[Tech] Partimus / PXE unattended install solution

Fri Mar 20 13:11:04 PDT 2015

Hi Tai,

Thanks for this fantastic email.  I am ccing this email to the Partimus
tech list, so that it will be there for future reference.  As Elizabeth
said, we encourage everyone on this thread to join this list:

http://lists.partimus.org/listinfo.cgi/tech-partimus.org

My comments are in line below.

On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 11:34 AM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Christian, All,
>
> *@Christian,* please let me know if I've gotten carried away.
>

No, you have not gotten carried away.  I am a relatively simple end user
and cheerleader and hand-holder, but I have been at all of the Partimus
installfests, and I have run mass installs from a server before, by doing
the steps that you have outlined for the teacher below, and it seems you
are right on track.

> As you haven't yet given a wishlist, I have dreamt one up....!
>

I am still working with the teacher on it.  Here are the apps that Charlie
Reisinger installs on his distros:

http://www.pennmanor.net/techblog/?page_id=1213

Maybe we could start out with some of those apps, and then add and delete
as appropriate

   1.   Flashplugin, as we need to be able to have the students see video
   over the Internet, etc
   2.   Chrome; I have been told by the prior PXE boot guru, James Howard,
   that Firefox and Chromium don't work with iTalc for some reason, such as
   conflicts or something like that.  I didn't fully understand it.  James
   recommended also that there is only one browser available to the students.
   3.  Italc, which allows the teacher to control the desktops.  It is a
   really powerful program:  http://italc.sourceforge.net/

>
> At this point in time, the outline points are educated guesses on my part
> - I've looked into PXE and unattended installs in the past, and worked with
> some pre-setup ones in past positions, but not yet had a project goal to
> work to myself - hence I am taking this opportunity :-).
>

Thanks, it is great having you involved.    :-)

>
> If anybody has a burning desire to look into any one Task in particular,
> maybe let the group know/put your name next to it so we're not doubling
> effort - and of course, add sub/tasks as you see necessary :-)
>

Ownership of tasks tends to be organic and informal in our projects in the
past, simply because we are relying on the good will of our volunteers.  So
we find that we have to rely on people to pick up tasks as they see fit and
stay with them as long as they can, and if they need to move on, then they
need to move on.  I think that many of the suggestions that Tai has
offered, such as the documentation, will help us with continuity.  James
Howard was working on a PXE install manual when he had to take his
sabbatical and left before he could complete it.  So Tai's documentation
alone will be HUGE for us.

> /============
>
> Following from my earlier notes, I would like to suggest attaining the
> goals outlined below, to wit:
>
> ## Goal workflow for workstation install:
>
>         * teacher inserts CD into machine and reboots it from said CD
>         * teacher needs to only click a couple of times to launch the
> install process
>         ---- this may also involve choosing a network name for the PC
>         * teacher can remove the CD and walk away, whilst the PC does its
> thing on the network
>

Yes, Tai, you have perfectly described how we have done it in the past.  It
is wonderful and simple, so much so that even _I_ can do it without making
mistakes in the install, which says a lot.  I tend to break things by
making incorrect choices.  So the fewer choices that you give me, the less
chance that I am going to break it.     ;-)

>
>
> ## Server install/maintenance
>
> Installation of the server may need sending someone onsite, or we can
> prepare an image that the teacher can install, with a post-install script
> to finish the job.
>
> The server should be able to just run headless and will probably be in
> command line mode unless specified otherwise (who normally performs
> maintenance?)
>

In the past, James Howard was the guy who would watch the server.  Of
course, since it is Linux, the server normally would not fall over, and had
remarkable up time.  It actually took a fire in the building of one of the
schools we were serving (The Creative Arts Charter School) in order to take
down the server.  So we will be looking for admins who can trade off the
fairly limited task of watching the server.

>
> System updates may or may not be installed by a remote technician, or
> automatically.
>

Yes, exactly.  It is remote and automated.  In the past, the server would
just automagically pull down the updates from the repos as those updates
became available, and then would push out those updates across the network
to the clients at like midnight or 1 am Pacific time.

> From a break-prevention point of view I prefer the former (or a technician
> at the school can be trained); for the school's independence, the latter
> may be more relevant.
>

Yeah, we usually do not train the on-site teachers to do admin work.
Usually it is a Partimus sys admin guru volunteer.

>
> At any rate, since the server is to host a master image, I'd like to
> insist that the machine /needs/ keeping up to date and secure from any
> non-authorized users in the school, or super-savvy/curious students :-)
>

In the past, we started out with a monitor, until James was confident in
the server itself, and eventually he made it headless and just ssh'd into
the machine.

>
>
> ###
>
> I propose the following deliverables:
>
>         * An install image with the required software and
> very-few-questions-asked
>         * PXE server serving the image
>         * Pre-seed file served from PXE server
>         * PXE server install image itself (in case the server needs
> resetting) and/or install procedure
>         * Delivery on DVDs for archival and off-Internet purposes
>         * Hopefully, a full build manual for future maintainers
>

Again, Tai hit it directly on the head.  That is exactly what we need.

>
> ###
>
> Tasks to attain this, as far as I can see, are:
>
> * Create custom "ISO" of target desktop setup (rather, dir structure for
> serving over the web) from Ubuntu server
> * Prepare the pre-seed file (which needs to include installation of
> Lubuntu desktop) (this is the workaround I can imagine to get around
> Lubuntu's lack of netboot)
> * Prepare a PXE server setup
> * Prepare an image of the PXE setup (which will include the contents of
> the target ISO)
>

Again, that is absolutely correct and perfect!

Tai, if you find that you are going to be needing someone else to talk to
who has experience in the US educational setting, I spoke just now with
Charlie Reisinger from the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, school district,
and he is going to contact a sys admin guru who can speak your language to
offer you any tips as you see fit or need to move forward.

>
> ===
>
> Resources I've found most relevant so far:
>
>
>    - UnattendedInstall CD :
>    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/UnattendedCD
>    - Custom CD incl pre-seed :
>    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallCDCustomization
>    - PXE setup : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PXEInstallServer
>
>
> For Lubuntu, this may require using tasksel to install Lubuntu on top of a
> server base, as the std Lubuntu CD does not have the requisite config files
> ( /netboot )
>

thanks for that info, Tai!
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