We're doing roughly the same, if we can get over current problems with recognition of drive geometries. Our differences are ...
It's a long story, but basically I have been increasing annoyed with RM recently. Therefore, I would like to create a Linux distribution which works in a similair manner to RM connect. What do people think of these proposals?
We're not starting with Connect. We're starting with Acorn NCs and diskless X/KDE terminals, and are under severe pressure to provide Windows facilities. So we are working on a shellscript that, given a PXE boot machine, formats and installs two partitions (X/KDE/FreeBSD & Windows) from the server, and on subsequent boots updates them.
I can't guaranteee that it's going to happen or quickly (I'm busy with school and developing KDE), but if some people want to help as well, then it just might :)
Want to keep in touch. We're not the same but there'll be lots of ideas to exchange.
Linux distribution plan - ------------------------ Target audience: Schools, colleges, universities
Aim: To provide a simple to install and administer networking system, which works in a mildly similar manner to RM Connect. Except it actually works (and has decent security), and is based on free software (GNU/Linux).
The Windows partition is easily eliminated from our system, but is currently necessary. Partly, we're trying to do with a script what we might otherwise have to do with Ghost.
By simply booting a machine with a boot floppy, it should be easy to install Linux on to the machine, after just asking a few questions such as the hostname to use, and the kind of mouse that the box has.
We're currently basing it on PXE booting because the new batch of second-hand machines we have have PXE boot cards. We're trying to arrange to control everything through parameters in the DHCP file.
Implementation: A Linux distribution based on Red Hat 7.2 would be created. The main reason that Red Hat is suggested is because it can be installed based around the Kickstart installation system, which enables an administrator to stored the installer settings in a configuration file, rather than needing to sit in front of the computer and tend to the the installation every time a question is asked.
Based on FreeBSD, but otherwise no difference.
The distribution will: * Be mainly based on KDE, but provide Blackbox for older hardware (486s and slow Pentiums). There is a possibility that GNOME could be provided as well, but I prefer KDE, and know very little about how GNOME works.
Planning on KDE only.
Stuff like Kylix and Open Office will also be provided.
StarOffice and KOffice. Maybe others.
On the server side, CUPS would be used for the printing system and all machines will have ext3 formatted hard discs.
May look at CUPS.
* Have a central administration databases where: - User names and groups are managed - Print and disc quotas are managed - Software can be allocated to a machine/group of machines - The central configuration files are located
We hope this will all be based in the DHCP and plan to write a MySQL database to generate the DHCP config file.
* On booting up a machine, a system service will check with the server hosting the administrative database whether any software has been allocated/deallocated. If so, it will be downloaded via apache and installed locally, or removed, as appropriate. However, some larger software such as Open Office might want to live permanently on the server.
We are planning to use "cpdup" to mirror the server filesystem on each remote machine (controlled by exclusion files ".cpignore").
If any configuration files (e.g. /etc/host or similair) have been modified, the updated versions would be downloaded. Perhaps CVS could be used here.
* A database such as NIS would probably be used for the administrative database
All machines are NIS clients to an NIS server.
* Upon loggin in (via kdm) the system would map the user's home directory on the server to the /home/user directory on the user name. NFS or SMB are possibilities here.
This is one of the tricky bits, but we have a FreeBSD-specific NFS mod to allow it.
* There will be some user based administrative tools. This will allow the user to change his/her password via a web browser. There will also be an information page showing stuff like information about disc/print quotas.
It will also be possible to define the desktop menus (e.g. KMenu) that will appear on the user's desktop. This will be based around .desktop files, and a utility will convert these files to Blackbox menus so that the menu is kept consistent between different desktops.
Haven't started on these things yet.
A web based e-mail system could be used to integrate with the IMAP mail server.
We use Squirrelmail occasionally, but we mostly use pine.
* The server side would consist of the following pieces of software: - Samba - Apache - Squid - IMAP e-mail server
Of course.
* It will be possible to customise the desktop to default levels. For instance, by most KDE configuration files will be held in a globally readable directory (perhaps in /usr or /etc). Therefore ~/.kde will be mostly read only
KDE's architecture makes it very easy to provide configuration files based on this process
Still thinking about these things. Where are the applnk & config fies documented?
- -- Cheers, Chris Howells -- chris@chrishowells.co.uk, howells@kde.org Web: http://chrishowells.co.uk, PGP key: http://chrishowells.co.uk/pgp.txt KDE: http://www.koffice.org, http://edu.kde.org, http://usability.kde.org
-- Christopher Dawkins, Felsted School, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3JG 01371-822698/821076 or 07798 636725 cchd@felsted.essex.sch.uk