Discussion on:

Best LINUX for RDP

I want to recycle my old PC's as thin clients. I have some (but not much) knowledge of linux, I have a windows 2003 terminal server and a load of old Pentium 2 desktops and would like to know the best linux distro to use (for old PC's) and how to configure it to pick up an IP address from DHCP then start an RDP client session to a specific server. This must all happen without user interaction and will preferably drop back to the RDP logon when the user disconnects, I don't want them getting into the background linux at all.

Any linux will do.
Probably Damn Small Linux is enough (+ rdesktop)
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=damnsmall

or a thin client version of linux:
Thin station:
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=thinstation

K12LTSP:
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=k12ltsp


What you realy need besides Linux + base
libraries and networking stuff is an X server
( X.org or XFree86) and rdesktop.

For running a rdesktop captive system you just
need to run dhcp + X + rdesktop and if X or
rdesktop dies kill and restart both.

Yes you need the X server because you need
something to supply mouse & keybord input to
rdesktop and you need the output of rdesktop
show.

You definitely dont need a session manager
whatsoever. No KDE, no Gnome, no xflt etc. etc.

If you make a script like:

:loop
startx ..... &
export DISPLAY=:0.0
rdesktop -F remotehost. etc. etc. etc.
goto loop

and even the startx part probably can be trimmed
to just a call to X. with proper parameters.
(allow unix pipeline, no internet
connections) ....

Almost nothing else can be done on this system.
It will become a little more work if you want to
display a little menu and want to select a task
from there.


All you really need is a X server and rdesktop.
and optionaly a simple menu system.
This might be a better help: setup a kiosk.

http://www.linux.com/howtos/Kiosk-HOWTO.shtml

I haven't done this my self. But the
instructions seem to be strait forward.
This kiosk is running mozilla, if you put
rdesktop in its place it is probably all done.

Hope this helps.

This question was closed by the author

This project is probably what you need:

http://pctsc.ponderworthy.org

Its purpose is to convert PCs to terminal server clients as easily as possible. Uses Tiny Core Linux as base, with installation and configuration highly automated.