Diskless nodes?

[76ShovelHead]

My old school used to have it where you could sit down at any eMac throughout the building and login. I later found this is called a diskless node. With my Mom's recent hardware failure in her Compaq, I was wondering, how can I repurpose my iMac G3, eMac, or any other computer to be a diskless node to my much more powerful mackintosh?

EDIT:

I guess what I want to do is something like ScreenRecycler, but instead of using an [iMac G3 or whatever else] as an extended display, using it as the main display over my homes network. It may not be as permanent as a diskless node, however I think it will have better compatibility because you can't net boot OS X Lion from an iMac G3.

 

[DustinT]

Well, if you could netboot that system that would be the easiest way. Perhaps you would be better served setting up a Snow Leopard net boot server?

 

[76ShovelHead]

I played around with Screen Recycler. Surprised how nice it was, but even with JollyFastVNC and how my computers are sharing the same router through ethernet, the graphics were glitchy.

I always wanted to do a "diskless node" (net boot) configuration, like where I could sign into the kitchen or living room computer, and my bedroom computer. Would be pretty sweet. I read up on how you need OS X server, and by all means its not something the typical computer user can do. It requires making a network drive, which struck earlier today that even though its a diskless node, its still [booting] a network drive therefore the node must be able to run the net drive. So that rules out using an iMac G3 or my eMac for an Intel OS X Lion host computer.

To conclude things, I noticed an option in ScreenRecycler where you can turn on mirroring. This is really what I wanted, just better performance. Being that it's on the network I can store the hackintosh tower say in a closet or cabinet, and then have the monitor be mirrored onto my eMac. Also creating the illusion that my eMac is running Lion with a substantially better processor, more ram for sure, and capabilities of the new Intel macs. I just wish we could perfect the connection.

 

[Consultant]

You don't need netbook. You can run / sync user folder off the network.