I have a bootable cd that has a small linux OS that boots an RDP client to connect to my Windows 2003 terminal server. In effect, this causes the desktop to act like a thin client. I want to format the hard drive and copy this bootable cd to the hard drive so that the system acts exactly like a thin client. I have formatted the hard drive and have added command.com so that it can boot to the drive with no problem.
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This sounds exactly like what I would like to do. I don't know the flavor of linux the CD is using. If I load linux onto the terminal I assume that I can autorun the RDP client so that my users don't have to do anything other than turn on the machine. What do you suggest is the quickest and easiest way to get this done considering that I don't know linux very well. (at all)
I covered some of this but I don't know enough about your situation to be real specific. Basically, if you have a linux boot, cd you would boot with it, create a linux partition on the hard drive, then copy your files from the cd to the hard drive linux partition, then edit the fstab and bootloader (might be grub) configurations to point to the new location. Then you are good to go. \
Since you don't have a boot cd you could try to see if you can figure out the flavor of linux you have and if you have any utilities like cp, gedit, and grub loaded on the cd. These may have been removed for security reasons, but maybe not. Then you can get more specific command help.
One thing that should work is to get a copy of linux and install it on the hard disk. Then find out what RDP client you are using and get the package file for that and then this forum (or just about any linux forum) should be able to help you to get it to autoboot to the RCP client.
Usually you would be running terminal seervices in some kind of corporate or institutional environment with IT support. Doesn't anyone there know how the RDP thin client was setup.
Also, why do you want it to boot from a hard disk? Are you looking to want to dual boot to windows on the PC or the RDP remote windows?
I'm the IT department here and we have 25 users connected to a Windows 2003 Terminal Server. The RDP client that we are using is 5.2 through WYSE winterms. We have purchased a new branch with 4 users and they have existing desktops. In order to make a clean break I want to make sure they cannot access any of their old information.
I have a version of Anywhere TS that boots from the CD and it works great. I can boot the existing computers from the CD if I have to but would like to format their machines and move this CD to the hard drive. That way they don't have to rely on CD drives or CDs. The branch is at a remote location so I want to make sure that they have as few issues as possible. I only plan to visit the branch a few times a year.
Ok, now we're rockin'.
Anywhere TS is shareware (about $10/user) and it's a free download ( http://anywherets.com/ ) AND it has a utility to write an image to a hard drive (or a CD or a USB memory stick) so forget (almost) everything I said about loading linux. Just use the install program with Anywhere TS.
I saw from skimming the forum on that site that users had been requesting the hard disk boot option and they just released it this year. I saw where someone asked what the underlying OS was and a company responder said it was proprietary, so maybe it's not even linux.
Caveats (according to the documentation):
1. It erases all the data off the target hard disk permanently. (this may be what you want anyway)
2. "Anywhere TS can only maintain one set of configurations at a time and it is preferable if your clients PCs is the same (for sound, network cards, graphics cards, etc..)
3. You also have the option to include all drivers in the configuration and let the client autodetect which hardware is present at boot time.
I am not not an expert in Anywhere TS, but it sounds like it would be pretty easy to figure out how to set it up.
It looks like you may have to change the master configuration that gets loaded on the terminal server so that all of the clients will find their drivers, and depending on how many existing clients you have that may be where the major work is. I'd be careful running that wizard just in case it hoses all the existing clients and you suddenly have to reinstall everybody.
I still suspect Anywhere TS is using a customized linux for its boot loader, but it's not really important unless you wanted to hack it for some weird purpose, but it doesn't sound like that's what you want.
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by: lewko2Posted on 2009-08-27 at 18:21:56ID: 25204329
You have created a DOS partition that boots to DOS (Command.com). You need to create a Linux partition and make it bootable (active), then copy the linux os to it. Then you can copy your RDP client software so that you can auto-boot to Windows! You don't need DOS unless you want to dual boot.
You will need a linux boot cd or linux on the hard drive, or you can get out of the RDP client to a linux prompt. If you use the last method you will need cp, gedit (or vi, or another editor), and grub on your CD.There are various linux bootloaders that you could be using. Grub is used by Ubuntu and Redhat and I can give you some hints for copying a linux disk that uses grub and has cp and an editor on it.
Boot linux, get to the $ prompt, mount both your source and destination partitions, then copy. In Ubuntu:
$ sudo cp -afv sourcepath/* destinationpath
On your destination drive run:
gksu gedit
(or some other editor) and edit the file /etc/fstab.
Change the UUID or device entry with the mount point / (the root partition) to your new drive. You can find your new drives (or partitions) UUID with this command:
$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
Next, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst.
Change the UUID of the appropriate entries at the bottom of the file to the new one.
Install Grub. Run
sudo grub.
In Grub type:
find /boot/grub/menu.lst
to find out your new drive and partition number, say hd(0,0)) and type:
root hd(0,0)
where "hd(0,0)" is the partition number you just got with the find command. Type:
setup hd(0)
where "hd(0)" is your drive number from above. (It's the n in the hd(n,m) pair from the find command.
Shutdown, remove CDs and reboot.
OK this is complicated and it's Linux, not DOS. You can download linux from lots of places. Ultimately, you can always just install any flavor of linux and your RDP client from scratch on your hard disk and make it autoboot to the RDP client .
Do you know the flavor of linux and the RDP client you are using?
You may be asking if this can be done from DOS? One big problem with DOS is that fdisk, the DOS partition manager, is not very robust. You could create a linux and copy the files to it You could even edit the fstab, but now you have DOS in the way because it is the active (boot) partition and fdisk can't really deal with two operating systems. After you get linux configured you'll want to remove DOS, unless you want to dual boot to DOS or linux (which is doubtfull because you would have the unsecure DOS partition sitting on your terminal.)
You can use DOS to browse the linux disk and see the files that are on it. You just can't run them from DOS.