Re: Diskless Network - /me confused

[Ken Yap <ken@nlc.net.au>]

>The clients would be using bootdisks (they do have a floppy) to connect
>to the server. The clients are then supposed to mount their root on the
>server, and it's here the confusion starts. Where will this root be?
>Will other users be able to access this? Will this root have its own
>/dev so that the client can access its own hardware (like cdrom)? 
>If yes, will other clients be able to access the other clients /dev?

Each client should have their own root "partition". They should not
share /devs, but clients can share /bin, /sbin, /lib and any other files
(via hard links on the server) that are not client specific. Most /devs
are similar, but there may be differences and anyway the directory just
consists of entries which take up very little space.

>Let's say the server has a Voodoo 2 card installed. Will the clients be
>able to use it and play say Q3 in decent speed even though the clients
>computers suck, but the server is P2-450? Or does it not work this way?

It will be slower loading the program because it will be from a NFS
partition, but once loaded it should run at full speed on the client
because the the hardware is local.

>Are the clients' RAM used, or only the server's? Would the clients be
>able to use their own Voodoo 2 if they wanted, but start the actual
>game from the server? If both the server and a client have a Voodoo 2
>card, how does the game know which one it should use? Lots of "?"'s
>here, and this is just some of the questions and could come up with at
>this moment, but I'd appreciate any help I could get.

The client's RAM is used. The client isn't able to, and should not be
able to, see any of the server's hardware. It just sees a NFS exported
partition.
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