openSUSE Edu January 2005

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25 participants
23 discussions

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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The BETT Show & A Computer on Tottenham Court Road
by Thomas Dyer 27 Feb '05

27 Feb '05

Firstly, I went to the BETT show on Thursday, and I was really gobsmacked. So many people selling so many things, for so much money, where so many of them are simply "money-grabbing". >From a "technologists" perspective, I found the school admin, print costing, lockdown, no-spam, no-virus, no-billion-dolla-from-nigeria actually rather sad. I've had "locked down, print costed, no-spam and no-virused installs for clients for a long time". I'd been invited down by SchoolLinux who had a stand upstairs. They have a "cut down, locked down" 50meg CD image, based on fedora, gnome, etc with some really nice additions. They've also got some other neat products too... Although they seemed busy enough, I found it comical the people who clearly looked at the price tag and just didn't consider it at all. Warren (who was wearing his SchoolLinux t-shirt) and I had a look at Microsoft Class Server. MS let us stand about for a good 10 minutes at one of their PC's, without anyone bothering us. Does anyone have any info on MS Class Server? It looked like a dot.net application feeding a Q&A ASP web application, dealing with multiple choice tests etc etc. I know that Smoothwall were also about, but didn't get to chat. There were various bits of Education software that were clearly written by ex-educators who didn't seem particularly commercially minded, which were not extremely polished, but which showed a "love of the topic", which was probably the nicest thing. On an entirely off topic and commercially motivated bent, my second point. Computashop on Tottenham Court Road have now got a linux box, instore, running a customised SuSE 9.2 (as of yesterday). We were responsible for the customisations, and our commercial bent is that we're dealing with the physical install and setup onsite, and the support and alike. I know if we were in just about any other country in the world, being able to walk into a "high traffic" computer shop and buying a machine based on Linux, is old news, but it's good for the novelty value ;) As we're still perfecting the final "default" install behaviour, I'd appreciate it this isn't slashdotted about ... ;) But if anyone is in town today, you can (if you want) drop into 51 TCR, and see "a computer". We asked someone to play with it, and they told me that Word and Excel were good, but that they tried to find the "system32" directory because they wanted to delete it and haven't been able to yet. Thomas Xdevelopment

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Squid authentication problem
by Bill Antonia 27 Jan '05

27 Jan '05

Hi I'm using squid from 9.2 and is setup and working fine. However I now want to authenticate against a MySQL database. The MySQL authentication program has been written, compiled and tested on it's own and works correctly. The path for this program has been appended to the authenticate_program line in squid.conf. I have also added an proxy_auth REQUIRED acl together with the corresponding http_access allow entry. authenticate_children is set to 5. However, no child processes start when squid is started. Any ideas would be helpful. -- Regards Bill Antonia Network Manager Beacon Community College North Beeches Road Crowborough East Sussex TN6 2AS Tel 01892 603000 Fax 01892 664562

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Yours truly interviewed by Newsforge
by Ian Lynch 25 Jan '05

25 Jan '05

http://business.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/01/19/1728201 -- Ian Lynch <ian.lynch(a)zmsl.com> ZMS Ltd

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Primary School System
by Jez Rogers 22 Jan '05

22 Jan '05

Hi My school is looking for a new server to replace our aged RM Connect system. Much as I'd love to see desktop Linux, it's a bridge too far for our staff. I see absolutely no reason why the back end servers that are never seen by the users should not be Linux based, since I'm confident the TCO, longevity and reliability will be superior. Therefore I'm looking for a company that can provide a Linux server system and Windoze clients. I'm pushing our ICT coordinator for a requirement spec not least so that the three quotes for Windoze systems she has already received can be evaluated on a like for like basis. The range of software that is available will, at the end of the day, be the deciding factor. We have a heavy investment in various packages from RM, which I'm told can't be used on the other systems that have been looked at. If this is a fallacy and there are systems out there that can handle this, so much the better. I'd be interested in hearing from any companies that have experience of such systems, in a primary (KS2 7-11 yrs) environment. The reason I'm asking for companies is that we need effective & professional support (unlike the support from RM) and simply do not have the time or skills to DIY. P.S. I'm both Chair of Governors and an RHCE. -- jez A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost. mailto:jez@jezndi.org http://www.jezndi.org

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Re: The BETT Show & A Computer on Tottenham Court Road
by Grainge, Derek 19 Jan '05

19 Jan '05

Adrian: ***The 'other' meaning of thin client, is to run exe's that sit on the server at the workstation, this is how most capita software that I've seen runs. That was true I think of earlier versions of SIMS, Mentor etc. (we have come into SIMS.net via Mentor rather than the old SIMS). I don't know how other schools have SIMS.net configured, but here all the executables, dlls etc are on each station. My understanding is that there are no programs running on the SIMS server, so we're not talking about remote procedure calls, etc, we're talking about clients all of which directly access the SIMS database on the dedicated SQL server. Capita's efforts have gone into minimising the data transfers needed for the clients to construct data sets locally. But any database designer worth his salt would be doing that no matter whether 1 2 3 or whatever tier. Derek -- ******************************************************************************** All mail sent and received may be examined to prevent transmission of unacceptable material. Wellington College does not accept responsibility for email contents. Problems to postmaster(a)wellington-college.berks.sch.uk. Website: http://www.wellington-college.berks.sch.uk ********************************************************************************

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Re: The BETT Show & A Computer on Tottenham Court Road
by Grainge, Derek 19 Jan '05

19 Jan '05

Derek: >> So what you have is a .net set of executables and you need to run them >> on a fairly up-to-date windows PC- which is actually a fairly fat client >> with no server, but with MSSQL data streams as 'thin' as they can >> manage. Not at all what they promised. Tony: > I can only assume that they mean using a central server for all the > processing, with clients just generating the pretty pictures - pretty > much what SIMS .Net does with MS SQL server. MS SQL server does some processing through stored queries, triggers etc, but that's not what I would understand as a proper client/server setup. It certainly doesn't qualify SIMS.net as 'thin client' within the meaning of the act! Most of the processing happens client-side. I use this SIMS stuff and will be responsible for integrating it with other systems. Ptah! > Our LEA (who are sadly very "in" with Capita) are supposed to be > trialing the web interface. So it does exist, If you could point me at someone (Capita or LEA) who might be prepared to discuss this I'd be interested. Our DBA is very selective about what information he provides to Peons like me. Derek -- ******************************************************************************** All mail sent and received may be examined to prevent transmission of unacceptable material. Wellington College does not accept responsibility for email contents. Problems to postmaster(a)wellington-college.berks.sch.uk. Website: http://www.wellington-college.berks.sch.uk ********************************************************************************

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Re: The BETT Show & A Computer on Tottenham Court Road
by Chris Puttick 19 Jan '05

19 Jan '05

Caution on the CMIS spiels - they've claimed DB agnosticism for years, but would only deliver it on Access/MS SQL/Oracle. I would be pleased to hear that they would support it on Postgre, as that would make it far more interesting to many schools. Sadly the web interface problems are not new and, given they were offered assistance in rectifying them FOC 2 years ago, it's a little odd to hear they are *still* working on them... CMIS is Tomcat dependent, which has always confused me. Why use one open source project on 2k/IIS (and all the associated issues) when you could use the entire set (Linux/Apache/Tomcat) and deliver it as a sealed box? -----Original Message----- From: Tony Whitmore [mailto:tonywhitmore@users.sourceforge.net] Sent: 18 January 2005 18:55 To: suse-linux-uk-schools(a)suse.com Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Re: The BETT Show & A Computer on Tottenham Court Road Grainge, Derek wrote: <snip> > I think now Microsoft own part of the company. I doubt that this would > have had anything to do with the decision to go .net executables though > ;) This may sound silly, but are these *genuine* .Net programs? I suspect not. If they were, someone might stand a chance of running them under Mono. On a related aside, I saw a presentation by Serco before Christmas of the CMIS (SIMS-like) software. Although closed-source itself, it can use any SQL compliant backend - they have used Postgres and Oracle as well as MS SQL, for example. The web interface does not yet function entirely in firefox, but they are working on that. Also, the client-side application (necessary for some more advanced features) is Windows-only, but can be installed on each workstation or installed to a network share. I explained to them afterwards how this meant that they could provide an entirely Linux hosted system, through using Samba. Tony -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: suse-linux-uk-schools-unsubscribe(a)suse.com For additional commands, e-mail: suse-linux-uk-schools-help(a)suse.com This message may contain information and/or data that is confidential and legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee(s) only. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that any use, publication, reproduction or dissemination is strictly prohibited and may violate certain laws. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by return e-mail and destroy this and all copies of this message and/or data. The content of this message has been scanned by MailPatrol for unacceptable language and inappropriate content. European Electronique limited thanks you in anticipation of your co-operation. MailPatrol is a fully managed service that offers your organisation the ability to monitor and enforce your Acceptable Usage Policy. For further information regarding the MailPatrol services contact the European Electronique Sales Enquiry line on 0845 345 8340 (local rate) or email sales(a)euroele.com

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Re: The BETT Show & A Computer on Tottenham Court Road
by Tony Whitmore 18 Jan '05

18 Jan '05

Grainge, Derek wrote: >> The reason why I have chosen Moodle/PHP/Mysql is that in the end captia has said they are going for a web based version of SIMS. >> So....I thought I would beat them to it!! lol > > > > Interesting. A few years back Capita said they were going for a > web-based interface; then they said that they were abandoning that and > where going for what they called 'thin client' Unless you know > something I don't about where Capita are going next? Our LEA (who are sadly very "in" with Capita) are supposed to be trialing the web interface. So it does exist, but it was certainly delayed in roll-out. (Want to bet what the browser compatibility of said web-interface will be like?) > So what you have is a .net set of executables and you need to run them > on a fairly up-to-date windows PC- which is actually a fairly fat client > with no server, but with MSSQL data streams as 'thin' as they can > manage. Not at all what they promised. I can only assume that they mean using a central server for all the processing, with clients just generating the pretty pictures - pretty much what SIMS .Net does with MS SQL server. As you say, the platform support and minimum spec for this software has meant upgrades for a lot of client workstations in some schools. Others have had to purchase a £5k server.... > I think now Microsoft own part of the company. I doubt that this would > have had anything to do with the decision to go .net executables though > ;) This may sound silly, but are these *genuine* .Net programs? I suspect not. If they were, someone might stand a chance of running them under Mono. On a related aside, I saw a presentation by Serco before Christmas of the CMIS (SIMS-like) software. Although closed-source itself, it can use any SQL compliant backend - they have used Postgres and Oracle as well as MS SQL, for example. The web interface does not yet function entirely in firefox, but they are working on that. Also, the client-side application (necessary for some more advanced features) is Windows-only, but can be installed on each workstation or installed to a network share. I explained to them afterwards how this meant that they could provide an entirely Linux hosted system, through using Samba. Tony

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Re: The BETT Show & A Computer on Tottenham Court Road
by Grainge, Derek 18 Jan '05

18 Jan '05

> The reason why I have chosen Moodle/PHP/Mysql is that in the end > captia has said they are going for a web based version of SIMS. > So....I thought I would beat them to it!! lol Interesting. A few years back Capita said they were going for a web-based interface; then they said that they were abandoning that and where going for what they called 'thin client' Unless you know something I don't about where Capita are going next? So what you have is a .net set of executables and you need to run them on a fairly up-to-date windows PC- which is actually a fairly fat client with no server, but with MSSQL data streams as 'thin' as they can manage. Not at all what they promised. I think now Microsoft own part of the company. I doubt that this would have had anything to do with the decision to go .net executables though ;) Derek -- ******************************************************************************** All mail sent and received may be examined to prevent transmission of unacceptable material. Wellington College does not accept responsibility for email contents. Problems to postmaster(a)wellington-college.berks.sch.uk. Website: http://www.wellington-college.berks.sch.uk ********************************************************************************

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openSUSE Edu January 2005