 | Some
Useful Tips on using
|
Table
of Contents |
- General Information
- Thin-Client Overview
- What is a thin-client?
- from Wikipedia: A thin client (sometimes also called a lean client) is a client computer or client software in client-server architecture networks which depends primarily on a central server for processing activities, and mainly focuses on conveying input and output between the user and the remote server. In contrast, a thick or fat client does as much processing as possible and passes only data for communications and storage to the server.
- from Wikipedia: Many thin client devices run only web browsers or remote desktop software, meaning that all significant processing occurs on the server. However, recent devices marketed as thin clients can run complete operating systems such as Debian GNU/Linux, qualifying them as diskless nodes or hybrid clients.
OCNL 244 is the
Computer
Science Department's Linux Lab. There are around 25 or so thin client
machines in the lab. Each machine runs KDE (see additional information
below) locally and can connect to any of the servers listed on the Connection Manager.
Figure 1. Sample thin client configuration. You can think of the lower pink machines
as the thin clients in OCNL 244, the blue machine as jaguar (Linux server), and
the green machine as your home computer connecting remotely to jaguar.
(From http://linux.sys-con.com/read/38281.htm)
- How are the OCNL 244 thin clients configured?
- From the Connection Manager running on a thin client, you can choose one of the following:
- College of ECC website (via Mozilla web browser running locally)
- Google search website (via Mozilla web browser running locally)
- Microsoft Windows (via RDP client) - currently disabled
- Unix on tiglon (via SSH protocol)
- Linux on jaguar (via XDMCP protocol)
- Unfortunately, the USB readers on the thin clients DO NOT WORK! The only storage media accessible from the ECC Linux or Unix servers is a file server (you can picture this in Figure 1 as the brown machine at the top of the diagram). Fortunately, as long as you DO NOT SAVE YOUR FILES ON YOUR DESKTOP, your files are accessible to you from the Internet.
- Both tiglon and jaguar are accessible from the Internet, but bear in mind that they have different instruction set architectures and environments (see below); hence, the executable on one will not run on the other.
- You may need to download and install SSH client software on your home computer to connect remotely to either tiglon or jaguar from your home computer. Additionally, to transfer files between your home computer and a remote server, you may need to download and install SFTP client software. Note that from a remote machine, these server names are tiglon.ecst.csuchico.edu and jaguar.ecst.csuchico.edu, respectively.
- KDE: K Desktop Environment
- Brief description: KDE or the K Desktop Environment, is a network transparent contemporary desktop environment for UNIX workstations. Additional information available from www.kde.org ...
- KDE provides users with comparable functionality to the Microsoft Windows family of desktop environments. Each user's KDE experience is separately customizable; hence, even though diffferent people login to the same thin client, your user settings are saved in your account so you can have your own unique environment.
- tiglon: CSCI Unix server
- Hardware
- Sun Microsystems Enterprise 3500
- Operating System
- Thin Client Usage in OCNL 244
- The Connection Manager
- CTRL-ALT-END --- transfers back to the Connection Manager screen (actually, CTRL-any arrow key also works)
- CTRL-ALT-left or CTRL-ALT-right --- from the Connection Manager screen, allows you to switch between any active connections (similar to switching desktops on some Linux distributions). You need to hold CTRL-ALT, then use either left or right arrow key to toggle between any available sessions you have started. Once you see the session you are interested in, release CTRL-ALT.
The first screen you see on the screen of an OCNL 244 thin client is a menu known as the Connection Manager. Using the Connection Manager, you can open connections to multiple servers that you need to access by either (1) double-clicking the connection you need; or (2) clicking the connection you need, then clicking the "Connect" button.
The following key commands are helpful:
To disconnect or terminate an active connection using the Connection Manager, click on the connection then click the "End" button.
Figure 2.
Default KDE desktop environment for thin clients in OCNL 244.
(You can click the image above for a larger view.)
(You can click the image above for a larger view.)
- The K Menu
- editors: select Utilities → Editors
- terminal emulators: select System → Konsole
- named application: select Run Command, then enter the name of the application in the textbox
The K Menu, accessed by clicking the button with the KDE logo on the lower left of your screen, allows you to browse and start applications. The counterpart to KDE's K Menu in MS Windows variants is the Start Menu.
Running applications from K Menu ...
- The KDE Panel (a.k.a. the "Kicker")
- Applets
- Application Buttons
- Special Buttons
The KDE Panel is analogous to the Taskbar in MS Windows variants; hence, it is located at the bottom of your screen. The KDE Panel consists of the following components:
Special Buttons are typically system buttons that are typically considered a part of the KDE Panel. Applets and Application Buttons are customizable (see below) and can be added to or removed from the KDE Panel.
Figure 3. Left side
of KDE Panel for the default KDE Desktop.
K Menu, a
special button - see above
Desktop, a special
button - desktop access or show desktop button to minimize all windows
Home,
an application button - uses Konqueror,
the KDE file manager, to display files and directories in your
home directory
Browser,
an application button -
uses
Konqueror,
an open source web browser
Kontact,
an
application button - personal information manager (PIM) suite that
handles e-mail, calendar, contacts, notes, news, syncing, etc.
KWord,
an application button - word processor that is part of KOffice,
a KDE free, integrated office suite
Help,
a
special button - provides access to helpful information about KDE
Pager,
an applet - shows the virtual
desktops (four, by default). You can click on any of the desktops to
transfer to that particular desktop.
In the default KDE Desktop, the default components on the left side of the KDE Panel are (ordered from left to right from Figure 3):
- When
you start multiple applications,
separate windows start appearing on your desktop (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. KDE desktop with multiple applications running in several windows on the desktop.
(You can click the image above for a larger view.)
At this point, you may notice that the Panel, particularly next to the Pager applet, will display all your active applications in a configuration similar to what is shown in Figure 5.
of Panel in the KDE desktop shown in Figure 4.
The currently active window is indicated by bold text. Multiple instances of the same application (in this case, Konsole as shown in Figures 4 and 5) that are overlapped are indicated by numbers in angled brackets. Hence, in the above scenario, there are five windows on the desktop: one instance of Mozilla Firefox running GMail, two instances of KWrite, and two instances of Konsole (overlapped).
To switch between windows on a given desktop, you can either (1) click on the appropriate window/application button on the Panel; or (2) press CTRL-ALT-TAB repeatedly to toggle amongst all windows, then release when the title of the appropriate window appears in the middle of your screen.
Figure 6. Right end of Panel for default KDE desktop.
Klipper,
applet button - clipboard cut and paste utility
KOrganizer,
application button - calendar and scheduling component of Kontact- Clock, applet button - displays current system time
Lastly, the right end of the Panel in the default KDE desktop will look similar to Figure 6 and will have the following buttons:
- Customizing the KDE Desktop
- Right-click on any blank area of the Panel to activate the Panel Menu
- Select "Add Application to Panel" and click on the application you want to add to the Panel
One of the simplest ways to customize your desktop for efficiency is to add shortcuts to your favorite applications to the Panel. To do this:
To reposition a shortcut/button on the Panel you can either: (1) drag it to its new position; or (2) right-click on its icon, select "Move Button" and move the mouse until the button is in its new location, then click the mouse.
- Logging
Out
Here are ways for you to quit your KDE session and logout:- From the K Menu select "Logout", then click "Quit this Session"
- Right-click on the desktop and select "Logout"
- Press CTRL-ALT-END to go the Connection Manager. Click your active Linux connection to select it, then click the "End" button
- KDE References
- Wikipedia entry for KDE, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE
- KDE homepage, http://www.kde.org/
- KDE documentation site, http://docs.kde.org/
- KDE TechBase, a KDE Wiki, http://techbase.kde.org/
- KDE on Cygwin, port of Qt and KDE to Windows using Cygwin, http://kde-cygwin.sourceforge.net/
- Cygwin, a Linux-like environment for Windows, http://www.cygwin.com/
