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07
Aug 10

Best Linux Distro for a primary school?

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Part of my yearly summer vacation duties is looking after my wife and kids’ primary schools computers. So far, I have 16 quite slow PCs running on Ubuntu Linux (9 point something or other). Kids are mostly working on text, or on a few education programs that run in WINE.

One PC has been the dedicated “server” where every other PC had an NFS mounted folder. That worked most of the time, but sometimes broke due to flaky network connections.

Next week we’ll try something new. I’m looking for a Linux distro that is cloud oriented, i.e. either gOS (is that still being maintained?) or PeppermintOS.

I’m looking for pre-installed Chromium browser and Google Apps support. I’ll be installing DropBox to share and backup (!) files, and replacing OpenOffice with Google Docs.

Has anyone done that yet? Is that a feasible approach? There aren’t going to be any dedicated email accounts, it’s all about backing up and sharing files. Is it possible to share the WINE drive via DropBox? Any creative ideas appreciated.

Blogging — 3 Comments
19
Aug 08

What’s the best firmware for the Linksys WRT54GL?

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In my “job” as the weekend admin of my wife’s primary schools IT systems, I have to re-install the schools wireless setup – when the movers worked in the school during summer break, they broke the main DSL WiFi Router, so we had to get a new one.

I got another Linksys WRT54GL of course, as this is the one device that has never failed me yet. It’s been quite some time that I set up a new one, so I’m not up to speed with current developments in alternative formwares.

Here’s what I want to do:

  • set up a WPA2 protected wireless bridge from the DSL modem to the computer room
  • configure OpenDNS as a filter (GREAT solution!)
  • allow for remote management of the infrastructure

So, what do I use? So far I’ve used DD-WRT in most cases, but Tomato is also rumoured to be good. Any recommendations? Other firmwares I should be looking at?

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30
Mar 08

Ubuntu Gutsy: winecfg freeze due to 3D conflict

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I’m spending another beautiful sunny afternoon in my wife’s primary school. The school bought a Windows based learning software (Oriolus) which we had previously successfully tested to run on WINE.

So, it’s install WINE on 15 PCs, configure, create the required “My Documents” folder, copy the server software over (for some strange reason running from an SMB share won’t work, and I can’t be bothered to investigate) and create links.

Worked beautifully, except for ONE PC which froze completely when I started winecfg. I updated the Ubuntu installation, but still no luck. It was also not due to the lockup with the ICE1724 sound chip.

In my case, using the VESA video driver instead of VIA solved my problems.

That kind of crap is no good for Linux desktop adoption, let me tell you…

Is there an easy solution for doing something like this from a central server instead of on each workstation? I looked at FAI, but it seemed overly complex. Any suggestions?

Blogging — 2 Comments
29
Nov 07

Telnet into your Motorola ROKR Z6 Mobile Phone

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WAYYYY COOL!

CREDITS to YURIK

Download MP
or
reflash the CG52 HERE

function – telnet enabled.

for initiating the connection for firstime.

1) flash it

2) open opera and go to url: “file://localhost/usr/data_resource/oss/telnet .csh ”

3) switch telephone to USB-Lan mode – open RSD Lite and wait ~30 seconds.

4) telnet 192.168.16.2

Trying 192.168.16.2…
Connected to 192.168.16.2.
Escape character is ‘^]’.

Mobilinux(TM) 4.1
Linux/armv6l 2.6.10_dev

(none) login: root

Mobilinux(TM) 4.1

Must. Get. One.

Blogging — 3 Comments
30
Oct 07

Ubuntu In Primary Schools – Part II

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The Ubuntu installation in my wife’s primary school is doing well so far. We hit a lot of scepticism initially, the local paper even reported that the PCs “only run Linux”. In daily work (mainly Firefox and OpenOffice Writer) everything works fine.

The main complaint was that the school couldn’t use their Windows based learning software anymore. WINE might be a solution to this, so far I have installed software by Oriolus and Pusteblume successfully.

Another complaint arrived yesterday, when the headmistress tried to work on OpenOffice documents in Microsoft Word and couldn’t read them – easily remedied by changing the default save file format to Microsoft Word.

I also set up one PC as a server, sharing a folder via SMB. Two questions around this:
- where do I configure that sharing independently from the logged on user?
- how do I set access permissions – right now any client PC can copy/delete files, but the locally logged in user can’t (nouser.nogroup)

Same crap with USB drives: they mount nicely, but creating folders on the stick and managing access rights across multiple PCs is a nightmare. Is there an easy way to do that properly?

The schools internet connection isn’t too fast. Is there an easy way to upgrade Ubuntu from 6.06 to 7.10 without destryoing all the users home directories? Or would I be better off putting home drives on separate partitions and simply re-installing?

Any help appreciated.

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