request for some help with performance and sound

[Richard Doyle]

On Tue, 2008-02-05 at 13:42 -0500, Patrick McKnight wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> I am new to Edubuntu but not new to linux (using exclusively since
> 1996).   Recently, I installed Edubuntu in my research lab.
Which version?

> The install was a replacement for an Ubuntu (Dapper) setup with LTSP
> that was working OK but tended to crash a fair bit.  I thought an
> upgrade was in order so I moved ahead.  Perhaps my move was a bit in
> haste since many of the features that were working before no longer
> work.  Two features, in particular, are causing me headaches.  Can
> anyone out there offer some advice on the following?
> 
> 1.  Video performance.  I have 5 clients hooked up to a Gb switch that
> goes directly to an exclusive NIC on my dual cpu, dual core server (8
> GB of RAM, 80 GB SATA drive, no RAID).  The clients are all PXE thin
> clients with 512 MB of RAM and via chipsets (most likely they are EPIA
> boards in tiny cases, I just never looked inside).  The video
> performance on my thin clients is atrocious.  I feel like I have gone
> back to Windows 2.0 on a 286 - yes, that slow.  I literally see the
> screen painted before my eyes.  Running anything like VMware or
> Win4Lin is out of the question.  So I ask, what might be the hangup?
> 
> Network?  I figure the network connection is fine.  
> 
> Server?  The server CPU and RAM are fine but the disk is definitely
> slow.  That should not make a difference on one test client, or should
> it?  
> 
> Clients?  Not likely.  They ran just fine before.
But aren't they using a different driver now, since you are using a
newer kernel?

Were you using the xorg driver for the via chipset in both cases?

> 
> Edubuntu setup?  Perhaps.  But I am not sure how to tune the
> performance.  
> 
> 2.  Sound.  Sound does not work.  I know to enable sound I need to
> enable sound in the lts.conf file.  I have already done that.  Is
> there another step that I am missing?  Perhaps software that is not
> installed by default.  I tried everything.  From installing esound,
> pulseaudio, etc. to messing around with my asound.conf file.  The thin
> client just refuses to see any sound driver or daemon.  
> 
> Any help on either of these would be greatly appreciated.  I need to
> get these thin clients back up and running so my students can resume
> their work (for me).  Thanks greatly in advance for any pointers.  
> 
> -- 
> Cheers,
> 
> Patrick