smr’s blog

Yes! I did it.
Full FC4 (without kde and gnome) on diskless thin client.
Using PXE, NFS and this help.

Rough Procedure -
- set the thin client to use pxe bootup.
- configure dhcp server to give ip and tftp server link
- configure tftp server to serve kernel and initrd image
- configure the initrd image to start network and mount root filesystem over nfs. optionally set home on nfs.
- install a filesystem you want to provide to the thinclient and publish it over nfs.

The available ram in the thin clients is just 90Mb (128 actually, but shared with onboard graphics). This is less and cause logs ot pagein/out. Upgrading the thinclients to 256Mb ram will make them just perfect. I will try to push it.

PS : Earlier they use to run using PXES. Its good but root over nfs using current method provides full OS thus works out better.

PS2: The image above is shown during the bootup. If you can send me another cartoon i can put it up. if i like it. anythign creative and original. shiben u there ?

in this post on Sysadmin’s blog Nir announces his resignation from sysadminship. (I assume) its because of his recent changeover to a researcher while writing a research paper last week and has less to do with new sysadmins appointment. nir shares a few thoughts over this issue in his 8 months old post.

I resigned sysadminship long back (one fine day). i didnt think about what will happen after be coz Nir was there. But now i do.

A paid sysadmin can never replace a voluntary (and talented) sysadmin.

For once i seriously considered joining a job of a sysadmin than that of a programmer. But factors like less pay hold me back. But that didnt matter much. Most important was still working under a jackass. I would love to take a job of sysadmin anytime, but only if i am the decision making authority. Anyway.. this thought process is over long back and i am out of it.

Its good that IIIT has appointed new sysadmins for more efficiency at server room work, but having a student sysadmin will always be of much more value. Things were so smooth in past 2 years, and i just cant expect them to be like this in future. i dont expect the appointed sysadmins will do anything more than what they are asked for. it sounds like end of creativity from serverroom. I fear the passiveness of serverroom. Before we(me+nir) joined as sysadmins, IIIT didnt even have control over DNS which was so trivial.

A few things which nir personally managed will halt without a student sysadmin taking them over -
* New Sysadmin’s site
* Sysadmin’s blog

i care. i dont want to care.

Hello Nir, It was great working with you.

OR was it 1st April trick on Sysadmin’s blog. Lets hope.

the is password c4mp

i didnt pay much attention to BAR camp before and though about it as just another get conference. but coz of a few nears - and - dears writing about it recently i digged it and found that its not a conference, its un-conference. this link explains it very well. “Think of BarCamp as the open-source equivalent to a traditional conference, in which top-down planning is replaced with bottom-up self-organizational models.”

the name BAR camp troubled me for a while, until i read about FOO camp. that was disappointing coz i was thinking the name to in relation to some drinking business . btw FOO meant Friends Of O’Reilly.

and guess what. its coming to hyderabad… our campus.. yeah! IIIT. its going to be an unique oppertunity to get in touch with the tech/geek community of Hyderabad.

and more.. its on Web 2.0, RIA etc… the hottest things around one can think about. i feel so excited about it.

here is another effort to bring hyderabad based technology bloggers at one place. do add your blog to it if you write something technical on your blog.

dont miss it. BAR camp Hyderabad.

related -
* wikipedia / barcamp
* foo is cool. bar is cool. (thats diplomatic)

Ramesh Loganathan, guest faculty at IIIT points out the opportunity that exists in the Products space today. In his post “Opportunity in Software Products- Students, wake up!!” he writes -

“Especially given that the industry is booming and there are lot of jobs for the deserving, there is very low risk in taking off the first couple of years after college and indulging in a new venture. Especially, if there is a product idea.”

We are personally in touch with him, and he is helping us a lot in the process. He doesnt understand the hesitation students have about entrepreneurship. He sees it like any other job, where one happens to own the IP as well. He also points out that if at all one fails, its worth an experiance. Anyone (he himself for sure) would prefer to hire a guy with entrepreneurship experiance over a guy with job experiance. After meeting him I feel a lot energised.

If anyone out there has any product idea, RL will be happy to discuss it. Just drop him an email.

btw.. with RL’s blog… we have got first faculty blog to add into our blogroll.

todays links -
* google’s today’s logo
* a little help on the above link