January 2004 - openSUSE Edu - openSUSE Mailing Lists

Quick question
by Paul Taylor 22 Apr '04

22 Apr '04

How do I kill kde and return the server to just a login so that I can save on resources. I have never done this as I am a child of the gui and it is killing my web server on the net. Paul

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FLOSSIE - 41 booked, 9 more to break even
by John Ingleby 04 Feb '04

04 Feb '04

Brilliant! I just learned that 41 people have now booked to attend the FLOSSIE conference on Wednesday 18th. Feb at London Institute of Education. We can be confident of gaining at least 9 more to break even financially. Should we aim for a target of 100 ? This isn't only a conference for the converted! If you know anyone who doubts that FLOSS can save them money, or who's thinking of using FLOSS, do let them know about this event. The booking form is at: http://www.schoolforge.org.uk/flossie/registration_form.pdf John ****

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Wireless stuff
by Alan Davies 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

No - I haven't got as far as making our Suse box to do wirelesss - yet. But its a small part of the plan.... We have decided to cover our campus with Wireless acces points. We went for 801.11g at a potential of 54Mb/s but with the longer range of the old 801.11b standard. At the moment this gives us more compatibility with existing kit - especially PDAs which only seem to have 801.11b cards. Of course I soon discover there is much to learn... Channels 1 to 14 in the UK. I set my AP to channel 12. Our PDAs would not pick it up. Why? Because only channels 1 to 11 are 'universal'; channels 12 to 14 are only available in UK (EEC?) In the process I also discover that although the channels are 5MHz apart each channel is 22MHz wide so there are only 3 effective non overlapping channels - so some though must be given to channel settings on adjacent APs to get maximum benefit vs coverage. I'm not sure as so decide which channel to use - if some channels are used peramanently by DECT phones, BlueTooth, etc how will I know? Is there any reporting software utilties? Then there is security. We've all heared of those tin cans used as aerials by hackers driving around in cars. So I set up 128bit WEP in the APs. Agh...the PDAs only cater for 64bit (not that it told me anywhere - it was just impossible to type in the key - and they wouldn't connect..) QUESTIONS: Why does the AP give me 4 keys? (but only transmit one?) Is it a random choice for me? Do I assign keys to different user groups so that I can forbid groups for connecting? What's the idea? Should I have the same key in the mobile (which only accepts one?) Can it be any of the 4 keys? Should I set the SSID to be the same for the whole campus? Does this make moving between access points easier (no need to select as you migrate?) (I don't think its quite as transparent as mobile phone cells there seems to a a gap of several seconds while it changes - and tends to stick with existing weak signal even if you are right next to another) Or should I give a descriptive name to each AP? If lots of users are in an area covered my more than one AP do the clients share out the connections? Do they pick the lowest channel or highest? At random? Or do they pick on the strength of the signal? Or the loading of the Access points? Anyone with experience in these matters? If so, what else would you draw my attention to? Many thanks. -- Alan Davies Head of Computing Birkenhead School

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Any ideas on LTSP?
by Rob Keeling 30 Jan '04

30 Jan '04

We are having some repeated problems with our LTSP installation. We run a Suse 8.1 based server, running icewm, openoffice 1.0.2 and Galeon for a web browser. The server spec is 1Gb ram, Athlon 1.6Ghz ide hard disk. and has anywhere from 1 to 20 clients. We are seeing frequent freeze ups while browsing the web, leaving stuck processes that need be killed. Other than nightly reboots, are there any other low processor load browsers that might be better than Galeon or do we just need a newer version? I have been using Mozilla Firebird on our win32 boxes, does this work well with ltsp? What are others experiences? Getting some flack from our SMT about removing the linux solution, which is not a good sign. Thanks Rob Keeling Network Manager Queen Elizabeth`s Grammar School -- I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. - Douglas Adams

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Any ideas on LTSP?
by francis stanbridge 27 Jan '04

27 Jan '04

Not sure about the technicalities (at this time of night!) - some practical experience to gauge from: Red Hat 9.0, LTSP,(GNOME desktop) Dual Athlon 1.5 GHz , SCSI UW h.drive, 1 GB ram (homebrewed junk) - seems to support 20 ~ 30 clients OK - browser is Mozilla. Have not pushed it further - yet! Reliability - 100% ! I just do nothing to this server (other than reboot due to poor cooling causing a thermal trip) - we now use it for DHCP and DNS - its just better than the other brand for what we require. In comparison our 3 Win 2k terminal servers - dual cpu 800 Mz, 1 GB ram, SCSI U2W hard drives will support 50 windows terminal server clients each - at a push this has been up to 70 clients. It scales well. (This is not a plug for MS - we will move to an 80 % + Linux server and client network this summer).When freshly installed will run for weeks on end with v.good performance. Percieved performance e.g. loading Publisher, image manipulation in Photoimpact is good. Currently it requires daily reboot, Also suffer (at present) similar slowing down problems. Time for a re-install - yawn... The cheap, pragmatic solution - 1. Try Mozilla 2. More memory - try another GB (ie £100) Based on the Windows experience (not direct but the only data I can compare with) I would anticipate 1 x 1 GHz cpu supporting 20 ~ 25 clients reasonably. Good Luck Francis Francis Stanbridge Community College Bishop's Castle Shropshire SY9 5AY tel: 01588 638257 fax: 01588 630034

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1924
by Paul Taylor 27 Jan '04

27 Jan '04

Hi all: My adsl router is getting a deluge of attacks on port 1924. A search tells me that this is the XIIP port which makes it no clearer. Does anyone know more about this. Is this a popular port to use as an attack? The sheer volume of DOS on this port suggests that my line is going down under the weight of the attacks and it keeps resetting which is quite irritating. Are there any counter attacks? Paul --

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Interesting report by chairman of BECTA
by Phil Driscoll 26 Jan '04

26 Jan '04

David Hargreaves, who is chairman of BECTA, is also a senior associate for the Demos think tank. If you've a spare hour, download and read his paper (as PDF) from http://www.demos.co.uk/media/educationepidemic_page277.aspx If you can't be bothered reading it all, do a search for linux, linus and hacker. I haven't read it all yet, but from what I've read so far, he seems to think that the education system should trasform itself by embracing 'hacker culture' and open source methodology! -- Phil Driscoll

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FLOSSIE numbers: now 34 including 3 exhibitors
by John Ingleby 22 Jan '04

22 Jan '04

The latest count of bookings is 34, including 3 exhibitors. Just 16 more to break even, and with 4 weeks to go, surely we can help 66 more people realise why it's important they come to this conference. If for some reason you haven't sent your booking in yet, the (PDF) form is at http://www.schoolforge.org.uk/flossie/registration_form.pdf Many thanks to all for getting the word out, -- John Ingleby ************ Webmaster - www.schoolforge.org.uk

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] BECTa's spec on laptops for teachers
by G.Harris 20 Jan '04

20 Jan '04

The cost of the Citrix licences is offset by many other advantages: Central administration of TC and PC desktops and software. We can keep using old computers long after anyone else has disposed of them and they run at near server speed even on a 233 pentium box.(The DfES still haven't cottoned on to this one and Becta are still assessing our system based upon a standard PC model. We also have another piece of software from Precedence technologies in Cambridge called ThinIT which is a cut down Unix which can be put onto any PC and run the Citrix client over the top. Every machine in the school has exactly the same desktop. No extra costs for lock down of desktops No WinXP licences except on specialist PCs, eg. music, video Web based administration from anywhere in the school of all servers. If we pay subscription advantage we get a free upgrade of the Citrix operating system every time it is changed which is worth considerably more than the tiny fee we pay. TCO is considerably lower than with a PC system over a 5 year period and over the 8 years we have now been on the Citrix system we have saved massive amounts of money both in initial and maintenance costs and have been blessed with a network which is available most years for over 99% of the time. We even run the free Pro Desktop 3D CAD software over the system with no limitations. Our technician has worked on other systems but she would not go back to a PC only system now. > On Mon, 2004-01-05 at 07:07, G.Harris wrote: > > > The rest of our system is a mix of Windows PCs, Linux terminals, Unix > PCs > > and even some Mac and old Acorn machines all running Citrix Metaframe > > centrally to deliver a mixture of software from the Microsoft and Open > > Source communities. > > As a matter of interest, what did your Citrix licenses cost per seat? > The thing that has always put me off with Citrix is the cost of the > license which was about £130 a seat last time I looked but reducing with > volume. > -- If this e-mail contains anything that the recipient takes exception to, please contact: The Headteacher, Maidenhill School GL10 2HA UK (+44) (0) 1453 822469

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] BECTa's spec on laptops for teachers
by G.Harris 19 Jan '04

19 Jan '04

Saga 2 Oh, and it also runs over wireless with no problem and it is accessible as a desktop from home even over a 56K modem which gives us full access to whatever we decide home users will have. We have access to the school web mail, a modified school intranet (pupil and staff versions), texting, a forum, all at minimum cost. Our staff find it very easy to use, but we are looking to tidy it up with a VLE, maybe home grown if we have time or perhaps something like Uniservity which fits in with our zoning ethos and is just brilliant. > On Mon, 2004-01-05 at 07:07, G.Harris wrote: > > > The rest of our system is a mix of Windows PCs, Linux terminals, Unix > PCs > > and even some Mac and old Acorn machines all running Citrix Metaframe > > centrally to deliver a mixture of software from the Microsoft and Open > > Source communities. > > As a matter of interest, what did your Citrix licenses cost per seat? > The thing that has always put me off with Citrix is the cost of the > license which was about £130 a seat last time I looked but reducing with > volume. > -- If this e-mail contains anything that the recipient takes exception to, please contact: The Headteacher, Maidenhill School GL10 2HA UK (+44) (0) 1453 822469

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