[Tech] PXE project - still alive

[Michael Paoli]

Cool,

I've not forgotten about it ... but I've also been relatively busy with other
stuff too.

A few thoughts/suggestions:

Debian uses Fully Automated Installation (FAI).
That doesn't necessarily mean Debian doesn't *also* use/support Kickstart,
but the (fast) majority on Debian would use FAI rather than Kickstart, so
FAI is likely much better documented and supported on Debian than Kickstart.

Kickstart on Lubuntu/Ubuntu/*buntu?  Hmmm, I wasn't even aware of *buntu
using/supporting Kickstart - but as it's a Debian derivative, wouldn't
surprise me to find that it (also) supports Kickstart.

*buntu has both their "Live" DVDs, and (unless it's changed?), their
"alternative installer" DVDs - the latter "just" use the Debian installer
(well, basically ... that and some color scheme changed to make it look
*buntu-ish, and descriptions changed from Debian to *buntu - but otherwise
very much the Debian installer).  Anyway, in the land of *buntu, I don't
know which is necessarily better supported and/or documented for doing
Kickstart or FAI type installs of *buntu.

And, other thing I was thinking about (part technical, part not) ...
if I understand correctly, at persent, Partimus isn't in schools?
(but hopes to soon be again).  As I understand it, teacher that was
using/"supporting" it in school left, and that whomever/whatever
came in to replace didn't want (at least at that time) to use/continue
the Partimus/*buntu thing.

Anyway, in regards to all that, I was thinking perhaps (and maybe on  
IRC, or ???)
do a "post-mortem" meeting to go over what did - and didn't work - in that
environment, and what we can (at least feasibly) do to improve future
successes (e.g. not only get in more schools again, but be the great resource
that neither schools nor teachers would want to see dropped or removed from
their schools).

And, bit more (semi-)technical ... the earlier relative commitment to Lubuntu,
that was mostly based upon what teacher was presently using with Partimus in
classroom, and lesson plans they had developed around it, etc. - and  
didn't want
disruptive change to occur (e.g. plans to possibly substantially not match
what was installed and set up on the computers).  Anyway, with the  
installation
not in school at present, perhaps an opportune time to revisit the question of
what distribution.

And ... just teensy bit of my thoughts/opinion on that too ...
DebianEdu / Skolelinux - might be an *excellent* fit for schools  
(probably at least
worth some serious investigation).  Most notably, a whole lot of what  
Partimus and
schools would generally want, is already very well worked out for
DebianEdu / Skolelinux - and there are lots of resource around it for  
Linux in schools
and particularly DebianEdu / Skolelinux itself in schools.  Anyway,  
might potentially
save us a whole lot of work (e.g. avoid reinventing the wheel ... and perhaps
poorly or repeating many of the mistakes that folks have already made  
and figured
out and fixed/improved for use of Linux in schools).  Anyway, just a  
thought on
that.

On the other hand - another thought ... Partimus ... Linux  
terminal/kiosk in some
community (shelter/resource?) location.  That can be all fine and  
good, but then
I wonder - what exactly is the Partimus mission and how does that fit in?
And if we do DebianEdu / Skolelinux ... or even Lubuntu well customized for
installation/use in schools - those are quite substantially different target
environments, and I'd think how we'd want to configure and set up the  
systems would
be quite different.  so, ... I might wonder, what target environment are we
optimizing/configuring the systems for?  Targeting multiple  
substantially distinct
environments does multiply the amount of work and resources required.

Anyway, good work on the PXE etc. stuff - most of that quite applies  
pretty much
regardless of the specific distribution and target environment - I  
think the only
especially major difference may be Kickstart "vs." FAI - and even  
there there's
probably a fair bit of overlap.  I'm hoping to have some time to test it out,
etc., but ... time, ... priorities, ... we shall see.  (E.g. some fair  
bits of my
time have gotten sucked into things like keeping some LUG(s) from  
disappearing off
the Internet ... more resources for, e.g. Partimus, to draw upon, if  
things like
SF-LUG exist (and where's SF-LUG running?  All but the list stuff is  
on a virtual
machine running on hardware where I live, and the list stuff is running out of
Rick Moen's home - an installation which bit over a year ago I very  
substantially
assisted in getting back on-line and operational again ... and yesterday, just
applied the nudges to get BALUG's hosting back on-line (after a  
billing payment
SNAFU by the person who's been covering that)).


> From: "Tai Kedzierski" <dch.tai at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Tech] PXE project - still alive
> Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2016 13:15:34 +0000

> Hi all,
>
> Happy new year!
>
> I have a little update on the PXE project which - thought I'd forgotten
> about it? :-)
>
> The full project collaterals have been significantly reduced in number, and
> the steps are now much more guided and fully bash-scripted!
>
> https://github.com/taikedz/our-pxe
>
> At this point we have 2 things:
>
> *A full script* to create a custom DVD/ISO
>
> This requires command line knowledge, so would require a Partimus technical
> volunteer to create the custom image for the target organization. It needs
> only be produced once per organization/release.
>
> *A full script* to create a fully working PXE server
>
> Tested in VirtualBox and working a charm.
>
> I'll be testing it on a set of home machines shortly over the home
> network...
>
> *The last component* to make this 100% automatic is kickstart/preseeding
>
> This would enable a way to bypass the setup dialogs, automatically set up
> an administrative user, and go straight to installation.
>
> I have been hitting hurdles here, and am waiting for feedback from the
> askubuntu forum
> https://askubuntu.com/questions/734733/preseeding-kickstarting-lubuntu-example-or-documentation
>
> Once I get it figured out, and I've been banging my head against this for a
> while now, it'll be all wrapped up.
>
> Could anyone please give these scripts a rev and feed back to me, I'd be
> most appreciative.
>
> If anyone knows anything about kickstart/preseeding Ubuntu, now's your time
> to shine and close in on that last 5%! (and yes, I have spent countless
> hours on Google over this already :-P )
>
> All the best
>
> Tai
>
>
> ===
> Tai Kedzierski