Ubuntu Linux & LTSP

Introductory Guide

Originally written by: Logical Networking Solutions

Current version of this document can be found at: http://www.logicalnetworking.net/other/UbuntuLinuxLTSPIntroductoryGuide.pdf

Page 1 / 13
 Table of Contents

1. License ............................................................................................. 3
2. Introduction (a.k.a Useless Dribble) ............................................. 4
3. Linux System Administration
a) User/Group Management ......................................................... 5
b) Ending Misbehaving User Processes ....................................... 7
c) Using the Filesystem .................................................................. 9
4. How LTSP Works ........................................................................... 11
5. Notes on Using the Shell ................................................................ 12
6. Foreign Software and Linux ......................................................... 13

Page 2 / 13
 1.License

The material in this document is released under the

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

You are therefore free to share and adapt the material, provided that you do so under the same or
similar license, and that you give credit to the original authors.
The full text of the license can be found on the Creative Commons website.
When attributing, it is sufficient to refer to the authors of the document as a whole rather than
individually, so "Logical Networking Solutions”, although you should check the relevant page in case
any specific attributions are required.

Page 3 / 13
 2. Introduction (a.k.a. Useless Dribble)

Ubuntu is one of the most popular distributions1 of Linux today. It is based on Debian Linux, which is
known mostly for it's focus on security and stability. It is considered a very close sibling to Debian,
keeping its strengths in mind, while adding things like improved hardware support, easy to navigate
graphical interfaces, and up-to-date software. The two projects exchange code updates between each
other on a regular basis, and the relationship has proven to be very successful.

LTSP (the Linux Terminal Server Project) is a suite of software that adds thin-client functionality to
Linux. This allows many computers to act as terminals to the central LTSP server, which handles
virtually all aspects of the clients – think of it like a bunch of monitors, keyboards and mice running
from the server itself, that all utilize the power of the server for operations on the thin-clients. System
administration is also completely centralized - users are added once. Software is added once. Updates
are applied once. Printers are configured once. You get the picture.

Ubuntu Linux is the primary distribution of LTSP. This means the core software developers that work
on LTSP primarily work toward Ubuntu compatibility and functionality first, and other developers
follow suit with integration into other distributions.

All of this, along with the proven track-record of Linux stability, security, flexibility and now ease of
use and amazing hardware compatibility, make Ubuntu and LTSP the perfect option for many thin-
client situations, including computer labs and classrooms in educational and related environments.

1 A branding - a collection of software that is considered unique

Page 4 / 13
 3. Linux System Administration

3a: User/Group Management

Managing users and groups is fairly easy once you get the hang of it. There are many different ways to
manage users Linux (as you will find is the case with many tasks), but we will cover a couple of the
most common.

Using the KUser GUI

KUser is a graphical interface to add, modify and delete users. It resembles Windows-based user
managers, and is intuitive enough for anyone to get used to fairly quickly. If KUser is not installed, you
must install it (Applications → Add/Remove).

– To add a new user using KUser, launch it (Applications → System Tools → KUser) and click
User → Add User.
– Type in the desired username.
– When User Properties appears, you may type in the user's full name.
– Click on Set Password to give the user a password. Setting a password will automatically enable
the user account. If you will be assigning the user to any groups (such as “students” or “teachers”)
assign them by clicking on the Groups tab and checking each group they will be a member of.
– Click OK to finish the creation of the user. You may now log in with this new user!

Using the shell

COMMANDS USED DESCRIPTION OF COMMAND

sudo execute a command as another user
adduser, addgroup add a user or group to the system

To add a user using the shell, launch a terminal (Applications → Accessories → Terminal) and type:

sudo adduser <username>

You should see something similar to the following, and then a prompt to enter the password for the new
user:

Adding user `<username>' ...

Adding new group `<groupname>' (1007) ...
Adding new user `<username>' (1004) with group `<groupname>' ...
Creating home directory `/home/<username>' ...
Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...
Enter new UNIX password:

Type in a password for the new user, and retype it when prompted. You should then see:

Page 5 / 13
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for <username>
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
Full Name []:

Type in the user's full name (if desired). You may hit <Enter> through any prompts you do not wish to
fill in. Hit Y to finish the creation of the new user when prompted if the information you entered was
correct.

To add the newly created user to a group simply type:

sudo addgroup <username> <groupname>

Adding user `<username>' to group `<groupname>' ...

Adding user <username> to group <groupname>
Done.

You can also simply add a new group to the system by typing:

sudo addgroup <groupname>

Adding group `<groupname>' (GID 1007) ...

Done.

Page 6 / 13
3b: Ending Misbehaving User Processes
Sooner or later, you will have to deal with misbehaving processes. Misbehaving processes are
programs, utilities or other software that stops, crashes or otherwise is not acting as it normally should
(one common example is if you launch the Firefox web browser and it claims that it is already running,
though there is no Firefox window present for that user). A Linux system administrator's job is to find
and “kill” (official Unix terminology) these processes. The concept of killing misbehaving processes is
the same across operating systems – the difference is that in Linux environments, misbehaving
processes rarely bring the entire OS down with it.

We will explore two different ways to kill processes – one with a GUI called “System Monitor” and
one using the shell.

Using the “System Monitor” GUI

System Monitor is a graphical application that allows you to view current running processes, system
performance, and other aspects of the system. You can launch System Monitor by navigating System
→ Administration → System Monitor. The first thing you will want to do is enable the viewing of all
user processes (Navigate to Edit → Preferences and on the Processes tab, under Information Fields
click the check box next to User). Click on Close and sort the processes under the Processes tab by
User. Find the misbehaving process of the user, right-click on it and select End Process. This will
attempt to end the process with normal means. If this does not end the process, right-click on the
process again and select Kill Process.

Using the shell

COMMANDS USED DESCRIPTION OF COMMAND

ps report a snapshot of the current processes
sudo execute a command as another user (root by default)
killall Kill processes by name
kill Send a signal to a process

To kill a process(es) of a certain user using the shell, you must first identify the name of the process. In
this example, we will assume the user's Firefox browser is misbehaving. Launch a terminal
(Applications → Accessories → Terminal) and type:

ps w -u <username>

Your output will look similar (but definitely not the same) as this:

PID TTY TIME CMD

5236 ? 00:00:05 gconfd-2
5336 ? 00:00:00 sshd
5337 pts/0 00:00:00 bash
5342 pts/0 00:00:00 sh
5345 ? 00:00:00 bash
5348 ? 00:00:00 ck-launch-sessi

Page 7 / 13
 5372 ? 00:00:00 ssh-agent
5376 ? 00:00:00 x-session-manag
5792 ? 01:03:19 firefox

As you can see in the process list, there is a process called firefox which is running. To kill this process,
we use the 'killall' command.

sudo killall -u <username> firefox

Will kill all processes called 'firefox' running as the user <username>. We prepend this command with
sudo so we run the command as the root user, which has the privileges necessary to kill other users'
processes (other users cannot do this for security reasons). Alternately, we can use the 'kill' command to
kill processes by process number:

sudo kill 5792

will kill process number 5792 (derived from the process list above). Process numbers are unique across
the system, so you don't have to specify a user when running 'kill'.

If you use one of the examples above to end a process and it remains (verified by another process
listing), you might have to use a switch to unmercifully kill the process (normal usage of 'kill' and
'killall' try to end the process politely – this is the recommended route unless the process is persistent
and will not end by normal means). Simply append a switch to the 'kill' or 'killall' command to end it
without remorse:

sudo killall -9 -u <username> firefox

or

sudo kill -9 5792

See the manual page for these commands to learn more about the switches used in these examples.

Page 8 / 13
3c: Using the Filesystem

The Linux filesystem hierarchy is much like Apple's OSX® filesystem hierarchy, as both have roots
with Unix filesystem concepts and practices.

For system administrators that are used to Microsoft-based filesystems, the first difference you will
notice is that there is a single root of the filesystem (expressed as 'forward-slash', or / ). The root is the
top of the hierarchy, in which all internal and external devices, local and remote filesystems, directories
and files are kept.

NOTE: The root of the filesystem should not be confused with the root user account, which is the
system administrator's account and has complete control over the system).

In Microsoft-land, hard disks, CD/DVD-ROM drives, USB and other external media, and even mapped
network shares are commonly expressed in drive letters (A: B: C: etc). In Linux, OSX and Unix, all of
these medias are mounted from within the root (again, / ) of the filesystem. For example, if you insert a
CD-ROM disc into a Linux system's CD-ROM drive, it will most likely be mounted under a directory
such as /media/cdrom. Commonly in GUIs like Gnome, a CD-ROM icon will also appear on the
user's desktop for easy access – but don't be confused, as this is basically just a pointer to the
/media/cdrom directory. All of the files contained in the CD-ROM will appear under this directory.
This is the case for most all media in Linux. This approach to managing your files and filesystems will
hopefully prove to become much more flexible and stable than others that have obvious limitations and
fallacies (such as shifting drive letters).

NOTE: Keep in mind that the forward-slash separator ( / ) is opposite the Microsoft counterpart, which
is normally a backslash ( \ ).

Some of the most common data locations that you'll want to know about are:

The /home directory:

All user data (besides the root user) are normal kept in the /home directory. If you have user joe, his
default home directory (unless you specified otherwise) will be /home/joe. User joe will have full
permissions to create files and directories under /home/joe but not necessarily /home/jane. This is
typically synonymous to the "Documents and Settings" concept in Windows 2000+. The root user is
normally the only exception - /root is this user's home directory.

The /media (and /mnt) directories:

The /media directory is where you will find device filesystems such as CD/DVD-ROMs and USB
drives after you insert them (for example, under /media/cdrom). Devices that appear under /media are
normally 'auto-mounted' by the system. /mnt is normally used as a temporary 'mount point' (such as
manually mounting a digital camera under /mnt that isn't automatically mounted by the system).

The /var directory:

Data kept in /var is normally is normally "variable" data such as system logs, printer/e-mail spool files
and other transient and temporary files. /var/log is a commonly visited directory as it is where all
system logs are kept - when you are troubleshooting a problem, this is a useful place to start. Another
example is /var/spool/cups, where all printer spool files go when a user prints a document to a printer

Page 9 / 13
through the CUPS printing subsystem.

/bin, /sbin, /usr, /lib and /opt

All of these directories contain executable programs and their counterparts. It is not normally needed to
peruse through these directories unless you are looking for something specific.

/dev, /proc, /tmp and /lost+found:

These are special directories. /dev contains device files that reference hardware such as modems, hard
disks and mice. /proc contains an actual hierarchy of the system's memory. /tmp is the default directory
that all programs' temporary files are kept. /lost+found is a directory that contains files that are
recovered by the system when a crash occurs (such as files that were in use if the system crashed
unexpectedly).

For a much more technical and encompassing description of the Linux filesystem hierarchy, please
visit the following page: http://tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/

Page 10 / 13
 4. How LTSP Works
LTSP stands for the “Linux Terminal Server Project”. It is a collection of software that turns a normal
Linux installation into a terminal server. This allows low-powered, low-cost thin-clients (or legacy
hardware already in possession) to be used as terminals to the thin-client server.

LTSP is unique from other thin-client systems in that it is considered by many as the easiest to
maintain. Other thin-client systems (such as Microsoft Windows® Terminal Services) require each
client to have software that boots the system to a point to be able to connect to the terminal server. This
could be a full-blown operating system, or a minimal OS that simply provides an interface to connect to
the server. Systems such as this generally require more maintenance and administration, as the local
software that boots the thin-clients may become corrupt or contain bugs that require attention.

LTSP, on the other hand, requires no client-side software. It requires only a PXE2 capable network
interface, which many thin-clients and PCs have built-in already. This means that you need absolutely
no physical storage media (hard disk, compact-flash, etc.) for your thin-client to boot to LTSP. This
significantly reduces the amount of administration required to keep your network running.

The process of booting a thin-client to an LTSP server is as follows:

1. Thin-clients boot via a protocol called PXE (Pre-eXecution Environment)

2. PXE requests an IP address from a local DHCP server
3. The DHCP server passes additional parameters to the thin-client and downloads a Linux
filesystem image via TFTP3 into a RAM disk on the client itself.
4. The thin-client then boots the downloaded Linux image, detects hardware, and connects to the
LTSP server's X4 session (normally handled by LDM5).

From here, all operations such as authenticating your username and password, launching applications,
and viewing websites are actually handled on the LTSP server rather than the thin-client. The LTSP
server transfers all graphical information to the thin-client over the network. This allows very low-
powered thin-clients to utilize the power of the server for all operations. It also allows for large client
deployments with reduced overall resource utilization, as 50 thin-clients all running the popular
OpenOffice suite under different sessions generally only require enough RAM for a single instance of
OpenOffice (excluding per-user configuration which is minimal). The server shares memory between
user sessions, so libraries for applications are only loaded once and referenced for each user session.

2 Pre-Execution Environment, or, more commonly, "Network Boot"

3 Trivial File Transfer Protocol
4 X Window System, the default Linux graphical windowing system
5 LTSP Display Manager, the default login manager for LTSP

Page 11 / 13
 5. Notes on Using the Shell
I. Many Linux system administrators prefer using the shell (also referred to as the terminal,
command-line or command prompt) for common administration tasks, as it takes much less
time compared to GUI operations once you are familiar and comfortable with the environment.
It is believed by many seasoned Linux system administrators that the shell is the most powerful
and versatile way to interact with the operating system itself because of the close attention paid
to flexibility during most shell tools' development.

II. Linux system administrators generally also have at least some knowledge of how to create and
modify “shell scripts”, which are files that contain multiple shell commands, variables, and
other elements that create a fruitful environment to accomplish the most basic, to most complex
tasks in Linux. Shell scripts are similar to Microsoft-based “batch files”, but are generally much
more powerful, given the amount of development and attention to principal usage that has gone
into shell environments in Linux operating systems compared to Microsoft-based command-line
environments.

III. There are many different “shells” available to Linux. The default shell is called “Bash” (Bourne
Again SHell). Most system administrators generally stick to Bash on Linux, but other shells
provide alternate functionality that some might find useful.

IV. There are many command-line utilities to do things like what we have discussed above. If you
are curious about how to use any commands, the man command gives you information about
any given command on the system. For example, if you type man adduser, a manual page for
the adduser command will appear in your terminal and you can read up on exactly how it
works. You generally hit q to leave the manual page you are reading.

V. The Linux shell is very powerful. Make sure you understand the commands and command
switches you are using (especially when using escalated privileges and/or deleting/moving files/
directories) as mistakes are very unforgiving. The Linux shell will rarely ask you if you're sure
you want to do something – it assumes you know what you're doing, so make sure you do!

VI. There are countless resources on the Internet regarding the Linux shell. It is generally advised
by Linux administrators that if you have questions, you RTFM (Read The Fine Manual) before
asking someone. Countless hours has been spent creating detailed, easy to read documentation
for those interested in learning how the Linux shell, as well as the rest of the operating system,
works. Take a look at http://www.tldp.org for some of the best documentation regarding many
common Linux tasks. There are also countless other sites – do some Googling and find
resources that you enjoy the most.

Page 12 / 13
 6. Foreign Software and Linux
Q. "Can I use Linux based application X with Ubuntu/LTSP?"

A. Probably! Generally, any software made for Linux will work with Ubuntu in a thin-client
environment. There are exceptions, such as extremely graphics-intensive software. This is the case in
any thin-client environment, as every pixel is transmitted over the network from the server to the thin-
client. With 3D applications and games, having a full computer lab with everyone on a particularly
graphics-intensive application might slow things down. There is no reason not to try any application,
though, unless it is already known to cause problems in a thin-client environment. The Ubuntu and
LTSP communities would be glad to hear success/failure stories for any particular application, so if you
decide to try something, let them know if it worked! They might even be able to give you some
pointers.

Q. "Can I use Microsoft Windows® or DOS based application X with Ubuntu/LTSP?"

A. Maybe. Getting software designed for a different operating system to work with Linux is possible, 
but it really depends on the particular application. There are Windows API compatibility­layer 
programs such as "Wine" and "Crossover Office" (which is based on Wine) that allow you to install 
Windows­based programs in Linux, but because of the nature of installing software that is designed for 
a completely different OS in Linux, it is usually hit­and­miss. You can browse http://www.winehq.org 
to see if your particular application has been tested, and if so, how well it works.

Thin­client environments complicate things since, again, everything flows over the network. If the 
application in question doesn't work well under Windows Terminal Services, you can probably assume 
that it won't work under LTSP. Most times this is due to how the application is originally programmed. 
Again, however, there is no problem with trying, and reporting your findings back to the community.

Apart from using Wine or Crossover Office, there is the option of installing Windows Terminal Server 
inside a Virtual Machine (or VM) on the Linux server. This allows you to have a native Windows 
environment for legacy software compatibility. You can connect to the virtualized Windows session via 
a Linux­based Windows RDP client such as 'tsclient' and have a Windows­native session from your 
Linux thin­client. When legacy Windows application support in an LTSP environment is required, 
many opt for this choice, unless their program works with Wine/CXOffice. Of course, in doing this, you 
must maintain the Windows virtual machine just as you would an actual server ­ this means Windows 
and application software updates, anti­virus/anti­spyware maintenance, separate user and file 
management facilities, etc.

Q. Can I use Apple OSX­based application in Linux?

A. Some online research shows a PowerPC emulator for Windows/Linux called PearPC, which might 
provide facilities for OSX applications in Linux or Windows. You can visit their page at: 
http://wiki.pearpc.net. As with any emulator, however, compatibility and stability are not guaranteed.

Page 13 / 13