/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2008/12/16/#edubuntu.txt

LaserJocknubae: around?17:27
nubaeyep17:37
LaserJocknubae: have a look at http://education.zdnet.com/?p=199517:38
nubaehmmm17:39
nubaeare u saying we should carry the wine apps in edubuntu too?17:40
LaserJocknubae: I'm not saying anything :-)17:40
LaserJockI just thought of you when I read that17:41
LaserJockshows that people are thinking about it anyway17:41
nubaelol :-) Well I think its a great way to migrate users permanently to linux...17:41
LaserJockif Ubuntu puts it in by default then we don't have to do any work17:42
LaserJockwe get it for free17:42
nubaewe could list something on the website with a link to the edu wine apps17:42
nubaeyeah would be cool17:42
nubaesomething like, You can run your old windows stuff on edubuntu too... I know teachers would be happy with something like tha17:43
LaserJocknubae: I think perhaps getting people involved in testing Windows edu apps in wine would be then a worthwhile effort17:43
LaserJockthe wine app DB has quite a large list of Edu apps but I'm not sure how well tested they are17:43
nubaeyeah indeed17:43
LaserJockbut for instance, in my Chemistry department we have 1 lab where we use Logger Pro17:44
nubaeI've seen it often enough that a school cannot make the leap because of 1 or 2 pieces of software that they must run on windows...17:44
LaserJockright now we use a pile of Dell laptops (kinda big and very very unreliable)17:44
LaserJockif we could instead use netbooks with Ubuntu/Wine I think it'd be much better17:45
nubaeagreed... well the good thing about the netbooks is that Canonical seems to be showing interest to certify them17:45
nubaethe HP and Dells are now certified for Ubuntu Hardy17:46
nubaean important step in wide adoption for schools17:46
nubaehey u know what a good layout web app is for ubuntu.. I use bluefish for code, but need something to layout tables17:47
LaserJockthe important thing is many many schools is that they are locked in to certain programs17:47
Ahmucknubae: after doing everything in your fat client tutorial, the fat clients won't boot17:47
Ahmuckinterested in reviewing dhpcd.conf?17:47
nubaeAhmuck: I looked at your dhcpd.conf file17:47
Ahmuckwas it wrong?17:48
nubaeplease make sure its exactly like the sample17:48
nubaeyeah17:48
LaserJocklike in my labs the lab manuals are written for Logger Pro, having to change that all isn't something profs are going to want to do17:48
Ahmuckok, i'll try again17:48
nubaebefore anything else though... just change the original dhcpd.conf17:48
nubaeand change the instances of i386 to fati38617:48
LaserJocknubae: I don't know what would work well for table layout :(17:48
Ahmuckk.  it'll be about 30 minutes b4 i can do that17:48
nubaeLaserJock: I guess I'll have to use wine+dreamweaver ;-)17:49
LaserJockugg17:49
nubaeI know17:49
* LaserJock is not a dreamweaver fan17:49
Ahmucki would test windows edu apps in ltsp17:49
LaserJockbut it's been years since I used it last so I don't know17:49
LaserJockmaybe it's better17:49
* nubae is not a windows fan either17:49
Ahmuckwithout windows apps in ltsp, it doesn't work for our area.  our schools have some testing and some measuring programs they are required to use17:50
nubaeit layouts out visually, and the other choices are not even choices17:50
nubaeAhmuck: yeah you're not the only one, I think listing which commonly used apps in schools work, would be of great value17:50
nubaeLaserJock: u know where we could get a list like that? is it the same across US schools?17:51
Ahmucknubae: kompozer?  or seamonkey ?17:51
nubaeI can do it for German and Spanish speaking countries, as I know more or less what they need that they are tied into17:51
nubaeoh yeah, I'll give kompozer a whirl17:51
LaserJocknubae: each school district and university is likely to do their own thing17:51
nubaegosh, no standards?17:52
nubae:-)17:52
LaserJockfor universities, none17:52
nubaewell, our target is more schools, right?17:52
LaserJockfor school districts there might be some at the state and maybe a few at the fedral level but I doubt much17:52
LaserJocknubae: our target is "Education"17:52
LaserJockpresently schools are definately more the focus17:53
nubaewell at least starting with those would be a way to counter the 'I can't migrate cause I need a chem app that works, and the ones we are allowed to use are windows apps'17:53
Ahmuckis wine a security risk?17:53
LaserJockAhmuck: apparently it's only a risk to itself17:53
LaserJockthat's to say, wine can get viruses within the environment, but that can't hurt the rest of the OS17:54
Ahmuckmore importantly, one of my issues is with wine from the admin side is install once, run many.  to taylor every user login to run wine is counterproductive.  doing so doesn't save one time over a standard windows installation17:54
LaserJockAhmuck: how do you mean?17:54
Ahmucki think i could get a list of windows apps from our local schools17:55
LaserJockAhmuck: do you mean it's hard to set up each user with wine?17:55
Ahmuckno, difficult to taylor to the individual?17:56
Ahmuckor set an icon on every desktop at once?17:56
nubaewhat crossover does17:56
nubaebut wine-doors does that for you Ahmuck17:56
LaserJockI wonder if sabayon would be useful17:56
nubaeit has the bottles set up for all the apps and u just hit install17:56
nubaefrom a gui17:56
LaserJockso you basically set up different Wine profiles17:56
nubaeyeah each app has its profile, but it just makes it system wide and really easy to install with preset profiles downloaded from some database17:57
nubaeits actually a very neat piece of software17:57
nubaehttp://www.wine-doors.org/wordpress/17:58
Ahmuckwith wine in ltsp, could you configure app A for classroom 1 and app B for classrom 2?17:58
Ahmucki've seen winedoors17:58
nubaeAhmuck: that would require sabayon/pessulus17:59
nubaecause then u are editting the menus... or maybe gnome-menu-manager?17:59
LaserJockI think sabayon, I don't think pessulus could do it17:59
nubaeI always use the 2 together17:59
nubaeone for profiles, the other for locking down17:59
LaserJockbut since wine is just a dir in ~/ I think you could use sabayon (if sabayon worked) to drop in Wine "profiles"18:00
LaserJocknubae: I wonder if it's necessary to have pessulus if you have sabayon18:01
nubaepessulus runs inside sabayon18:01
LaserJockright, but do you have to have pessulus installed to use it?18:02
nubaewine-doors says this: Allow users to manage their windows applications with profiles and bottles18:02
LaserJockI haven't played with it much, but sabayon has a copy of pessulus' code in its source tree so I wonder18:02
nubaeI always install both, maybe not18:03
nubaeit would be so nice for someone to fix that up18:03
nubaeI think its so useful18:03
LaserJocksabayon? or both?18:03
nubaewell depending, both if they are needed to lockdown18:04
nubaebut mostly sabayon I guess18:04
nubaepessulus seems to work ok18:04
LaserJockpessulus is smaller, does fewer things, and I think still maintained18:04
LaserJocksabayon is essentially dead right now18:05
LaserJockRed Hat pulled out and it just sort of died18:05
nubaesuch a damn shame18:05
nubaeas there is no replacement18:05
Ahmucki'll take a second look at wine doors18:05
LaserJockI think getting it going again is high on my "things that should be done" list18:05
Ahmuckwhat woudl you call it sabulus ?18:06
nubaewhat does it require? a python hacker?18:06
Ahmuckor pesayon18:06
LaserJockfor me in Intrepid sabayon doesn't work at all, completely broken18:06
LaserJocknubae: pretty much18:06
LaserJocknubae: it's all python18:06
nubaeoh.. haven't tried in intrepid18:06
LaserJockthere's a fair amount of code and it's not an easy thing I don't think18:06
LaserJockas there's quite a bit of Linux desktop architecture that you run into18:07
nubaecan imagine, diving into someone else's code is already something no one really wants to do18:07
LaserJockI don't think it's quite as easy as "tar up ~/ into a profile and then untar at login"18:07
nubaeheh, if only it was shell code18:08
AhmuckLaserJock: thx for the heads up18:08
Ahmuckabout it being borked.  that was my next step18:08
LaserJockAhmuck: well, if you have some time you might give it a go18:09
LaserJockI haven't tested much and I don't know if it's just me or not18:10
LaserJockwe have a bug report so I don't think it's *just* me18:10
LaserJockbut I think maybe it's a bit flaky18:10
nubaethe bug report, or the app?18:10
LaserJockthe app18:10
LaserJockmy problem was that I couldn't create new profiles18:11
LaserJockperhaps it works fine with existing profiles18:11
Ahmuckah, i think that was my problem as well18:11
Ahmuckit was crashing18:11
LaserJockyeah18:11
nubaeyeah it randomly crashes18:11
Ahmuck:(18:11
LaserJockso I can't do a lot of testing because I can't create a profile to test with :(18:11
nubaebut I did use it successfully to create exam profiles for students18:11
* Ahmuck going to fix dhcpd.conf now18:11
LaserJockI think it needs somebody to just really spend some time with it18:14
LaserJocknot even an uber-hacker I don't think18:14
LaserJockbut just trying to figure out why it keeps crashing18:14
LaserJockif sabayon could just be stabilized I think we'd really be happy18:14
nubaewe need volunteers18:15
LaserJockI *think* Red Hat had 2-4 developers working on sabayon18:15
LaserJocknow there's not really anything18:15
nubaemaybe something like a big message on the edubuntu.org page: Please volunteer now, we need YOUR help...18:15
LaserJockthere are a couple guys who are the "maintainers" but I checked the svn log18:15
LaserJockand they haven't done *anything* but translations for ~ 9 months or so18:15
LaserJocknot even bug fixes18:16
Eghienubae: on what?18:16
LaserJockso I think that's pretty dead18:16
LaserJockEghie: sabayon18:16
Nubaehmmm, and now pidgin crashed18:17
NubaeI missed the last couple lines...18:17
EghieNubae: I asked on what you need volunteers18:17
EghieSabayon Linux distro?18:17
LaserJockEghie: no, the Gnome profile editor18:18
LaserJockI'm guessing Edubuntu wouldn't be looking for Sabayon Linux devs ;-)18:18
Nubaeyeah sabayon is a great piece of soft that manages profiles and desktop settings18:19
Ahmuckit's python?18:19
Nubaeyes18:19
LaserJockmaybe Edubuntu needs to hold some Python courses18:19
LaserJockwe have a couple python projects that need work18:20
AhmuckLaserJock: is Alice python ?18:20
Ahmucksome python course material would be nice.  i'd teach it18:20
LaserJocksabayon, willow-ng, and a new dynamic-menu editor all need work18:20
Nubaeset students on it18:20
Nubaethat would be a way18:20
alkisgI've manage to pack an educational windows application of mine into a .deb, which installs from my apt repository for all users (into /opt/) and runs through wine. It even shows on the "education" gnome menu. It would be great if other win-edu apps could be packaged like this...18:21
LaserJockAhmuck: I think Alice is Java18:21
LaserJockalkisg: that's very very tricky though18:22
alkisgLaserJock: yes, but it's really really easy for administrators! :)18:22
Nubaealkisg: volunteering?18:22
Ahmuckalkisg: documentation?18:22
alkisgNubae: you got any apps that can be packaged into .debs? (licensing...)18:23
AhmuckLaserJock: but necessary for high school typing teacher administrators18:23
LaserJockwell, there's different issues18:23
alkisgAhmuck: not really, only some notes in Greek, but if anyone's interested, I may help him18:23
LaserJockI don't think we could ever *ship* Windows apps for wine18:23
Eghiebut you could make a good guide to package it though18:23
Nubaeright but we can carry scripts that download and install them18:23
LaserJockI don't think we could really even include them in our archive18:24
Nubaeno guide... scripting18:24
Eghiescripting is indeed better18:24
LaserJockNubae: I'm not sure we want to script it though18:24
Nubaelike the torrent sites... heh18:24
Ahmuck-JrNubae: was the dhcpd problem because i did not have a thin client section?18:24
alkisgLaserJock: I think .deb files that extract / copy files and generate registry entries (in wine) could be made. Of course the users would have to have the original application CD / zip / whatever.18:24
Nubaethe script is fine, but actually doing it may not be :P18:24
Nubaealkisg: well we can set it to do it with demos18:25
alkisgIn repositories, so that they also get updates! :)18:25
Nubaethen its their problem to do the rest18:25
LaserJockwell, but maintaining a script like that is *not* a trivial task18:25
Nubaehmm, why not... scripting is relatively simple18:25
alkisgNo, not at all, registry hacking may be needed18:25
LaserJockbecause any little thing that goes wrong is of course our problem18:25
LaserJockwe get hammered quite frequently from having Flash18:26
alkisg(I'm talking about a single installation for all users, not each user in their own ~/.wine...)18:26
NubaeAhmuck-Jr: I'm not sure, dont have the dhcd.conf in front of me anymore18:26
LaserJockI think the best first step would be to have some good documentation for creating your own .deb18:27
Nubaealkisg: but thats what wine-doors already does18:27
alkisgNubae: never heard of it, looking...18:27
Nubaewine-doors.org18:28
NubaeLaserJock: edubuntu gets hammered or LTSP18:28
NubaeI thought it was ok on single terminals18:28
alkisgWow!!! Good one!18:28
Ahmuck-Jractually there is a good program that will create debs for you18:28
LaserJockNubae: yeah, but LTSP, etc. we can actually patch, work on, etst, etc.18:29
LaserJock*test18:29
LaserJockjust creating a .deb is not the problem18:30
Nubaeheh, there are lots of those18:30
LaserJockcreating a .deb that does the right thing is18:30
Nubaepolicies...18:30
LaserJockwell, even setting aside Debian Policy18:30
LaserJockso say you have this .deb, how are you going to get it to install the app?18:31
NubaeI once thought about using Smart for packaging, its a nice standardised pacakage manager18:31
LaserJockwhat messing around do you have to do to get that app all set up even after you've installed it?18:31
NubaeI've just realised, what alkisg mentioned is in fact wine-doors, except wine-doors already has all the apps in it ready to download and install18:32
Nubaeso it would just require installing that one program18:33
* alkisg is looking at wine-doors and is quite impressed...18:33
alkisg(but mine used synaptic! :P)18:34
Nubaeyeak its like we'd need something like wine-doors educational18:35
LaserJockperhaps the Ubuntu Wine maintainer could give some recommendation for wine-doors18:35
Nubaethat would kinda cool, we could speak to the e18:35
Nubaewine-doors people18:35
LaserJockI'm hesitant about such apps in general, but perhaps this one is decent18:36
Nubaeif it just lists the edu apps, it would be really helpful18:36
Nubaeno need to maintain anything extra... like heroin for the windows junkies...18:36
Nubaea necessary evil18:36
LaserJockyeah, but we should do a pretty good review of it before recommending it to users18:37
Nubae:-)18:37
NubaeI've used it quite a bit... perhaps alkisg can try using it and vouch if it works good for an edu environment18:38
LaserJockmost of these "convenince" apps are more harm than good18:38
Nubaeedubuntu is a convenience app too ;-)18:38
alkisgNubae, I surely will, teachers here do need such an app18:38
Nubaethe cd that is18:38
LaserJockno, it's not18:38
LaserJockit's doing standard things with standard processes, policies, and tools :-)18:39
Nubaeok, then wine itself is a convenience app18:40
LaserJockit is, and is rife with problems and is only now being considered for Main18:40
Nubaea necessary evil18:40
LaserJockit shouldn't be evil18:40
Nubaeif we want more people using edubuntu, I think its very helpful...18:41
Nubaehow can it be non-evil with what it does?18:41
LaserJockyes, the *idea* is helpful18:41
alkisgNubae, Laserjock: but does the installation done by wine-doors happen for all linux users, or only for the one doing the installation?18:41
LaserJockWindows apps aren't evil18:41
Ahmuckit would be nice if it one could plug the windows install app in, set the license number and have winddoors install it18:41
Nubaewindows is evil, closed source is evil18:41
LaserJocksome of them are the greatest apps I've ever used18:41
LaserJockit's not evil18:41
Ahmuckiirc, wine doors now asks if you have a valid copy of windows18:41
LaserJockit's just not as good as open source18:41
LaserJockIMO18:41
Ahmuckdoesn't it?18:42
NubaeI guess I'm more fundementalist18:42
Ahmuckthe last install i tried did18:42
LaserJockNubae: probably :-)18:42
NubaeI think closed source serves no good purpose in schools18:42
LaserJockI have no real problem using closed source apps18:42
LaserJockI think it's *better* if they open up their processes, I think it benefits everybody18:42
Nubaeand windows as an OS even less so18:42
Ahmuckneither do i.  the only thing that's close to ArtRage is Gogh, but i don't think gogh is bieng maintianed anymore18:42
LaserJockbut I don't think they are evil for not doing so18:43
LaserJockthey aren't morally wrong for not open-sourcing their software18:43
Ahmuckand the defacto standard in publishing right now in press  shops in indesign18:43
LaserJockMS is IMO, morally wrong for doing other things18:43
Nubaehmmm, microsoft is unequivocally evil18:43
Ahmucki can't even get people to look at scribus18:43
LaserJockbut just being closed-source isn't evil, IMO18:44
LaserJockit can make some very good sense at times18:44
LaserJockhence why we end up with things like Wine18:44
NubaeI don't think so... anything that can be argued for closed source can be argued against far better with open source18:44
LaserJockthere are some *very* good Windows apps out there that we can't compete with presently18:45
Nubaeok, I won't say necessary evil again, cause it will make us go round in circles18:45
Ahmuckonly if there are people willing to write it for os18:45
Nubaewhich apps?18:45
Ahmucki find a mix works great for me18:45
LaserJockNubae: Photoshop, InDesign, lots of chemistry software I use18:46
Nubaepffttt... Gimp18:46
LaserJockNubae: and you can say "necessary evil" if you want, I don't mind ;-)18:46
NubaeScribus18:46
LaserJockpfft18:46
Nubaeboth better than the closed source18:46
LaserJockScribus is *not* Indesign18:46
Nubaebut u need to learn them of course18:46
LaserJocknot even close18:46
Nubaefine, quanta then18:47
LaserJockScribus is very buggy18:47
Nubaeok, buggy is part of open source18:47
LaserJockI don't know that I'd say that exactly18:47
LaserJockbut there are some very real downsides to open source18:48
LaserJockit's not all just beautiful without any issues, that's my point18:48
Nubaebugs are prevalent everywhere, but part of the ongoing process in open source, the difference is users can find them themselves and notify people18:48
LaserJockyep18:49
NubaeI wonder what would happen if u wrote to some windows closed source app guy and said, this crashed like that and that18:49
LaserJockbut it's fairly hard to get a good open-source business model18:49
LaserJockso you end up with a lot of volunteers18:49
Nubaewell, some have done it18:49
LaserJocksure18:49
Nubaeits just a new field is all I think18:50
LaserJockbut I say for *most* cases it's easier to get a "1.0" release in closed-source18:50
Nubaethe business model will stabalise and mature at some point18:50
Nubaeyes, true18:50
LaserJockit's easier to manage, and in some ways less expensive to go closed-source18:50
Nubaebut thats what RHEL and its kin are for18:50
Ahmuckthat's my problem.  scribus is not indesign18:51
Ahmuckthat's been a stumbling block for me18:51
LaserJockin places where you can get large numbers of volunteers I think open-source works very well18:51
LaserJockFirefox, OO.o, etc.18:51
Nubaehave u tried quanta plus? its like inkscape and scribus in one18:51
LaserJockbut look at Education18:52
Nubaeyeah, moodle18:52
Nubae:-)18:52
LaserJockwe have very few quality educational programs18:52
NubaeMoodle is THE standard in schools now across the world btw... has a huge percentage of the market18:52
LaserJockit's quite hard to get teachers to program or programmers to get interested in Educational apps18:52
LaserJockyeah, Moodle is a good example of open-source making it18:53
NubaeI think its a problem with standards18:53
Nubaeif schools all decide to use the same soft, it will be different18:53
LaserJockI don't want all schools deciding the same software though :-)18:53
LaserJockI want individual schools to decide what works for them, it may be very different18:54
LaserJockbut yeah, standardization would make it easier18:54
Nubaesure... but a choice of jsut 2 or 3 programs per field, rather than 10018:54
LaserJockyeah, but that's what makes open-source hard18:54
LaserJockI have a ton of chemistry software in Ubuntu18:55
LaserJockbut they're mostly half-finshed junky apps18:55
LaserJockvery few actually make it in terms of being a viable alternative to Windows apps18:55
LaserJockand there's really not a very good business model for open-source chemistry apps18:56
Ahmuckdoes edubuntu have a list of alterantive software.  for indesign there is this alternative, etc18:56
LaserJockit's primarily university students who do it, because they have time to give for free18:56
LaserJockAhmuck: not really, there was a plan to do one but it never really happened18:57
LaserJockif we get our app list going we can do that18:57
AhmuckLaserJock: ur sentiments echo mine.  i get osctrised for saying so though18:58
LaserJockAhmuck: from where for saying so?18:58
Nubaeyeah apps list should be up soon, we can put in the alternatives too, I'll add that18:58
Ahmuck-JrLaserJock: everywhere19:16
LaserJockAhmuck-Jr: that's a shame19:18
LaserJockI think one of the worst things we can do for open-source is to proclaim that it's a panacea or has no problems/cons/downsides19:19
Nubaethis be true, even though that is what it is... nothing short of a miracle19:19
* Nubae puts on fundementalist beard again19:20
LaserJockheh19:20
* LaserJock sends Nubae all the Launchpad bugmail19:20
LaserJock;-)19:20
LaserJockit seems like open-source works very well if 1) there are lots and lots of people interested in the area and can contribute or 2) it's so esoteric that it's unlikely that a closed-source app would survive19:22
Nubaeright now, I agree, but things are formalising more and more19:22
NubaeLinux itself is destined to become mainstream, I'm certain of that19:22
LaserJockin the middle ground where one can make a decent time of it via closed-source but there's not a lot of people who can/do care is where open-source really struggles19:22
LaserJockit may, I hope it does19:23
Nubaetoo many companies have jumped on board for it to regress19:23
LaserJockthe problem is, IMO, that in order to go mainstream Linux has to do what it's not very good at19:23
LaserJockI think it would just be relegated to geekdom :-)19:24
Nubaebut its not very good at those things because it isn't mainstream19:24
LaserJockand special-use applications like mobile phones, etc.19:24
LaserJockNubae: exactly, chicken and egg problem19:24
Nubaewell, the egg is hatching...19:24
LaserJockwe'll see19:24
LaserJockI hope so19:24
Nubaetheres an article in the latest wired... called saving Microsoft19:25
Nubaeits a sign of the times :-)19:25
LaserJocknote that MS != closed-source19:25
Nubaehmmm... for the most part it is19:26
LaserJockit's encouraging to see MS having to fight for it, perhaps they'll make better products19:26
Nubaeand quite vocal about it too19:26
LaserJocklook at OS X though19:26
Nubaeright, that is a positive thing19:26
LaserJockit's got a mix of open and closed source19:26
Nubaeyeah but its not faring much better than  linux at the moment, about the same speed of uptake19:27
LaserJockjust because it's *nix based doesn't mean it's an open-source OS19:27
Nubaedepends on what we call the OS I suppose19:27
LaserJockI think Linux will largely mainstream *because* of closed source software, not because of open-source19:28
LaserJock*go mainstream19:28
Nubaeoh I hope not...19:28
Nubaebut if it brings it mainstream, then bring it on :-)19:28
Ahmuckthe economy may push more oss into the mainstream19:28
Ahmuckone for price, and two because there are going to be a lot of x developers19:29
LaserJockit's things like Adobe writing Linux version, Game publishers making Linux versions that will make linux go mainstream I think19:29
LaserJocknot Linux convincing Adobe and Game publishers to go open source19:29
Nubaeif we look at hollywood as a Model19:29
Nubaea model because 98% of everything there is linux based19:29
Nubaewe see that indeed 80% of that software is closed19:29
LaserJockthe problem that I see keeping Linux from mainstream is the like 10% of the time people aren't using a web browser/word processor19:31
LaserJocklike I have a family member who owns a business19:31
LaserJockand she'd love to use Linux, but she needs good small business software19:31
LaserJockwhich currently doesn't exist, so she won't move away from MS19:31
LaserJockmy father has a ballistics program he uses, that's pretty much what's keeping him back19:32
LaserJockbottom line, I'm still the only person I know that uses Linux for day-to-day usage19:32
Nubaereally, I managed both my folks to switch19:33
LaserJockperhaps eventually Wine will make it better19:33
LaserJockso I don't think it's evil ;-)19:33
Nubaemom runs a restaurant, and Dad is a doctor... so perhaps they dont need complex stuff19:33
Nubaebut both are happily surfing and typing away in ubuntu19:33
LaserJockI'm not a very good Linux evangelist it seems :-)19:34
LaserJockI always end the conversation with "yeah, you're probably better off sticking with Windows"19:34
Nubaedepends on the usage19:34
Nubaefor a school, no way19:34
LaserJockalthough my brother was interested in maying getting a Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu19:35
LaserJockfor my school we're still on Windows19:35
LaserJocks/school/department/19:35
Nubaeltsp alone sells it19:35
LaserJockat my uni the Linux labs are growing smaller19:35
LaserJockits somewhat discouraging19:35
Nubaeyeah19:36
LaserJockwe haven't been able to use ltsp in my department19:36
LaserJockwe'd need to have local apps19:36
Nubaeltsp does that now19:36
LaserJockonly fairly recently19:36
Nubaeyep19:36
LaserJockbut yeah, I'm hoping that'll maybe get us19:36
Nubaefatclient does it too19:37
LaserJockwe have ~30 machines19:37
LaserJock15 Windows, 15 Xubuntu19:37
Nubaeits so wonderful for maintaining19:37
Nubaeso easy...19:37
Nubaeltsp that is19:37
LaserJockwe've had a whole semester of 15 unusable Linux machines and 15 sort of working Windows machines19:37
LaserJockhopefully we can get the Linux machines working soon or we might lose them19:38
Nubaethat happened to me before we had LTSP too19:38
Nubaeits just impossible maintenance overhead19:38
LaserJockit's hard to justify 1/2 lab not working19:38
Nubaeyeah hardware related likely, right?19:38
LaserJockno19:38
LaserJockcan't authenticate19:39
LaserJockso nobody can log in19:39
NubaeAD?19:39
LaserJockyeah19:39
Nubaeseems like a solvable problem19:39
LaserJockthe problem seemed to be that our domain name is different than the AD domain name19:39
LaserJockso it was looking at the wrong names or something and won't connect19:40
LaserJockbut once we figure it out we have to get 15 machines set up19:41
Nubaeor use ltsp :-)19:41
LaserJockwe don't have a server for ltsp19:41
Nubaeor even drbl for that matter19:41
LaserJockwe'd need to find a server I think19:42
LaserJockI seriously doubt we could even run a couple clients off the machines we have19:42
LaserJockif we could scrounge one up somewhere I'd like to give LTSP a try19:44
LaserJockbut considering we can't even authenticate right now I think we've got bigger issues :-)19:44
Nubaewell authentication with ltsp is done on 1 machine and not 1519:46
LaserJockwe'd probably also have to fight with the Uni IT people19:46
LaserJockwe're not allowed to have subnets19:46
alkisgLaserJock: you don't have to use a different subnet for ltsp...19:59
LaserJockdo I need to use DHCP?20:00
LaserJockcan i set up a static LTSP server?20:00
alkisgLaserJock, not necessarily, but you may also have a "stealthy" dhcp server20:00
alkisgone which only gives the IPs you want to only the machines you want20:00
LaserJockright now the machines all have  static IPs20:01
alkisgWell, perfect, you may use the same IPs20:01
LaserJockand there *may* be another DHCP server around20:01
alkisgYou may setup the dhcp server to only give specific IPs to clients with specific macs20:01
LaserJockso I was thinking we'd have to put them on some sort of subnet20:01
alkisgSo it won't matter if there are other dhcp servers around20:02
alkisgAnd gpxe has a "priority" option for the clients to select your server. I've done it, it works fine.20:02
LaserJockhmm20:03
alkisgIt also works with PXE, if the bios/nic support boot from lan.20:03
LaserJockI think  they all PXE boot20:03
alkisgAnd I guess there aren't any dhcp servers that offer a boot filename around, are there?20:04
LaserJockhave no idea20:06
alkisgYou may try, just select "boot from network" from any pc20:06
alkisgIf it boots, then you have a problem! :) If it doesn't, everything's OK for you to use ltsp.20:07
LaserJockinteresting20:08
LaserJockI might try that20:08
alkisgIf you decide to use ltsp, all you have to do is declare static IPs (based on MACs) in /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf, and put a dhcp option to not give IPs to windows clients. And put "IPAPPEND 3" in /var/lib/tftpboot/ltsp/i386/pxelinux.cfg/default.20:08
LaserJocknow I just need to find a server :-)20:10
alkisgYeap, that's the difficult one...20:10
LaserJockespecially when your budget is exactly $0 USD20:11
AhmuckLaserJock: what type of small business software?20:15
Ahmucki was able to swtich by using virtualbox and windows xp pro20:16
Ahmuckbut i'm still on windows.  for shipping, etc.20:16
AhmuckLaserJock: what school do you attend ?!20:17
Ahmuckused clonezilla?20:17
Ahmuckone maintenance, clone en masse20:17
Ahmuckah, i saw an AD ltsp solution while searching google for other problems20:18
LaserJockAhmuck: small business> Quicken type stuff I think, accounting20:23
LaserJockAhmuck: school > University of Nevada, Reno20:23
LaserJockAhmuck: and no, I've not used clonezilla or anything like it. I'm just a grad student who tries to help here and there20:24
Ahmuckthere are some projects that do come close.  postbooks and/or ledgersmb20:25
Ahmuckpostbooks is more quickbooks like where ledgersmb is more accounting like20:25
Ahmuckwith clonzilla you update one machine and then clone them all in under 30 min20:26
* Ahmuck needs to become a grad student again :)20:26
LaserJockugg, I don't :-)20:26
LaserJock6 years is enough20:26
Ahmuck-Jrhttp://pastebin.be/15470 - Nubae have a peek?20:31
Ahmuck-Jri copied it from your website exactly.  i have not substituted the mac address yet, but doing that now20:31
Ahmuck-Jr### make sure you're /etc/hosts contains all the hostnames of the clients - this comment.  is there a way to assign hostnames to a pxe client?20:33
Ahmuck-Jrhow do i re-start dhcpd.conf for ltsp?  is it any different than restarting dhpcd.conf normally?20:33
Ahmuck-Jrsudo /etc/init.d/networking restart - i assume20:35
Ahmuck-Jrbleh, that did not work.  i don't know why20:37
Ahmuck-Jri'm restarting the server20:37
AhmuckNubae: ever use indesign?20:46
Ahmuck-Jrupon reboot, my thin clients that are suppposed to be fat now are dead to the world :(20:49
LaserJockAhmuck: maybe they got too overweight and died of a heart attack or something20:51
LaserJockdarn trans fats20:51
Ahmuckhe  he20:51
* Ahmuck goes to scrutinize Nubae dhcp.conf file21:05
alkisgI want to package a collection of scripts like "generate 100 users" or "it's a new school year, change all the students' class" into a .deb and upload it to my PPA in launchpad, so that it can be more easily installed and updated.21:50
alkisgBut it'll be the first time I use PPA, so... does anyone know of any package in launchpad that contains only scripts, so that I can peek at its configuration files?21:50
alkisg(something like the hello-debhelper package, but for scripts)21:55
NubaeAhmuck: back23:11
Nubaerestart dhcpd like sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart23:11
Ahmuckk, restarting the computer should do it right?23:13
Nubaeyeah but no need, thats pretty brutal just to restart dhcp23:13
Nubaelooking at the conf, at first glance it looks ok, except u are missing the mac addresses of the thin clients u wish to boot23:13
Nubaehardware ethernet 00:00:00:00:00; should be in hex-decimal format and usually found on the card23:14
Nubaeor else when pxe starts up, show it there23:14
Nubaeu can put a # in front of get-lease-hostnames if u haven't populated your /etc/hosts file23:15
Ahmuckdo i need a thin client section?23:16
Ahmucki put 00:00:00:00:00:00 as place holder.  i have the mac address in there in the real file23:16
Ahmuckhow would one populate the /etc/hosts file?23:17
Nubaeok, well in /etc/hosts, put in the ip of the client followed by its name, for example:23:19
Nubae192.168.0.254   myserver myserver.lan23:20
Nubaeand so on...23:20
Nubaeif u have no thin clients, then no...23:20
Nubaewhat I would do then is forget the dhcpd.conf that I have and use the default one that comes with ubuntu23:21
Nubaeand just change the i386 in there to fati38623:21
Ahmuck-Jrbleh, it died as well23:26
Nubaedied?23:26
Ahmuck-Jrhttp://pastebin.be/1547723:26
Ahmuck-Jrwell just for a sec i get what appears to be gateway, etc. and then a blinking cursor and that's it23:26
Nubaeu're doing intrepid right?23:27
Ahmuck-Jra fat client doesn't need to have ubuntu installed on it does it?23:27
Ahmuck-JrNubae: yes23:27
Nubaeno, no need for a local disk23:27
Nubaeok, and your server's ip is?23:27
Ahmuck-Jrhttp://pastebin.be/1547823:29
Nubaecan u check what images are in /opt/ltsp/images23:29
Ahmuck-Jri386img23:29
Nubaeok, theres no fati386 image there23:30
Ahmuck-Jrer. i386.img23:30
Ahmuck-Jrnope23:30
Ahmuck-Jri followed your instructions to the letter though23:30
Nubaeok, then we need to build it, do  sudo ltsp-update-image -a fati386 -b /opt/ltsp23:31
Nubaeit may be a line in the end of my script didn't build the image in the end... this is minor though, should be pretty fast...23:31
Ahmuck-Jr /opt/ltsp/images?23:31
Nubaethe line I wrote above will create the image in /opt/ltsp/images23:32
Nubaeu'll then see fati386.img23:32
Nubaein terms of your ifconfig, the ethernet address of eth1 is 192.168.0.25423:32
Nubaeso change that in your dhcpd.conf from 0.123:33
Ahmuck-Jrhai23:33
Ahmuck-Jrso it's my dhcpd.conf that is the problem?23:33
Nubaepart of it23:33
Nubaealso that the image doesnt exist23:33
Nubaedo  sudo ltsp-update-image -a fati386 -b /opt/ltsp23:33
Ahmuck-Jri assume it was not an error on my part by not following instructions for the image?23:33
Ahmuck-Jrit's running now23:34
Nubaeno, thats a change I did recently, and forgot to upload the new script... but its pretty harmless... just means u need to build image23:34
Nubaeupdated now, so the script on the site is now correct23:36
Ahmuck-Jrwere u able to fix the bottom portion where it quit?23:37
Nubaeyeah, its just 3 lines in the end23:37
Nubaeok, so if image is built, and ip is correct, and restart dhcp3-server, it should work23:38
Ahmuck-Jri've got to let this build.  i'll be back later, i need to attend to something23:38

Generated by irclog2html.py 2.7 by Marius Gedminas - find it at mg.pov.lt!