[Tech] Tech list catch-up (sort-of))
Michael Paoli
Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu
Thu May 7 03:48:28 PDT 2015
If you subscribed to this list on or before 2015-03-23 and have been
continuously subscribed >=2015-03-23 to this list, you can ignore
this item.
Anyway, had earlier grabbed - originally intended just for my own
purposes, and notably since the DreamHost list archiving was still
broken - basic quick grab of text from emails To:/CC: the
tech at list.partimus.org list that I'd received. Not a full and proper
preservation in mbox format or anything like that, but just a quick
(formatted, processed, ...) text grab - so it may not be faithful
reproduction of the original, doesn't include any "attachments", etc.
Nevertheless, after having done so, thought it would be
useful/informative to some other(s) joining the list >=2015-03-23,
especially with the DreamHost archiving still being broken for the
earlier posting (looks like it started working again sometime on
2015-04-09, but not before that, and only for posts on or after when it
stated working again, not covering older list posts).
Anyway, below is what I thus grabbed from what I'd received since I
joined the list, up to where the list archiving appears to be working
again sometime on 2015-04-09.
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 12:34:54 -0700 [03/23/15 12:34:54 PDT]
From: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> United States
To: dch.tai <dch.tai at gmail.com>, Eric Burke
<eburke1994 at gmail.com>, Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at princessleia.com>,
Jim Stockford <jim at well.com>, Michael Rojas
<ledworldwide.solutions at gmail.com>, Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>
Cc: tech at lists.partimus.org <tech at lists.partimus.org>
Subject: Re: Partimus / PXE unattended install solution
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Hi Tai,
thanks for your great work ! Also, I am cc'ing everyone, because I am not
sure who is on the tech list, and Lyz has sent in a trouble ticket to Dream
Host, because it has not been archiving the tech list. I will send an
email to the tech list asking everyone to put up their hands if they can
see the emails coming through to that list. Thanks!
My comments are in line below.
On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 10:38 AM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Some notes of what I've done, and a request for advice, as well as
suggestions for Abigail. Please feel free to disagree and improve!
=== ISO Customization
I had a go at the ISO customization task over the week-end. Unfortunately
the instructions are old, and oscillate between helpful and omissive... My
resulting ISO caused kernal panic before even loading boot, but I think I
know where to look to troubleshoot that...
I've started constructing a bash script to automate as much of it as I can
(it's also a good way to re-verify knowledge ;-) )
For the technically inclined, you can find that script here
https://github.com/taikedz/handy-scripts/blob/master/in-progress/customiso/autobuild.sh
Sporadic notes start at line 111 , actual steps start at line 167. It is
incomplete.
May I share that link with Charlie Reisinger? He said that he would try to
reach one of his tech gurus to see if they might be willing to help us out,
and maybe that guru would be able to offer you some additional insight as
you have requested below.
=== PXE Server / machine boot (help needed?)
I also tried setting up a server to centrally serve ISO images over PXE
with a tftp server. Again, shaky tutorials abound, no end-to-end solution.
I had troubles with (I think) setting up an internal DNS and having my VMs
start there (VirtualBox does not have any "BIOS" settings as far as I've so
far seen)
If I can get this much fixed, I can put together a comprehensive guide on
setting up the PXE component with better documentation and caveat
highlighting.
A lot of it requires manual work so cannot be so easily automated unless I
prepare a template, and even then may depend on the target network
infrastructure.
**Is there anyone who could offer guidance on setting up BIOS / etc so
that a machine can be specifically pointed in BIOS to the PXE server?
I am continuing to do outreach to try to build up a community of people who
might be able to help you out, including Charlie Reisinger and others.
I am testing on VirtualBox, but I suspect many real machines also just
look for the network's default DNS server... over which I have little
control in fact, and the teachers may hit a similar problem...
Alternatively, I might need to put together a PXE booting CD which has the
presets loaded into it (similar to what I saw at the Uni but not sure...)
which would be able to allow us to do away with having to even set up a
local DNS server
=== Software requirements
Pulling from Abigail's list, these divide fairly nicely into two
categories:
/==
*I am currently running:* (productivity)
Google docs
GIMP *
Blue Fish editor (html)
Firefox
Chrome (which crashes a lot and needs to get removed)
*It would be great to have:* (media production)
3d modeling software
video editing software
sound editing software
drawing software
==/
Productivity - these can be added as standard to the Lubuntu machine.
GIMP may be a bit heavy for the older machines, and I might suggest moving
it into the media category. If only light image editing needs doing, I can
suggest gPaint which is more like MS Paint in terms of features and
lightness.
Can I suggest adding LibreOffice as well?
These are elementary students that are using these machines, and so I am
thinking that the lighter weight editing tools that come standard with
Lubuntu might be adequate for that. I use Libre Office myself personally,
but I find it to be very heavy weight. I think that Lubuntu comes with
AbiWord preinstalled, doesn't it? I think AbiWord is also much lighter
weight than Libre Office
It follows the goal of FOSS and works fine offline too. Also uses open
document standards. A good habit to instill in students once they move on
to using their own computers.
I think that AbiWord uses open document standards and is completely free as
in freedom.
Media Production - Machines { 8, 19, 12 } from your spreadsheet could
house and handle media production suites, I'd be wary of putting it on the
standard install. Once I get the customization procedure down, it should be
easy enough to produce a second, media-oriented ISO.
We are going to be delivering 15 additional machines to Abigail on
Wednesday, March 25. That will be the first step in replacing some of the
older, slower machines. Slow machines are the bane of my existence,
because we are essentially establishing negative branding with old machines
("FOSS doesn't work"), when actually FOSS works much better on those older,
slower machines; however, students and teachers just conclude if it is free
as in free beer, then it must be junk. So I am going to emphasize a search
for better machines.
As my mantra goes, it depends on the workflow and activity goals what
we'll be choosing in terms of specific software. I can suggest Abigail have
a look at the below list and see what meets her or he r tutors' needs.
*3d modelling* - *Blender* seems to be the preferred software for 3d
animation. The Free video "Big Buck Bunny" was created using Blender as a
demo of what it can achieve - plays with the quality of a Pixar short!
I agree, let's add Blender.
For modelling-only, here's some other ones
http://www.techdrivein.com/2011/08/5-open-source-3d-modelling-rendering.html
*Video editing* - funnily enough, *Blender* has also been recommended for
this task on numerous reviews. Otherwise *OpenShot* and *pitivi* suites
are good alternatives, though this is not my area of expertise.
I think that OpenShot is becoming a standard for FOSS video editing, so
let's go with that, IMHO.
*Sound editing* - for sound /editing/ *Audacity* is a good choice. For
/music production/ a heftier suite is called for. Perhaps *LMMS*?
Audacity is adequate, and has a simpler GUI, which will be better for the
elementary school kids she is teaching
*"Drawing" software* - What's the use case? There are many categories of
"drawing" software - vector drawing (more suited to graphical design and
logo creation) can be done with *InkScape* (proprietary equivalent is
Adobe Illustrator); digital painting is well served by *Krita*
(proprietary equivalent... none really. Manga Studio perhaps). *GIMP*
also can serve this purpose but is more geared towards photo-manipulation.
Yea, Krita is very good. Let's give them both GIMP and Krita. Krita is
easier to use, but GIMP is more powerful.
My own photographic workflow makes use of digiKam and GIMP (I used to use
Adobe Lightroom and PhotoShop; I'm finding I don't need them anymore and am
now free of Apple!)
For a full creativity set, I could aslo suggest adding *Scribus* to the
standard set for desktop publishing & professional layout preparation
(equivalent proprietary is Adobe InDesign)
Okay, let's try Scribus.
*--- A note on creativity/media production distros:*
Whilst Lubuntu will be perfectly fine for most productivity and study
tasks, you may want to consider a different distro for media.
I could suggest Abigail have a look at "*Ubuntu Studio*", a full media
production suite distro. Only customization that would be needed would be
to make it Unattended Install.
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ubuntustudio
ArtistX is another distro worth a look. This too is based on Ubuntu, and
again, the same Unattended customization should need doing.
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=artistx
My concern with these other two distros is that they will come with a heavy
desktop, such as Unity. Until we get her better hardware, it seems to me
that staying with Lubuntu is a good idea.
That's me until next week-end :-)
Thank you so much for your work, Tai !!! Please let me know if I can tweet
your github code, as I am going to try to find other people who might be
able to help you out! Thanks!
Tai
===
Tai Kedzierski
IT Services Specialist
http://helpuse.com
+44 (0) 7526 963 612 (portable GB)
I use www.libreoffice.org
*"Open Source Free Software is a matter of liberty, not price."*
https://bitly.com/1gXkUcc
On 20 March 2015 at 22:01, Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
Bottom posting...
On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 2:40 PM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com>
wrote:
I'll certainly have a look at Chrome problems once we have the basics in
place. If I can replicate the issue I /may/ be able to solve it, otherwise
we need to look at what the problems w other browsers are and if the trade
off is worth it.
Thx!
I should mention privately that I am totally willing to set up this
system for them and Partimus, as it is learning exp for me too, and I
commit to provide the best result to my abilities;
However for anything that relates to troubleshooting and tech support
outwith the direct project, I am happy to muck in initially, but may have
to meet a professional upsell point, or pass the flame... of course, I'll
/never/ seek to charge anything without prior agreement - keep this
paragraph as testament!
Thanks, we understand that you need to make a living, and we will never
expect you to commit to doing volunteer work. We all are volunteers with
jobs, which is why we appreciate your help!
I'm signing off now as I have started the Friday evening at a party and
want to not send inebriated emails...! So please pardon radio silence ...
heh, enjoy!
I would be interested in having a quick talk with you over skype or
similar, and also with volunteer team on this project - I can set up a
Mumble VoIP server if preferable. Twould be evening UTC , morning PST
I can do skype on Tuesday, March 24 at 10 am PST time, which is 5:00 pm
Edinburgh time. Does that work for you? Thanks!
--Tai
// Sent from a mobile device; rogue typos may be lurking
On 20 Mar 2015 20:50, "Christian Einfeldt" <einfeldt at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
I have gotten some feedback from the teacher, Abigail Rudner. She says
that she has been having trouble with the Chrome browser crashing. I don't
know what that is all about. Maybe the conflicts that James Howard
experienced between Firefox and iTalc have been resolved, and maybe we can
remove Chrome as she requests:
*I am currently running:*
Google docs
GIMP
Blue Fish editor (html)
Firefox
Chrome (which crashes a lot and needs to get removed)
*It would be great to have:*
3d modeling software
video editing software
sound editing softwaredrawing software
Thanks!
On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 11:34 AM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com>
wrote:
Dear Christian, All,
Hello :-)
I'd like to get the ball rolling first by outlining what we're
actually trying to do. I've added my notes to the shared document, and
below.
*@Christian,* please let me know if I've gotten carried away. As you
haven't yet given a wishlist, I have dreamt one up....!
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 :-).
It may be full of holes.
Please do poke those holes and suggest/add any improvements/changes!
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 :-)
I look forward to working on this with you all!
Cheers
Tai
/============
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
## 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?)
System updates may or may not be installed by a remote technician, or
automatically. 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.
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 :-)
###
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
###
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)
===
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 )
=============/
===
Tai Kedzierski
IT Services Specialist
http://helpuse.com
+44 (0) 7526 963 612 (portable GB)
I use www.libreoffice.org
*"Open Source Free Software is a matter of liberty, not price."*
https://bitly.com/1gXkUcc
On 18 March 2015 at 23:01, Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>
wrote:
Hi everyone,
Thanks to everyone for your replies over the past couple of days
about moving forward with the Ascend Linux lab, and thanks to each of you
for your interest in the project. I have gotten some good feedback from
you all about this project, and I greatly appreciate what I have heard from
each of you. I have introduced each of you in an invitation to the google
docs document, so that you hopefully might have an idea as to who everyone
is. To that list I will add Jim Stockford, who runs a tech company called
Systemateka.com that provides a wide array of open source computer
solutions. Jim is one of our leading volunteers in our lab projects, and
has been a major backbone of our work on our Linux labs in schools.
Partimus has always moved forward by relying on preserving the
goodwill of the members of the projects we work on and as a board all of
our decisions thus far have been unanimous decisions, as far as I can see.
I think the fact that our formal votes are unanimous reflects the fact that
we value the input of each of our participants, and we want to build
consensus and goodwill, rather than focus on short term outcomes.
Partimus also tends to be a do-ocracy, meaning that people who have
the greatest passion and time for a given project tend to take the reigns
of a project, and the others tend to support them. So if you see something
that interests you, please feel free to take the ball and run with it.
And so at this time, it appears that Tai Kedzierski, Mike Rojas, and
Jim Stockford have the kind of time and expertise needed to bring
completion to the PXE bootable .iso project. It seems that Elizabeth and
Grant have the expertise, but are slammed with projects at this time and so
might not be among the first responders on this project; Jim Stockford
describes himself as interested in the PXE boot project but says that he
has not done such an .iso yet, but thinks he can help out; and Eric Burke
has said that coding is not his forte but is interested in following the
project and is writing a doctoral thesis on open source projects; and I
absolutely suck at coding. Please correct me if I have not correctly
stated anyone's interest or availability correctly, and my apologies in
advance if I have made a mistake.
If anyone would like to have an IRC chat about this project, I am up
for that. Please just remember that Tai is in Scotland. The rest of us
are in the San Francisco Bay Area, at least right now.
Eric has found a documentation page that might be helpful for us in
starting out the PXE boot project:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PXEInstallMultiDistro
Tai has sent me an email about the Google doc that I circulated.
Elizabeth tells me that doc is actually for a specialized manual install
.iso, not a PXE-boot .iso, so again my apologies if I have started us down
the wrong road, and thanks for that correction, Elizabeth. Here is a link
to that Google doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UEgt_fkGUVdANcnZ1W2S5Rv15Hx3S92Ynn9Mui3xB_E/edit?usp=sharing
Eric Burke's link above might be a better starting point, I'm not sure
More comments below in response to a recent email from Tai:
On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 4:21 AM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com>
wrote:
Hi Christian
Thanks - I wasn't expecting the "League of Extraordinary Sysadmins"
gathering!
Good to know there are others who will be able to provide insight!
Rather than muck around in the document you provided (which has the
initial vital info!) would it be possible you share a separate empty Google
doc to serve as a collaboration/communication area? I'll dump the following
in it afterwards
Thanks, Tai. As I said above, I think I might have started us off on
the wrong document, and maybe Eric Burke's link would be better? I don't
know.
At any rate, the document that I circulated is a copy, it is not the
original, so if you would like to add the text below to that document, it
doesn't bother me. If you would like to start another google document,
that would be fine as well.
More from Tai below:
===
I had a quick look at PXE setup yesterday [2015/03/17] and it seems
the straightforward setup simply serves the installation media over the
network instead of reducing steps to install - James's notes seem to align
with this, as in there is customization done but the teacher still has to
manually sit through the initial install screens (select languages, accept
partitions, choose various options etc)?
Probably what we are looking for then is an "Unattended install"?
To that end I wanted to ask what the intended/acceptable workflow
was - when I was at the University of Edinburgh IT desk, our workflow for
installing was:
* Go to physical machine
* Reboot to special CD
* hit enter
* walk away with CD whilst the PC automatically downloaded from the
network and installed everything
##
Another issue I encountered was a lack of netboot/pxeboot.cfg files
on the Lubuntu ISO which might need working around (though have not yet had
time to check if there are alternative methods).
I'm sure there's a straighforward solution however.
##
I think Machine #3 (P4 @ 1.8 GHz + 500MB RAM) will be the target
candidate for becoming the server.
===
Tai Kedzierski
IT Services Specialist
http://helpuse.com
+44 (0) 7526 963 612 (portable GB)
I use www.libreoffice.org
*"Open Source Free Software is a matter of liberty, not price."*
https://bitly.com/1gXkUcc
On 17 March 2015 at 21:12, Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>
wrote:
Hi,
thanks for your reply, Tai. Comments in line below....
On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 12:33 PM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com
wrote:
Hi Christian
I'll see what I can do as fastest for this.
Thanks so much!
For proper PXE + Customized ISO it would require work to integrate
it all;
However we can break it into PXE as first goal; and until ISO
customization os done, I can certainly envisage a fully automating script
for the rest of the installation of custom s.w and settings.
Hi, thanks for that info. I have found some of the notes from one
of our Linux gurus about what he did with regard to making a Lubuntu PXE
boot disc for another teacher. I have invited you to the google doc so
that you can see it and possibly get a little bit of a jump on the
project. In the meantime, I am going to try to assemble our gurus for a
chat about the document, either in IRC or elsewhere, perhaps even in a chat
in the document itself. I have invited you to the document, but here is a
link to it:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UEgt_fkGUVdANcnZ1W2S5Rv15Hx3S92Ynn9Mui3xB_E/edit?usp=sharing
Here is a link to the summary of the Ascend school's Linux lab:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_s0E7w40zs80yZNrVRqupml6jqADKjD9XoJ3uFkhQMw/edit?usp=sharing
Can you provide them a server to serve as core PXE master, or will
we repurpose a desktop PC to this end?
We will be looking for a server, but for now, we will probably
repurpose a desktop machine.
How frequently do they need to do installs?
Initially, they will want to flash all 25 machines. Then it will
be a couple times a month as the older machines fail.
Are you mostly installing Ubuntu derivatives?
Yes, that is all that we are doing. We try to use as few distros
as possible, and one of our board members, Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph, is a
Ubuntu Community Council member. Plus Ubuntu has good documentation, which
is good for a simple end user like me.
Thanks for your interest!
--
Christian Einfeldt
--
Christian Einfeldt
--
Christian Einfeldt
--
Christian Einfeldt
========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 07:21:18 -0700 [03/26/15 07:21:18 PDT]
From: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> United States
To: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>, tech at lists.partimus.org
Cc: dch.tai at gmail.com, Eric Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>,
Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at princessleia.com>, Jim Stockford
<jim at well.com>, Michael Rojas <ledworldwide.solutions at gmail.com>,
Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>
Subject: Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended install solution(s?)
So, ... my thoughts/comments ... and pardons if I'm covering something
that was already covered, or going "wrong direction" (or potentially so)
from something that may have been decided earlier or "long ago" ...
anyway, kind'a jumpin' in here mid-stream ... and I may not have all the
attributions included on some of the (notably earlier) referenced
content/excerpts (sorry about that, but trying to keep it fairly
readable and not too horribly long).
Anyway, my thoughts/comments in-line below, among references/excerpts
(and sorry if I might drop out some relevant bits - trying to keep it
from being "too" long).
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 12:34:54 -0700
Subject: Re: Partimus / PXE unattended install solution
From: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>
To: "dch.tai" <dch.tai at gmail.com>, Eric Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>,
"Elizabeth K. Joseph" <lyz at princessleia.com>,
Jim Stockford <jim at well.com>,
Michael Rojas <ledworldwide.solutions at gmail.com>,
Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>
Cc: "tech at lists.partimus.org" <tech at lists.partimus.org>
Hi Tai,
thanks for your great work ! Also, I am cc'ing everyone, because I am not
Yeah, great, thanks!
I just joined the tech at lists.partimus.org, so that may make at least one
thing simpler. (We'll see if I can actually keep up on reading it.)
sure who is on the tech list, and Lyz has sent in a trouble ticket to Dream
Host, because it has not been archiving the tech list. I will send an
Ugh, Dream Host - I've been struggling with them with BALUG.org for
around 2 years now on trying to get them to have the BALUG.org list
archives working and for them to stop (re)breaking them ... good luck
on that - I've been through many trouble tickets with them on that, ...
and demoted Dream Host to "no confidence" / "would not recommend".
They'd been generally pretty solid earlier, but last about two years,
not so. Since Partimus is 501(c)3, there may also be a lot of free
(and/or deeply discounted) options available besides Dream Host one may
wish to consider. Just sayin'.
email to the tech list asking everyone to put up their hands if they can
see the emails coming through to that list. Thanks!
And if it's quite like most other busted Dream Host archiving, yes,
messages generally go through, but the archiving is generally quite
busted (to paraphrase from what they tell me, the data is there (so they
claim), but their present host(s) can't keep up with it, and thus fail
to make it available via web archive, and they're looking to / working
on upgrading to resolve the issue ... or so they've been telling me for
about 2 years now). I've sometimes seen them also break it so the list
traffic doesn't even go through, but that's been the more rare exception
- and is generally more obvious when it occurs.
Documentation? Google doc(ument), ... that could be helpful -
especially for those that can't (re)read the list archive, and haven't
seen the earlier emails (or no longer have them). I might also suggest
wiki. In any case, something like that could allow folks to relatively
easily see/edit more summary information of where
decisions/communications have gotten Partimus to, in terms of what's
been done, tried, is planned, being considered, etc. (and perhaps even
why) - and may be much easier for folks to get "up to speed" via
something like that, rather than trying to do, e.g., a chronological
reading of list archives (though too, quite nice to have such archives,
and with persistent web URLs, so they can be conveniently referenced -
including specific earlier list postings). (Alas, Internet Archive
didn't capture Partimus' tech list.)
My comments are in line below.
On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 10:38 AM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com> wrote:
Some notes of what I've done, and a request for advice, as well as
suggestions for Abigail. Please feel free to disagree and improve!
=== ISO Customization
So, I guess one of my first questions - what exactly are the objectives?
As I understand it (please correct me if I'm wrong), the general
objective(s):
o Build some custom ISO DVD image, that would:
o boot from that, host server then becomes a DHCP/PXE/TFTP
boot/install server, target hosts are then PXE booted from that
server, and automagically installed and configured with Ubuntu (or
Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, or some other Ubuntu flavor or
derivative) in a manner suitable for use as Partimus intends for
end-users (school environment).
So, ... I guess one of my questions - why a custom ISO image, instead
of, e.g. USB flash drive? I'd think in general somewhat easier to do to
bootable flash, having advantages:
o can be significantly larger capacity than DVD if/as needed
o more convenient size
o faster/easier to update/rewrite
o avoid the hassles/time of mastering ISO image
o avoid limitations of (mostly) read-only media
o avoid the waste of write-once (+-R) media
About the only disadvantages I can think of doing such on flash:
o moderately higher cost of boot media (e.g. $8.00 USD for 32G vs $0.20
USD for ~5G) - but unless quantities are to be large, and costs large
relative to other costs, I'd think this may not be much of a factor.
o not write-protected - someone can easily alter the contents of flash
media - that can also be a disadvantage, e.g. if one doesn't want it to
be changed (or easily changed) by those it's handed off to (or others
that may get their hands on it).
I had a go at the ISO customization task over the week-end. Unfortunately
the instructions are old, and oscillate between helpful and omissive... My
resulting ISO caused kernal panic before even loading boot, but I think I
know where to look to troubleshoot that...
Just speaking for myself, I've not (at least recently) looked over the
documentation for creating customized Ubuntu (& similarly based) ISOs.
I've started constructing a bash script to automate as much of it as I can
(it's also a good way to re-verify knowledge ;-) )
Good to have documented reproducible repeatable means. :-)
For the technically inclined, you can find that script here
https://github.com/taikedz/handy-scripts/blob/master/in-progress/customiso/autobuild.sh
--> https://github.com/taikedz/our-pxe
And better yet to have such under some kind of version control. :-)
=== PXE Server / machine boot (help needed?)
I also tried setting up a server to centrally serve ISO images over PXE
with a tftp server. Again, shaky tutorials abound, no end-to-end solution.
I had troubles with (I think) setting up an internal DNS and having my VMs
start there (VirtualBox does not have any "BIOS" settings as far as I've so
far seen)
I've done similar under Debian ... PXE boot server that actually allows
one to select among a few distributions/flavors/architectures (I think 2
Debian, and one or two Ubuntu). I tested it mostly using qemu-kvm,
rather than VirtualBox (actually that's just for typical test target
hosts - works on physical targets too) ... but overall ought be pretty
much the same (I actually have both qemu-kvm and VirtualBox on my
<cough, cough> server (it's a laptop, but to a relatively large extent I
treat and use it more like a "server" than a "laptop"). I do also have
VirtualBox on that same server, and do sometimes use it too ... maybe
I'll do a bit more testing with that, but last I tried it, I've got
stuff set up so I can PXE boot a guest VM just fine - and ought be able
to do it from VirtualBox too just fine - I'll have to give that a try.
Don't recall the details, but I believe they both have ways to either
access (virtual) BIOS/CMOS setup - or if not (quite) that, to at least
select boot device, etc.
Some semi-random but related points (and also touches bit upon stuff
further below). The Operating System of the PXE boot/install/etc.
server is *highly* independent of the target operating system(s) being
installed. However, that being said, it can be easier and more
efficient if they're *relatively* similar. Notably some reduction of or
limitation in variation there can ease the differences and range of
skill sets needed to support the installed targets, and the PXE boot
server used to install them - which can be fair to significant
advantage. Also, similar to same OS can ease updating of caches and
data used for installation, along with updating of the PXE boot server.
At least in theory, ideally, if they're same operating system, flavor,
and architecture, the installed targets can take advantage of the PXE
server downloading and using mostly the same software, thus overall
reducing upstream bandwidth requirements and complexity, and reducing
overall complexity of maintaining combined infrastructure of target and
PXE boot server. Nevertheless, not a huge deal if they're not precisely
matched on OS flavor - but closer is typically better. E.g. if target
is, say Kubuntu, if PXE server is Kubuntu and same architecture, that
would be a likely ideal match, but another flavor of Ubuntu and same
architecture, would be nearly as good. And close runner-up would be
Linux flavor in same general family, e.g. Debian and Debian derivatives
(of which Ubuntu is one). Things get more complex as one gets farther
from that (e.g. deb based vs. rpm based, some other package management
system, some other kernel or operating system type - e.g. BSD, etc.).
Also ... much discussion/mention (I trimmed out a lot of it) regarding
which distribution/flavor, which software packages, etc. I'm curious
too if anyone's taken a serious, and recent, look at DebianEDU
(SkoleLinux)? DebianEDU is also a Debian "pure blend" - which means it
*is* Debian - just uses some specific Debian meta-packages to pull in
certain collections of packages from Debian.
If I can get this much fixed, I can put together a comprehensive guide on
setting up the PXE component with better documentation and caveat
highlighting.
As I mentioned, did fair bit of PXE boot setup earlier ... I should
check its status ...
# diff TEMPLATE pxe
11c11
< PATHTOISO="${PATHTOISO:-$(awk '/^[ ]*#/
{next;};{if($2=="/media/cdrom9"){print $1;exit;};}' /etc/fstab)}"
---
#PATHTOISO="${PATHTOISO:-$(awk '/^[ ]*#/
{next;};{if($2=="/media/cdrom9"){print $1;exit;};}' /etc/fstab)}" 14c14
< PXE=
---
PXE=y
32c32 < #NETWORK=bridge=br0
---
NETWORK=bridge=br0,mac=52:54:00:d8:2a:83
# >>/dev/null 2>&1 ./pxe & [3] 12099
#
...
No bootable device.
... too many devices, too few IPs ... had to reconfigure my DHCP server
to enable PXE booting the target host ... reboot target host (VM) ...
... and it's PXE booted to slightly customized menu I set up, that
allows selections for debian-i386, debian-amd64, or ubuntu-server-amd64
(I'd earlier set up those 3, as I was most interested in the first 2,
and the 3rd was quite easy to add as an Ubuntu flavor with default PXE
config layout that almost entirely didn't conflict with the first two -
so easy drop-in addition). And to try one ... picking
ubuntu-server-amd64 ... picking rescue mode (since I didn't give this
virtual machine a drive to install onto) ... and it pulls everything it
needs from network, booted fine and fully into rescue mode (could just
have easily selected to do an install ... if I'd given that host a drive
to install onto). And now that I've still got the DHCP server suitably
configured, retrying with VirtualBox (more manual config bits, as I
don't have a template in place for that ...)
virtualbox ... New ... Next ... (Name) pxe OS Type Operating System ...
Linux ... Version ... Ubuntu ... Next ... Next ... (uncheck Start-up
Disk) ... Next ... Continue ... Create ... Settings ... Network ...
Attached to: Bridged Adapter Name: br0 Advanced Mac Address:
525400D82A83 (matched to that used for qemu-kvm PXE target host and in
DHCP configuration) ...
# vboxmanage modifyvm pxe --biosbootmenu messageandmenu
--bioslogodisplaytime 10000
Start (... first Run Wizard ...) Next ... Next Start F12 ...
l) LAN
FATAL: Count not read from the boot medium! System halted.
Well, whatever, I don't seem to be getting that to work with
virtualbox 4.1.18-dfsg-2+deb7u4 amd64
... even when I use tcpdump on the br0 interface, I see no traffic
to/from Ethernet MAC 525400D82A83, whereas if I do it with qemu-kvm pxe
guest host using that same Ethernet MAC, tcpdump clearly shows me that
traffic on br0. Anyway, works fine with qemu-kvm - not sure why the PXE
booting doesn't work for me with VirtualBox. Whatever.
... and DHCP server back as it was before, so I can continue with
"business as usual" (so the work laptop can also get an IP).
A lot of it requires manual work so cannot be so easily automated unless I
prepare a template, and even then may depend on the target network
infrastructure.
Very true - target network infrastructure may require fair amount of
flexibility on a PXE/boot/install server to be used in relatively
arbitrary (school) environments to do (re)builds/(re)installs on-site.
E.g. environment may have and use RFC-1918 Intranet IPs, and one would
want to use RFC-1918 Intranet IPs for build (sub-)net for PXE boot
target hosts, but to avoid potential conflict with (school) install
environment, that needs to be separate (sub-)net (school may have -
likely has, DHCP server, so can't generally do PXE boot of target hosts
direct on target school network), and any RFC-1918 Intranet IPs picked
for build (sub-)net may conflict with school network - at least without
suitably reconfiguring build (sub-)net first (and using Internet IPs for
build subnet may conflict with school network and/or other uses of those
Internet IPs). So, probably want something where one can relatively
easily select/specify the particular RFC-1918 Intranet subnet to be used
for build (sub-)net. Some semi-automagic assistance might also make
that easier (e.g. once connected to school network, some checks on the
connected (sub-)net, and perhaps routability/reachability of some
potential IPs, may help aid in automagically making/suggesting a
suitable build (sub-)net that is improbable to have any type of
conflict).
**Is there anyone who could offer guidance on setting up BIOS / etc so
that a machine can be specifically pointed in BIOS to the PXE server?
Not fully sure about VirtualBox - I'd think it should've worked as I
tried it (seems like it ought to) - but the requisite network traffic
seemed to not occur when I tried that. Does work fine for me with
qemu-kvm. I've also likewise used actual physical host(s) to test the
PXE boot with - that also worked fine (but don't presently have such a
convenient working spare available ... but that may change if I manage
to fix one bit of hardware that's also on my "todo" list anyway).
I also find virsh and friends to make the managing of qemu-kvm quite a
bit easier (so far I've had no need or reason to deal directly with
specific qemu-kvm commands at all).
I am continuing to do outreach to try to build up a community of people who
might be able to help you out, including Charlie Reisinger and others.
I am testing on VirtualBox, but I suspect many real machines also just
look for the network's default DNS server... over which I have little
control in fact, and the teachers may hit a similar problem...
"real machines" ... PXE booting, they use DHCP (and its extensions to
handle PXE boot), + TFTP ... so if there's DHCP server, they use what
they get from that - including (typically) DNS configuration. That's
also why I'm presuming we'd generally need to use separate (sub-)net for
the PXE host target build systems - as we generally couldn't go mucking
about with, e.g. school's DHCP server and tell 'em something like, "Oh,
for this list of Ethernet MAC addresses, can you specify their next/boot
server is this IP we're using, and this file to boot from?" ...
generally not gonna fly. Building on-site should be minimally invasive
to the school's network.
Alternatively, I might need to put together a PXE booting CD which has the
presets loaded into it (similar to what I saw at the Uni but not sure...)
which would be able to allow us to do away with having to even set up a
local DNS server
I'd think we'd do the build (sub-)net NATed behind the build server, so
the build server would consume all of one IP on the school's network
(likely picked up via DHCP from school DHCP server). *After* the target
hosts are built, *then* they could be moved to the school's network(s),
as at that point they'd generally (typical environments) use DHCP to get
their IP, DNS, etc. on school's network (and/or IPv6 autoconfiguration,
etc.) But PXE is IPv4, so needs be separate (sub-)net for the build, to
avoid conflict, for the various reasons already mentioned.
=== Software requirements
My concern with these other two distros is that they will come with a
heavy desktop, such as Unity. Until we get her better hardware, it
seems to me
that staying with Lubuntu is a good idea.
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
Not sure how current that description is regarding goals - sounds a bit
different than as I heard (or interpreted?) it at my earlier hearing.
Something that works like that though, where the CD can be removed that
early, sounds rather like a glorified PXE boot - or approximation
thereof. But has those on (I presume) the school's network ... so that
would have to go a quite different means of install, as it couldn't
actually PXE boot, due to likely conflicts with school's network setup
(e.g. we can't go mucking about changing school's DHCP server
configuration in general). Anyway, something along those line is
*possible*, but it would be more like a Debian Fully Automated Install
(FAI), or Red Hat KickStart - but started from CD rather than a PXE
boot. That does, however, have the advantage that the "target" host can
be booted in place and installed there - no need to change network. But
it also has disadvantages - e.g. more challenging to do install direct
on school's (untrusted) network, and to do so securely, more difficult
to have that use some type of centralized boot/install - e.g. may
somehow need to tell target systems the server that they proxy through
for the build, etc., and may not be feasible to have that automatically
detected (whereas PXE boot there should be no need to manually tell the
clients that, as they'd pick it up from the PXE/TFTP server), or if
doing that from CD without such a build server, would likely need to
tell the target hosts more stuff manually, such as proxy settings, and
would push more complexity to the CD (or DVD, etc.) ISO, rather than
having it on build server. Without a build server would also lose the
efficiency and speed of using centralized build server to proxy and
cache most of the relevant data needed for install - thus could be quite
a lot slower on network as build targets wait to suck the data from The
Internet, individually, each on the school's network.
## 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?)
I'm presuming some proposition of a semi-permanent "build" server by
that? But targets booted from CD, not PXE boot? Build server also
potentially becomes a (relatively) critical point of failure in such
infrastructure.
System updates may or may not be installed by a remote technician, or
automatically. 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.
Various possibilities there. There may also be regulatory/legal matters
(e.g. school policy, privacy, etc. - e.g. exactly what can volunteers -
even potentially - have access to, and requiring what
authorization/permission/sign-off for such - even if most or all of the
data the school would generally have particular interest to protect
would never be viewed/inspected etc. by such volunteers).
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 :-)
Students *will* be curious and, uh, "experiment", etc. Things *will*
happen. So, ... should take into reasonable account things that may
happen that aren't all that improbable (e.g. someone breaks into school
over weekend and steals some hard drives from some of the computers ...
or the whole computer; someone reboots host from a Knoppix DVD to see
what they can do/change/inspect, etc.).
Oh, another thought ... PXE & Wake-On-LAN. Could potentially be able to
nicely coordinate and use Wake-On-LAN with PXE, and, e.g., set PXE
server to automagically power-up (via Wake-On-LAN) the target build
hosts, and even, e.g. at a later time (like overnight), and even stagger
their starts (power-on), so that first would cause PXE build server to
cache all the relevant bits to be downloaded, and all the subsequent
build targets would have the speed advantage of pulling that from build
server's cache, rather than The Internet - and the staggering would also
help them not all pound upon PXE build server at same time (which would
be quite nice if one does hundreds or more targets at the same time ...
or build (sub-)net/LAN itself isn't all that speedy (which may be the
case with lower-end, older, donated or less expensive equipment).
... and some earlier background bits (end of my comments here).
May also be quite feasible to do a "build" server that could be
multi-functional - notably work as PXE build server (on dedicated build
(sub-)net), and also be able to function as a build server directly on
school's network (not using PXE on that, but targets booted from custom
ISO, which then leverages use of the local build server) ... the latter
would be more complex to implement, but would avoid needing to move
target hosts from build (sub-)net to school network after build ... but
no reason both setups couldn't be done on one server ... "just" more work
to implement and maintain would be all ... and could then potentially
use either method, depending upon the environment installed into (or try
both for a while, and later settle to just maintaining and setting up
for one method).
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
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)
===
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 )
Eric has found a documentation page that might be helpful for us in
starting out the PXE boot project:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PXEInstallMultiDistro
Tai has sent me an email about the Google doc that I circulated.
Elizabeth tells me that doc is actually for a specialized
manual install
.iso, not a PXE-boot .iso, so again my apologies if I have
started us down
the wrong road, and thanks for that correction, Elizabeth.
Here is a link
to that Google doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UEgt_fkGUVdANcnZ1W2S5Rv15Hx3S92Ynn9Mui3xB_E/edit?usp=sharing
Eric Burke's link above might be a better starting point, I'm not sure
More comments below in response to a recent email from Tai:
On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 4:21 AM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com>
wrote:
Hi Christian
Thanks - I wasn't expecting the "League of Extraordinary Sysadmins"
gathering!
Good to know there are others who will be able to provide insight!
Rather than muck around in the document you provided (which has the
initial vital info!) would it be possible you share a separate
empty Google
doc to serve as a collaboration/communication area? I'll dump
the following
in it afterwards
Thanks, Tai. As I said above, I think I might have started us off on
the wrong document, and maybe Eric Burke's link would be
better? I don't
know.
At any rate, the document that I circulated is a copy, it is not the
original, so if you would like to add the text below to that
document, it
doesn't bother me. If you would like to start another google document,
that would be fine as well.
I had a quick look at PXE setup yesterday [2015/03/17] and it seems
the straightforward setup simply serves the installation media
over the
network instead of reducing steps to install - James's notes
seem to align
with this, as in there is customization done but the teacher
still has to
manually sit through the initial install screens (select
languages, accept
partitions, choose various options etc)?
Probably what we are looking for then is an "Unattended install"?
To that end I wanted to ask what the intended/acceptable workflow
was - when I was at the University of Edinburgh IT desk, our
workflow for
installing was:
* Go to physical machine
* Reboot to special CD
* hit enter
* walk away with CD whilst the PC automatically downloaded from the
network and installed everything
##
Another issue I encountered was a lack of netboot/pxeboot.cfg files
on the Lubuntu ISO which might need working around (though
have not yet had
time to check if there are alternative methods).
I'm sure there's a straighforward solution however.
##
I think Machine #3 (P4 @ 1.8 GHz + 500MB RAM) will be the target
candidate for becoming the server.
For proper PXE + Customized ISO it would require work to integrate
it all;
However we can break it into PXE as first goal; and until ISO
customization os done, I can certainly envisage a fully
automating script
for the rest of the installation of custom s.w and settings.
Hi, thanks for that info. I have found some of the notes from one of
our Linux gurus about what he did with regard to making a
Lubuntu PXE
boot disc for another teacher. I have invited you to the
google doc so
that you can see it and possibly get a little bit of a jump on the
project. In the meantime, I am going to try to assemble our
gurus for a
chat about the document, either in IRC or elsewhere, perhaps
even in a chat
in the document itself. I have invited you to the document,
but here is a
link to it:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UEgt_fkGUVdANcnZ1W2S5Rv15Hx3S92Ynn9Mui3xB_E/edit?usp=sharing
Here is a link to the summary of the Ascend school's Linux lab:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_s0E7w40zs80yZNrVRqupml6jqADKjD9XoJ3uFkhQMw/edit?usp=sharing
Can you provide them a server to serve as core PXE master, or will
we repurpose a desktop PC to this end?
We will be looking for a server, but for now, we will probably
repurpose a desktop machine.
How frequently do they need to do installs?
Initially, they will want to flash all 25 machines. Then it will be a
couple times a month as the older machines fail.
Are you mostly installing Ubuntu derivatives?
Yes, that is all that we are doing. We try to use as few distros
as possible, and one of our board members, Elizabeth Krumbach
Joseph, is a
Ubuntu Community Council member. Plus Ubuntu has good
documentation, which
is good for a simple end user like me.
========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 12:43:55 -0700 [03/26/15 12:43:55 PDT]
From: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> United States
To: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>
Cc: Tech <tech at lists.partimus.org>, dch.tai <dch.tai at gmail.com>,
Eric Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>, Elizabeth K. Joseph
<lyz at princessleia.com>, Jim Stockford <jim at well.com>, Michael Rojas
<ledworldwide.solutions at gmail.com>, Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended install solution(s?)
This message was written in a character set (UTF-8) other than your own.
If it is not displayed correctly, click here to open it in a new window.
Hi, comments in line below...
On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 7:21 AM, Michael Paoli <
Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> wrote:
So, ... my thoughts/comments ...
Thanks for your thoughts and comments, Michael, really appreciate it!
Documentation? Google doc(ument), ... that could be helpful -
especially for those that can't (re)read the list archive, and haven't
seen the earlier emails (or no longer have them). I might also suggest
wiki.
We do have a wiki, but it does not have that much info on it. It is mostly
a high-level overview:
http://partimus.org/wiki/Provisioning_Server
I would like to keep that wiki low-traffic, because I have found that as
wikis gain public attention, they attract trolls who like to deface and
damage it. Just my two cents. A google doc like our sandbox page is nice,
because AFAIK only people invited can edit it:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UEgt_fkGUVdANcnZ1W2S5Rv15Hx3S92Ynn9Mui3xB_E/
We do also have a relatively high level summary of the server set up
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zs4_G-hvTDho1K9lP4Nrcz3BqPdw7gIczESu5f7V114/
So, ... I guess one of my questions - why a custom ISO image, instead
of, e.g. USB flash drive?
The cost of the flash drive is problematic, and we need to be able to
easily create lots of copies of the boot disc. From the perspective of a
simple end user, here is how it worked well in the past. James Howard
would prepare the boot disc. We would make about 5 or six copies. We
would start installing at client machine 1, put the disk in the machine,
and then hit enter a couple of times, and the client machine would start
grabbing all of the stuff off of the PXE boot server. We could usually
image an entire lab of 15 to 20 machines this way in about an hour or 90
minutes or so. It was super simple. Please remember that a teacher with
even fewer skills than me will be creating clients on the network if one of
her client machines goes down. We really want to make this install process
super simple, so at to empower the newbies to create a client machine
themselves.
Also ... much discussion/mention (I trimmed out a lot of it) regarding
which distribution/flavor, which software packages, etc. I'm curious
too if anyone's taken a serious, and recent, look at DebianEDU
(SkoleLinux)? DebianEDU is also a Debian "pure blend" - which means it
*is* Debian - just uses some specific Debian meta-packages to pull in
certain collections of packages from Debian.
Every day, Ascend elementary school teacher Abigail Rudner has 100 kids
come through her Linux lab. Some of the machines are older and slower than
others. Some of the machines have as little as 500 MB of Ram. Thanks to
the donation of David Eisenberg, some of that is going to change, as all of
the 15 machines he gave us have 1 GB or RAM at least. But until we can
assure that we have machines with at least 4 GB of RAM, it is probably a
better idea to keep the desktop lightweight. The kids that Abigail have
been teaching are familiar with the Lubuntu desktop. We could experiment
with a new distro for the end of the school year that ends in June of 2016,
but for the rest of this year and the next year, let's make Abigail's life
easier by not throwing a new desktop environment at her. That is my two
cents. I am open to hearing other discussions. But let's please bear in
mind that change is difficult for simple end users. Please also bear in
mind that Abigail's classroom hour is only about 40 minutes long, when you
consider that getting children to transition and but away their books, get
in a line, and then for the next class to come in, is by no means a trivial
feat. Here is a summary of Abigail's lab at Ascend:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_s0E7w40zs80yZNrVRqupml6jqADKjD9XoJ3uFkhQMw/edit#gid=0
The other thing is that Ubuntu has a big community, which allows simple end
users like Abigail and I to help ourselves a little bit more and be a
little bit more independent. Having a huge user base is a great comfort,
because you are likely to see an answer for your question on-line.
=== Software requirements
My concern with these other two distros is that they will come with a
heavy
desktop, such as Unity. Until we get her better hardware, it seems to me
that staying with Lubuntu is a good idea.
Yes, as you will see from the summary of Abigail's Linux lab linked above,
some of her machines are primitive, at least for the short term.
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
Not sure how current that description is regarding goals - sounds a bit
different than as I heard (or interpreted?) it at my earlier hearing.
Something that works like that though, where the CD can be removed that
early, sounds rather like a glorified PXE boot - or approximation
thereof. But has those on (I presume) the school's network ... so that
would have to go a quite different means of install, as it couldn't
actually PXE boot, due to likely conflicts with school's network setup
(e.g. we can't go mucking about changing school's DHCP server
configuration in general). Anyway, something along those line is
*possible*, but it would be more like a Debian Fully Automated Install
(FAI), or Red Hat KickStart - but started from CD rather than a PXE
boot. That does, however, have the advantage that the "target" host can
be booted in place and installed there - no need to change network. But
it also has disadvantages - e.g. more challenging to do install direct
on school's (untrusted) network, and to do so securely, more difficult
to have that use some type of centralized boot/install - e.g. may
somehow need to tell target systems the server that they proxy through
for the build, etc., and may not be feasible to have that automatically
detected (whereas PXE boot there should be no need to manually tell the
clients that, as they'd pick it up from the PXE/TFTP server), or if
doing that from CD without such a build server, would likely need to
tell the target hosts more stuff manually, such as proxy settings, and
would push more complexity to the CD (or DVD, etc.) ISO, rather than
having it on build server. Without a build server would also lose the
efficiency and speed of using centralized build server to proxy and
cache most of the relevant data needed for install - thus could be quite
a lot slower on network as build targets wait to suck the data from The
Internet, individually, each on the school's network.
No, in the past, there was no data sucked down from the Internet. It all
came from the provisioning PXE boot server
System updates may or may not be installed by a remote technician, or
automatically. 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.
Various possibilities there. There may also be regulatory/legal matters
(e.g. school policy, privacy, etc. - e.g. exactly what can volunteers -
even potentially - have access to, and requiring what
authorization/permission/sign-off for such - even if most or all of the
data the school would generally have particular interest to protect
would never be viewed/inspected etc. by such volunteers).
As long as Abigail Rudner is aware that an ssh tunnel exists, no one will
complain. The high school principal and the vice principal know what we
are doing.
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
:-)
Students *will* be curious and, uh, "experiment", etc. Things *will*
happen. So, ... should take into reasonable account things that may
happen that aren't all that improbable (e.g. someone breaks into school
over weekend and steals some hard drives from some of the computers ...
or the whole computer; someone reboots host from a Knoppix DVD to see
what they can do/change/inspect, etc.).
In that past, it was sufficient to have a login required, and the server
typically ran only in terminal mode. There was no GUI to give an simple
intruder the option of mucking around. That has always been sufficient
security in the past.
May also be quite feasible to do a "build" server that could be
multi-functional
Yes, the server is also a proxy server, which I understand to mean that if
you have 20 kids all watching a 15 minute video of the Sound of Music, then
after the first kid clicks on the video, the data will be cached on the
server and served up from the server, not over the network.
--
Christian Einfeldt
========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 13:23:10 -0700 [03/26/15 13:23:10 PDT]
From: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> United States
To: dch.tai <dch.tai at gmail.com>
Cc: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>,
tech at lists.partimus.org <tech at lists.partimus.org>, Eric Burke
<eburke1994 at gmail.com>, Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at princessleia.com>,
Jim Stockford <jim at well.com>, Michael Rojas
<ledworldwide.solutions at gmail.com>, Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>,
Alexandro Colorado <jza at oooes.org>
Subject: Re: Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended install solution(s?)
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If it is not displayed correctly, click here to open it in a new window.
Hi,
Thanks for your thoughts, Tai. My comments are in line below...
On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 11:32 AM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com> wrote:
+++
PXE booting might require isolating a subnetwork during install, which may
not be fully suitable once the school hits 20+ machines and needs to
refresh all of them...
Unless they're all fitted with wireless. Has anyone got a way of isolating
from the main network without requiring a mass deployment of cables? (my
site networking skills are fairly basic, maybe I'm missing a trick here)
Abigail's Linux lab is fairly limited in scope, due to the size of the room
she is in. It is not likely to grow beyond its current configuration,
which is summarized here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_s0E7w40zs80yZNrVRqupml6jqADKjD9XoJ3uFkhQMw/
+++
Customization from basic is pretty hairy.
For those who've asked, the reason we are doing pre-customization is to
have an image that has everything already on it. We're not burning the ISO
to discs, but prepping it for serving as an online image over the local
network.
In the past, there was some kind of boot CD that we would put in the CD
tray and reboot the machine. That machine is summarized at a high level
here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zs4_G-hvTDho1K9lP4Nrcz3BqPdw7gIczESu5f7V114/
+++
Michael's alt dists
@Christian we will have to ask you to look into those and decide. I'm
continuing so far on the assumption of Lubuntu for now, though if you're
getting more powerful machines in, can I suggest something with a MATE
desktop or Xfce?
Yes, we are planning on growing the hardware capabilities of the lab, and
just yesterday we delivered 15 "new" machines to the lab. But for now,
there are two reasons we need to stay with Lubuntu:
1. Many of the machines are old, as shown in the lab summary linked
below, some with as little as 500 MB of RAM.
2. 100 children come through that lab every day, and training them on a
new desktop is something that you have to build into the curriculum. I
think we are going to have to stay with Lubuntu for this reason alone
through June of 2016. We need to give Abigail time to plan her curriculum
so at to re-train the kids on the new interface.
Here is a summary of the
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_s0E7w40zs80yZNrVRqupml6jqADKjD9XoJ3uFkhQMw/
+++
Abiword - @Christian mentioned this previously, I've found the ODT (text
processing) engine to be rather non-compliant with standards, specifically
on document styling structure which is key not only for formatting but also
automatic chaptering and sectioning. Alas, Abiword is a poor reflection of
what FOSS can do in a properly deployed environment.
Then, that's just me. I prefer LibreOffice as it's as standards compliant
as it gets - it's the reference implementation from the Document
Foundation, and handles "the other standards" well too so interoperability
can happen smoothly.
I wasn't aware that there was this problem. I thought that AbiWord used
solid truly open standards. I will ask Abigail what she uses for text
writing.
+++
Michael's suggestion of an information repository that reflects the
"current state" (as a wiki methinks) is a good one. Just in trying to
reconcile the threads just now was not the most fun I've ever had...
I can set up a digitalOcean droplet as a temporary shim, but that'll
disappear once the project is complete. If Partimus use digitalOcean, I
believe I'll be able to pass stewardship of it over instead...
Sorry about that. Partimus does have a wiki, but as I mentioned in a
preceding email, I have seen wikis get pummelled by trolls.
http://partimus.org/wiki/Provisioning_Server
I would like to keep that wiki low-traffic, because I have found that as
wikis gain public attention, they attract trolls who like to deface and
damage it. Just my two cents. A google doc like our sandbox page is nice,
because AFAIK only people invited can edit it:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UEgt_fkGUVdANcnZ1W2S5Rv15Hx3S92Ynn9Mui3xB_E/
Oh, and let's have that multi-way chat/call. I can set up a Mumble server
for this if everyone is comfortable with that.
I have started a doodle.com poll to see which times might be best for
everyone. I do know that at least Mike Rojas is not available during the
work day, and I am not available on Sundays, so that only leaves us
Saturdays. I hope that everyone will find a time that works for them.
Please bear in mind that Tai Kedzierski is in Scotland and Alexandro
Colorado is in Mexico. The rest of us are in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Thanks very much for all of your great help to each of you!
--
Christian Einfeldt
========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 18:06:44 -0700 [03/26/15 18:06:44 PDT]
From: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> United States
To: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>
Cc: Tech <tech at lists.partimus.org>, dch.tai <dch.tai at gmail.com>,
Eric Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>, Elizabeth K. Joseph
<lyz at princessleia.com>, Jim Stockford <jim at well.com>, Michael Rojas
<ledworldwide.solutions at gmail.com>, Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended install solution(s?)
This message was written in a character set (UTF-8) other than your own.
If it is not displayed correctly, click here to open it in a new window.
Here is a post about the 15 new legacy machines that J. David Eisenberg
donated to Partimus yesterday. We delivered those machines to the Ascend
school. If you want to see a picture of the teacher you are helping, here
it is:
http://blog.partimus.org/?p=573
Thanks!
Christian Einfeldt
========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 17:04:23 -0400 [03/26/15 14:04:23 PDT]
From: Alexandro Colorado <jza at oooes.org>
To: Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com>
Cc: Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at princessleia.com>, Michael Paoli
<Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>, tech at lists.partimus.org
<tech at lists.partimus.org>, Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>, Jim
Stockford <jim at well.com>, Eric Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tech] Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended
install solution(s?)
Part(s):
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Content preview: Some comments inline On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 2:32 PM, Tai
Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com> wrote: > Hi all, > > Michael thanks very much
for all those notes ! > > Regarding the description of the goal workflow,
it is "current" as in, > it's the last that I suggested and none has yet
overridden it. I feel I am > about to though. But /after/ testing some more
with alternatives. > > > > I am also adding Alexandro Colorado to
this list,
with the belowposted > from a convo we started aside > > There have been
quite a few suggestions of alternatievs now, so I will be > wanting
to gather
all the info, sort and re-evaluate the goal workflow > etc... if anybody
has already been doing so, please send in! > > +++ > Clonezilla has
been mentioned
by a few - my concern with that solution is > that, AFAIK, it requires the
target disk to be the exact same size as the > image. Since
Partimus is sourcing
disparate computers of varying specs, > this might not be viable for us -
unless someone knows otherwise? > [...]
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Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 17:04:23 -0400
From: "Alexandro Colorado" <jza at oooes.org>
To: "Tai Kedzierski" <dch.tai at gmail.com>
Cc: "Elizabeth K. Joseph" <lyz at princessleia.com>, "Michael Paoli"
<Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>, "tech at lists.partimus.org"
<tech at lists.partimus.org>, "Grant Bowman" <grantbow at gmail.com>, "Jim
Stockford" <jim at well.com>, "Eric Burke" <eburke1994 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tech] Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended install solution(s?)
========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 19:07:56 -0700 [03/27/15 19:07:56 PDT]
From: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> United States
To: tech at lists.partimus.org
Cc: Eric Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: wiki (possibly leverage ...)
Okay, deduped the To:/Cc: down to only those folks I didn't see as
subscribed to the list ...
As for wiki, I'll see if I can touch base with Lyz on that sometime
soonish (like a next time we talk in person).
BALUG.org has wiki, and I've been reasonably defending it against
vandalism & bot subscriptions ... might be able to leverage use of that
for Partimus ... or leverage what's been done there to do similar on
Partimus host or hosted service ... but does come down to he/she that
has to maintain the thing and such. (been pretty easy on BALUG ...
quite a number of years, teensy bit 'o vandalism beaten back, one round
'o cleaning out subscribed by bot logins and clamping down registration,
and no other issues to speak of for that wiki). Anyway, I could create
namespace for Partimus on BALUG host, ... or various other possibilities.
And DNS could even be tweaked so it could be somewhere under partimus.org,
even if/when it might later be desired to relocate it. If one is
curious, have a peek around:
http://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki
(registration is locked down, but I can manually add folks, and one can
quite freely pay with the "playground" page with no registration
required) [some 'o the wiki pages on that wiki are quite out-of-date, but
many are still quite current or very actively maintained].
========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 19:18:24 -0700 [03/27/15 19:18:24 PDT]
From: Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at partimus.org> United States
To: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>
Cc: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>, Tech
<tech at lists.partimus.org>, dch.tai <dch.tai at gmail.com>, Eric Burke
<eburke1994 at gmail.com>, Jim Stockford <jim at well.com>, Michael Rojas
<ledworldwide.solutions at gmail.com>, Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended install solution(s?)
On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 12:43 PM, Christian Einfeldt
<einfeldt at gmail.com> wrote:
I would like to keep that wiki low-traffic, because I have found that as
wikis gain public attention, they attract trolls who like to deface and
damage it. Just my two cents.
We understand that concern, and our wiki was once defaced. So Grant
locked it down to request-only accounts long ago (thanks again,
Grant!). The only way you get an account on that wiki is going to the
login page:
https://partimus.org/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin
Where it says: "To obtain a user account, you must request one." And
clicking on "request one"
Of course anyone on this list is welcome to have one. If you have any
trouble we'll get you sorted :)
--
Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph || Lyz || pleia2
http://www.partimus.org
========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 20:41:13 -0600 [03/27/15 19:41:13 PDT]
From: Alexandro Colorado <jza at oooes.org>
To: Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at partimus.org>
Cc: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>, Michael Paoli
<Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>, Tech <tech at lists.partimus.org>,
Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>, Jim Stockford <jim at well.com>, Eric
Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tech] Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended
install solution(s?)
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On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 9:18 PM, Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at partimus.org>
wrote:
On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 12:43 PM, Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>
wrote:
I would like to keep that wiki low-traffic, because I have found that as
wikis gain public attention, they attract trolls who like to deface and
damage it. Just my two cents.
We understand that concern, and our wiki was once defaced. So Grant
locked it down to request-only accounts long ago (thanks again,
Grant!). The only way you get an account on that wiki is going to the
login page:
https://partimus.org/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin
Where it says: "To obtain a user account, you must request one." And
clicking on "request one"
?I've just requested mine.?
Of course anyone on this list is welcome to have one. If you have any
trouble we'll get you sorted :)
--
Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph || Lyz || pleia2
http://www.partimus.org
_______________________________________________
Tech mailing list
Tech at lists.partimus.org
http://lists.partimus.org/listinfo.cgi/tech-partimus.org
--
Alexandro Colorado
Apache OpenOffice Contributor
882C 4389 3C27 E8DF 41B9 5C4C 1DB7 9D1C 7F4C 2614
========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2015 06:53:17 -0700 [03/28/15 06:53:17 PDT]
From: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> United States
To: tech at lists.partimus.org
Cc: Eric Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: school(s)/lab: Lubuntu 14.04.x LTS? ...
Well, I did finish reading over the Google Docs (Thanks Christian, et.
al.), and ... could someone please confirm if I'm presuming correctly:
o That the present operating system distribution for schools (school
lab) is built/based upon Lubuntu LTS 14.04.x (where ideally that would
be the most current LTS in that series)
o Also that we wouldn't jump from 14.04[.x] to 16.04[.x] LTS series
until such had been sufficiently built/"proven"/tested for schools
(/ school lab(s)) - including any custom ISOs we'd need, updates to
build/PXE server, etc.
o That given current hardware in school lab(s), present Partimus minimum
standards on computer donations, etc., time for
lab/teachers/curriculum to adjust, etc., we are and would continue to
be using i386 (and not amd64) Lubuntu LTS 14.04[.x] distribution
through at least end of June 2016.
Let me know if my presumptions on that are correct. Also let me know if
I should update the relevant Google Docs on that (e.g. we have some
which currently include, in part, stuff like ... "ubuntu.com/10.04/" ...
"12.04" ..., etc.
========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2015 07:54:59 -0700 [03/28/15 07:54:59 PDT]
From: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> United States
To: tech at lists.partimus.org
Cc: Eric Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>
Subject: Partimus resources? (& SF-LUG, BALUG, ...)
So ... (ah, if only we already had all this stuff documented on wiki ...
or Google Docs, but no ... well, ... not yet, anyway :-)) ...
what resources does Partimus have, most notably in the way of
test/development/"lab" (not to be confused with "production"
deployments in school lab(s)) equipment - especially computers & such?
E.g. what resource(s) do we developers / system administrators have
available to work on to built/test/develop, for improvements to be made
or later made (e.g. be it modest improvements, or "next gen"
deployments) to develop for later/future "production" school
deployments? What do we have in the way of remotely accessible
resources for such? (That would often be most convenient - notably
regarding when folks may be able to volunteer time on such, timezones,
folk(s) being located remotely, etc. ... also, with remote access, much
easier for two or more folks to coordinate, compare work, examine, work
on mutually, etc.).*
And I was also thinking, ... and if Jim Stockford is agreeable to such
... there are some SF-LUG (& BALUG) resources which may also be
leveraged to benefit both Partimus and SF-LUG & BALUG. There is a
SF-LUG physical machine, in co-lo in San Francisco, which is used by
both SF-LUG and BALUG (has two VMs on it, one for each LUG). It's a
reasonably capable machine (ample md mirrored hard drive space,
excellent bandwidth availability), and might also be able to
accommodate Partimus development on it too (with some reasonably
careful consideration and sharing of resources). Additionally, not
only potentially benefiting Partimus for such - but could also benefit
SF-LUG and BALUG ... if that physical machine also became part of
Partimus project, may also be significantly easier to get co-lo(s) to
donate / continue to donate hosting of that physical box (SF-LUG and
BALUG are "just" LUGs, and have no non-profit status. So far Jim has
managed to get the co-lo to donate hosting, but seems that's not been
especially easy, and that co-lo has also been bought out by / merged
with yet another company ... so seems we're soon up for the again
attempting to convince them to continue to donate the hosting of the
physical machine for us ... might be much easier to be able to continue
such hosting with that - or other co-lo - if that machine was also, at
least in part, part of Partimus project).
*yep, sometimes a lot 'o stuff can be worked on and well done remotely
and/or using virtual, whereas on-site physical may not be nearly so
convenient (and especially for those not at all local to target
production deployment environments). For an example, if one is
curious, have a look at this posting:
(if one is impatient or quite pressed for time, skip forward to the
line:
approach, with Rick's approval:
and just read the remainder of that paragraph and the paragraph after
that one
)
[sf-lug] How linuxmafia.com got back to being operational again :-)
Thu Jan 22 01:25:36 PST 2015
http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2015q1/010663.html
========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2015 09:56:00 -0700 [03/28/15 09:56:00 PDT]
From: Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at partimus.org> United States
To: Alexandro Colorado <jza at oooes.org>
Cc: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>, Michael Paoli
<Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>, Tech <tech at lists.partimus.org>,
Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>, Jim Stockford <jim at well.com>, Eric
Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tech] Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended
install solution(s?)
On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 7:41 PM, Alexandro Colorado <jza at oooes.org> wrote:
On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 9:18 PM, Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at partimus.org>
wrote:
On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 12:43 PM, Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>
wrote:
I would like to keep that wiki low-traffic, because I have found that as
wikis gain public attention, they attract trolls who like to deface and
damage it. Just my two cents.
We understand that concern, and our wiki was once defaced. So Grant
locked it down to request-only accounts long ago (thanks again,
Grant!). The only way you get an account on that wiki is going to the
login page:
https://partimus.org/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin
Where it says: "To obtain a user account, you must request one." And
clicking on "request one"
I've just requested mine.
Great, we're getting back into the swing of things with regard to
using this wiki, so I'm digging in to just how to approve these
accounts, oops! :) Will search for your request by email address,
might need Grant's Mediawiki guru status here though.
--
Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph || Lyz || pleia2
http://www.partimus.org
========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2015 10:16:52 -0700 [03/28/15 10:16:52 PDT]
From: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> United States
To: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>
Cc: Tech <tech at lists.partimus.org>, Eric Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tech] wiki (possibly leverage ...)
This message was written in a character set (UTF-8) other than your own.
If it is not displayed correctly, click here to open it in a new window.
Hi,
Thanks very much for this info, Michael. My only concern about wikis is
defending it against vandals. That can take a lot of work. As long as we
are able to get a couple of volunteers who will focus their efforts on that
task, I personally am okay with a wiki, because I know that a number of
people here on this list would like a more active wiki. Thanks for your
reply and your offer.
On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 7:07 PM, Michael Paoli <
Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> wrote:
Okay, deduped the To:/Cc: down to only those folks I didn't see as
subscribed to the list ...
As for wiki, I'll see if I can touch base with Lyz on that sometime
soonish (like a next time we talk in person).
BALUG.org has wiki, and I've been reasonably defending it against
vandalism & bot subscriptions ... might be able to leverage use of that
for Partimus ... or leverage what's been done there to do similar on
Partimus host or hosted service ... but does come down to he/she that
has to maintain the thing and such. (been pretty easy on BALUG ...
quite a number of years, teensy bit 'o vandalism beaten back, one round
'o cleaning out subscribed by bot logins and clamping down registration,
and no other issues to speak of for that wiki). Anyway, I could create
namespace for Partimus on BALUG host, ... or various other possibilities.
And DNS could even be tweaked so it could be somewhere under partimus.org,
even if/when it might later be desired to relocate it. If one is
curious, have a peek around:
http://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki
(registration is locked down, but I can manually add folks, and one can
quite freely pay with the "playground" page with no registration
required) [some 'o the wiki pages on that wiki are quite out-of-date, but
many are still quite current or very actively maintained].
_______________________________________________
Tech mailing list
Tech at lists.partimus.org
http://lists.partimus.org/listinfo.cgi/tech-partimus.org
--
Christian Einfeldt
========================================================================
From: Alexandro Colorado <jza at oooes.org>
To: Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at partimus.org>
Cc: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>, Michael Paoli
<Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>, Tech <tech at lists.partimus.org>,
Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>, Jim Stockford <jim at well.com>, Eric
Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tech] Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended
install solution(s?)
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On Sat, Mar 28, 2015 at 12:56 PM, Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at partimus.org>
wrote:
On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 7:41 PM, Alexandro Colorado <jza at oooes.org> wrote:
On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 9:18 PM, Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at partimus.org>
wrote:
On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 12:43 PM, Christian Einfeldt <
einfeldt at gmail.com>
wrote:
I would like to keep that wiki low-traffic, because I have found that
as
wikis gain public attention, they attract trolls who like to deface
and
damage it. Just my two cents.
We understand that concern, and our wiki was once defaced. So Grant
locked it down to request-only accounts long ago (thanks again,
Grant!). The only way you get an account on that wiki is going to the
login page:
https://partimus.org/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin
Where it says: "To obtain a user account, you must request one." And
clicking on "request one"
I've just requested mine.
Great, we're getting back into the swing of things with regard to
using this wiki, so I'm digging in to just how to approve these
accounts, oops! :) Will search for your request by email address,
might need Grant's Mediawiki guru status here though.
?My nick is JZA, I had manage mediawiki in the past, you have an admin link
to approve all stuff:
https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Special:SpecialPages?
--
Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph || Lyz || pleia2
http://www.partimus.org
--
Alexandro Colorado
Apache OpenOffice Contributor
882C 4389 3C27 E8DF 41B9 5C4C 1DB7 9D1C 7F4C 2614
========================================================================
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 14:02:52 -0700 [03/29/15 14:02:52 PDT]
From: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> United States
To: tech at lists.partimus.org
Subject: PXE boot VirtualBox (solved)
Okay, I found two additional bits needed to PXE boot VirtualBox:
o Settings
Systems
Motherboard
Boot Order
Network (check that box if it's not checked, may also want to
put it first in the Boot Order ... I should've seen and
caught that earlier, but missed or may have missed it on the
earlier pass)
o Settings
Network
Advanced
Adapter Type
PCnet-FAST III (AM79C973)
Turns out that one's quite non-intuitive and not the default.
The default network interface it uses fails to PXE boot, but
making that change then allows it to PXE boot,
found that answer (and also the other one) here:
http://www.bgevolution.com/blog/pxe-network-boot-virtualbox/
Once I'd made those two additional changes in the VirtualBox configuration,
the VirtualBox VM host then PXE boots just fine and dandy.
references/excerpts:
From: "Michael Paoli" <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended install solution(s?)
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 07:21:18 -0700
As I mentioned, did fair bit of PXE boot setup earlier ... I should
check its status ...
# diff TEMPLATE pxe
11c11
< PATHTOISO="${PATHTOISO:-$(awk '/^[ ]*#/
{next;};{if($2=="/media/cdrom9"){print $1;exit;};}' /etc/fstab)}"
---
#PATHTOISO="${PATHTOISO:-$(awk '/^[ ]*#/
{next;};{if($2=="/media/cdrom9"){print $1;exit;};}' /etc/fstab)}" 14c14
< PXE=
---
PXE=y
32c32 < #NETWORK=bridge=br0
---
NETWORK=bridge=br0,mac=52:54:00:d8:2a:83
# >>/dev/null 2>&1 ./pxe & [3] 12099
#
...
No bootable device.
... too many devices, too few IPs ... had to reconfigure my DHCP server
to enable PXE booting the target host ... reboot target host (VM) ...
... and it's PXE booted to slightly customized menu I set up, that
allows selections for debian-i386, debian-amd64, or ubuntu-server-amd64
(I'd earlier set up those 3, as I was most interested in the first 2,
and the 3rd was quite easy to add as an Ubuntu flavor with default PXE
config layout that almost entirely didn't conflict with the first two -
so easy drop-in addition). And to try one ... picking
ubuntu-server-amd64 ... picking rescue mode (since I didn't give this
virtual machine a drive to install onto) ... and it pulls everything it
needs from network, booted fine and fully into rescue mode (could just
have easily selected to do an install ... if I'd given that host a drive
to install onto). And now that I've still got the DHCP server suitably
configured, retrying with VirtualBox (more manual config bits, as I
don't have a template in place for that ...)
virtualbox ... New ... Next ... (Name) pxe OS Type Operating System ...
Linux ... Version ... Ubuntu ... Next ... Next ... (uncheck Start-up
Disk) ... Next ... Continue ... Create ... Settings ... Network ...
Attached to: Bridged Adapter Name: br0 Advanced Mac Address:
525400D82A83 (matched to that used for qemu-kvm PXE target host and in
DHCP configuration) ...
# vboxmanage modifyvm pxe --biosbootmenu messageandmenu
--bioslogodisplaytime 10000
Start (... first Run Wizard ...) Next ... Next Start F12 ...
l) LAN
FATAL: Count not read from the boot medium! System halted.
Well, whatever, I don't seem to be getting that to work with
virtualbox 4.1.18-dfsg-2+deb7u4 amd64
... even when I use tcpdump on the br0 interface, I see no traffic
to/from Ethernet MAC 525400D82A83, whereas if I do it with qemu-kvm pxe
guest host using that same Ethernet MAC, tcpdump clearly shows me that
traffic on br0. Anyway, works fine with qemu-kvm - not sure why the PXE
booting doesn't work for me with VirtualBox. Whatever.
... and DHCP server back as it was before, so I can continue with
"business as usual" (so the work laptop can also get an IP).
========================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Apr 2015 19:19:00 +0100 [04/01/15 11:19:00 PDT]
From: Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com> United States
To: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>
Cc: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>,
tech at lists.partimus.org <tech at lists.partimus.org>, Eric Burke
<eburke1994 at gmail.com>, Elizabeth K. Joseph <lyz at princessleia.com>,
Jim Stockford <jim at well.com>, Michael Rojas
<ledworldwide.solutions at gmail.com>, Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>,
Alexandro Colorado <jza at oooes.org>
Subject: Re: Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended install solution(s?)
Part(s):
2 respinning_ubuntus.md 5.03 KB
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.zip file)
1 unnamed 20.25 KB
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Hello all
I was hoping to email on Sunday night or Monday, but got caught up
reviewing the code for remastersys...
https://github.com/taikedz/remastersys
I have managed to put together what I believe will be able to be a
workflow that will allow even teachers themselves to make their own
customized ISO images in the future :-)
I've attached the preliminary notes; they will also be on
github.com/taikedz/our-pxe under the customization/ directory
I have prepped a final demo CD with some relevant customizations; I
will seed this over bittorrent for demo if anyone is interested, or
just share some screenshots?
So if this customization workflow is acceptable, only two more items
need to be addressed:
1/ preseed file for making the install unattended (my customization
method still requires initial input from user, but after that
everything comes pre-installed)
The main question is about /how to find out/ what the options are we
are actually looking for...
2/ & ...... the drasted PXE server. I've burned through a few
tutorials by now and no functioning setup.... anyone have a
method/guide by which to get from fresh-ubuntu14.04-install to
fully-functional-pxe ???
My next intention is, if we can't set up a PXE server from scratch, to
make a home-grown solution. I'm thinking of remastering a CD to
contain a script that'll auto-partition, mkfs and mount /dev/sda, then
just rsync over the network...
Tai
PS -- (Guide Attached as markdown, also available at
https://github.com/taikedz/our-pxe/blob/master/customizer/oem/respinning_ubuntus.md
)
On 26/03/15 20:23, Christian Einfeldt wrote:
Hi,
Thanks for your thoughts, Tai. My comments are in line below...
On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 11:32 AM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com
<mailto:dch.tai at gmail.com>> wrote:
+++
PXE booting might require isolating a subnetwork during install,
which may not be fully suitable once the school hits 20+ machines
and needs to refresh all of them...
Unless they're all fitted with wireless. Has anyone got a way of
isolating from the main network without requiring a mass
deployment of cables? (my site networking skills are fairly basic,
maybe I'm missing a trick here)
Abigail's Linux lab is fairly limited in scope, due to the size of the
room she is in. It is not likely to grow beyond its current
configuration, which is summarized here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_s0E7w40zs80yZNrVRqupml6jqADKjD9XoJ3uFkhQMw/
+++
Customization from basic is pretty hairy.
For those who've asked, the reason we are doing pre-customization
is to have an image that has everything already on it. We're not
burning the ISO to discs, but prepping it for serving as an online
image over the local network.
In the past, there was some kind of boot CD that we would put in the
CD tray and reboot the machine. That machine is summarized at a high
level here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zs4_G-hvTDho1K9lP4Nrcz3BqPdw7gIczESu5f7V114/
+++
Michael's alt dists
@Christian we will have to ask you to look into those and decide.
I'm continuing so far on the assumption of Lubuntu for now, though
if you're getting more powerful machines in, can I suggest
something with a MATE desktop or Xfce?
Yes, we are planning on growing the hardware capabilities of the lab,
and just yesterday we delivered 15 "new" machines to the lab. But for
now, there are two reasons we need to stay with Lubuntu:
1. Many of the machines are old, as shown in the lab summary linked
below, some with as little as 500 MB of RAM.
2. 100 children come through that lab every day, and training them on
a new desktop is something that you have to build into the
curriculum. I think we are going to have to stay with Lubuntu for
this reason alone through June of 2016. We need to give Abigail
time to plan her curriculum so at to re-train the kids on the new
interface.
Here is a summary of the
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_s0E7w40zs80yZNrVRqupml6jqADKjD9XoJ3uFkhQMw/
+++
Abiword - @Christian mentioned this previously, I've found the ODT
(text processing) engine to be rather non-compliant with
standards, specifically on document styling structure which is key
not only for formatting but also automatic chaptering and
sectioning. Alas, Abiword is a poor reflection of what FOSS can do
in a properly deployed environment.
Then, that's just me. I prefer LibreOffice as it's as standards
compliant as it gets - it's the reference implementation from the
Document Foundation, and handles "the other standards" well too so
interoperability can happen smoothly.
I wasn't aware that there was this problem. I thought that AbiWord
used solid truly open standards. I will ask Abigail what she uses for
text writing.
+++
Michael's suggestion of an information repository that reflects
the "current state" (as a wiki methinks) is a good one. Just in
trying to reconcile the threads just now was not the most fun I've
ever had...
I can set up a digitalOcean droplet as a temporary shim, but
that'll disappear once the project is complete. If Partimus use
digitalOcean, I believe I'll be able to pass stewardship of it
over instead...
Sorry about that. Partimus does have a wiki, but as I mentioned in a
preceding email, I have seen wikis get pummelled by trolls.
http://partimus.org/wiki/Provisioning_Server
I would like to keep that wiki low-traffic, because I have found that
as wikis gain public attention, they attract trolls who like to deface
and damage it. Just my two cents. A google doc like our sandbox page
is nice, because AFAIK only people invited can edit it:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UEgt_fkGUVdANcnZ1W2S5Rv15Hx3S92Ynn9Mui3xB_E/
Oh, and let's have that multi-way chat/call. I can set up a Mumble
server for this if everyone is comfortable with that.
I have started a doodle.com <http://doodle.com> poll to see which
times might be best for everyone. I do know that at least Mike Rojas
is not available during the work day, and I am not available on
Sundays, so that only leaves us Saturdays. I hope that everyone will
find a time that works for them. Please bear in mind that Tai
Kedzierski is in Scotland and Alexandro Colorado is in Mexico. The
rest of us are in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Thanks very much for all of your great help to each of you!
--
Christian Einfeldt
========================================================================
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2015 17:58:09 -0700 [04/01/15 17:58:09 PDT]
From: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> United States
To: Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com>
Cc: Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>, tech at lists.partimus.org
<tech at lists.partimus.org>, Eric Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>, Jim
Stockford <jim at well.com>
Subject: Re: [Tech] Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended
install solution(s?)
1 unnamed 5.13 KB
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Hi,
My comments in line below...
On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 11:19 AM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello all
I was hoping to email on Sunday night or Monday, but got caught up
reviewing the code for remastersys...
https://github.com/taikedz/remastersys
I have managed to put together what I believe will be able to be a
workflow that will allow even teachers themselves to make their own
customized ISO images in the future :-)
Thanks very much for this work!
I have prepped a final demo CD with some relevant customizations; I will
seed this over bittorrent for demo if anyone is interested, or just share
some screenshots?
I will pull it down tomorrow morning Pacific time, and see if I can boot my
machine from it. Thanks!
So if this customization workflow is acceptable, only two more items need
to be addressed:
1/ preseed file for making the install unattended (my customization method
still requires initial input from user, but after that everything comes
pre-installed)
The main question is about /how to find out/ what the options are we are
actually looking for...
I am not sure what you mean by "options". Are you referring to the apps
that the users will use? Those apps are listed in the sandbox google doc.
My next intention is, if we can't set up a PXE server from scratch, to
make a home-grown solution. I'm thinking of remastering a CD to contain a
script that'll auto-partition, mkfs and mount /dev/sda, then just rsync
over the network...
I don't understand what you just said. All I know is that James Howard
made us a CD that would just cause the client to download a full and
completely customized distro over the network. If I understand you
correctly, that is where you are getting stuck?
Thanks again for everything, Tai!
1.1 unnamed 1.86 KB
2 unnamed 0.15 KB
_______________________________________________
Tech mailing list
Tech at lists.partimus.org
http://lists.partimus.org/listinfo.cgi/tech-partimus.org
========================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Apr 2015 18:37:34 -0700 [04/01/15 18:37:34 PDT]
From: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> United States
To: tech at lists.partimus.org
Subject: Re: [Tech] Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended
install solution(s?) ... next steps?
Tai - hey, sounds great, thanks for all your work on this!
So ... next steps? What still needs/ought be done?
Wiki?
I did also go through the steps on wiki for registration, but
I've yet to receive (or be able to set) a password, or receive
link to (re)set such ... so far only got the link to verify my email
address ... still can't login to wiki.
Anyway, would be really good to be able to document this stuff (wiki!)
somewhere where we can "all" get to it, see it, update it, etc. if/as
needed, share as desired (read-only to "public", or restrict to just
ourselves if/as/where appropriate).
List archive doesn't quite cut it for that (and a broken archive
even less so). Can only reliably store so much detail in my head,
and that's not as easy to share or backup. ;-) [nor as easy there for
others to correct errors or omissions I might make 8-O].
PXE(/etc.) server on Ubuntu ...
I have quite done that for Debian (including serving up multiple
Ubuntu PXE boots available from it). Anyway, I can certainly
share that information (configuration, etc.), and/or do likewise
on Lubuntu 14.04[.x] LTS. Anyway, I'll follow-up to provide more
information on what I have on that (I did also earlier take some
wee bit of notes on it - but I think I mostly followed Debian or
some similar guide on that (probably also in my notes) ... in any
case, Lubuntu or Debian, the setup for that would be quite similar).
I did read through the Google Docs ... but haven't quite yet read in
detail the repository code to see what we've got there (and what it does
and how - though I gave it a very fast skim - I think it was lateish
last week).
Custom ISO ... bittorrent? I might be more interested in either or both
of:
o zsync - and it's quite similar to / based upon (such and such ISO,
e.g. latest Lubuntu 14.04[.x] LTS ISO)
o script(s)/programs that would recreate the custom ISO based upon some
standard reference ISO (e.g. latest Lubuntu 14.04[.x] LTS ISO)
Oh, ... and I still need to read the notes that were "attached" to the
email referenced.
references/excerpts:
From: "Tai Kedzierski" <dch.tai at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tech] Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended install solution(s?)
Date: Wed, 01 Apr 2015 19:19:00 +0100
I was hoping to email on Sunday night or Monday, but got caught up
reviewing the code for remastersys...
https://github.com/taikedz/remastersys
I have managed to put together what I believe will be able to be a
workflow that will allow even teachers themselves to make their own
customized ISO images in the future :-)
I've attached the preliminary notes; they will also be on
github.com/taikedz/our-pxe under the customization/ directory
I have prepped a final demo CD with some relevant customizations; I
will seed this over bittorrent for demo if anyone is interested, or
just share some screenshots?
So if this customization workflow is acceptable, only two more items
need to be addressed:
1/ preseed file for making the install unattended (my customization
method still requires initial input from user, but after that
everything comes pre-installed)
The main question is about /how to find out/ what the options are we
are actually looking for...
2/ & ...... the drasted PXE server. I've burned through a few
tutorials by now and no functioning setup.... anyone have a
method/guide by which to get from fresh-ubuntu14.04-install to
fully-functional-pxe ???
My next intention is, if we can't set up a PXE server from scratch, to
make a home-grown solution. I'm thinking of remastering a CD to
contain a script that'll auto-partition, mkfs and mount /dev/sda, then
just rsync over the network...
PS -- (Guide Attached as markdown, also available at
https://github.com/taikedz/our-pxe/blob/master/customizer/oem/respinning_ubuntus.md
)
========================================================================
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2015 11:26:53 +0100 [04/02/15 03:26:53 PDT]
From: Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com> United States
To: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>
Cc: Grant Bowman <grantbow at gmail.com>, tech at lists.partimus.org
<tech at lists.partimus.org>, Eric Burke <eburke1994 at gmail.com>, Jim
Stockford <jim at well.com>
Reply-To: dch.tai at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Tech] Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended
install solution(s?)
1 unnamed 8.56 KB
This message was written in a character set (UTF-8) other than your own.
If it is not displayed correctly, click here to open it in a new window.
Ello,
* Image - will test it on a machine here before putting up a
link/torrent/zsync (at Michael's request) (though the notes I posted should
help you re-create the ISO - that's the intended purpose of said notes :-p)
* By "options" I mean the initial screens asking for "partitioning" (I'd
just use "erase disk" option), setting timezone and keyboard (which will
invariably be LA + US), to leave only the screen asking for a computer
name, username and password. It's not essential, these are trivial but if
we can skip them it would be better.
* Yeah I'm still stuck on PXE - I've had some pointers from Rab in EdLUG
(basically, first, don't test using VirtualBox!) and Charlie's notes still
to review. And Michael's notes when he has a moment :-)
===
Tai Kedzierski
IT Services Specialist
http://helpuse.com
+44 (0) 7526 963 612 (portable GB)
I use www.libreoffice.org
*"Open Source Free Software is a matter of liberty, not price."*
https://bitly.com/1gXkUcc
On 2 April 2015 at 01:58, Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
My comments in line below...
On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 11:19 AM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello all
I was hoping to email on Sunday night or Monday, but got caught up
reviewing the code for remastersys...
https://github.com/taikedz/remastersys
I have managed to put together what I believe will be able to be a
workflow that will allow even teachers themselves to make their own
customized ISO images in the future :-)
Thanks very much for this work!
I have prepped a final demo CD with some relevant customizations; I will
seed this over bittorrent for demo if anyone is interested, or just share
some screenshots?
I will pull it down tomorrow morning Pacific time, and see if I can boot
my machine from it. Thanks!
So if this customization workflow is acceptable, only two more items need
to be addressed:
1/ preseed file for making the install unattended (my customization
method still requires initial input from user, but after that everything
comes pre-installed)
The main question is about /how to find out/ what the options are we are
actually looking for...
I am not sure what you mean by "options". Are you referring to the apps
that the users will use? Those apps are listed in the sandbox google doc.
My next intention is, if we can't set up a PXE server from scratch, to
make a home-grown solution. I'm thinking of remastering a CD to contain a
script that'll auto-partition, mkfs and mount /dev/sda, then just rsync
over the network...
I don't understand what you just said. All I know is that James Howard
made us a CD that would just cause the client to download a full and
completely customized distro over the network. If I understand you
correctly, that is where you are getting stuck?
Thanks again for everything, Tai!
1.1 unnamed 3.00 KB
2 unnamed 0.15 KB
_______________________________________________
Tech mailing list
Tech at lists.partimus.org
http://lists.partimus.org/listinfo.cgi/tech-partimus.org
========================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Apr 2015 03:58:33 -0700 [04/02/15 03:58:33 PDT]
From: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> United States
To: tech at lists.partimus.org
Subject: example PXE boot setup on Debian (Ubuntu/Lubuntu
should be relatively similar)
From: "Tai Kedzierski" <dch.tai at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tech] Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended install solution(s?)
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2015 11:26:53 +0100
* Yeah I'm still stuck on PXE - I've had some pointers from Rab in EdLUG
(basically, first, don't test using VirtualBox!) and Charlie's notes still
to review. And Michael's notes when he has a moment :-)
Shouldn't be too hard with virtual (e.g. qemu-kvm, virtualbox, etc.),
but key bits to be aware of there: They typically give a NATed network
by default and including a built-in provided DHCP server on that network.
Such generally conflicts with doing PXE boot - so one typically wants
to place the virtual host on a different network/subnet/VLAN, where
there isn't some conflicting DHCP/bootp server/service. The only other
slightly tricky bit with virtual and PXE - at least that I'm aware of
so far, is that non-intuitive bit on VirtualBox - where some interface
types don't support PXE boot (or need additional software or packages
for such interfaces - that seemed to be implied from some of what I
read about folks installing direct from Oracle rather than a linux
distribution's packaging thereof ... probably proprietary and/or non-
distribution restrictions on some extra bits for certain interface types
to be able to PXE boot under VirtualBox - found no such issue with
qemu-kvm).
This is example I have on my
Debian GNU/Linux 7.8 (wheezy) x86_64
"server" <cough, cough> (laptop) at home.
Looks like I mostly/initially based it upon:
https://wiki.debian.org/PXEBootInstall
(and probably from around 2012-03-11, as I made a few corrective edits
to that wiki page around then).
I was also interested in, as feasible, being
able to PXE boot and then be able to select and install various
distributions - so as I'd left it off, it could be used to PXE boot
and install any of:
Debian GNU/Linux 7.8 (wheezy) x86_64
Debian GNU/Linux 7.8 (wheezy) i386
Ubuntu-Server 14.04.1 LTS amd64
From the wee bit of notes I made of it regarding my
installation/configuration:
$ cat /srv/tftp/NOTES
http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/wheezy/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/netboot.tar.gz
and:
http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/wheezy/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/netboot.tar.gz
mostly extracted to:
/srv/tftp
except for the differing:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 35 2014-04-24 07:45:30.000000000 +0000
pxelinux.cfg -> debian-installer/amd64/pxelinux.cfg
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 2014-04-24 07:46:21.000000000 +0000
pxelinux.cfg -> debian-installer/i386/pxelinux.cfg
and also:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 2014-04-24 07:45:30.000000000 +0000
pxelinux.0 -> debian-installer/amd64/pxelinux.0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32 2014-04-24 07:46:21.000000000 +0000
pxelinux.0 -> debian-installer/i386/pxelinux.0
but in the case of pxelinux.0, the ordinary files are identical, so
replaced the symbolic link with a hard link
also from:
Ubuntu-Server 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140416.2)
contents under:
install/netboot
mostly also placed here, except:
renamed version.info to version.info.ubuntu
renamed pxelinux.cfg to pxelinux.cfg:ubuntu-server:amd64
and left out symbolic links: pxelinux.0
And further examining what I'd left in place in terms of mounts and
configuration files and such (other than or in addition to that noted
above, and mostly covered on:
https://wiki.debian.org/PXEBootInstall
)
The relevant bits of data I have in /etc/fstab:
/dev/tigger/tftp /srv/tftp ext3 ro,nosuid,nodev,noatime 0 2
/var/tmp/ISOs/ubuntu-14.04.1-server-amd64.iso
/var/tmp/ISOs/ubuntu-14.04.1-server-amd64 iso9660 loop,ro,nosuid,nodev
0 0
/var/tmp/ISOs/ubuntu-14.04.1-server-amd64/install/netboot/ubuntu-installer
/srv/tftp/ubuntu-installer none bind,ro,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/var/tmp/ISOs/ubuntu-14.04.1-server-amd64/install/netboot/version.info
/srv/tftp/version.info.ubuntu none bind,ro,nosuid,nodev 0 0
Probably better to use location other than /var/tmp for things intended
to be there "permanently" or more longer term, but in any case ...
Also, those last two bind mounts shown above, next to last is directory
bind mounted atop directory, and the last one file mounted atop (empty)
file.
My "NOTES" from above covers much of it, but in addition (not covered by
that, and installed/configured under /srv/tftp/) we have:
$ < /srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg/default expand
serial 0 9600
default debian-installer/i386/boot-screens/vesamenu.c32
timeout 0
label debian-i386
menu label debian-i386
config pxelinux.cfg:i386/default
label debian-amd64
menu label debian-amd64
config pxelinux.cfg:amd64/default
label ubuntu-server-amd64
menu label ubuntu-server-amd64
config pxelinux.cfg:ubuntu-server:amd64/default
That works as my default PXE boot menu that comes up, allowing
selections of:
debian-i386
debian-amd64
ubuntu-server-amd64
Each of which, when selected, then just chain loads the corresponding
stock menu from that flavor's PXE boot menu.
The
serial 0 9600
Allows that menu choice to also be made via the first (legacy) serial
port (if present), so serial console may be used to launch/control the
PXE boot and installation (can be quite handy for serial console
install, virtual machines, IPMI, etc., and doesn't particularly hurt to
include that, even if it's not being used).
That's mostly it ... except the IP addresses and network configuration I
have is different than the example given on the referenced wiki page.
And, comparing what I earlier noted to actual files under /srv/tftp ...
What doesn't seem to be quite covered in those earlier NOTES:
$ ls -ld /srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg /srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg:[ai]*
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Apr 28 2014 /srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 35 Apr 27 2014 /srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg:amd64
-> debian-installer/amd64/pxelinux.cfg
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 Apr 27 2014 /srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg:i386
-> debian-installer/i386/pxelinux.cfg
$
========================================================================
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2015 14:35:32 -0700 [04/02/15 14:35:32 PDT]
From: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> United States
To: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>
Cc: Tech <tech at lists.partimus.org>
Subject: Re: [Tech] Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended
install solution(s?) ... next steps?
This message was written in a character set (UTF-8) other than your own.
If it is not displayed correctly, click here to open it in a new window.
Hi,
On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 6:37 PM, Michael Paoli <
Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> wrote:
Wiki?
I did also go through the steps on wiki for registration, but
I've yet to receive (or be able to set) a password, or receive
link to (re)set such ... so far only got the link to verify my email
address ... still can't login to wiki.
Sorry about that. We are working on it. I can't figure out how to get
access to the wiki. We locked it down due to vandalism. As soon as we
figure out how to unlock it, I will let you know, and I will continue to
work on that. I just texted with Grant Bowman who said that he will work
on it tonight, thanks for that Grant!
In the meantime, can we continue to use the Google docs sandbox document as
a workaround? I have invited everyone on this thread to that doc.
Custom ISO ... bittorrent? I might be more interested in either or both
of:
o zsync - and it's quite similar to / based upon (such and such ISO,
e.g. latest Lubuntu 14.04[.x] LTS ISO)
o script(s)/programs that would recreate the custom ISO based upon some
standard reference ISO (e.g. latest Lubuntu 14.04[.x] LTS ISO)
Okay, Michael, whatever method you gurus choose is fine. The end result we
are looking for is that the teacher can easily copy CDs; can easily put a
CD into a fat client and then reboot that machine and mass install over the
network.
Thanks to everyone who is helping on this issue!
========================================================================
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2015 18:24:40 -0700 [04/02/15 18:24:40 PDT]
From: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> United States
To: dch.tai <dch.tai at gmail.com>
Cc: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>,
tech at lists.partimus.org <tech at lists.partimus.org>, Eric Burke
<eburke1994 at gmail.com>, Jim Stockford <jim at well.com>, Michael Rojas
<ledworldwide.solutions at gmail.com>, Alexandro Colorado <jza at oooes.org>
Subject: Re: Partimus (PXE?) (nearly?) unattended install solution(s?)
This message was written in a character set (UTF-8) other than your own.
If it is not displayed correctly, click here to open it in a new window.
The results of our doodle.com poll is in, and it appears that we are not
going to be able to meet on April 4 or April 11, and so those dates are
out. Would you please renew your votes on the doodle poll to indicate if
you might be available on April 18 or April 25? thanks.
Thanks very much for all of your great help to each of you!
--
Christian Einfeldt
========================================================================
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 12:25:08 -0700 [04/04/15 12:25:08 PDT]
From: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> United States
To: Tech <tech at lists.partimus.org>, Eric Burke
<eburke1994 at gmail.com>, jim stockford <jim at well.com>
Subject: [Tech] Fwd: Partimus tech call re PXE server
1 unnamed 13.57 KB
This message was written in a character set (UTF-8) other than your own.
If it is not displayed correctly, click here to open it in a new window.
Hi,
Doodle is a little clunky. Tai is saying that he never was invited to the
second poll, although is email address is on the list. Also, Doodle says
that I chose April 11 for the meeting, but I just closed the poll. I am
not planning to meet on April 11, because we did not get enough people on
that meeting, including Tai, who requested the idea for a voice meeting.
Tai, would you please re-check your inbox to see if you were invited? Or
perhaps log into Doodle to see if you can find an invitation for you?
Is there anyone else on the list who was not invited to the second poll?
Here is a list of the people who were invited:
Previously invited: jza at oooes.org, ledworldwide.solutions at gmail.com,
michael.paoli at cal.berkeley.edu, Jim at well.com, Christian Einfeldt (
einfeldt at gmail.com), grantbow at gmail.com, dch.tai at gmail.com,
eburke1994 at gmail.com, lyz at princessleia.com
Thanks!
===
Tai Kedzierski
IT Services Specialist
http://helpuse.com
+44 (0) 7526 963 612 (portable GB)
I use www.libreoffice.org
*"Open Source Free Software is a matter of liberty, not price."*
https://bitly.com/1gXkUcc
On 3 April 2015 at 02:33, Christian Einfeldt (via Doodle) <mailer at doodle.com
[Hide Quoted Text]
wrote:
Christian Einfeldt closed the Doodle poll "Partimus tech call re PXE
server"
<https://doodle.com/?tmail=poll_invitecontact_participant_finalpick&tlink=logo>
Hi there,
Christian Einfeldt has chosen the following final date in the poll
?Partimus tech call re PXE server?:
*Saturday, April 11, 2015 11:00 AM*
Christian Einfeldt says:
Okay, I have closed the first poll. But the second poll is still open for
April 18 and April 25. Thanks!
Go to poll
<https://doodle.com/yrry457c8pdkn44hibxu4x53/private?tmail=poll_invitecontact_participant_finalpick&tlink=pollbtn>
You have received this e-mail because "Christian Einfeldt" has invited you
to participate in the Doodle poll "Partimus tech call re PXE server."
Please
note that this is a personal invitation that cannot be shared with other
poll participants.
Doodle AG, Werdstrasse 21, 8021 Zürich
--
Christian Einfeldt
1.1 unnamed 2.09 KB
2 unnamed 0.15 KB
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