PXES Universal Linux Thin Client 1.1 review

PXES project is a micro Linux thin client distribution

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 23322K Developer: Diego Torres Milano

0

PXES project is a micro Linux thin client distribution. PXES will boot a real thin client or will help to convert in minutes any compliant hardware (see list bellow) into a versatile thin client.

They will be capable of accessing any XDM server presenting the graphical login screen or any Microsoft Terminal Server through RDP protocol. The actual configuration of clients is made with an easy to use graphical configuration tool, allowing the specification of clients parameters or the server to access to.

You can recover hardware that is useless running current desktop OS or office package and give it a second chance. This thin client boots from the network with PXE (Intel Pre-Execution Environment specifications) so neither boot diskette nor boot eprom is needed.

The linux kernel and an initial root filesystem is transmitted over the network (the compressed size as of version 0.4 is about 4M).

Here are some key features of "PXES":
Supported servers and protocols

Unix/Linux supporting XDM
Microsoft Terminal Server using RDP
Citrix using ICA
VNC using TightVNC
LOCAL local graphical session with simple desktop
LTSP or K12LTSP
IBM Host using 3270 or 5250 emulation (soon)
Telnet emulating ANSI terminal
SSH
Tarantella using proprietary protocol
NoMachine using NX
Thinlinc

Boot methods

PXE network card included in most modern PC hardware
Etherboot to boot from diskette or EPROM
CD-ROM
Hard disk
DOC DiskOnChip and DOM DiskOnModule
USB Storage

For Hard Disk, DOC, DOM or other flash memory installation you may also use PXES HD/DOM Installer (http://pxes.sourceforge.net/enterprise/install-dom.shtml) which is part of Enterprise Edition (http://pxes.sourceforge.net/enterprise/index.php).
You can also see the detailed information about Boot Methods.

Hardware requirements

Processor: x86 architecture (i486, i586, i686, VIA C3, Geode, Vortex86, Transmeta Crusoe, etc.)
BUS: PCI recommended (although ISA works)
RAM: 32 Mb recommended (16 Mb minimum)
NIC: see supported network card list
Video: see supported video card list

Local devices

Diskette
Hard disk
CD-ROM
Printers parallel, serial and USB
Serial devices (bar code reader, etc.)
Audio
Flash memory / USB storage

Supported operating system

Linux
Solaris
AIX
SCO
BSD
HP-UX
Microsoft Windows NT4
Microsoft Windows 2000
Microsoft Windows 2003
Microsoft Windows XP

What's New in This Release:
Support for different boot loaders was added.
Support for GRUB on ISO images was added.
A correction was made in the kernel and image path in isolinux.
A message telling the user to run "pxesconfig --updatefstab" was added.
updatefstab was added in post.
Support for 2.4.32 and 2.6.15 kernels was added.
Automated owner and permission changing on specific files was added, so now the whole pxes-base tree can be checked out as a normal user.