| Revision History |
|---|
| Revision 1.01 | 2002-03-17 | Revised by: gea |
| Conversion to Docbook format |
| Revision 1.0 | 2002-03-11 | Revised by: tjc |
| LDP release |
| Revision 0.85 | 2001-12-13 | Revised by: tjc |
| Security hints. XFree. |
| Revision 0.8 | 2001-12-13 | Revised by: tjc |
| Kernel transfer problem fix (NFS null). General tidy. |
| Revision 0.7 | 2001-09-11 | Revised by: tjc |
| Much FLASHing and mounting notes added |
| Revision 0.61 | 2001-08-20 | Revised by: tjc |
| Tweak debian unpack notes. Add URL. Notes on re-FLASH |
| Revision 0.6 | 2001-07-28 | Revised by: tjc |
| Add example syslog output. Add in securetty changes |
| Revision 0.5 | 2001-07-28 | Revised by: tjc |
| Initial release for feedback, comments from community |
The T1500 is a Linux based diskless thin client, able to boot off internal FLASH RAM into X. It will acquire TCP/IP information from DHCP, and includes telnet and a WWW browser. In this configuration, the T1500 is useful as a small
Internet access device.However, the T1500 can also operate as a diskless client, acquiring it's initial
kernel and root file system from a remote machine (this uses 'TFTP' for the
1st stage, and 'NFS' for the latter). Compaq provide a CD with a kernel image
and root file system, along with management tools, but these tools are not needed,
and have been found to fail on some systems. This will be discussed in the 'Compaq
Way' section.
It is also possible to use the Compaq kernel to boot a normal Linux based distribution.
We use Debian as an example, but the process
is fairly generic, and discussed in the 'One True Way' section.
We will assume:
A working DNS server on 192.168.1.1 (bookcase) and that this machine will serve
the kernel and file system
The T1500 is to be installed as 192.168.1.52 (box).
The domain is 'house'.
No special routing is needed.
In the examples a RedHat server is used, but the specifics should apply to any
GNU based system.
We use the debian 'potato' (2.2) release as an example. The procedure should
be similar no matter which distribution you choose, providing it will run on
a 2.0.35 kernel.
Create the directories for the kernel and file system on your server, mount
and copy the files from the Compaq CD. Unpack the file system (Here I use some
pre-made tar balls of the debian release, here is not the place to discuss further):
mkdir /exports/T1500
mkdir /exports/T1500/root
mkdir /exports/T1500/tftpboot |
mount /cdrom
cp /cdrom/product/vmlinux /exports/T1500/tftpboot
CD /exports/T1500/root
tar zxvf /tmp/base2_2.tgz
tar zxvf /tmp/telnetd*.tgz |
Configure DHCP by adding a section like this to your /etc/dhcpd.conf
Change the ethernet address to that of your T1500.
Group {
#little black box
host box {
hardware ethernet 00:80:64:10:1d:1c;
fixed-address box.house;
option host-name "box";
server-name "192.168.1.1";
filename "/exports/T1500/tftpboot/vmlinux";
option root-path "192.168.1.1:/exports/T1500/root";
}
} |
Configure a new host in DNS
db.192.168.1.1:
52 in ptr box. |
db.house:
box in a 192.168.1.52 |
Export the root file system by adding
/exports/T1500/root box(rw,no_root_squash) |
to /etc/exports
Configuring tftp by adding/altering a line to /etc/inetd.conf
tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.tftpd /exports/T1500/tftpboot |
Now restart inetd,dhcpd,nfs and named
Configure the file system by setting the root password to 'pass', exposing telnetd
/exports/T1500/root/etc/passwd, alter 1st line: root:Z/U2u32VhNJoA:0:0:,,,:/root:/bin/bash
/exports/T1500/root/etc/inetd.conf, add: telnet stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.telnetd
Append remote terminals to /etc/securetty to allow remote root access.
tty1
tty2
tty3
tty4
tty5
tty6
tty7
tty8
tty9
tty10
tty11
tty12
ttyp0
ttyp1
ttyp2
ttyp3 |
Select network booting on the T1500 and reboot it.
Once it has booted, you should be able to telnet into the T1500. At ths point,
you shoudl configure SSH, and close the telnet hole in inetd.
The T1500s come with a utility called 'makeflash' (which lives in /sbin and
also comes on the CD). You can use this to generate a flash filesystem image
from a tar.gz, which can either be local, or an NFS / SMB file. This utility
generates all the necessary checksums too.
1. Flashing with a Slackware 8.0 image doesn't work, even with the calculated checksum. This suggests to me that there is a further check made on vmlinux itself.
2. Having dissected the leo.boot and vmlinux files supplied with the unit,
I
suspect that leo.boot checks vmlinux for the string "xxxxyyyyWYSEwysexxxx"
which is duly included in the custom kernel they use.
3. Leo.boot is in fact a Win CE related thing, with a queer bolt-on to allow
linux boots. The normal Win CE leo.boot is about half the size. It uses
the Eboot protocol for both ethernet and parallel port flash programming.
There are some free Linux tools available to format images correctly for
replacing leo.boot and also the OS image, but they rely on you supplying a
suitably compiled object version of the bootrom.
Be careful when running it though - it is possible to flash the thing to a
state in which the only way to get it booting again is to use the Wyse-provided
DOS util / laplink cable setup.
Also, if anyone manages to get makeflash running on something which isn't the
terminal, could you let me know how? AFAICT, it's trying to link with a very
old glibc and libforms.You should be able to flash-update the T1500 a few 100,000 times.
Apparently the T1500 is a Wyse WT3X15, based on what they call the 'Leo Board'.
You can download a DOS reflashing util, and some docs for it from the UK Wyse
website, in the Customer Support section's firmware page. It requires a parallel
laplink cable.