Baslinux mailing list

[qwms-avib AT dea.spamcon.org]

James Miller wrote:
>
> It sounds like maybe older PC's are inherently less 
> desireable for Openmosix then - most of them having 
> only ISA slots and thus capable of accomodating only 
> 10 mbps NIC's.  

If your goal is to build the best openMosix cluster, then 
yes you should get machines capable of at least 100 mbps 
networking.  However, if you already have some old PCs and 
your goal is to get the most out of them, then 10 mbps is OK.

> This sounds like the system you outlined on the old 
> "Linux for Old PCs" page 

Yes, it's the same idea.  And the same principle is involved 
when using an Xterminal with an xdm server.

> (btw: is that page[s] still available somewhere?  

Yes, it's still online somewhere (but I don't recall exactly 
where -- I'll have a look later).

> the one that describes running Xwindows on a system that 
> sends its display to another computer.
> What would be the advantage - if any - of using Openmosix 
> for this scheme rather than the method you described on 
> that page?  

There would be little advantage using it instead of the
Xterminal method.  I was thinking of using it in addition
to the Xterminal method.  

> And does Openmosix allow some sort of user stipulation 
> for which processes get sent out to other machines?

Yes, there are some optional commands to do this.  But I've 
not used them -- I'm happy to let openMosix decide for itself.

> Even though those old PC's might have only 10 mbps NIC's?  

10 mbps is fine for piping a display to an Xterminal, but 
it's too slow to get the full benefit of clustering.

> And how does having one up-to-date PC confer an advantage 

By running xdm on the up-to-date computer and using all the 
old PCs as Xterminals, each of those old PCs will seem to the 
user to be performing like the up-to-date computer (most of
the time).

As for openMosix, the up-to-date computer will be able to 
migrate some processes out to the Xterminals.  Also, anybody
exiting an Xterminal to the local OS (eg. for housekeeping) 
will have demanding processes (eg. gzip) migrated to the 
up-to-date computer.

> I think there's a special Knoppix edition that incorporates
> Openmosix as well.

ClusterKnoppix is a full openMosix Cluster Knoppix + XFree + 
openMosixview bootable CD which can be a 'terminal server' 
that allows clients to boot over the network by PXE.

Quantian is a Scientific Computing Environment based upon 
ClusterKnoppix.  Provides an instant cluster of mathematical
and scientific workstations from a bootable CD.  
 
A Dragon Slaying openMosix Live CD-based Distribution that 
creates an instant openMosix cluster (or adds an openMosix node). 
It is a Knoppix' like universal "run-from-CD" Linux distribution, 
but this can boot and run openMosix from the CD.

Cheers,
Steven