July 2013 - openSUSE Features - openSUSE Mailing Lists

[New: openFATE 313112] Enterprise and Network Standard Desktops and Authority
by fate_noreply＠suse.de 12 Aug '13

12 Aug '13

Feature added by: Scott Couston (zczc2311) Feature #313112, revision 1 Title: Enterprise and Network Standard Desktops and Authority Requested by: Scott Couston (zczc2311) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description:  This feature request has a huge SLES/SLED Commercial Application as well as an OpenSuse application. Preamble- The larger a Network gets the more costly it becomes to effectively administer it and cost of help desk staff fixing up accidental changes to users desktop. A user having access to the root user and password is a disturbing failure by Enterprise Technicians. The following is a little more detailed than a concept however, there are technical issues yet to overcome outside of this document. Effectively installing updates and new applications and maintaining company policy on desktop access and presentation, keeps a small cast of hundreds of staff roaming an enterprise and large numbers of help-desk permanently and often on roster 24/7. Trying to maintain company standards is a nightmare for Help Desk and Security Managers bad dreams. Currently we have no simple yet effective way to do this; however we have all the tools and donât need to buy any commercial software. No Net Admin nor Help Desk personnel can ever be expected to maintain hundreds of users desktops and their configuration so long as users have both the 'poke it and see' or has this innate type of curiosity to âLets change this and see what happensâ This feature request proposes a method of achieving Network-Wide Desktop Configuration, standardisation, standardisation of user authority on a workstation and implementing network wide changes with a minimum of fuss. It does require that ALL outstanding BUGS of NFS be fixed and verified as working every time, everyday, without fault. I am NOT proposing we just lock up all workstations, far far from that. The request does not impede in any way the freedom each user needs to retain preferences. Situation - We can learn a lot about the horrendously difficult task that Microsoft gives their Netadmin's and Help Desk personnel to standardise desktop configuration and functionality, Network wide. M.S calls this 'profiles' or 'wandering profiles' or 'mobile' or 'dynamic profiles'. To this end I am going to explain the essentially working properties on how Microsoft achieves this. This will not be a complete technical discussion, however I can propose a much better and less troublesome technical answer to this situation by only looking at the basis of an M.S Network Profile. The reason we can achieve a more advanced proposition is a tribute to a more advanced O/S in our Linux and the way we manage network drives. Current M.S On an MS NTFS server a permanent system directory exists that holds shell (profile) information that every MS desktop can use one the profile file exists. Every workstation that has ever been installed with ANY version of windows comes with a specific environment variable set that basically says after login to server, check for system profile and if present use this as the desktop standard. If not found or the profile file is incomplete with errors in it, then ignore and load normal workstation configurations. There are more complex parts to this, but essentially this is all that happens. An M.S Windows complete guide devotes a whole chapter, some 80 Pages, on how this is achieved and it is laborious and unnecessarily complex. The user can have the right to change their desktop presentation, but menu items can be greyed out to control access to change important aspects of say, I.E that need to have company wide settings that a user cannot change. Users have the system rights to change their workstation appearance. The other 2 two files held on the servers file system are Policy Profile (group or otherwise) and Authority Profile. This one file can be changed by a netadmin and copied to the system profile file, this ensures all users take up workstation standardisation and forced user authority network wide My Feature Request for Suse Linux. - âStandard Network Desktopâ In concept, after using ONE PC Server to create a standard desktop look and feel, all users inherit this mater configuration. Firstly we need a new Application in Yast>Miscellaneous>New Application> that has the dual ability to either create the Standard Network Desktop OR to use the Standard Network Desktop. The former should be used on a Network File Server. I suggest this new application in yast is in a wizard format. If CREATE is used the current configuration of the desktop is copied to every %userername directory which holds the same copy of all hidden files configuration and directory structure. The next step in CREATE is to start an NFS Server which only creates the export of the newly created directory as Read Only. The next step is to set some environment variables on $Set Standard_Network_Configuration =(the created name of the new directory $Set Standard_Network_Group Configuration = %username Group(users) $Set Standard_Network_Authority=%username second group membership If USE Standard Network Configuration is used in Yast>Miscellaneous>New Application, the exported Network configuration directory is mounted as all users /home directory as RO. Next the same three environment variables are set. $Set Standard_Network_Configuration =(the created name of the new directory $Set Standard_Network_Group Configuration = %username Group(users) $Set Standard_Network_Authority=%username second group membership The wizard is finalised and then the workstation is rebooted. When the workstation loads the mounted /home directory that is exported on the CREATE File Server, become the users /home directories hidden configuration files which ensures the exact copy that was first established. If a change in the default workstation is required, the changes are made once on the desktop that the File Server uses. Then the create wizard is then re-executed copying the new configuration files to the system wide /home directory on the file server with all its .configuration directories and files and the directory is re-exported. As soon as any PC that has had the USE function acted upon it; is rebooted the new appearance from the newly created desktop configuration is again remounted as the users /home directory which takes up all the new .hidden files configuration. Up until now this is a very simple concept and very easy to implement. Now comes the hard part. This is where we need to observe the set environment variables on the workstation and server. I donât have all the technical answers here, however I can propose a method of handling these new problems The Network Standard environment variable is intended to specify that the user can/cannot write to their % username exported directory on the Server's own hard disk as well as can/cannot write files and documents and create new directories; example /home/documents and directories that are not hidden. This variable also ensures that directories and file are owned by the correct username, group etc. The Group environment variable is intended to specify a group standard that can contradict or reverse or alter ANY of these environment variables and to what extent. The groups are defined by adding or removing membership to groups other than 'users', in the user account, The Authority environment variable is intended to specify the location of the users encrypted Login account details and where they are stored. Again the Authority name is taken from specific user login group membership. This is about where I finish the concept of yet to be defined use of the environment variables to overcome the situation where every users login account needs to be both observed, and its location. The environment variables are also intended to allow a user to write changes to their desktop -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/313112

1 21

[New: openFATE 312942] Clone 32bit image to 64 bits
by fate_noreply＠suse.de 12 Aug '13

12 Aug '13

Feature added by: Richard Bos (rbos) Feature #312942, revision 1 Title: Clone 32bit image to 64 bits SUSE Studio: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Desirable Requested by: Richard Bos (rbos) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: Although it is possible to clone an appliance, it does not seem possible to clone or perhaps better brance a 32bit appliance and alter the artchitecture to 64 bit. Right the same appliance has to made and configured for the 64 bit architecture. Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: Sometimes an appliance is available is 32bit version, but a 64bit is desired so it can run natively on a 64bit system. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/312942

1 1

[New: openFATE 312642] Timeframe for building
by fate_noreply＠suse.de 12 Aug '13

12 Aug '13

Feature added by: Kim Leyendecker (openLHAG) Feature #312642, revision 1 Title: Timeframe for building SUSE Studio: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Important Requested by: Kim Leyendecker (openlhag) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: IÂ´m currently maintain openSUSE remastered 11.1. ItÂ´s build for keeping an openSUSE 11.1 image up to date using the evergreen repos. IÂ´m doing Service Packs in a fix schedule. Upgrading the packages and rebuild the system is kinda pain for me. So, a feature which you can use to give Studio a time schedule for updating the appliance would be nice. *How it works?* Well, the best way would be to choose a GUI where the following is included: Automatic build all: * 6 weeks * every month * every week * 6 months * (type in your desired timeframe) New build if: * an package get updated in the repository * just do it on time, donÂ´t care about packages Which number should be counted higher: * the major number * the minor number * the release number Using Hermes, the maintainer would get the latest build information in a changelog: Appliance name: xxx Based on: openSUSE /SUSE Linux Enterprise Current version: mm.ii.rr new packages: Firefox 3.6.19 -> Firefox 5.0.1 Thunderbird 3.1.0 -> Thunderbird 5.0 Linux 2.6.32 -> Linux 3.0rc7 ... comments: -- Use Case: doing releases on time, like I do. Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: Because so we can automatically create releases on a time based model. This becomes important when we want to ship Service Packs. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/312642

1 2

[New: openFATE 312082] Updating SUSE images on Studio
by fate_noreply＠suse.de 12 Aug '13

12 Aug '13

Feature added by: Shashank Sondhi (dreamtrip) Feature #312082, revision 1 Title: Updating SUSE images on Studio SUSE Studio: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Mandatory Requested by: Shashank Sondhi (dreamtrip) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: So as to ensure that SUSE studio images do not face trouble regarding upgrades it would be great if the images could be updated if the option is selected for the image or version. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/312082

1 3

[New: openFATE 311013] Adding Beta and RC status
by fate_noreply＠suse.de 12 Aug '13

12 Aug '13

Feature added by: Kim Leyendecker (openLHAG) Feature #311013, revision 1 Title: Adding Beta and RC status SUSE Studio: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Neutral Requested by: Kim Leyendecker (openlhag) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: A nice feature in SUSE Studio is to add a Beta or RC status on your own appliance. If you build a Server and you know it's unstable but you want to publish it to get feedback, you can add a status, so that it's on the iso Image too. Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: Because the user can see how far the developing status is. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/311013

1 1

[New: openFATE 310898] integrate BuildService and SUSE Studio better
by fate_noreply＠suse.de 12 Aug '13

12 Aug '13

Feature added by: Jos Poortvliet (jospoortvliet) Feature #310898, revision 1 Title: integrate BuildService and SUSE Studio better Buildservice: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Desirable Requested by: Jos Poortvliet (jospoortvliet) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: SUSE Studio and BuildService have very limited integration right now, still making them separate worlds. Howver there is a lot of room for doing better. Which could bring users from the one to the other - there seems rather little overlap between the two userbases, and SUSE Studio could thus profit from the OBS users AND bring new users to OBS/openSUSE. An example of integration would be to have a one-click-make-an-appliance-of-this-package. Or in SUSE Studio - offer the user to build a package in OBS out of a tarball he/she uploads. Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: We want this because it can bring new users to OBS/openSUSE/SUSE Studio. And it offers additional value for both STUDIO and OBS users as well. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/310898

1 3

[New: openFATE 309958] SUSE Studio: add build format "LTSP Image"
by fate_noreply＠suse.de 12 Aug '13

12 Aug '13

Feature added by: Alex Savin (alexqwesa) Feature #309958, revision 1 Title: SUSE Studio: add build format "LTSP Image" Requested by: Alex Savin (alexqwesa) Description: SUSE Studio: add build format "LTSP Image" so, if SUSE Studio is frontend for kiwi, and kiwi can create LTSP Images - why SUSE Studio can't do it? also: it can generate rpm package(and repo) for simplest installation Images -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/309958

1 2

[New: openFATE 309733] Graphical client for SUSE Studio
by fate_noreply＠suse.de 12 Aug '13

12 Aug '13

Feature added by: Cornelius Schumacher (cschum) Feature #309733, revision 1 Title: Graphical client for SUSE Studio Requested by: Cornelius Schumacher (cschum) Description: SUSE Studio is great as web app for creating appliances in the browser, but there are a couple of tasks which can only be performed locally. To facilitate that I'm going to write a graphical client for SUSE Studio focusing on the tasks which can not be done in the web interface, such as managing downloads, running and deploying appliances locally, natively connecting to testdrive, etc. The client will use the SUSE Studio API to talk to the server. Implementation will be done in C++ using the KDE development platform. There are probably many more ideas what the client could do. Add your ideas here, if you like. If somebody wants to join the fun and participate in hacking let me know. You are more than welcome :-) -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/309733

1 4

[New: openFATE 309314] Add Factory Snapshots to SUSE Studio
by fate_noreply＠suse.de 12 Aug '13

12 Aug '13

Feature added by: James Mason (bear454) Feature #309314, revision 1 Title: Add Factory Snapshots to SUSE Studio openSUSE-11.3: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Desirable Requested by: James Mason (bear454) Description: SUSE Studio has base images of the current openSUSE release to use as a basis for construction custom versions or specialized appliances. It would benefit the products of those appliances to have early access to Factory snapshots (Milestones, Release Candidates) in order to be able to have updates ready at the time of release. This would also allow beta testers the opportunity to create more robust test cases based on specific configuration choices, potentially resulting in more rapid, fine grained testing of the snapshots. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/309314

1 2

[openFATE 306606] GUI client for SUSE Studio
by fate_noreply＠suse.de 12 Aug '13

12 Aug '13

Feature added by: Cornelius Schumacher (cschum) Feature #306606, revision 1 Title: GUI client for SUSE Studio Requested by: Cornelius Schumacher (cschum) Description: SUSE Studio is a fantastic web app, but sometimes it would still be more convenient to have a native client, for example when dealing with lots of overlay files, or to manage writing downloaded appliances to physical media or running and controlling them in a virtual machine. The Studio API makes it possible to write a native client. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/306606

1 7