Dock station compatability

[daggs]

I'm looking for a dock station, I've found these that seems to be compatible with linux. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=50001803 40000537&bop=And&SpeTabStoreType=0&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=N82E16834995874%2CN82E16834999776%2CN82E16834999775%2CN82E16834995875 my main needs are usb ports and sound jacks, the rest is unneeded. does anyone knows what's the status of linux support on them?

 

[daggs]

here is the correct link: linky

 

[audiovoodoo]

Can I ask why you don't just go for a powered USB hub and an external sound card?

 

[daggs]

Can I ask why you don't just go for a powered USB hub and an external sound card?

thats a possibility that I did't thought of (external card), the problem with this option is that I'll need more cables to pull.
what I'm planning to do it a multiseat config, I need 3 terminals. using dock stations it takes me 3 usb ports and 3 dvi ports, e.g. 2 cables for each terminal, total of 6.
using what you've suggested I get 2 usb ports per terminal, 3 cables per terminal, that quite alot, and I'll have to buy another pci card that has usb ports in it which raises the cost more.
also, from what I've seen, that card can sum up to 200$ (unless you can provide a link to a card which is good, worked under linux and costs way less then 90$ (the cost of Dynadock U which seems to be supported by linux)
http://www.klabs.be/~fpiat/linux/hardware/Dynadock_on_Linux.html

 

[audiovoodoo]

Multiseat - do you mean multi screen? I'm not sure I understand what you are doing, 3 * KB and Mouse?

 

[audiovoodoo]

USB sound cards can be had from £10, 8 port USB hubs are about £30.

 

[daggs]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiseat_configuration
~147$ (6 port usb hubs) against 270$ you do have a point there but I'm still not sure about the amount of cables that will go around the house.
also I need a usb card what will be supported by linux

 

[audiovoodoo]

Ok.. it is what I thought it was. Have you thought of taking the other approach? You can pick up some old X terminals off flea bay and then just run Cat5. Trying to run long USB cables will be a nightmare if the seats are not all in the same room

 

[daggs]

old x terminal? cat5 cables? not sure I follow, can you elaborate?
my home isn't big, so even if the comps are in different rooms, they won't be more then 5 meters away so that is still in the limits of the power usage.
that is also why I'm not planing to use the dvi port in the dock.

 

[audiovoodoo]

Have a look at the Wiki, it's good enough to give you the idea:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_terminal

Basically instead of buying monitors and USB hubs and all the rest just pick up a couple of old ones from e-bay, a low cost 5 port ethernet hub and plug it all together. Alternatively have a look for second hand thin client devices such as Citrix make if you want to BYOKM.

The advantage is that the terminals can be anywhere, so long as they have a network connection. I've had friends run them in the games room, garden shed etc as another means of getting to their desktop. Second hand they are very good value.

 

[daggs]

so it loads everything out of the net? who does the actual actions on the terminal side?

 

[audiovoodoo]

Each terminal runs it's own session under Linux. Linux is very much multi user so this is not a problem. Each user can run applications, code running on the single server (your laptop) independently of each other. It's how Unix always was.

 

[daggs]

I do use linux on a daily base, what I don't understand is if the terminal consist of screen, mouse, keyboard and speakers, how does the information is calculated?

 

[audiovoodoo]

The X terminal is a PC without CPU power. It shares the CPU of your PC running Linux. If you want to know more then google is your evil friend. There is plenty of documentation out there that will explain it better than I ever can.

 

[daggs]

so essentially, an x terminal requires monitor, cpu+memory+mb and the input/output right?

 

[linux_0]

X terminals run xdmcp remotely unix's had this feature for decades. X11 can run across the network almost as good as it runs on a real computer but you won't have fancy 3d.

All the programs run on the server and the terminal doesn't do a lot of work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XDMCP

Good luck

 

[daggs]

ok, I'm still don't understand the hardware requirements, sorry, can you elaborate more?
also I do need 3d support.

 

[audiovoodoo]

HW Requirements:

1 x Linux Server runing xdmcp
Any number of X terminals
Network

The x terminals do have memory and a small processor but they DO NOT run linux, all they run is a terminal display. I used to support a PC Software X terminal emulator, lots of companies use them to give access to graphical Unix applications from a PC. You can get 3d support but it's a lot of work, a lot of the older X terminals will not support this.

I've said this a couple of times but just for clarity: Linux is just running on the server, all that runs on the x terminal is a display client, this is loaded from a small ROM chip, the terminals do not run Linux at all, indeed you can have an X terminal choose from Linux, Unix and even VMS servers if you want. All I/O from an X terminal is over the network.

 

[daggs]

unless I can do this with atom, these rom chips are hard to find where I live.
also I'll still need to get the same server and add the other hardware which makes it more expensive, thus making this feature not worth it.

 

[linux_0]

You'll find a bunch of X terminals on ebay for next to nothing.

Besides you can turn any linux computer into an X terminal on cheap hardware.

Good luck

 

[audiovoodoo]

Daggs, an xterm includes screen, rom, keyboard and mouse. The whole thing. Second hand they will cost you a lot less than monitors and all the other bits.

 

[linux_0]

You'll find X terminals and thin clients on ebay for $20 to $100 each ( about 15 - 75 GBP ).

Some of them aren't all that bad.

The cheapest atom you'll find retail sells for about $200 without a display and about $320 - $350 with an LCD.

The atom's going to have better specs but the onboard graphics chip's horrible.

Good luck

 

[daggs]

can anyone provide a link to that rom chip? I want to see if I can even find one where I live.

 

[audiovoodoo]

You don't buy rom chips. They are a part of the X terminal.

 

[linux_0]

You don't need any chips, many X terminals can boot directly from the network

You'll also be able to boot any AMD64, intel core or atom from the network if you have pxe.

This'll save you a lot of GBP since you won't have to buy storage for them.

Good luck