[00:03] joerg: being able to add unix users via a web interface is usually considered to be a bad idea. [00:07] sbalneav, because? :) [00:08] Because if you have any kind of a problem/vulnerability on your web interface, people can use that to create local users. [00:08] Then, if you've got unpatched local root exploits, they're root very quickly. [00:11] If you're talking about creating users for JUST the portal, that's one thing [00:11] but if creating a user creates a login Linux login, that's usually considered to be "bad practice" [00:12] * HedgeMage seconds sbalneav's comments [00:13] Especially if, as you're suggesting this is an external portal project where literally *anyone* can potentially create an account. [01:29] sbalneav, anyone? [01:30] sbalneav, I can't see your point. the user DB is ldap based. that means, slapd is responsible to give users and groups previleges [01:31] sbalneav, a user has credentials and he will bind to LDAP with his own DN [01:31] and slapd will either say: yes, you are authorized to modify the user tree or no, you aren't. [01:32] neither the webserver (which is just acting as ldap client) nor the ldap server run as root afaik [01:33] apart from that I don't plan to use pam_ldap for ssh or anyother login services [01:35] the local computer center here installs servers in the schools, but none of the teachers or students does ever get the root password, not even the headmaster has it. [02:22] q/quit [02:25] There's a difference between binding to ldap, and entering new dn's [02:25] if you're not planning on using pam_ldap, how are people going to log in on the lab? [02:45] sbalneav, hmm? they don't need to login to the server. [02:46] Well, they do if they're in a lab setting [02:47] either full fledged workstations connected via libpam_ldap, or in an LTSP thin client lab. [02:48] why? [02:49] the workstations logon to nothing here :P [02:50] That's not how most schools do it. [02:50] 190 out of 200 do it here [02:51] Most of them are creating users on the Edubuntu machine, either locally, or in ldap. [02:51] why should anybody need to set up auth stuff in a primary school? [02:51] students dont even have accounts there [02:51] lots do [02:51] not here [02:51] who should do that? [02:51] yeah, and? [02:51] the two full time admins we have? [02:52] So, the entire world to switch over to the way joerg does things? :) [02:52] setting up that stuff for over 200 schools? lol [02:52] lots of schools already have huge login databases in AD [02:52] We need to interact with that. [02:52] no, but joerg get's paid by an organization that doesn't care how the rest of the world would like to have it :P [02:53] Ok, so that's fine. [02:53] Do whatever you like then. [02:53] lol [02:53] No one's stopping you here :) [02:53] I just can't provide them with solution that dont fit. [02:53] they want to manage the users in a webbased app [02:53] because that is the police.....not giving them the root password. no shell access at all. [02:54] Ok, but that's not Edubuntu's target audience today. [02:54] they can setup some edubuntu ltsp stuff if they have somebody who knows how to do it and do whatever they like... [02:54] well.... [02:55] so edubuntu cannot be used to provide file access, mail server and a web portal to a school? :P [02:55] Well, edubuntu's focused on the desktop [02:56] oh, I thought it was focused on both.... [02:56] I.e. providing desktop apps like Kalzium, gimp, etc. for students to use. [02:56] You're just wanting a pure web portal with absolutely no desktop [02:57] No, today we're mainly focused on providing an educational desktop. [02:57] well web apps are kind of desktop apps :) [02:57] They are, and the only thing we're debating about is where userid's get created. [02:57] hmm, and what distribution should I use if I want to provide the server part? :) [02:58] yes, and what would you do in my case? :P [02:59] how else shall they manage users in the setups they have? [02:59] the only thing I can guarantee is that they mostly have windows clients and if I am lucky a more or less recent web browser. [02:59] make your web based user id creation a module that can be unloaded, so that if Edubuntu ships it, we can create a desktop app to create the userids [03:00] all modules will be unloadable :P [03:00] We're not catering to people with windows desktops, we're catering to people who want to *replace* windows desktops with edubuntu desktops. [03:01] So, then, nobody's saying you can't have web based account creation. [03:01] ok, then I am gonna tell them they shall use win 2003 servers and edubuntu desktops *lol* [03:01] All I'm saying is, we wouldn't *ship* web based account creation on the edubuntu dvd [03:01] Dude, you came in *here* looking for help [03:02] sbalneav, because you don't let your users decide themselves. very nice :P [03:02] We can't ship everything, and nothing says they can't install it after the fact. [03:03] But just like Ubuntu picks and chooses what apps they ship on their cd, we do the same. [03:03] sbalneav, well, that's true, but not including it in the repository would be wrong :P [03:03] I didn't say it couldn't be in the repo [03:03] I said it wouldn't ship and install by default ON THE DVD [03:03] obviously, after the fact, people can do whatever they'd like. [03:04] sure [03:04] so ldap-account-manager is not included in the dvd? :) [03:04] it is not that bad btw. - just a bit overkill for teachers [03:05] yes, the ldap-account-manager web page wouldn't be included on the dvd, we'd write/ship something similar that would run from System->Administration menu. [03:05] After the fact, once someone installs edubuntu, if they want to apt-get web-ldap-account-manager, they're welcome to. [03:06] sbalneav, well, but once again.....what did I get wrong about it? :) [03:06] as far as I understand ldap, you bind to it with a DN [03:06] then you can do whatever operations you want [03:06] at least I thought you can add user records then when you have the right to? [03:07] No, that's not how LDAP works. [03:07] or is there only one root/admin-dn that can do it? [03:07] The only way you can add new DN's is via the admin login. [03:08] ok, then you are unfortunately right that it is not the best idea :P [03:08] it is actually a very bad thing for schools.....that single admin concept [03:08] Doesn't invalidate the rest of your ideas though [03:09] The rest of what you want to do's quite good. [03:09] thanks ;) [03:09] You were debating about 2% of what you want to do :) [03:09] the other 98%'s great. [03:09] Like I say, what we need now is a spec. [03:09] anyway....that is a pain :P [03:09] I really thought ldap was different [03:10] I'd like to have a group "usercreators" which I just give the right to add and modify these ldap records [03:10] LDAP's a royal Pain. I've worked with it for years and years. [03:10] we can't give them the root pw [03:10] but they need to create users [03:10] I was the person who added shadow password support for ldap to libpam_ldap, years ago. [03:11] mhhm [03:11] but creating users is simple, and can be handled any number of ways. [03:11] could we set a kind of user management daemon on top? [03:11] Lets concentrate on the rest of it for now, and fill that peice in towards the end. [03:11] :) [03:11] lol [03:12] I just wonder how to do it in a secure way. [03:12] even with your gnome app it would be hard [03:12] Well, the gnome app auth's against policykit or the like. [03:13] What we should do (and not today, I'm up to my neck in another issue right ATM) is sit down, and I can help you map out a spec on launchpad. [03:14] once we've got a "rough" outline of what you'd like to do, then we can set up a repo, try to gather some people to the project via the mailing list, etc. [03:15] I can set aside a couple of hours for this tomorrow evening (for me, it's currently 9:14 pm here), you're in de, right? So it's probably mid afternoon? [03:15] no wait [03:15] lol no [03:15] Iim going the wroing [03:15] way [03:15] Very late there [03:15] like what, 3am? [03:15] fuckin late, yeah [03:15] should go to bed :D [03:15] heh, yeah [03:16] Ping me when you see me on tomorrow morning in about 12 hours. [03:16] We can write up a spec. [03:16] that would be cool, thx [03:16] NP [03:16] Have a good evening. [03:16] I already played around with launchpad [03:17] create a project "myserv" ;) [03:17] and uploaded an empty django project [03:17] works quite well.... [03:17] sbalneav, thx....have a better one :P [03:18] Guten tag [03:18] neee [03:18] gute nacht :P [03:18] ah, yeh [03:18] Also, look for ogra [03:19] in this channel [03:19] he's also de [03:20] So, on a related note, to anyone else who's listening [03:20] read my post on edubuntu-devel [03:20] My mind is *BLOWN* [03:20] gconf with an LDAP backend makes me oh-so-happy. [03:21] I didn't even know you could extend gconf that way. [03:22] sbalneav: good work on LDAP [03:29] do US schools have paid admins? ;) just curious.... [03:30] Some do, lots don't [03:30] I know lots of Canadian school divisions do. [03:30] hmm, ok.... [03:30] we have got two for 200 schools :D as I said. [03:30] I also know most brazillian ones don't [03:31] so everything is just about saving work :P [03:31] sbalneav, a collegue was at a conference some time ago where the guys from munich presented their IT concept [03:31] I'm just looking through this code. It's like, 800 odd lines. [03:32] it's nothing. [03:32] we have got the whole region here, some schools are one hour drive away from "the base" :) [03:32] And it basically means you DON'T have to configure evolution for someone. [03:32] they have got about 200 schools as well, but 20 full time admins.... [03:32] When you create their ldap DN, you just populate a couple of schema keys, and evolution just starts up, *ready to rock* [03:32] and at the conference they told us what a smart concept they have and that they only need 20 people [03:33] well, my collegue raised his hand and just said: well, we are doing the same thing with two of them :) [03:33] heh, good for you [03:33] that probably set them on their ears. [03:33] but munich is a snobbish city you even know in the US :P [03:34] while this countryside is nothing that anybody gives a damn about :) [03:34] yeah indeed :) [03:35] but they still wanna shorten it more here [03:36] reducing them to half time jobs [03:39] does unattended updating work well? [03:39] I mean we cant push apt on 200 servers every now and then.... [03:40] Well, unattended updating works as well as it does in debian. As well as it does in any Linux distro. [03:41] Which is to say "Perfectly, until it breaks" :) [03:41] For the most part, I've had no trouble. [03:41] yeah, that's my fear [03:41] that proprietary solution had the advantage that we could blame somebody else :P [03:42] Yeah, you can *blame* someone else, but I bet you still had to fix it :) [03:42] the proprietary "IServ" is a debian actually, preconfigured and some crappy php portal on it. [03:42] with heaps of root exploits I guess [03:43] because they do e.g. passwd/shadow user management with php scripts :D [03:43] Well, apt usually does a pretty darned good job of keeping things working, so long as you don't have a broken package. [03:43] and, well, they have a test server,checking updates there first [03:43] before passing that through to their own package repository. [03:43] yeah, that would be the best way to go. [03:44] You can also use "expect" behind the scenes to automate things. [03:44] have to have a look at it...thx [03:44] my idea would be to do it in a semi autmoatic way [03:45] I automate my updates where I work. [03:45] having one playground server to test it....and then somehow giving the command to update to everybody... [03:45] we can't host the whole ubuntu stuff I am afraid... [03:45] I have them download automatically, so they're already on the box, but not install. [03:45] so they have to download it from the original sources [03:45] then I have some expect scripts to actually trigger the updates on everyones box. [03:45] ah, that sounds good....and how do you push the actual install? [03:46] The debs we handle with an apt-cache. [03:46] so the first box that gets the update primes the cache, and then everyone else gets the update from the cache. [03:46] All of that's pretty easy to set up. [03:46] wouldn't make sense here [03:46] because of poor bandwidth [03:47] our apt-cache would have a dsl line connecting it to the others [03:47] at 192 kbit upload :) [03:48] ah, yeah [03:49] if we wouldn't have that bottleneck, we wouldn't have servers in the schools at all. [03:49] maybe in ten years or so. [03:50] having all the stuff on S3 :) [03:50] btw. does anybody provide the same stuff amazon S3 does for e-mail? [03:51] I don't know. In my line of work, I can't do anything cloud related. [03:52] mhhm....pitty [03:52] My full time job's as a Systems Admin for Legal Aid Manitoba. [03:52] Storing anything client related on the cloud's.... frowned upon :) [03:52] he he.... [03:53] well, that's the nice thing about the good old schools [03:53] you don't really have to put much effort in security and safety [03:53] because nobody wants their data :) [03:56] sbalneav, I'd like to set all the MX records of these 200 domains to mx.amazonaws.com and get rid of all the trouble :) [04:00] heh [04:02] sbalneav, mail is a pain....all that spam filtering and virus scanning..... [04:07] /quit [04:29] Night all! === nixternal_ is now known as nixternal [13:48] Good Morning [13:50] What are good keywords to search on google for info on connecting a regular desktop to my (at present only thin client)network and get the list of users from my server. [13:51] I've spent some 20+ minutes searching for this info! along with browsing likely system pref and admin tools on my desktop system. [13:54] you mean the users listed in /etc/passwd? [13:58] hey dgroos [13:59] dgroos: you want to authenticate against your ltsp server from a standalone fat-client machine? [13:59] vmlintu: yes! [13:59] high hivoltage! [14:00] and you want to have the same users on the regular desktop? [14:00] highvoltage: exactly. [14:00] dgroos: although not as secure or flexible as ldap, you could use NIS+ for that [14:00] vmlintu: not sure what you mean by, 'same users on the regular desktop'? [14:01] NIS+? [14:01] I'll check into it. Thanks! [14:01] dgroos: do you want that all the users who have accounts on the server can login to the desktop with same username/password? [14:02] vmlintu: Exactly. [14:03] morning :) [14:04] anybody tried gosa? http://gosa-project.org [14:04] sbalneav, hey....I am awake ;) [14:04] morning joerg [14:05] I haven't tried it yet, but seems that it is a themeable web based ldap manager that has ACL support [14:05] that you can give teachers only certain permissions.... [14:21] dgroos: nis, ldap or passwd synchronisation some of the options [14:28] vmlintu: I've been reading some. Looks like nis+ and LDAP are kind of difficult. Will passwd synchronisation allow for students to access their networked home directories? [14:30] dgroos: if you use plain nfs, it should work [14:30] dgroos, why not? :P [14:31] vmlintu, hey....sorry, didn't answer you mail yet :) [14:31] joerg: hi [14:32] dgroos, ldap is not a big deal at all :P install slapd, install migrationtools and that's it :) [14:32] vmlintu: I'll check up on nfs :) Thanks for your help, I'll be back on this job tomorrow, same time, same channel :) [14:33] dgroos: if you use nfs3, you have to have same uids on both ends [14:33] joerg: seems like the config of these may not be so trivial... [14:34] joerg: I just noticed that with lucid you have to do some configuration before slapd works like it used to.. [14:34] dgroos, mhhm...I have set up ldap servers in schools several times....there's not much to config [14:35] vmlintu, dunno....didn't check out lucid so far. [14:35] joerg: have you used /etc/ldap/slapd.conf to configure it? [14:35] vmlintu: you mean I need to import the list of users onto the local system, then the process you mentioned will synchronize their user info and as long as the uid are same to start with, users should be able to access their home folders on the server? [14:35] but anyway, I'd always recommend using ldap instead of hacking some rsync passwd/shadow scripts....:) [14:36] take 30 minutes more to set up ldap [14:36] and save a lot of time and work in the future [14:36] joerg: I'll look more into LDAP then, thanks. [14:36] e.g. when integrating new machines, services and applications [14:36] dgroos: passwd synchronization needs quite a bit of hacking, there's no ready solution for it, I think [14:37] vmlintu: thanks for your insight. [14:37] vmlintu, yes, I think so.... [14:37] Have a great day folks! [14:37] joerg: the new ubuntu packages really make you to use the cn=config model [14:38] joerg: I've been trying to avoid it until now, but finally went through it.. [14:40] I couldn't find any existing documentation on it that would work for lucid as is. The documents for hardy/jaunty/karmic do not work anymore for all the things [14:40] are there any good GUI tools for managing user acounts on LDAP? [14:41] I just finished writing about the steps needed to get basic OpenLDAP running on lucid alpha2 here: http://www.opinsys.fi/en/setting-up-openldap-on-ubuntu-10-04-alpha2 [14:43] mhall119|work: Not sure about GUI tools, I've been using mostly web based applications.. [14:44] okay, what's a good web-based one? [14:45] vmlintu, looks good. thx. but why did they make it that complicated? :P [14:46] joerg: the cn=config model gives you dynamic configuration, so I guess that's the reason [14:46] I haven't setup slapd for ages, but after all I remember I just had to enter the root dn (dc=myschool,dc=edu) and have a look at slapd.conf to include the right schemes.... [14:46] joerg: I'm writing now a script to take care of the steps listed [14:46] and then get the users and stuff with migrationtools [14:48] vmlintu, btw. I will get a demo karmic server.....to play around with all that stuff.... [14:49] joerg: you mean the user management stuff? [14:49] vmlintu, I mean everything [14:50] that is related to the portal project [14:55] joerg: how much you have played with CAS? [14:56] vmlintu, not at all :) [14:56] vmlintu, just know it from the user's perspective and from the docs [14:57] joerg: which CAS server you plan using? [14:57] vmlintu, I only know the yale cas server.... [14:57] that is now developed by jasig [14:58] the thing is: for web based single sign on, there's shibboleth, openid and cas [14:58] joerg: ok.. I've been using rubycas-server for couple of things in the past [14:58] cas is the only one that has pam modules being able to authenticate services like imap, ssh, sftp as well. [14:58] oauth works also for authentication [15:00] vmlintu, and that works with pam as well? [15:00] do you mean rubycas-server or oauth? [15:03] vmlintu, oauth [15:04] vmlintu, the thing is: the webmail module must access the imap server and the homedir the sftp server. using the oauth/cas ticket they already have. [15:05] joerg: oauth is used for web applications.. For example Twitter uses it to authenticate the REST requests to their API [15:05] well, that is nice. === ogra_ is now known as ogra [15:05] but doesn't make sense if the web applications needs to check user's mails using IMAP [15:06] I wouldn't try to use it for IMAP [15:06] he he [15:06] so the only thing left ofer is cas [15:06] over [15:06] I haven't used cas for anything else than web sites [15:07] yes [15:07] and? :P [15:07] we are talking about web apps, aren't we? [15:07] the users will not use cas to authenticate their thunderbird against imap :P [15:08] but the web mail will to avoid asking the user for a password again. [15:08] are you going to proxy the cas ticket to the imap server? [15:08] yes [15:08] the imap server will use pam_cas to validate it [15:09] configured as "auth sufficient" in the pam config [15:09] I've never used the proxying features of cas, just plain web authentication [15:09] yeah, because you don't have backends that need auth again [15:09] vmlintu, but zimbra should do that, shouldn't it? [15:10] never tried using cas with zimbra [15:11] vmlintu, well I thought the finnish open school project does it? :P [15:11] it doesn't use cas that I know of.. [15:11] mhhm [15:11] what does it use then? ;) [15:12] I'm not actually involved with that project, so I don't know all the details, though.. [15:12] mhhm.....okay [15:12] at least they are using some single sign on system [15:13] that sends me that nice message saying "auth failed" when I click the link.... [15:13] yes, it has some other sso system for zimbra [15:13] mhhm [15:14] well, I need to get kerberos working on the lucid setup next.. [15:14] I just wonder what kind of user I am after registering :) [15:14] I can login to the elgg thing [15:14] very confusing.....as I thought there'd be one single user DB.... [15:15] I'll probably see the guys who did it on Friday [16:47] Morning all [16:50] Hi, sbalneav [16:52] Morning ShrubberySorceress [17:31] how do i get a .jar file to work? [17:36] hey sbalneav [17:37] Ahmuck: well, depends. Is it a library? [17:37] usually, it needs to go somewhere in java's library search path [17:38] Soooooo, I hear Ubuntu's changing the search engine to a bad one. Wonder what file I have to edit to change it back to the good one? [17:44] Hmmm you might need sabayon for this... ;) [17:45] (I think it's in ubufox) [17:49] UnFORtunately, firefox doesn't support gconf, so it's hard to get things going for firefox under sabayon :( [17:49] Sigh, I need to fix that somehow. [17:50] search enging? [17:50] to a bad one? [17:50] what search engine [17:56] is there a way to start it from the command line? [17:57] er, the .jar file [17:59] http://www.chibipaint.com/downloads.html - i'm trying to get this to run [18:14] sbalneav, you think firefox.js would have what's necessary? [18:14] Ahmuck, https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2010-January/030065.html [18:15] * Lns wonders what could be integrated into firefox-gnome-support [18:16] With simply changing the homepage globally for FF, I can imagine it's no small feat. I never *could* get that to work correctly, had to install ubufox for 8.10 to even get close to a google.com homepage for everyone by default. Ugh. [18:17] Spent *years* trying to figure that out. [18:17] heh, "Two easily discoverable clicks" == "two easily discoverable clicks for the technically savvy, 185 phonecalls of "How come search doesn't go to google anymore" for the rest of us." [18:19] * Lns nods [18:21] hate to sound anti-M$^HS but jeez...yahoo? because of revenue sharing? Is ubuntu really that dependent on revenue? I'd hate to see it if Canonical runs out of money :( [18:23] sbalneav, hey....give me a shout whenever you like to help with the spec ;) thx [18:28] Meeting in 30' ? [18:32] alkisg: Think so. [18:33] joerg__: Yeah, I'll see if I've got a few after the meeing. Todays becoming busier than I wanted. [18:34] sbalneav, take your time ;) btw. do you know the gosa project? [18:52] meeting in 8 minutes [18:59] sbalneav, alkisg, Lns, highvoltage, nixternal, HedgeMage, whoever I forgot: Meeting ! [18:59] sbalneav, highvoltage, stgraber, Lns, nixternal, HedgeMage and all, meeting :) [18:59] Heh :) [18:59] I was first ;) [18:59] already in the chan ;) [19:00] highvoltage: hi there :) [19:01] dhillon-v10: meeting in #ubuntu-meeting [19:02] alkisg: almost forgot about that, sorry :) [19:09] hola [20:32] Wow, Sugar is surprisingly useful on 9.10 [20:50] stgraber, I've installed sugar packages on my 9.10 install here at home and it seems to work great (used instructions from http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Community/Distributions/Ubuntu ) - Lucid looks like it has 0.88 already packaged according to that site. I'm curious, what stands in the way of including this in edubuntu lucid? testing? [20:53] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Community/Distributions/Debian is Debian page from sugarlabs.org, to see the differences between the two - you mentioned that in the meeting [21:04] eek, sorry about that === highvoltage changed the topic of #edubuntu to: Edubuntu - the education version of Ubuntu | http://www.edubuntu.org | wiki: http://wiki.edubuntu.org/Edubuntu | 9.10 is released!, see http://www.edubuntu.org/news/9.10-release | Help out with bugs: http://tinyurl.com/EduBugs | LTSP questions? try #ltsp [21:08] sorry I somehow lost a bit track of time [21:08] stgraber, Lns, sbalneav: did someone take notes or can I do it from the logs? [21:09] hey highvoltage - i didn't take notes myself, no [21:10] highvoltage: I have the actions noted here but not actual meeting notes [21:19] vmlintu, hey....are u already writing a script for easy slapd setup in lucid? btw. karmic has the cn=config stuff as well... === joerg__ is now known as joerg