How to build Thinstation thin client images and exploring config files – Part II

Part I – How to setup Thinstation 5.3 thin client for use with VMware Horizon View 5

Part II – How to build Thinstation images and exploring config files

Part III – How to add drivers to your Thinstation build

Part IV – How to configure Thinstation and Google Chrome for a true, thin client experience

So if you’ve been following since Part I, you now have a DevStation stood up.  You’re now ready to build images that your thin clients can boot from.  I didn’t mention it in the first post, but be sure you’ve configured a static IP address on your DevStation.  You can do this via the Network Manager GUI interface.  Just right-click the network icon in the system tray and select Edit Connections…

This is the IP address you’ll configure on your DHCP server as Option 66, the Boot Server Host Name.  My DHCP configuration is shown here.  It’s important to realize that Option 67, the Bootfile Name, is relative to the root of the TFTP directory.  In the case of the DevStation and PXE booting, it needs to be configured as shown here.  The root TFTP directory can be found as a symlink in /var/lib/tftpboot which points to /thinstation/build/boot-images/pxe

So the full path to pxelinux.0 is /thinstation/build/boot-images/pxe/boot/pxelinux/pxelinux.0

Here’s a final note about setup before we get going: make sure you have a DHCP scope configured for your thin clients.  Common sense, right? It took me longer than I care to admit because I had placed my thin client in a different subnet than the scopes I had configured.  Obviously, once I added a scope for this subnet, my thin client started pulling an IP address.

Read the rest of this entry »