There are great improvements
- The filesystem used is
btrfs
, which allows to make snapshot on the filesystem. - The freerdp package has been updated to a newer version, more stable
- The utility to duplicate on a USB key the whole image has been completely rewritten.
Setting a thinclient with the new OS
For the initial deployment, you can use the next steps of my article, just replace the URI
variable with the original HP file T6X52011.dd
After booting the thinclient, configure it with all options you want, and connections you have to provide to users.. When done, use the HP thinclient utility to save the whole image to a USB key. The thinclient will reboot, and after a while, will ask you to insert a empty USB key. At the end of the process, you'll find on the Key, in the /images
directory a new image file to deploy. Save this file to your web server, I set mine on http://192.168.1.100/srcd-tx/ThinPro-T6X52011-2016-02-16.dd
for the next part of the article
Deployment
For upgrading the whole park, I used my PXE install to automate the deployment. Basically, I used these steps:
- Netboot the thinclient on PXE (setup pxe on linux, old but simple)
- Start on systemrescuecd with autorun (Systemrescuecd and PXE)
- use wget to get the disk image, and write it with dd
- reboot
Details of the installation:
The PXE configuration pxelinux/default
has a new entry:
LABEL thinpro52 KERNEL systemrescue-4.6/rescue64 APPEND initrd=systemrescue-4.6/initram.igz scandelay=5 dodhcp setkmap=fr netboot=http://192.168.1.100/systemrescuecd-4.6/sysrcd.dat ar_source=http://192.168.1.100/srcd-tx/ autoruns=0 ar_nowait
The kernel is sent to the thinclient through PXE/TFTP, and load the initrd by tftp too. The real CD image from systemrescuecd is loaded by http. After booting, the rc.local
start a script named autorun
, available on http://192.168.1.100/srcd-tx/
#!/bin/bash # # e.blindauer 20160202 URI="http://192.168.1.100/srcd-tx/ThinPro-T6X52011-2016-02-16.dd" echo Starting to write the image... wget "$URI" --progress=bar:force -O - | dd of=/dev/sda sync echo "Reboot in 5s" sleep 5 reboot
This script get the image file from the same server, and write it to the hard drive.
There is no progress information, because the dd
version is a little too old for using the status=progress
option
At the end, the Thinclient is rebooted and ready to run
For upgrading the whole parc, you need to start each Thinclient on network through PXE, and select the thinpro52
entry on the boot menu, or use a dedicated config file for targeting your thinclient
Modifying the OS
If you need to modify the Thinpro OS, there are some tips
To write on the system, use fsunlock
to set the disk on R/W, and fslock
to set it RO again
All the configuration for connections are stored on the manticore registry
(a HP Software). Use mclient
to access it. Each entry in the client connection had a UUID
List them all:
mclient -q get 'root/ConnectionType/freerdp/connections
Add a key:
mclient create "$i/linux" bool; mclient set "$i/linux" 1; mclient commit;
Where $i contain a connection UUID
Conclusion
Althrough some part of the system are closed (hp-* tools), and no real public informations from HP on Thinpro, this update is nice, and can be easily deployed. The OS is accessible for modifications.