Run Your Old Notebook Back to the Future

Do you have a beautiful full working old notebook but that cannot handle online meeting or web navigation anymore?

You don't have to get it into waste! You can still use it's monitor, keyboard, battery and soundcard!

Just remove the Optical Drive and replace it with a Single Board Computer!

Resources:

• Usage of mouse and keyboard between two computers:
• Barrier (MacOS, Windows, Linux) link
• Mouse without Borders (windows) link
• Logitech sinergy
• Other useful hints
• Usage of notebook monitor for raspberry without VNC: link
• Usage of optical bay for SBC: link

You need to take

1. ethernet cable
2. HDMI usb capture card
3. HDMI cable (shorter is better)
4. VLC media player: link
5. Any VNC client SW (only needed for the first setup): I suggest this
6. Single board PC (SBC) for your needs: (Rockpro64, Raspberry PI4, Asus TinkerBoard, Lattepanda, mac mini, an old Smarphone HDMI out capable)
7. Operating system you prefer (even MS Windows, if you really want it and cannot live without it)

This sw allows you to share notebook keyboard and mouse to the SBC:

1. Barrier (MacOS, Windows, Linux) link
2. Mouse without Borders (windows) link
3. Logitech sinergy
4. Other useful hints

FULL INTEGRATION OPTION: replace your optical drive with the new motherboard (SBC) for you notebook.

1. One SATA or ATA cable like this

Power the SBC and connect it to your router with ethernet cable.

Download and install VNC client

SBC with LINUX:

On your notebook: open VNC client and search for VNC server open session.

SBC with MACos:

on your notebook: access APPLE remote desktop as described here

SBC with Windows:

on your notebook: access WINDOWS remote desktop as described here

Here’s a synthesized version of the steps to create a working PXE server for a thin client ISO based on the tutorial from LinuxConfig.org¹:

Steps to Create a PXE Server on Raspberry Pi

1. Install Required Packages:
2. Update your package list and install dnsmasq, pxelinux, and syslinux-efi:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install dnsmasq pxelinux syslinux-efi

1. Set Up File Structure:
2. Create directories for BIOS and EFI boot files:

mkdir -p /mnt/data/netboot/{bios,efi64}

1. Copy necessary syslinux files to the respective directories:

cp /usr/lib/syslinux/modules/bios/{ldlinux,vesamenu,libcom32,libutil}.c32 /usr/lib/PXELINUX/pxelinux.0 /mnt/data/netboot/bios

cp /usr/lib/syslinux/modules/efi64/{ldlinux.e64,vesamenu.c32,libcom32.c32,libutil.c32} /mnt/data/netboot/efi64

1. Extract ISO Files:
2. Mount the thin client ISO and copy its contents to the netboot directory (we'll use only the .iso I created for this purpose, not Debian as explained in the tutorial)

sudo mount -o loop /path/to/thinclient.iso /mnt

sudo cp -r /mnt/* /mnt/data/netboot

sudo umount /mnt

1. Configure PXELINUX:
2. Create a PXELINUX configuration file:

mkdir -p /mnt/data/netboot/pxelinux.cfg

nano /mnt/data/netboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

1. Add the following configuration to the default file:

DEFAULT vesamenu.c32

PROMPT 0

MENU TITLE PXE Boot Menu

LABEL thinclient

MENU LABEL Thin Client

KERNEL /path/to/kernel

APPEND initrd=/path/to/initrd boot=live

1. Configure dnsmasq:
2. Edit the dnsmasq configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.conf

1. Add the following configuration:

interface=eth0

dhcp-range=192.168.5.100,192.168.5.200,12h

dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0

enable-tftp

tftp-root=/mnt/data/netboot

Final phase

1. Start dnsmasq:
2. Restart the dnsmasq service to apply changes:

sudo systemctl restart dnsmasq

1. Boot the Thin Client:
2. Connect the thin client to the network and configure it to boot from the network (PXE).

Download and install BARRIER (or one of the other suggested keyboard sharing SWs) from Debauchee repository on your notebook ad on the SBC

Configure your notebook as "server"

Configure your SBC as "client" and add it to the server.

Once the keyboard and mouse are shared between the computers you can connect the SBC to the HDMI input of your USB capture device.

Download and install VLC player on your notebook: open "USB capture device"

You can now stop using VNC and enjoy the full performances of you renewed notebook.