[Edu-sig] Contagious Fun => PythonStation => diskless linux stations

[Jason Cunliffe]

Greetings..

Yesterday at LinuxWorld Show in New York I saw Linux running on Sony
Playstation2:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/01/31/linux.ps2.idg/index.html
http://playstation2-linux.com/

also lots of good information on linuxdevices.com:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3628477348.html

which also points to nice Linux on DreamCast article:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7466555948.html


You probably won be surprised to hear SDL [Simple DirectMedia Layer] figures
in this.  Python has wrappers for SDL as used in PyGame
http://pygame.org/

Stephen Figgins wrote an article last October about it:
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/python/2001/10/04/pythonnews.html


The action was all at the GPL .org booths. Some guys from the Japanese Linux
Users Group had all sorts of cool thing going on, including Linux on Sega
Dreamcast, and sundry other hand held computers and PDAs. The hack which
caught my eye was a little tool called "ttrec". A small cli program which
allows one to record and playback anything going on in tty terminal. An
extension of the old Unix 'talk'. ttrec/ttplay is perfect for edu-sig
because it does not behave like call and response port-based app. Instead it
is natural VCR for console action. The flow is completely normal. Each
character appears exactly as a entered by user or as computer echoes
responses. Perfect for teaching python or any other cli activity in a shared
environment or for later / remote use. The programmer told me it is a tiny c
program he wrote.


But by far the most edu-significant and exciting things I saw yesterday were
developments for diskless workstations. There are a couple of closely
related GPL efforts underpinning this:

http://EtherBoot.org
http://rom-o-matic.net
http://ltsp.org     Linux Terminal Server Project

etherboot.org showed how one can take almost any ethernet card [$5 - $25]
and install a ROM on it containing a tiny kernel. They This allows a PC to
boot faultlessly from network server. The beauty is that one only has to
maintain one central machine. Etherboot boots very quickly. Perfect for
schools and classrooms. These guys are incredibly adept at writing tiny
drivers and squeezing code onto EPROM's and flashdisks. It turns out that
almost all BIOS with PCI will recognize these, and most ethernet cards have
a vacant EPROM slot sitting there. The etherboot guys had a basketful of
different cards on display and the list of supported hardware is impressive;
Etherboot Network Interface Card Database
http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/db/

LTSP is The complement to etherboot.
Linux makes a great platform for deploying diskless workstations that boot
from a network server. The LTSP is all about running thin client computers
in a GNU/Linux environment.

That means cheap silent PCs [no moving parts] which use standard keyboards
mice and monitor. Boots in 22 seconds from a server. Then launches a
XWindows GUI such as Gnome or KDE. viola! This is not  gimmick, they had all
kinds of heavy use running which we monitored remotely. The implications are
many. Terminals are old idea in computers. What has changed is the
price/performance of servers, Linux and all the desktop GUI applications now
being developed. For schools.libraries etc this means the budget can go much
further. Only one server to maintain. Cheap terminals everywhere else need
no maintenance and can take the abuse typical of public computers.  Jim
McQuillan from LTSP said they have been working on it for 3 years. Now
things are working well looking they are looking towards lots of exciting
developments, including wireless and configuring with displays as one piece.

He showed me a whitebox [diskless PC size of a small dictionary. Unit cost
$400, but if he could order a container full [approx. 8000 units] from
Taiwan the price drops to about $200 each. Add mouse, keyboard, monitor,
extra RAM if desired..

The arithmetic per classroom/library is clearly very compelling.
Lets say for every 20-40 terminals you need one good fast late model PC. The
rest can be

Cheap too expensive for you?
I met a guy who lives in Delaware. Said his local recycling center [glass
plastic etc] also has load of old PCs sitting there which nobody wants.
These make perfectly good  diskeless terminals. In his case he took them
home and built a supercluster in his living room..

Go ahead let Bill Gates donate lots of hardware. Then strip em down and use
etherboot and LTSP! A major issue for computing in schools/libraries is that
people fail to understand/budget for maintenance and sysadmin. I was just
reading about this problem in UK now.

The above scenes depend on running ethernet to every station. Alternatives
are to use wireless. There is a grassroots wireless movement in New York and
elsewhere. NYCWireless.net has maps, links to other cities, how-tos etc.
http://www.nycwireless.net/
http://www.nycwireless.net/links.html

Looks like it is gonna be a very interesting year..

./Jason

______________________________________________
Jason Cunliffe [NOMADICS: Director art+design]
tel/fax: +1 718 422-1078  jasonic@nomadics.org
N 43:00.000' W 074:31.875' ALT:1144 ft
84 Henry Street #3C Brooklyn  NY 11201     USA