September 2000 - openSUSE Edu - openSUSE Mailing Lists

RE: RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] OSE Development Meeting
by Paul Taylor 12 Sep '00

12 Sep '00

Hi all: I downloaded and installed ThinkFree last night and it runs very well on 6.4. It could be quite a nice product for machines with limited hard drive space as it is quite a small package and the company has a service to store files on line. >From: "Malcolm" <malc(a)ngfl.gov.uk> >To: "Mark Evans" <mpe(a)st-peters-high.devon.sch.uk> >Cc: <suse-linux-uk-schools(a)suse.com> >Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 11:30:06 +0100 >Subject: RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] OSE Development Meeting > >hi Mark (et al) > >no joke intended on the .doc file, attached rtf >of interest have you looked at ThinkFree.com (which supports .doc files by >the way), the alpha for Linux is now available which runs ok on >Redhat/Mandrake and might do under Suse. You'll have to tell them your >running Redhat6.2 and then try to install it (otherwise they'll tell you to >wait until its available for you flavour of Linux). > >i'll check out the links on the OSE site, which needs more work on it and >time. The new site is written using the phpSlash code and again always >looking for assistance here > >Malcolm > >------------------------------- >Dr Malcolm Herbert >Head of Technology R&D, Becta >02476 847126 Mob: 07801 612438 >------------------------------- > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Mark Evans [mailto:mpe@st-peters-high.devon.sch.uk] >> Sent: 11 September 2000 10:48 >> To: Malcolm >> Cc: suse-linux-uk-schools(a)suse.com >> Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] OSE Development Meeting >> >> >> > >> > if anybody has any comments, observations etc, it would be good >> to hear from >> > them. A project is registered on SourceForge, more details on there this >> > week. see also http://www.ose.org.uk. >> >> Some of the links to seminar writeups on this site appear to be broken. >> >> > >> > i've also attached a proforma about Becta's programme of Small-Scale >> > Technology Pilots, which will also be discussed this week, interested in >> > your comments >> >> Is attaching this in MS Word format ment to be a joke? >> >> -- >> >> Mark Evans >> St. Peter's CofE High School >> Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109 >> Fax: +44 1392 204763 >> ------------------------------------------------------------ Free email: http://BeMail.org/ Free BeOS: http://free.be.com/

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OSE Development Meeting
by Malcolm 11 Sep '00

11 Sep '00

hi all just to let you know, there will be a meeting to discuss developing an Open Source toolkit for schools in Llandrindod Wells this Thursday 14th Sept (the current centre of Linux in Schools usage in Europe?) after some evaluations, write-ups and the seminar in July, we're now planning to carry out some pilot development of tools and configurations that will be of use for schools and allow Becta to look more closely at this development approach we're on the look out for developers who wished to get involved with looking at providing a set of tools to run Linux servers to provide Internet services. if anybody has any comments, observations etc, it would be good to hear from them. A project is registered on SourceForge, more details on there this week. see also http://www.ose.org.uk. i've also attached a proforma about Becta's programme of Small-Scale Technology Pilots, which will also be discussed this week, interested in your comments regards Malcolm ------------------------------- Dr Malcolm Herbert Head of Technology R&D, Becta 02476 847126 Mob: 07801 612438 -------------------------------

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[Wylug-discuss] Microsoft: 'UK schools sitting on a time bomb' (fwd)
by Roger Whittaker 06 Sep '00

06 Sep '00

Forwarded from the wylug list ... -- Roger Whittaker SuSE Linux Ltd The Kinetic Centre Theobald Street Borehamwood Herts WD6 4PJ ---------------------- 020 8387 1482 ---------------------- roger(a)suse-linux.co.uk ---------------------- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 17:08:28 +0100 From: Simon Wood <Simon.Wood(a)pace.co.uk> To: wylug-discuss(a)wylug.org.uk Subject: [Wylug-discuss] Microsoft: 'UK schools sitting on a time bomb' Microsoft: 'UK schools sitting on a time bomb' By: Andrew Thomas Posted: 05/09/2000 at 15:33 GMT http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/13037.html This could be REALLY good news for linux in schools... go on Bill - I dare you, sue someone and see how fast the others run!! I also came across www.openclassroom.org the other day, which looks like a possible solution. Simon Wood _______________________________________________ Wylug-discuss mailing list Wylug-discuss(a)wylug.org.uk http://list.wylug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/wylug-discuss

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Developing Open Source Tools for Schools
by Malcolm Herbert 06 Sep '00

06 Sep '00

hi all following from Becta's seminar in July and further discussions, it looks like at project will be set up to discuss the mechanisms and praticalalites of building an Open Source toolkit (rather than distribution) for schools. This toolkit would for example contain:- 1. Preconfigured web-based administration system (poss based on Webmin), with typical settings for Squid, Samba pre-set and with admin/staff/user settings 2. The development of a school-based user/group management system 3. The developed of specific areas of interest for schools, such as filtering. The aim is to make the toolkit as widely available as possible and therefore is supplier (and Government agency) agnostic. To get things rolling, there is a meeting of potential developers planned to take place next week in Llandrindod Wells (given the influence of Powys LEA in existing developments) on September 14th. If you have any views, or would like to attend please can you contact me asap. Also the http://www.ose.org.uk site being update today and will contain some information about this latest development Also, just like to mention that i made a interesting visit to Chris Dawkins at Felsted School yesterday, a very impressive system with some ideas for all of us.... look forward to hearing from you. Malcolm -- --------------------------------------- Dr Malcolm Herbert Head of Technology R&D Becta, Science Park, Coventry CV4 7JJ Tel: 02476 847126 Fax: 02476 847120 -------------------------------------- "To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer" Farmers Weekly, 1977

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SuSE 7.0 released
by Roger Whittaker 05 Sep '00

05 Sep '00

Welcome to a new term and a new version of SuSE :) The good news: 7.0 is released. The bad news - I'm afraid the price has gone up ... There are two versions: professional (6 CDs, 1 DVD, 4 manuals and 90 days' installation support) with a street price of about £50, and personal (3 CDs, 3 manuals, 60 days' support) street price about £30. Educational offer for professional version: £25 including VAT and P&P. (so still half price ...) There is also a deal for students: they can get the professional version for the price of the personal edition - more details on this later. Have a lot of fun .... All the best Roger -- Roger Whittaker SuSE Linux Ltd The Kinetic Centre Theobald Street Borehamwood Herts WD6 4PJ ---------------------- 020 8387 1482 ---------------------- roger(a)suse-linux.co.uk ----------------------

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Samba problem
by Dave Williams 04 Sep '00

04 Sep '00

I've sent a couple of messages (acknowledgements of help received) to this list but they don't seem to have appeared. I'm trying again through desperation in the hope that this gets through. Well, the start of term approaches and my task over the holiday was to setup new fileserving services. I have setup 2 SuSE 6.4 based file servers using Samba. One is for storage of work and the other for delivering applications. They work fine at home on a small 10baseT network and I can access a W95 client and an Acorn client. However, at school they behave in a very strange way. The main fileserver boots ok with no apparent errors. However, I cannot connect to it through samba from any client even though smbstatus reports everything ok. If I restart Samba it works ok. I am very concerned that there is some underlying problem which is going to surface when the system is more heavily loaded. Something similar happens if I disconnect the server and try to connect from a client and then reconnect the server. Smbstatus says everything is ok but it doesn't work until it is restarted. Does anyone have any ideas? Dave Williams ICT Coordinator Derby Moor CS

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Re: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Samba problem
by Bill Antonia 04 Sep '00

04 Sep '00

The main thing you do with the samba server is to change the security from user to server and add a line so the user names and passwords can be validated by the domain master. These are the only changes required from the default setup apart from changing the workgroup name to the name of your domain. security = server password server = <IP address of the NT domain master server> Also you must create the users locally on the Linux box. The thing I do is to create them without passwords but then edit the /etc/shadow file and put * in where the encrypted password would be. This allows the users to log into the Linux box through samba but disallows telnet logins. All validation is done via the NT server. The second problem I will have to think about a bit more. Regards Bill Antonia Beacon Community College Home bill(a)beaconhillcott.freeserve.co.uk Work at(a)beacon.e-sussex.sch.uk ----- Original Message ----- From: Paul Taylor <paul.taylor(a)bemail.org> To: <bill(a)beaconhillcott.freeserve.co.uk> Sent: Monday, September 04, 2000 5:13 PM Subject: RE: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Samba problem > I think that I am having the same problem on my samba installation. It is not appearing on the network at all even with a very crude samba.conf containing just the netbios name and the workgroup? If however I set up the file with OS = 16 or above, no other machine on the network can log on. How do you get a linuc box to act as a simple file/print server in an existing NT network? I have followed samples word for word from several publications with no success. > Also, I have squid running the proxy for the school and it works quite well. However, the intranet site is on another server. At the moment, the workstations appear to hang (Win 95/IE5) while looking for the home page. If I set it to not look for this IP (the server) it works fine. I am not doing this for every student! If I put NO_PROXY for <server IP> in the rc.conf file, will this do the same thing? Do I need something in the squid.conf? > Appreciation in advance, > > Paul > > >From: "Bill Antonia" <bill(a)beaconhillcott.freeserve.co.uk> > >To: "suse schools" <suse-linux-uk-schools(a)suse.com> > >Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2000 22:52:14 +0100 > >Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Samba problem > > > >Could there be conflict with the domain Windows NT master server? You can > >only have one master domain server within a domain. Is samba set up to be > >subordinate, taking domain users and passwords from a domain master? > >If not, there may be your problem. > > > >Bill Antonia > >Beacon Community College > >Home e-mail bill(a)beaconhillcott.freeserve.co.uk > >Work e-mail at(a)beacon.e-sussex.sch.uk > > > >----- Original Message ----- > >From: Dave Williams <david(a)williams333.freeserve.co.uk> > >To: Suse <suse-linux-uk-schools(a)suse.com> > >Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 5:55 PM > >Subject: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Samba problem > > > > > >> I've sent a couple of messages (acknowledgements of help received) to this > >> list but they don't seem to have appeared. I'm trying again through > >> desperation in the hope that this gets through. > >> > >> Well, the start of term approaches and my task over the holiday was to > >> setup new fileserving services. I have setup 2 SuSE 6.4 based file servers > >> using Samba. One is for storage of work and the other for delivering > >> applications. They work fine at home on a small 10baseT network and I can > >> access a W95 client and an Acorn client. > >> > >> However, at school they behave in a very strange way. The main fileserver > >> boots ok with no apparent errors. However, I cannot connect to it through > >> samba from any client even though smbstatus reports everything ok. If I > >> restart Samba it works ok. I am very concerned that there is some > >> underlying problem which is going to surface when the system is more > >> heavily loaded. > >> > >> Something similar happens if I disconnect the server and try to connect > >> from a client and then reconnect the server. Smbstatus says everything is > >> ok but it doesn't work until it is restarted. > >> > >> Does anyone have any ideas? > >> > >> Dave Williams ICT Coordinator Derby Moor CS > >> > >> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------ > Free email: http://BeMail.org/ > Free BeOS: http://free.be.com/ > > >

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Thin ethernet
by Derek Harding 01 Sep '00

01 Sep '00

Hi folks, I wonder if anyone out there uses thin ethernet? We are disposing of a large quantity of crimp-type BNC connectors, pre-constructed leads and a drum of coax. If you are interested, let me know. We may also have a quantity of AT NICs (thin ethernet) as well. Welcome back to the new school year! -- Best wishes, Derek Harding derek(a)lagham.zetnet.co.uk

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Squid and times
by Derek Harding 01 Sep '00

01 Sep '00

Hi, We use squid with a series of configuration files of what urls etc. we allow connexion to, so providing a decent filter of unwanted sites because our ISP (schoolzone) fail us in that respect. Our fixed timings are provided by a time switch which turns off the multilink router! By removing the majority of the *.cpl files in the windows system directory, the Internet Explorer settings can be locked and, unless kids hack into the admin account, they can't get at the setup. As admin, I can run the cpl from the admin file or copy it back to the machine temporarily for changes. That way I force all student machines to go out through the proxy and simply take the proxy down to stop access. I use the startup/shutdown script by "rcsquid start/stop/restart/reload". Actually, with over 300 workstations, I only take it down if I'm playing with things, because the chances are that some class somewhere is actually using the Internet during the day. It does mean, however, that I can add nasties to the banned lists on the fly. It's amusing to see their faces when nude "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" suddenly disappears under a proxy "No Access" message. Squid, Squidguard and Calamari fit together quite well if one needs to set up one's own filtering (calamari is the report generator) but they need reasonable reading! I've started using the "Webmin" tool to browse to the server and configure it (all the common configuration components) remotely. See www.webmin.com (or is it www.webmin.org?) for free downloads and it isn't a massive rpm. -- Best wishes, Derek Harding derek(a)lagham.zetnet.co.uk hardingd(a)warlingham.surrey.sch.uk

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