ThinLinc supports using X11 terminals as clients. The basic idea is illustrated in Figure 8.1.
The X11 terminal runs only a X server. The protocols between the X11 terminal and the XDM server is X11 and XDMCP
The XDM server runs a XDM deamon, which responds to the terminal's XDM requests. At each request, it starts the ThinLinc client (tlclient). The ThinLinc client communicates with the ThinLinc server as usual, using the ThinLinc protocols (SSH, VNC etc).
The XDM server and the ThinLinc server may be the same machine. This is recommended, since it will improve performance.
Install the ThinLinc server as usual. The XDM service is provided by gdm, which is included in most distributions. After installing, edit /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf and set the following parameters:
[daemon]
RemoteGreeter=/opt/thinlinc/lib/tlclient/tlclient-login
[xdmcp]
Enable=true
For more information about gdm, visit http://www.5z.com/jirka/gdm.html.
Note
Currently, the XDM server does not support load balancing.