[Wizard] Thin client rambles

[Bernard Blackham]

<braindump>
Well my laptop now feeds the TV while my family watches DVDs, so I
couldn't use it's screen or keyboard. So I decided to seriously use
the netboot'd xterm on the wizard.  Some things I've noticed:

 - Running gdm with XDMCP, the magic cookies for authorization seem
   to be magically handled by gdm. AIUI, the X server starts up with
   no access controls, until the display manager invents a cookie,
   applies it to the X server, and hands it to the user who logged
   in. So hopefully this addresses the security concerns.

 - It's a pretty responsive xterminal. Running Mozilla & XMMS with
   no troubles at all (okay, a slight lag on the screen refreshes,
   but easily bearable). The Alt key doesn't work - suspect the
   abundance of warnings about XKB on startup :)

 - Fonts need help - I have 2 fonts in the X server itself, so some
   things cry out for help. Mind you, mozilla, KDE & GTK2
   applications are happily using their own fonts, oblivious to the
   X server.  GTK+1 apps revert to the one "fixed" font on it.  In
   more serious use, a font server would really be required
   somewhere on the network.

 - Sound server. If there were any way to put compression into
   ESoundD, then it'd be ideal, otherwise it really noticeably lag's
   the X session. Esd deals with sampling rates, authentication,
   network transparency, and program transparency (using an
   LD_PRELOAD wrapper any audio program will be routed through esd).
   
   I could hack up the source code to esd to incorporate
   compression, but if anybody has any better suggestions, I'm all
   ears :)

Also, re the X server - I've tried all of the X drivers and versions
I can get my hands on for the chipset, and none of the specialised
ones work. The VESA driver works adequately, but accelerated would
be nicer. Rumour had it the fbdev driver was fine too, but even
slower. Probably some source code tinkering required. :(

I'll also get to trying David's kernel and see if it makes any
noticeable difference as an xterm. :)

Regards,

Bernard.

-- 
 Bernard Blackham 
 bernard at blackham dot com dot au