What is LTSP

LTSP allows a user to use a personal computer as Human Computer Interface Terminal (HCIT).

LTSP5 in Devuan

Devuan stable contain LTSP5 and not LTSP19+ .

LTSP19+ favors server leveraging - remote desktop and defaults to diskless, netbooted LTSP fat clients. (ref )

LTSP5 centers on thinclients with no remote desktop .

For documentation for newbies i think the best entry point so far that i have searched is : https://github.com/ltsp/ltsp5/wiki

• devuan git / ltsp

• BTS(bugs) / ltsp-server

what is remote desktop ?

I think the main difference is how a program running on a server will transfer it's graphical output to the user's personal monitor.

build image

I tried:

$ /usr/sbin/ltsp-build-client     

but i get : Bug 846 (send with Reportbug)

Using the local gpu vs the server gpu

There are two main ways to accelerate applications that are executed in the server.

One is to use the HCIT's gpu the other to use the Server's gpu.

Read about pros and cons in :

• https://virtualgl.org/About/Background
• Why doesn't VDI leverage local hardware better?

Althoght there is a tendency in our days to favor server side gpu rendering and sending frames to the HCIT i think the most logical way in the long run is to use the HCIT's gpu . It may seem anti-economical from the gpu sharing side but the constant frame pushing seems also a huge waste of bandwidth.

Theory

We assume that the computational tasks (program) that the user wants to execute are to be executed in a server. But we want the user of the program to be able to interact with his program from a HCIT that can follow him physically. In a sense a user's HIT is an extension of the user that allows him to interact with the program visually,acoustically,haptically.

But we also assume that the link from the server to it's users is shared. Like in the telephone network.

So the user's program have to produce and consume among other things data types compatible to the HCIT .

Assuming that a HCIT contains V_RAM , A_RAM , H_RAM we assume that there is continium in a specific HCIT <----> Server session 's state history.

So a user's program should contain a HCI server deployable to the HCIT's ram and a HCI dispatcher at the server's side.

Refs

Why doesn't VDI leverage local hardware better?

Image of X11 server and login server relation

-- ChomWitt - 04 Apr 2024