June 2004 - openSUSE Edu - openSUSE Mailing Lists

Pam_mount on SuSe 9.1
by Rob Keeling 06 May '05

06 May '05

I am trying to install SuSE 9.1 as a workstation in a NT 4 Domain network. The default suse 9.1 install installed winbind etc, and configured them allowing me to log on to ssh with a NT username and password. I now want to configure pam_mount to mount a subdirectory of the unix home directory as the NT home directory. I had configured this on an old SuSE 8.1 box, so I think /etc/pam_mount.conf should be OK. However, having added auth and session lines for pam_mount into /etc/pam.d/sshd I can only get to the stage that in /var/log/messages I see pam_mount: error trying to retrieve authtok from auth code How do I enable pam_mount? My /etc/pam.d/sshd file is as follows #%PAM-1.0 auth required pam_unix2.so set_secrpc auth required pam_nologin.so auth required pam_env.so auth optional pam_mount.so use_first_pass account required pam_unix2.so account required pam_nologin.so password required pam_pwcheck.so password required pam_unix2.so use_first_pass use_authtok session required pam_unix2.so # trace or debug session required pam_limits.so session optional pam_mount.so use_first_pass # Enable the following line to get resmgr support for # ssh sessions (see /usr/share/doc/packages/resmgr/README.SuSE) #session optional pam_resmgr.so fake_ttyname Thanks Rob Keeling -- I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. - Douglas Adams

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Bett Show
by Joanna Harris 14 Jul '04

14 Jul '04

Heres one to munch your brains on......since going to Bett 2003 (and the previous two) my partner and I have wanted to take....my Linux Schools project (www.linuxschools.org.uk not available at the moment but hosting says I have been given to the admin!!) and Swadelands school where he ICT-Coordinates to the Bett show basically a look what you can do without spending thousands!! Passed the headmistress etc, but one problem....just checked the costs...£310 per sq metre...thats alot.... Basically I'm asking for ideas to raise that money....this is not a prority for the school obviously! and I'm not sure if any companies would listen...sponsorship way. help?!? lol Jo

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The visionless leading the partially unsighted?
by Paul Taylor 03 Jul '04

03 Jul '04

Hi all: Apologies in advance if there are any colleagues here working for exam boards.. I got a letter this week from OCR telling me they were dropping some optional units from their AVCE ICT. They (the exam boards) are all changing over to an applied VCE in a year or two so this is the last run of this specification. In light of this I thought it would be a good time to phone with a speculative foray into changing their specifications to reflect the real world of IT. I thought that given Apache runs 70% of all web sites and that IT Week this week says that Linux server adoption is off the scale it would be timely for exam boards to reflect the interest and up-take of Linux in the industry and offer a Linux unit in their optional choices. I was prepared to write something up (with the approval and support of this community) and even support it with moderating and exam papers if necessary. I phoned OCR first, "what's it called?", mm, not a good start. They seemed less than keen to get involved. The main person was not there but I was assured that all of the materials had been written already and there was no real plans for additional ones for the next few years. I then called Edexcel who currently have Unit 24 and Unit 25 which equate directly to Cisco Semesters 1/2 and 3/4. They had no idea what I was talking about at all (a quick crash test on their server revealled IIS which may explain this lack of knowledge). I was told again that the "exciting" new applied material would be published in the Summer but there was no room for any development of this or additional material. I know I am somewhat biased in that I am on this site and have been using Linux for several years but any casual perusal of mainstram magazines will tell you that Linux is not some backwater freak show. All of the big players are adopting it in some form and even Microsoft take it seriously enough to try to rubbish it in adverts. When will the exam boards reflect reality? At my last school I ran a Cisco Academy and due to expense (and personal interest) I had Linux as all the servers and some of the desktops. The kids were rather dismissive of my evangelising but learned it reluctantly. I have kept in touch with most of them and whether they have gone on to jobs in IT or University courses they say that the thing that did it for them was not the Cisco but the Linux experience. So endeth my rant. Paul Ps Anyone going to Novell HQ on Tuesday for the Linux seminar? -- De Omnibus Dubitandum

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OO and exam boards
by Paul Taylor 01 Jul '04

01 Jul '04

I take everyone's points on board and I was rather devil's advocating (English is such a wonderful language that you can invent words to suit..). I am pushing Ingots at my SMT Ian but the same argument remains from Tony and Thomas that it is tried and tested things that managemant want. Many of the school's I have worked at the leaders have been very thin on technical knowledge so getting 60 more Windows boxes in is an easy option compared to a suit of LTSP. On Thomas's particular point that it is tried and tested I did say that Edexcel's Units 24/25 can only really be taught by Cisco Academys and I know there are not that many about. I would say there are as many people knowledgeable enough with Linux to teach it as there are Cisco Academys but obviously pressure and money have been applied there. On Joe's more specific example that does not necessarily negate what I am saying as I too have taught with Linux material and at a recent AQA moderation meeting I was told that the chief moderator used LAMP stuff like Moodle but added that he didn't really promote it. People who use Linux are generally more computer savvy and it would be a harsh examiner that penalised a student for something that they obviously knew as much about or more than a moderator, regardless of whether it was mentioned in the official syllabus. This brings me back in a way to Thomas's more general point that it relates to teachers. He says that in some way it relates to qualified teachers who can handle the units. That is only partly true. All exam boards offer Programming as a portfolio unit but I doubt there are more than 1% of schools in the country that have staff that could teach it properly (or networking, CGI, Computer Accounts et al for that fact). I am no complete philanthropist and if I could write good C++ I doubt I would be fighting teenage rebellions in my classroom day in day out :) I bet there are more than 1% of staff in schools in the UK who have dabbled in Linux. Every school I have so far taught at in the SW has had some ICT teacher who has set up a Linux server for the school's web. I suppose, again to answer Thomas's comments, I would create a unit to supplement the other units offered by the boards. As Joe points out, it is easy to do database and networking units using Linux but only if you know a bit about it. Why not have a general Linux unit to support the other ones. Every student could use Knoppix or similar (SuSE 9.1 live if this is still a SuSE site post-Roger) and not make a mess of the school's network and as Joe did (and in conjunction with Ian) everyone could write it up on OOo with their knowledge acquired from Ingot training. Paul -- De Omnibus Dubitandum

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] OpenExchange experiences requested
by Tony Whitmore 30 Jun '04

30 Jun '04

Chris Puttick wrote: > Firstly, good gracious! An LEA that doesn't allow the schools to make > their own IT decisions? They want to look carefully at who has legal > responsibility for such things (board of governors for reference!). Sorry, that must have come as a shock! ;) > Back on topic... > > SLOX is very neat and doesn't require any more understanding of mail > essentials than MS Exchange (and rather less about security...). The web > interface is more than enough for *any* user and doesn't cause the > issues of Outlook e.g. it ain't virus and worm prone! There's an ability > to sync Palm based PDAs and plenty of good admin functionality in the > web interface. That all sounds fairly good. I've played with the demo site, and it certainly seems easy enough as a user. The admin side isn't available as a demo, however. > Be careful looking at a SATA as these are mostly not supported in older > kernels. Look at DNUK or (oddly) HP as they both actively support Linux > server solutions. That's a good point about SATA. OpenExchange 4.1 is bundled with an underlying distribution - any idea what kernel and hardware support this distro has? > All security patches are via http(s). > > Need anything else? Price is so good it's worth trying just to see... Yes, I was pleasantly surprised at the educational pricing vs the business pricing. I certainly wouldn't have considered buying it at the latter.... Cheers, Tony

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] OpenExchange experiences requested
by Tony Whitmore 30 Jun '04

30 Jun '04

Craig Chambers wrote: > Open Exchange Server is very easy to set up and provides same functionality > as Exchange. All administration is done through a web browser and not the > usual components. It uses OpenLDAP and SAMBA along with Postfix for mail. > Everthing is already configured to work out the box. There is also a special > schools version which includes some extra functionality: Samba shares as > well as a PDC and the ability to install SuSE linux remotely. Thanks Craig, I'd seen the school's version - it looked more like a "learning environment" type package - not really what we're after at this point in time. Still, the rest of it sounds promising :) Thanks for the advice. Tony

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OpenExchange experiences requested
by Tony Whitmore 30 Jun '04

30 Jun '04

Hi, I've been looking at SUSE's OpenExchange software as a possible alternative to Microsoft Exchange. We don't have Exchange at the moment, and I'm naturally disinclined to purchase it. The requirements are quite simple - just two Outlook users sharing calendar, to-do lists and notes to begin with. The basic package will exceed our needs and leave room for expansion in the future. I would like to encourage any additional users to use the web interface if possible. The system would be "stand-alone", i.e. no incoming or outgoing mail, due to restrictions placed on us by the LEA. I would probably purchase a budget 1U server to host the system - most likely a Gigabyte system as we have had good experiences with these in the past. I am inclined to try an SATA system as a compromise between performance and cost. So, I'm really just asking for comments from those who are using OpenExchange or have tried it in the past. How easy is it to set up and maintain the system? I'm not a mail server expert, so this is important for me ;) Is installing extra utilities on the system feasible (for example, NTP and UPS monitoring software)? Our existing Linux boxes are all Debian-based, so I'd also be interested to know how things like security patches are applied and whether this is done over HTTP, HTTPS or FTP, as this we are not allowed any other outgoing connections. Thanks in advance, Tony Whitmore

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Novell Made my day
by s-clarob＠st-aidans.cumbria.sch.uk 29 Jun '04

29 Jun '04

This is who we deal with, I think they are the prime UK agent for the agreement, you should find the basic details of the system there. http://www.itservices.org.uk/sales/software/SchoolsLicenceAgreement/ Speak to Lynne Foster, she is our contact and is always helpful Cheers Rob At 13:00 29/06/2004 +0100, you wrote: >Hi, > >Have you a direct link on where to look up the Novell Schools Agreement >to save searching around? > >On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 13:46:26 +0100 >s-clarob(a)st-aidans.cumbria.sch.uk wrote: > > > Just got a renewal e-mail for our Novell Schools Agreement and was > > surprised to see that we are entitled to freely use Suse Enterprise > Server 8 > > :)

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winGIMP 2.0 and Connect 3
by Michael Turnbull 17 Jun '04

17 Jun '04

Hi, Having seem RM's Connect 3 getting a bit of a pasting recently I thought it worth asking if anyone has experience of using WinGIMP on a Connect 3 network. I am having some stick from the art/photography courses about why we can't have Adobe Photoshop available throughout the school - (I have several thousand answers to that one!). Some of the Art Dept and students have tried the WinGIMP versions (both 1.25 AND 2.0) and would like to take it further. Anyone got any comments? Mike Turnbull St Mary's School Shaftesbury

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linux for school
by Dermot Mc Laughlin 17 Jun '04

17 Jun '04

Hi, Please advise... Im a PGCE student of ICT and as my major assignment I have chosen to investigate the possibility of embracing opensource software in the school environment. To this end, a few months ago I wiped out windows and replaced it with super slick SuSE and never looked back! I just thought that this mailing list might be a good place to bounce ideas off people. I've done all the research regarding opensource software replacements for current software + checking out Wine compatibility for departments who are in love with their current packages -- all this has gone very favourably. Now im looking at the really important part (as far as management is concerned), Costing!! Here I have hit an impass! There are so many solutions and distro's around. After initial research http://www.k12ltsp.org/ looks very interesting -- it would certainly be a good way of implementing Linux one step/room at a time. Also looks like old hw could be used to create new computer suites at little extra expense. I know this is a SuSE mailing list, so im presuming that there will be a degree of bias, but thats fair enough because im a bit biased towards it too. Yast has seen me through a lot already, and im a bit loathe to leave it. The school that im compiling this report for has 474 Windows workstations, does anyone have experience of Linux administration, implementation on this scale? If so can you give me an idea of annual costs? Have you used SuSE for this? What OS is being used for your servers? One last thing, most school technicians I have met thus far have little to no experience or knowledge of Linux; I also consider myself to be a newcomer to this field, could anyone direct me to a training course suited to Linux school network administration. I know that all of the above is a big ask, I will be gratefull for any pearls of wisdom. Regards Dermot Mc Laughlin dermot(a)ictresource.co.uk ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - sooooo many all-new ways to express yourself http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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