,  using KACE K2000 as PXE? Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2016-12-05 21:30 +0100
      Re: OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs,  using KACE K2000 as PXE? Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2016-12-05 23:40 +0100
        Re: OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs,  using KACE K2000 as PXE? Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2016-12-06 00:10 +0100
    Re: OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs,  using  KACE K2000 as PXE? emetib <chadbrabec@gmail.com> - 2016-12-06 09:10 +0100
      Re: OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs,  using KACE K2000 as PXE? Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2016-12-06 15:10 +0100

#175433 — OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs, using KACE K2000 as PXE?

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I've been tasked with replacing a few library kiosks in a university
library. They currently run Windows with a kiosk-product named SiteKiosk to
restrict them to just a few apps (web-browser, printing, MS-Word) and
prevent tampering. It works pretty well.

But I have a philosophical distaste of Windows; I'm not in favor of
maintaining more third-party products (SiteKiosk) than is necessary; I like
the idea of disk-less workstations; I like the idea of
configure-in-one-place-for-all-machines; and I just like Debian; and I
think it might serve as a foot-hold in the door to converting other Windows
PCs across campus to Debian.

But I have no real experience in PXE booting, and only vaguely understand
the depths of Debian booting, and know very little about setting up a KACE
(now Quest) K2000 Systems Deployment Appliance for network-booting a
computer, and much less for booting a Linux image, and much less for
pointing those Linux boxes to remote read-only NFS mounted systems (and I
know little NFS at all).

So, does anyone have enough experience with this combination of stuff, and
willingness, to guide me in this process? Or even subsets of the process
that might get me closer to the whole? I can't help but think there might
be others in a similar situation that would benefit from finding this
process detailed on-line.

Thanks!

-- 
Kent West                    <")))><
Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com

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#175435 — Re: OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs, using KACE K2000 as PXE?

On Mon, Dec 05, 2016 at 02:07:44PM -0600, Kent West wrote:
> But I have no real experience in PXE booting, and only vaguely understand
> the depths of Debian booting, and know very little about setting up a KACE
> (now Quest) K2000 Systems Deployment Appliance for network-booting a
> computer, and much less for booting a Linux image, and much less for
> pointing those Linux boxes to remote read-only NFS mounted systems (and I
> know little NFS at all).
> 
> So, does anyone have enough experience with this combination of stuff, and
> willingness, to guide me in this process? Or even subsets of the process
> that might get me closer to the whole? I can't help but think there might
> be others in a similar situation that would benefit from finding this
> process detailed on-line.

The keyword you are missing is LTSP, the Linux Terminal Server
Project, which is a full setup of DNS, DHCP, PXE, images, and
administration.

https://wiki.debian.org/LTSP

and for a bigger project built on it, see Debian Edu /
SkoleLinux:  https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/

-dsr-

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#175439 — Re: OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs, using KACE K2000 as PXE?

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On Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 2:28 PM, Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 05, 2016 at 02:07:44PM -0600, Kent West wrote:
> > But I have no real experience in PXE booting, and only vaguely understand
> > the depths of Debian booting, and know very little about setting up a
> KACE
> > (now Quest) K2000 Systems Deployment Appliance for network-booting a
> > computer, and much less for booting a Linux image, and much less for
> > pointing those Linux boxes to remote read-only NFS mounted systems (and I
> > know little NFS at all).
> >
> > So, does anyone have enough experience with this combination of stuff,
> and
> > willingness, to guide me in this process? Or even subsets of the process
> > that might get me closer to the whole? I can't help but think there might
> > be others in a similar situation that would benefit from finding this
> > process detailed on-line.
>
> The keyword you are missing is LTSP, the Linux Terminal Server
> Project, which is a full setup of DNS, DHCP, PXE, images, and
> administration.
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/LTSP



Yes, that explains *what* to do in a general sort of way, but not *why*
it's being done, so when a particular generalized step doesn't work, I'm
having difficulty sorting out what that step is supposed to do, and how to
do it in my situation. I was hoping to find someone familiar with the K2000
and with Debian NFS/PXE booting, who's brain I might be able to pick. I
didn't really expect to find anyone with that particular cross-over skill
set, but thought I'd take a shot.

But this gives me impetus to go look at this again a little deeper maybe.
Thanks for this pointer!

-- 
Kent West                    <")))><
Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com

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#175442 — Re: OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs, using KACE K2000 as PXE?

On Mon, Dec 05, 2016 at 04:33:31PM -0600, Kent West wrote:
> 
> Yes, that explains *what* to do in a general sort of way, but not *why*
> it's being done, so when a particular generalized step doesn't work, I'm
> having difficulty sorting out what that step is supposed to do, and how to
> do it in my situation. I was hoping to find someone familiar with the K2000
> and with Debian NFS/PXE booting, who's brain I might be able to pick. I
> didn't really expect to find anyone with that particular cross-over skill
> set, but thought I'd take a shot.

I haven't got a clue what a K2000 is, but the LTSP or Debian/Edu
does exactly what you say you want.

When a machine boots with a PXE-compliant NIC, it makes a DHCP
request. You have to answer that with an assignment of an IP
address and a special option that tells the address of a TFTP
server.

The PXE client then adopts the IP address and makes a TFTP
request. Have the TFTP server answer with a Debian kernel
configured with an NFS root, and make sure your NFS server will 
make that available to your client.

Modulo a lot of network traffic, bob's your uncle.

Debian/Edu will happily supply you with all the components
above.

-dsr-

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#175455 — Re: OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs, using KACE K2000 as PXE?

kent, 

i just looked up quest k2000 and there is no mention of linux at all.

are you looking at changing the whole system and putting linux on it?  trying to have microsoft give a tftp linux image?

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#175466 — Re: OT: Read-Only NFS-mounted Debian System for Library Kiosk PCs, using KACE K2000 as PXE?

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On Tue, Dec 6, 2016 at 1:45 AM, emetib <chadbrabec@gmail.com> wrote:

> kent,
>
> i just looked up quest k2000 and there is no mention of linux at all.
>
> are you looking at changing the whole system and putting linux on it?
> trying to have microsoft give a tftp linux image?
>
>

The K2000 is a "System Deployment Appliance", originally developed by a
company named KACE, bought by Dell, and recently sold to Quest.

It's basically for building/scripting and distributing computer images. For
example, you buy 100 new Dell computers for your company. You have a
standard Windows 10 image you've built, that has MS-Office and Firefox and
Chrome and Adobe Creative Cloud and company-emblazoned screen savers, etc.
You tell the K2000 to push this image to your 100 new Dells and rename them
and add them to the domain, and you're done.

You can do the same for your new Macs, putting test lab images on the 10
Macs headed to the testing lab, developer-friendly images for the 6 coders,
presentation-friendly images for the 4 classroom-podium Macs, and the
Solitaire-only image for the CEO's MacBook. Push a button; BAM! The Macs
are imaged and ready to be delivered.

The K2000 has a PXE boot system built in, so that we can configure our
campus-wide DHCP server to feed the K2000's IP address to client computers
that are booted to the network; the K2000 then feeds a PXE image of some
sort to the client PC/Mac, which is typically a stripped-down Windows
BartPE-type image or a slim Mac OS X image, that gives just enough
functionality over the network to then run hardware diags or disk
partitioners or the imaging process.

It's my understanding that the K2000, although not natively supporting
other OSes, can be made to boot pretty much any system image. But it takes
tinkering, and although I didn't expect there to be many tinkerers in the
world that had the tinkering skill-set to work with both Debian NFS/remote
booting and the K2000, I thought if any place would have the expertise it
would be debian-user.

Just as a quick recap: I'm looking to have the K2000 offer a Debian
NFS/remote X session to Dell PCs when they netboot, so that I can configure
some library diskless read-only kiosks allowing library patrons to run a
web browser, maybe open a document editor, and print. I could accomplish
the Debian kiosk setup by installing on the local drive, but then I'll have
multiple machines to maintain, whereas a netboot remote-NFS setup would be
a configure-once-configure-everywhere situation, and would remove the
necessity of having and imaging the the local drives.

It's okay that no one here knows how; I knew it was a long shot, but
thought I'd ask.

Thanks!

-- 
Kent West                    <")))><
Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com

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