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07-17-2022, 04:50 AM
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#16
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LQ Guru
Registered: Sep 2011
Location: Upper Hale, Surrey/Hants Border, UK
Distribution: One main distro, & some smaller ones casually.
Posts: 5,777
Rep: 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RandomTroll
Thanks. I find a lot of cheap thin clients used but little support - at least for the out-dated models I'm looking at.
Do they require BIOS booting? The Wyse 7020, for example, can come with a Linux BIOS. Can it boot off what I've installed on the internal SSD? An external hard drive?
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Can't guarantee your 7020, but I have a Wyse thin client, & a HP thin client, & they both boot Devuan from their internal 16GB drives, I just plug in an external USB drive for storage space. Excellent cheap solution if you're not a gamer & just want a basic computer for the internet, etc. (I use a USB wifi stick with mine.) 
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07-17-2022, 05:07 AM
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#17
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LQ Guru
Registered: Jan 2006
Location: Ireland
Distribution: Slackware, Slarm64 & Android
Posts: 17,276
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I've an early Pi 4B (early ones clocked @1.5Ghz, later ones clocked @1.8Ghz with an improved CPU psu to facilitate overclocking). I use slarm64 which is an unofficial slackware64 port with extras. Very good too.
Powerwise, it's fine. Heavy work like compiling slows it (≅2 hours for a kernel, ≥24hours for firefox) but I have no problem with everyday stuff. I use it for streaming. Software rendering is painful. I use SSD, wifi keyboard+mouse, & wifi adapter(~100mA) with no hassle, and no usb hub. I bought a 220V 5.1V supply to replace the 240V 5.0V 'official' supply. I was a hardware techie and know that 5.0V on the plug is not 5.0V inside.
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07-17-2022, 09:34 AM
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#18
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Senior Member
Registered: Jun 2015
Location: Tucson, AZ USA
Distribution: Linux Mint 22
Posts: 1,216
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I don't know if you are on the move but if performance isn't a concern then just buy another laptop? Relatively inexpensive. Doesn't need to be much. The ability to be mobile is big in my life. I keep an old Core2Duo Dell laptop around just for when I need to be mobile. Fills my needs perfectly.
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07-17-2022, 11:04 AM
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#19
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Senior Member
Registered: Mar 2010
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 2,171
Original Poster
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Quote:
Originally Posted by computersavvy
I run a Pi 4B.
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Thanks. That's good to know. Could you write an SD card that would boot Linux? Unfortunately I can't find a Pi 4B for sale, am looking at alternatives.
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07-17-2022, 11:33 AM
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#20
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Member
Registered: Jul 2008
Location: Montana USA
Distribution: KUbuntu, Fedora (KDE), PI OS
Posts: 605
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Quote:
but if you remove that card it can boot from USB.
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Agree. I use USB SSD drives for my RPI4s that I do development work on. Much more reliably and good speed as well. I use a Samsung T5 and T7 500GB external drives (without a USB HUB) as the RPI4 boot/data drives. If you have old SATA SSD drives laying around you can repurpose with a USB to SATA cable. Done that too. Looking around my home office, I am currently running two RPI4s 24x7 with external SSD drives. For my embedded projects I still use the SD card for space reasons. I only use the PI OS system on my RPIs as I feel it meets all my OS needs. Ubuntu I believe also runs on the RPI4.
And yes you will need a powered USB hub, if you have more than 4 devices (depending how power hungry they are). I can run a USB keyboard, mouse, and external SSD drive no problem off of my RPI4s.
Also look into the Raspberry PI 400 . Might meet your need and are usually in stock compared to the RPI 4s. Here is video that someone put up on that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h86D_6yh1nk Note, I have one of these and it worked well too. For me though, I run almost all of my RPIs headless, so I don't use the 400 much.
Last edited by rclark; 07-17-2022 at 02:47 PM.
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07-17-2022, 12:59 PM
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#21
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Senior Member
Registered: Aug 2016
Posts: 3,345
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RandomTroll
Thanks. That's good to know. Could you write an SD card that would boot Linux? Unfortunately I can't find a Pi 4B for sale, am looking at alternatives.
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I have used OctoPi, Ubuntu 22.04, Raspi, and others on my Pi. Settled on Ubuntu 22.04 as the main OS and all have been used on SD cards.
The Pi 400 is the same exact board built into a keyboard. With mine I am using a 64 GB SD card and have 8GB RAM. The OS can run with as little as a 16 GB SD card depending upon your storage needs or if using an SSD for external storage.
I don't know where you are located, but I bought one here in the US about a year ago.
www.raspberry.com has direct links to several retailers and I see this
Last edited by computersavvy; 07-17-2022 at 01:04 PM.
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07-17-2022, 02:50 PM
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#22
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Member
Registered: Jul 2008
Location: Montana USA
Distribution: KUbuntu, Fedora (KDE), PI OS
Posts: 605
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The 400 only has 4GB as far as I know. Also you might want to try an external SSD as your boot drive. You might just like it  .
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07-18-2022, 06:06 AM
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#24
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LQ Guru
Registered: Jan 2006
Location: Ireland
Distribution: Slackware, Slarm64 & Android
Posts: 17,276
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I've a Pi with 4G and in practise with linux, that's enough. If you're running QEMU or the like, then sure you want more. Any time I've checked memory I've change out of 2G.
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07-18-2022, 07:12 AM
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#25
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LQ Guru
Registered: Sep 2011
Location: Upper Hale, Surrey/Hants Border, UK
Distribution: One main distro, & some smaller ones casually.
Posts: 5,777
Rep: 
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Can't deny RPi are capable little machines; but with the chip shortages we are still experiencing, it could still be at least another year before they can catch up with demand.
In the mean time, I've bought a couple of thin clients, (at less than half the price of an equivalent RPi), & they work very well for the basics. 
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07-18-2022, 08:02 AM
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#26
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Senior Member
Registered: Feb 2011
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Distribution: Fedora
Posts: 4,269
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I like the Thinkcentre which has OK graphics and audio, WiFi, and USB C. Size of 2 decks of cards.
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07-18-2022, 02:27 PM
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#27
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Senior Member
Registered: Aug 2016
Posts: 3,345
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The Thinkcenter sounds good. Pi 4B has the advantage of 2 4K hdmi ports for video.
If I am reading correctly the thin clients have minimal if any local storage and depend on connecting to a remote server to operate. That does not sound ideal for most home users, whereas something like the Pi or the Thinkcentre sounds better since it is also easily portable and storage is self-contained.
Last edited by computersavvy; 07-18-2022 at 02:33 PM.
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07-19-2022, 07:50 AM
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#28
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LQ Guru
Registered: Jan 2006
Location: Ireland
Distribution: Slackware, Slarm64 & Android
Posts: 17,276
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The Pi 4B's two 4k ports were at tested @4k under X and achieved 30-33 FPS by the Slackware Arm team. I don't imagine the Pi was doing much else at the time
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07-19-2022, 08:41 AM
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#29
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Moderator
Registered: Mar 2011
Location: USA
Distribution: MINT Debian, Angstrom, SUSE, Ubuntu, Debian
Posts: 9,940
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fatmac
Can't deny RPi are capable little machines; but with the chip shortages we are still experiencing, it could still be at least another year before they can catch up with demand.
In the mean time, I've bought a couple of thin clients, (at less than half the price of an equivalent RPi), & they work very well for the basics. 
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The second thought mirrors my thinking "just get a very cheap PC or SBC for this" and the RPi 4 seems ideal, but then I looked at purchase options and yes the statement about supply chain unfortunately makes this a difficult decision where normally it is a very simple one where you apply almost throw away dollars to get a very simple board and then just forge ahead.
I see some SBCs for sale on ebay and if you can find a trustful seller, it is possible to acquire a board.
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07-19-2022, 10:52 AM
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#30
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LQ Guru
Registered: Jan 2006
Location: Ireland
Distribution: Slackware, Slarm64 & Android
Posts: 17,276
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When silly situations like this arise, In m,y hardware days I would often have recourse to component brokers.
These guys wouldn't compete on line items, but would buy up difficult to find or end-of-line items that were going obsolete, or bankrupt stock, or anywhere it was dead cheap. When I needed them you could haggle. All places to buy a Pi have gone here, because the idea of a young guy actually DOING something useful seems to be highly out of fashion. If there's a component broker left, he may have Pis for you.
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