Knoppix Terminal Server Works.....How ???

[GCMartin]

@Krishna...Thank you again for the way you've handled you explanation in this Thread.

I understand the operational things that are happening. This is a very very good solution to serve out a OS to a local machine (if I understand this correctly). which leads me to 2 remaining questions
#1
After PXE and the PC is running -Is the desktop I see on the local PC or is it being "served" from the remote server (ie. terminal server)?

#2
On the networking side - How was the PXE machine able to "find" the Knoppix server to answer this request (my confusion lays in that I, heretofore, thought the address for PXE came from the DHCP server)? Was this via a broadcast without an IP address?

[krishna.murphy]

@Krishna...Thank you again for the way you've handled you explanation in this Thread.

You're welcome. Check out the LTSP website for much more information, and another nice community online where you can get educated (I did, some years back.)

I understand the operational things that are happening. This is a very very good solution to serve out a OS to a local machine (if I understand this correctly). which leads me to 2 remaining questions
#1
After PXE and the PC is running -Is the desktop I see on the local PC or is it being "served" from the remote server (ie. terminal server)?

The server; the client isn't running a browser or word processor, etc. - just the display and attached device interface programs. This is why a very cheap piece of hardware (or an old PC that can't run real fast, has no HD or only a little bit of RAM) can be used "as if" it had all the capacity of the server.

#2
On the networking side - How was the PXE machine able to "find" the Knoppix server to answer this request (my confusion lays in that I, heretofore, thought the address for PXE came from the DHCP server)? Was this via a broadcast without an IP address?

All IP addresses are coming from the DHCP server, in your case, but if you can configure the router you can set up fixed addressing as well as DHCP auto-addressing; the client is searching for a network booting source, and finding the Knoppix LTSP server, which is then creating an internal environment that is displayed/interfaced to the client.

Cheers!
Krishna