| Ronnie | i heard from mhall119, that edubuntu needs a google map of the current school deployments. Maybe i can help. I have some experience with google map API | 13:08 |
|---|---|---|
| mhall119 | Ronnie: somebody has made http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=215531664534903206889.00048f483fea952f1eaf0&t=h&z=3 | 13:10 |
| mhall119 | dinda made that | 13:10 |
| mhall119 | but I think your API might work better, as it can be dynamically generated | 13:10 |
| mhall119 | highvoltage: ^^^ | 13:11 |
| Ronnie | indeed, this is a manually list, which could be hard to handle if it grows | 13:12 |
| alkisg | And here's one with some greek schools: http://goo.gl/maps/nOoQ - any hints for improvement would be appreciated :) | 13:39 |
| stgraber | having something that uses the google api and works as a drupal module would certainly be useful for edubuntu.org | 13:41 |
| Ronnie | stgraber: im totally not into drupal.... | 13:42 |
| highvoltage | hey | 13:43 |
| Ronnie | the information the maps at least need is: a latitude and longitude of the markers | 13:43 |
| Ronnie | preferable in json format | 13:43 |
| Ronnie | adding extra information is possible | 13:43 |
| Ronnie | stgraber: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-django-foundations/map#locations | 13:45 |
| Ronnie | highvoltage: hey too | 13:46 |
| mhall119 | Ronnie: most of the API is in Javascript right? | 13:47 |
| Ronnie | mhall119: yes | 13:47 |
| mhall119 | so it shouldn't be too hard to add something to drupal to feed it | 13:47 |
| Ronnie | if drupal can create a form with a latidude and longitude field and optionally a country/city/adress fields the plugin handles the map, marker | 13:48 |
| mhall119 | I do believe that's possible | 13:48 |
| * mhall119 tried to remember what it was like working with Drupal | 13:49 | |
| Ronnie | also the server needs to supply a list (in JSON) of markers to show on the map | 13:49 |
| mhall119 | that may be the harder part | 13:49 |
| mhall119 | but it's all PHP | 13:49 |
| mhall119 | so, technically anything is possible | 13:49 |
| Ronnie | yes, a PHP array of lattitudes an longitudes can easily be parsed to JSON | 13:50 |
| Ronnie | and there sould also be a HTML response to clicking on a marker (also this can be predefined too, if i know which kind of text there should be in the baloons | 13:51 |
| Ronnie | where can i find the current drupal site? | 13:51 |
| stgraber | I'm currently implemeting JSON support in vmmanager (Edubuntu weblive), it's really quite easy to write a drupal module containing a few forms and exporting data over JSON | 13:53 |
| stgraber | the current drupal website (www.edubuntu.org) is running a regular drupal + some popular modules and one extra module (vmmanager) for edubuntu weblive, so nothing really fancy there | 13:54 |
| highvoltage | yep, nothing really weird about the edubuntu site | 13:58 |
| === alkisg1 is now known as alkisg | ||
| masai471 | I am not sure if this is the best channel or #ltsp. I have just gotten a request from a small school in Botswana on what computers they should buy. I am interested in setting it up as something that can be easily managed by someone without advanced IT skill (and installed by someone with only a marginal level of experience with desktop ubuntu) Does anyone have some general suggestions | 15:36 |
| masai47 | How difficult is it to manage a LTSP set up, and if the computers are newer does it make sense for them to be fat clients? | 15:43 |
| masai47 | I keep timing out (on a very spotty connection in rural Botswana) not sure if I have missed a response | 16:05 |
| stgraber | masai47: for just a few computers, it's really quite easy. | 16:17 |
| stgraber | masai47: if you install Edubuntu 10.10, LTSP is part of the installer, so it's just an option to tick | 16:17 |
| masai47 | installed on each computer? | 16:18 |
| stgraber | nope, just get two network cards on the server, a switch and connect your clients to that switch. The other card being connected to "internet" | 16:18 |
| masai47 | or for the computer acting as the server (and how powerful a machine does this need to be) | 16:18 |
| stgraber | then install LTSP on the server | 16:18 |
| stgraber | and run the rest as thin clients | 16:19 |
| stgraber | you can then switch some apps as local apps | 16:19 |
| stgraber | like firefox and some other memory/cpu hungry software | 16:19 |
| stgraber | fat client is also a possibility for fast thin clients, though it's not as easy to manage | 16:19 |
| masai47 | ok | 16:19 |
| stgraber | as you'll need to add new software in the chroot, update it and reboot all the computers everytime | 16:19 |
| masai47 | ahh | 16:20 |
| stgraber | with regular LTSP, you just need to have the software installed through the software center on the server as you'd on a regular machine | 16:20 |
| stgraber | and it'll appear instantly for everyone | 16:20 |
| masai47 | ok | 16:20 |
| masai47 | so how powerful does the server have to be/ | 16:20 |
| stgraber | how many clients do you have ? | 16:20 |
| masai47 | ? | 16:21 |
| stgraber | how many computers are you planning on having in the lab ? | 16:21 |
| masai47 | 8-10? | 16:21 |
| stgraber | ok | 16:21 |
| stgraber | so in this case, you should try to get something like a quadcore i5 with something between 4GB and 8GB of RAM for the server. The rest of the computers could be Atom based desktops. | 16:22 |
| stgraber | I don't know what's available in your area, but in north america, that kind of server should cost something like 900$ (with everything) and desktops could cost as low as 300$ (everything included) | 16:23 |
| masai47 | I think the cheap computers that the school is looking at are celeron 430 | 16:23 |
| masai47 | I have no idea on the server | 16:24 |
| stgraber | ok, based on what I see on the internet, the celeron 430 should be comparable to a first generation Atom CPU, so that should be fine for the clients | 16:24 |
| stgraber | just try to get at least 1GB of RAM in them so you can run firefox locally | 16:24 |
| masai47 | this is kind of an awkward game of telephone where I am far from the person buying computers | 16:25 |
| masai47 | yeah they will each have 1gb | 16:25 |
| stgraber | ok, so the only thing you'll really need to worry about is the server. Making sure it's got a fast cpu (quadcore being clearly preferred), a lot of RAM and two network cards | 16:26 |
| masai47 | so will the thin clients use the local hard drives? | 16:27 |
| masai47 | also, is it possible to have the clients be dual boot | 16:28 |
| masai47 | how much control would a teacher have from the server? (and can the server be used while it is acting as a server?) | 16:32 |
| stgraber | sorry, on the phone with a customer, be right back | 16:37 |
| masai47 | no worries | 16:38 |
| masai47 | thanks for taking the time | 16:38 |
| stgraber | alright, I'm back | 16:47 |
| stgraber | thin clients won't need a local hard drive, all they need is a network card and a BIOS that's capable of doing PXE boot | 16:48 |
| stgraber | the server can be used while acting as a server | 16:48 |
| stgraber | whoever needs to add new software to the server will need the admin account | 16:48 |
| masai47 | ok | 16:49 |
| stgraber | if you want to let the teacher watch what the kids are doing, you may want to install iTalc (there's info about it on the wiki) | 16:49 |
| masai47 | how can i check that the bios is capable of doing PXE boot | 16:49 |
| masai47 | ok | 16:49 |
| stgraber | well, usually you don't really know until you actually have access to the hardware. Once you do, in the boot sequence you should be able to select PXE or Network as a boot device | 16:50 |
| stgraber | if the BIOS doesn't support it, you'll need to burn boot CDs with gpxe | 16:50 |
| masai47 | but there is no way I can look up the hardware specs? | 16:51 |
| stgraber | maybe they mention it but it's usually quite rare for that to be written in the specs | 16:51 |
| masai47 | should the store selling the machines be able to answer? | 16:52 |
| stgraber | they might, or at least they should be able to just quickly try it | 16:52 |
| masai47 | so, dual booting? | 16:53 |
| stgraber | they'd just need to reboot the machine, enter the BIOS, go in the boot sequence section | 16:54 |
| stgraber | and check if they have something called PXE or Network in there | 16:54 |
| stgraber | if they do, then you'll be able to have them boot without a CD | 16:54 |
| masai47 | there is a chance that school might still want windows on some of the machines (which would require a local disk I guess) | 16:55 |
| stgraber | sure, so then having them boot using gpxe might be better for you | 16:56 |
| stgraber | if the CD is in the cdrom driver they'll boot using LTSP | 16:56 |
| stgraber | if it's not, they'll boot from the harddisk on Windows | 16:56 |
| masai47 | ok | 16:58 |
| masai47 | thanks for all the advice, I am always so impressed with ubuntu and IRC help | 17:05 |
| stgraber | you're welcome | 17:07 |
| masai47 | what kind of hard drive(s) should the server have? | 17:15 |
| stgraber | masai47: for harddrives it's not really important, you may want two big ones with RAID to avoid data loss in case one of them dies | 18:20 |
| masai47 | if some of the clients have hard drives can they be used for that (revealing ignorance here) | 18:22 |
| stgraber | nope, they can't | 18:22 |
| masai47 | ok | 18:22 |
| masai47 | 2x 500gb? (its not a big school) | 18:27 |
| masai47 | how hard is it to set them up with RAID? | 18:27 |
| stgraber | installing from the DVD, I honestly don't really know, though I guess you'll find the information you need by looking up RAID 1 on the wiki | 18:31 |
| stgraber | 2x 500GB will be plenty enough | 18:31 |
| lemio_ | Is ther a alternative to Cabri3D-plug-in | 20:16 |
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