My Buffalo Wireless Ethernet Controller WLI-TX4-G54HP-1 arrived today, so I eagerly installed it at home. As usual there is no configurator for Linux, so you have to use the web-admin page, this requires you to connect via a wired port configured for the same network 1.1.1.0/24. Once done it was very simple to configure - I gave it a static IP (not sure whether that was really required) and rebooted into Edubuntu.

Very straightforward, but the performance, whilst infinitely better than my old Lucent Ethernet Converter, was less than stunning. Launching Gcompris, struggled with the music, but once the music was switched off the moving images and sound seemed fine. Gnome seems a little sluggish at times, but probably quicker than my ageing Dell Inspiron 8200 is normally!

I guess I would describe performance of Edubuntu via Wireless as satisfactory - but if you require sound/video I think you’ll struggle. That said it is a useful additional method of accessing LTSP and will no doubt have its place at work, e.g. ad-hoc workstations.

Tonight I installed edubuntu-desktop from the Edubuntu add-ons CD - didn’t take very long and very pretty it was too, once I rebooted.

Next I wanted to see if I could get my laptop working wirelessly. I had an old Lucent Wireless Ethernet Converter, sadly only a 10-base-T model. Configured it with a static IP address, and attached it to my laptop’s network port. Rebooted and, joy of joys, it immediately PXE booted off the Edubuntu server.

Unfortunately it was painfully slow, but nevertheless a great proof of concept for Wireless access to LTSP.

Now I just need to order a decent modern Wireless bridge and hopefully we’ll have decent wireless LTSP!