In a previous message, Nick LeRoy wrote:

On Tuesday 21 October 2003 9:49 am, John Pettigrew wrote:

...

I'd like to log into the main PC from the spare PC, using the userid and home dir from the main machine, but to run all apps etc. on the spare PC (a smart terminal, I guess).

Let's see... I'd probably:

1. Set up your main PC as an NFS server, export /home 2a. NFS Mount /home on the spare PC 2b. -or- Use the automounter (amd) to mount /home/foo when user foo logs in 3. Setup an NIS server on the main PC 4. Setup an NIS client on the spare PC

OK - NFS sounds like a Good Thing. However, I've heard that NIS isn't. Should I perhaps look at LDAP instead? I know nothing about either, but some swift research has suggested that NIS is being supplanted by LDAP for some reason. IIUC, therefore, NFS lets the home directory be shared, and NIS/LDAP provides some other services? Is there actually any need for anything beyond sharing /home/user? If I just mounted /home/user1 at /home/user1 on the second PC, would that not work? John -- John Pettigrew Headstrong Games john@headstrong-games.co.uk Fun : Strategy : Price http://www.headstrong-games.co.uk/ Board games that won't break the bank Fields of Valour: 2 Norse clans battle on one of 3 different boards

In a previous message, Nick LeRoy wrote:

...

Should I perhaps look at LDAP instead? I know nothing about either, but some swift research has suggested that NIS is being supplanted by LDAP for some reason.

Depends on your usage, actually. For a private home network, NIS should do just fine. You certainly wouldn't want to expose it to the external world, but, that goes for NFS, also.

Fair enough :-)

I've heard rumors of people using LDAP for user management, but I've never actually seen it done. People I know that are somewhat knowledgable in LDAP say "yeah you can do it, but you probably don't want to". Stick to NIS unless you have a real reason not to. My $0.02 worth, at least.

Fairy Nuff. What does NIS actually do for me? (Real ignoramus in this respect!) I was guessing that simply sharing the home directory would be all I need so I was a little confused by the suggestion that something else was needed. Thanks, John -- John Pettigrew Headstrong Games john@headstrong-games.co.uk Fun : Strategy : Price http://www.headstrong-games.co.uk/ Board games that won't break the bank Fields of Valour: 2 Norse clans battle on one of 3 different boards

In a previous message, Nick LeRoy wrote:

...

What does NIS actually do for me? (Real ignoramus in this respect!) I was guessing that simply sharing the home directory would be all I need so I was a little confused by the suggestion that something else was needed.

In a simple setup, NIS will share hostname/ip address maps, userid, password & shadow information. It can also share automounter maps, etc.

So, if I set up NFS and NIS, I could arrange the gdm login on the downstairs machine to log into the account on the upstairs machines, and it would seem as though I was logged in on the other machine (network speed permitting)? That would be just what I want... John -- John Pettigrew Headstrong Games john@headstrong-games.co.uk Fun : Strategy : Price http://www.headstrong-games.co.uk/ Board games that won't break the bank Valley of the Kings: ransack an ancient Egyptian tomb but beware of mummies!

In a previous message, Nick LeRoy wrote:

No, your X session processes and shell would be running on the downstairs machine, but your home directory, userid, etc, would all be the same as the upstairs machine, so it's somewhat irrelevant what machine you're sitting at

So, logging in via local gdm would log me into the local user, but with the home directory from the remote machine? That would be fine, I think. I'd just need to export a few other directories (e.g. /var/mail) so that things work. If I mount the NFS home share etc. at boot time, I don't quite see what benefit NIS would bring me if I've already got effectively an identical login on the two machines, assuming that I install the same software on both. John -- John Pettigrew Headstrong Games john@headstrong-games.co.uk Fun : Strategy : Price http://www.headstrong-games.co.uk/ Board games that won't break the bank Knossos: escape the ever-changing labyrinth before the Minotaur catches you!

Robert McWilliam wrote:

On Tuesday 21 October 2003 15:14, Damian O'Hara wrote:

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John Pettigrew wrote:

...

I have a spare PC (my old work PC) that I'd like to set up downstairs so that we can log in to check email etc. while the other person's working on the main PC. To keep configs etc. as easy as possible, I'd like to log into the main PC from the spare PC, using the userid and home dir from the main machine, but to run all apps etc. on the spare PC (a smart terminal, I guess).

Is this easy to set up using SUSE 8.2 on both machines? How should I go about it? Network is already done - it's the logging in and setting up the session that I don't know about.

John

Run vncserver on the main PC and vncviewer on the spare.

See http://www.realvnc.com/ for more info but the software is on the CDs.

Damian

vnc isn't actually what you want. VNC allows you to export an x connection across a network but all of the processing is still done on the machine running the vncserver. VNC uses a dumb client.

My thoughts on the way to do it would be by exporting some (or all) of the main machines file system via nfs and then mounting them on the second machine at boot time to use the same log in details and home directories etc. on both but that might run into problems with hardware specific configs. You would need to know which bits you need to export , and a way of mounting them during the boot process. I don't know either. Perhaps someone else can help?

Robert

Robert, I'm very clear on what VNC does and what it offers instead of NFS/NIS. I do it for a living. John however seems to be at the beginning of his experience with Linux and the simplest way to do what he wants to do is to use VNC. All account info and applications would then already be set up. At some stage you have to decide how much processing power you want to take from the main PC in exchange for functionality/difficulty in configuration. NFS also takes resource whenever a transaction occurs, and this includes a "stat" of the pwd when shell commands are issued :o) Exporting part of a machine's filesystem for use by another machine is problematic unless you KNOW what you're doing. I suggest John doesn't want/need to truck with this. A rule of thumb - export data, not OSs. Damian

On Tuesday 21 October 2003 19:14, Damian O'Hara wrote:

Robert McWilliam wrote:

...

On Tuesday 21 October 2003 15:14, Damian O'Hara wrote:

...

John Pettigrew wrote:

...

I have a spare PC (my old work PC) that I'd like to set up downstairs so that we can log in to check email etc. while the other person's working on the main PC. To keep configs etc. as easy as possible, I'd like to log into the main PC from the spare PC, using the userid and home dir from the main machine, but to run all apps etc. on the spare PC (a smart terminal, I guess).

Is this easy to set up using SUSE 8.2 on both machines? How should I go about it? Network is already done - it's the logging in and setting up the session that I don't know about.

John

Run vncserver on the main PC and vncviewer on the spare.

See http://www.realvnc.com/ for more info but the software is on the CDs.

Damian

vnc isn't actually what you want. VNC allows you to export an x connection across a network but all of the processing is still done on the machine running the vncserver. VNC uses a dumb client.

My thoughts on the way to do it would be by exporting some (or all) of the main machines file system via nfs and then mounting them on the second machine at boot time to use the same log in details and home directories etc. on both but that might run into problems with hardware specific configs. You would need to know which bits you need to export , and a way of mounting them during the boot process. I don't know either. Perhaps someone else can help?

Robert

Robert,

I'm very clear on what VNC does and what it offers instead of NFS/NIS. I do it for a living.

John however seems to be at the beginning of his experience with Linux and the simplest way to do what he wants to do is to use VNC. All account info and applications would then already be set up.

At some stage you have to decide how much processing power you want to take from the main PC in exchange for functionality/difficulty in configuration. NFS also takes resource whenever a transaction occurs, and this includes a "stat" of the pwd when shell commands are issued :o)

Exporting part of a machine's filesystem for use by another machine is problematic unless you KNOW what you're doing. I suggest John doesn't want/need to truck with this. A rule of thumb - export data, not OSs.

Damian

Just to support what has been said I feel that NIS/NFS would be overkill on a 2 node network. If it is an excercise in learning how to setup a larger lan then that's fine. Go ahead. NIS is wonderful on a big lan. NIS and NFS documentation is written by Linux users. Sometimes it's even worse than man pages. Unless you can tempt the last poster to translate it for you. My 0.02 Euros ;-)

There is a benefit to it as well. Especially when LDAP is concerned, as Unix/Linux don't allow you to use login names, such as "My Greater Name here", while this is perfectly ok within LDAP. Not to mention mail aliases, and if you have a good ldap browser/explorer it's much simpler to maintain than even the normal user base, via yast. On Tuesday 21 October 2003 23:17, fsanta wrote:

Just to support what has been said I feel that NIS/NFS would be overkill on a 2 node network. If it is an excercise in learning how to setup a larger lan then that's fine. Go ahead. NIS is wonderful on a big lan. NIS and NFS documentation is written by Linux users. Sometimes it's even worse than man pages. Unless you can tempt the last poster to translate it for you. My 0.02 Euros ;-)

On Tuesday 21 October 2003 17:37, John Pettigrew wrote:

OK - NFS sounds like a Good Thing. However, I've heard that NIS isn't. Should I perhaps look at LDAP instead? I know nothing about either, but some swift research has suggested that NIS is being supplanted by LDAP for some reason.

IIUC, therefore, NFS lets the home directory be shared, and NIS/LDAP provides some other services?

Is there actually any need for anything beyond sharing /home/user? If I just mounted /home/user1 at /home/user1 on the second PC, would that not work?

Basically, sure it could. But then you would have to create the user who owned the homedirectory on that machine (the one who will mount home), and make sure he has the same UID/GID numbers. And if you add/change users on the main machine, you'll have to add them to the second machine too. And if you decide to add the third machine, you'll have to add each user there as well. That's why NIS/YP and LDAP exist. You only have to maintain the user base on one machine. Iff you decide to use LDAP, then you only need two organisational units. People(or users) and Groups, and don't bother with moving system users to the LDAP. Just normal users, that is enough.

John

In a previous message, Jonathan Lim wrote:

downstairs> ssh -X upstairs Welcome to upstairs box upstairs> kmail &

Would this not result in the downstairs PC operating as a dumb terminal? Not fatal in itself, but means a slowdown on the upstairs PC and (more crucially) an awful lot of data being shoved down my poxy little 10 Mb LAN. Does doing this mean that launching kmail thusly from a ssh terminal produces an X windowed app on the downstairs machine's screen? John -- John Pettigrew Headstrong Games john@headstrong-games.co.uk Fun : Strategy : Price http://www.headstrong-games.co.uk/ Board games that won't break the bank Valley of the Kings: ransack an ancient Egyptian tomb but beware of mummies!