newest experiments

There really is little to give up moving avimark to wine/linux 

I now have been able to run avimark  client/server  with the guardian program running on the linux server.

I can run a totally native linux client either in standalone, or client/server connected mode.

I can run windows boxes and linux boxes in a mixed environment.

I can re index natively on the linux server.

I can run rdp sessions to the linux server concurrant with other native windows sessions and native linux sessions all in the same environment

I can use open office or libre office 

Netnotes works on Linux / WINE, complete with the avimark merge words. 

As it turned out, the last nut to crack was the native linux session on a linux client.  As it works out, you cannot access avimark through the nautilus browser and have it run correctly.  You have to mount the server drive/directory through the fstab configuration file at startup.  If avimark.exe appears with the real avimark icon, it will run.  If the real avimark icon isn't visible in the nautilus browser, it will not.

Finally using a simple bash script, it is possible to create a simple desktop icon for the end user to start avimark.

In essence, once set up, they can just double click on the avimark icon like in windows, and the session will appear to them, just like it did on the windows machine.

The only things you give up are

1. Updates must be loaded by off loading to a windows machine, updateing and then transfering back to the linux machine  (fails crc check through the automated avimark update system)

2. the real time spell checker has to be turned off for certain notes windows to work

3. certain key combos like ctrl alt f10 are reserved for the linux system, and the menu/mouse alternatives must be used.

4. certain times you must either access the appt book or another feature before the system will recognize a click on the magnifying glass (client lookup)

5. SENDING LOTS OF MONEY TO MICROSOFT FOR UPGRADES.

I am still here

I have been pretty busy as of late with Theatrical projects.  But that said, as fall and winter weather has descended, I am experimenting more again

My main clinic is still running on Ubuntu linux 12.04  It has x11rdp installed thanks to the script provide by scary gliders.

we run almost exclusively wine sessions served up by the server via rdp.

The boxes running rdp are mostly HP thin clients with Windows7 embedded running.

We also have a vista machine, some xp machines, and a couple of windows 7 machines all connected.  The lab aquisition runs on an xp box in native windows.  I also have the emergency clinic running lab aquisition on one of the thin clients.

Very stable at present.

Thin clients and linux just soldier on

Very quiet week here in Lake Wobegone.  The stuff is just working.  Avimark still works best when Wine is set to the "emulate a virtual desktop" mode.  Otherwise it it possible for a user to get themselves stuck with an alert window shuffled to the background, but not allowing them to go on. There are simple ways out of it, but its better if it doesnt happen in the first place.

Spent part of the morning configuring a thin client for use at the emergency clinic.  You do have to eliminate some software that you dont use in order to have room to load what you will use, but small price to pay, for the small price I paid :-)

If the weather is bad this weekend, I may spend some time working through a cookbook for all this at another vet who followed me down the rabbit hole started to put together.

Might also be able to prepare a live install disk to do the dirty work for folks ahead of time.  Starting to get some emails about this stuff.

If you stopped in, leave a comment, if only to say hello

HP thin clients are installed and running.. great product

So far the HP t5740e units with windows 7 embedded seem to be just what the doctor ordered.  Silent, low power consumption.  Option of running Avimark on the client, or rdp to the server, and run it there. 

I have now removed all the ncomputing terminals and replaced them with the standalone thin clients. 

We had some big storms through which they soldiered on.  I took a long weekend vacation, and they all functioned flawlessly while I was gone.

So for anyone keeping score, I am running about 15 rdp sessions with Avimark running on the Linux server in WINE. 

Interestingly there is a limit of 10 sessions built into the base configuration of the x11rdp, but  a quick edit of a config file fixed that.  

Ubuntu 12.04   WINE (ver?)  x11rdp    remote desktop on the windows machines. 

CUPS runs the printers on the linux side, and is very stable as long as you don't have any ip conflicts on your internal network.  A power outage, loss of internet, and a non total restart of my network pointed that out 

Total shutdown that evening and restart with everyone assigned a new ip by the router made it all happy again. 

Hp thin client

Just set up my first standalone hp thin client.  It has the advantage over the ncomputing devices that it doesnt require any special software on the central server like the ncomputing.  It should lend stability, because it was getting harder and harder to keep vspace running either under linux or windows xp.  Updates in xp tripped it up, and random failures occured all too often in the linux version.

The hp's are available for some pretty reasonable prices used.  This one is linux based, and I am waiting for a win7 embedded one to try as well.  The rdp client worked flawlessly with none of the keyboard mapping quirks of the ncomputing units.   Win7 would give me the option of running rdp on a linux or windows server, as well as executing avimark locally, loaded off a server if necessary.

Have to get some miles on them to be sure.. But looks promising.

Oops spoke too soon on the ncomputing

They jumped up and bit me again today.  They just couldnt get along with the cups printing system again, so... Shut em down, and the rest of the rdp sessions soldiered on perfectly all day.    Sigh

My apologies to ncomputing

The  ncomputing terminals kept logging out or hanging on their own neccesitating restarts to resolve it all.

The problem turned out to be network issues unrelated to ncomputing.  Mediacom's dns server addresses once again exposed my network to a non local .local domain.  The principal trouble that causes with ubuntu in a multi user setting is the ongoing resolution of the printers under CUPS.   I had one computer on the network that had been set long ago to a fixed ip address and fixed dns server addresses that were different from the rest of the network.  Go looking for printers attached to that one, and it was periodic choke time.  

I set everything to a public dns server address, and the printing issues went away completely, along with the network instability that was kicking off the ncomputing devices.   End result has been tremendous stability.

Looks like I am in this for the long haul now.