Loading Windows or Linux over network to diskless machines

[Confused]

Over in the Distributed Computing forum we are considering making a crackrack for the TeAm. We have had the thought of keeping costs down by loading Windows or Linux over the network to the machines, so that we do not have to pay out for hard drives in them.

What would be the best way to do this? All of the machines may not have the same hardware specs, will that make a difference, and require us to have many different images for each computer?

Given that these will likely have 128MB RAM max, will this be feasible? We have a member with some unused Windows 98 licenses, so that would probably be the best thing if we decided to go for Windows

Otherwise, what would be the best (and easiest to maintain) Linux distro for the job

Thanks in advance


ConfusedBW

 

[Nothinman]

Good luck, you're going to need it.

Would diskless Linux be out of the question, it would be a helluva lot easier.

 

[Abzstrak]

I'm thinkin the same thing... linux is the only way to go... plus it cracks faster in some programs

plus booting linux boxes off the server is alot easier than windows

 

[Confused]

Linux is a possibility as well 🙂 Just that the Linux client for Seti (which would probably be the main project) isn't as efficient as the Windows client! Although saying that running the Windows client in WINE in Linux is faster than Windows itself! :Q

OK, so how would we go about booting Linux off the network...and it's not guaranteed that all the machines will be the same

Lead post changed to reflect Linux possibility 🙂

ConfusedBW

 

[Nothinman]

Try this: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Diskless-root-NFS-HOWTO.html