Images, cont.

My Image Definition Documentation

I'm making my notes available here publically in case anyone is interested, I exported it to HTML from Tomboy Notes.

Another issue creeps up

So, now I've noticed another quirky aberration in the laptop image. All the laptop clients that get imaged are using "eth2" and "wlan0" as their wired and wireless network interfaces when they were "eth0" and "eth1" on the original. I don't think this will actually affect their functionality, but it's kind of weird.

Looking to the future

As I look towards what I should do next on the images, I'm faced with what looks like a pretty open-ended roadless landscape. There are a few things that I can think of off the top of my head that would really improve our image:

• I need a way to make a change to an image and have that change pushed out to the clients that use that image. This is ESSENTIAL to being able to steer the development of the workstations. Without a good method for deploying my work, I'll be using a good chunk of time running around and Ghosting the clients. I believe that if I can get the SystemImager Suite up and running, it should fit this need well.
• Very closely linked to being able to update the clients easily and simply is the ability to manage the various configuration DIFFERENCES between the clients. For example, their hostnames, any printer configurations by class, etc.
• Getting the iTALC classroom management suite up and running is definately the highest priority next step for the image. I have 4 classrooms where the teachers have decided that if the new image doesn't have iTALC, they want nothing to do with it. Luckily, iTALC development has picked back up (There's a release candidate for version 1.0.0.0 out!), and it's actually now for both Linux AND Windows. I've subscribed to the iTALC mailing lists in order to get the support I'll need to get the most out of it.
• Microsoft Active Directory Integration is something I think needs to happen. It's not a particularly high priority yet, though. I'll be working with the ubuntu-directory team on this one. We hope to have this sort of thing automated into Ubuntu by Feisty's release. One new issue with implementing this will be figuring out how to get the laptops to authenticate to the network; the current default behavior is to connect to the network AFTER logging in.
• A better "Locker" system is a must, though again not a particularly high-priority need. I'd like the locker to map onto the local filesystem automatically on login the way it works on our Windows workstations so the students don't have to give it a second thought.

There's a lot of work still ahead.

Image Progress

Progress!

Alright, so I now have three Ghost images: one for each hardware configuration. As I type this, though, I'm updating the software on them after which I'll have to re-create the images in order for them to stay up-to-date. (There were a LOT of software updates between yesterday when I left work and this morning.)

This is the current state of the images:

170 Desktop Image

• During the boot and shutdown process on the imaged client, the screen is completely black(no progress bar). It works fine on the original "golden client". This is kind of annoying because the progress bar lets you know that everything's loading smoothly.

Any ideas?

210 Desktop Image

Haven't tried this one out yet...

1300 Laptop Image

• I had to create a new Ghost boot disk for this one in order to be able to see the network; I just took the old disk and replaced the DOS drivers.
• Needs to be booted to a Live CD in order to sudo dd if=laptop.mbr of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=61 it before it will boot to the new image. This is a pretty common issue when using Symantec Ghost 8.0 with Linux, and now that I understand it it's a pretty simple problem to fix. (Only needs to be done once per laptop.)

Other than that, smooth sailing on this one. I'll need to figure out how to connect to the wireless network BEFORE logging in if I'm ever going to get these to be able to authenticate against our Active Directory, but I'm not likely to have time to tackle that issue anytime soon if history is a guide.

Samba Weirdness

I'm overall satisfied with my first set of "standardized" images. They're very basic, nothing flashy, but so far the teachers haven't really gone beyond using the very basic apps that come with Ubuntu. Most important, though, is the fact that they give me a good foundation to work on and this time, since I'm keeping good documentation, I'll be able to duplicate my work even if my workstation gets wiped clean again.

I am kind of annoyed by one minor thing...

I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to define the "Domain" variable for when one tries to connect to the lockers. When one double-clicks on the "lockers" icon, one is prompted to enter one's username, domain, and password. The domain should ALWAYS be "MCCSC", but it always comes up as "WORKGROUP".

The "workgroup" variable in smb.conf doesn't affect this field, oddly enough.

I have this working correctly on my Edubuntu 5.10 image! The students don't need to worry about the "Domain" variable on those, because it's already set as "MCCSC"...I was just not bright enough to keep decent documentation of HOW I set it correctly...

Any ideas?

Image Standardization

During the home stretch of this semester, I'm putting priority on creating a standard image that will work on all our hardware. Well, not exactly, I'm creating an abstract definition of what our images should be, I'll be applying that abstract definition to three actual images (based on hardware platform) to fill our needs.

The first step in the process was writing a well-documented definition of what exact changes need to be made to the base Ubuntu install in order to make it suitable for our needs

I then installed Ubuntu on each of the three different hardware platforms (Dell 170Ls, Dell 210Ls, and 10 Dell Inspiron 1300s), followed the script laid out by the definition, and boom: I have an image for each hardware type.

Getting the SystemImager Suite working has taken quite a bit longer than I expected, so we're still depending on Symantec Ghost 8.0--in Unicast mode--for all our imaging needs.

We now have what it takes to complete setting up the final classroom (which, for some reason that escapes my ken, has both 170s and 210s in it).

Since I have not gotten a working classroom management suite on the new image yet, the original four classroom teachers do not want to be upgraded to it yet.

1:1 Classroom Progress

Today, Steve and I finished putting the hardware together on the last of the Linux classrooms, just in time for me to test out a real live SystemImager install.

We've also received our 10 new laptops, Dell Inspiron 1300s, and my official verdict on those is that their screens are very dim. I'm not sure whether that's a driver thing or not, I'm going to have to look at one of them with the pre-installed operating system intact and see how dim it is that way. I've managed to get the screen resolution on Ubuntu to match the laptop screen's native resolution, so I've got a little progress done towards making a workable image on the laptops.

It's my understanding that laptops pose some interesting extra questions when it comes to getting Linux to run properly on them, hopefully I don't run into any of them as I figure out how to use the wireless adapter. Any information on how to accomplish that might be nice to have before I get started; please, if you have experience with this leave me a quick comment about it to help me out.

I'm currently ghosting a 210L with the 210L partition, I'll update it and pull a SystemImager image off of it and see what I can do about creating an autoinstall CD for systemimager to use on the 210Ls in Mr. Hayes's room. We'll get this working, yet, woohoo!

BTW, I'd like to thank my friend, a fellow from my LUG, David Ernst for helping me out with this SystemImager stuff, his invaluable experience and Linux savvy has saved me all kinds of headaches and "learning experiences" I might have otherwise had.

Which remind me, I should communicate with downtown about my mailing list mail being filtered as spam...

P.S. I was pleased to see Novell's CEO address some of my concerns, in an Open Letter to the Community from Novell:

In closing, we wish to be extremely clear that Novell is committed to protecting, preserving and promoting freedom for free and open source software. We recognize that the community of open source developers is essential to all our activities in Linux, and we welcome dialog with the community as to how we can continue to work together toward these common goals.