Re: Terminal server under Debian-Edu
[Stefan Padberg]
> As I am just starting teaching informational technology, I am confronted
> with the huge area of network administration. In a school class and even
> when you look at the school as a whole, it is absolutely necessary that a
> Linux distribution for educational purposes supports various tools:
I'll give a summary on how Skolelinux fits your list.
If groups in other countries would like to participate in the
Skolelinux project, you are all more than welcome. The web pages and
mailing lists are mostly in Norwegian, but the comments in
configuration files and scripts are mostly in English. The
distribution already supports three languages (Norwegian Bokmål,
Norwegian Nynorsk and Nothern Saami), and it is fairly easy to add
support for more languages. All we need is someone with knowledge on
which packages and configuration settings to use.
> 1. Very, very easy to install!
> We have in Germany at this Moment to distributions which focus on that, but
> which work on top of SuSE Linux with the whole bunch of updating problems...
> "kmLinux" which is perfect for easy installed workstations, and the
> "GEE-Server" which I just about to test.
We are working on this. At the moment, you need to answer two
questions during installation; which default language to use, and
which packages/configuration profile the machine in question should
use. There are several other stops during installation, but at all of
these the default answer is correct. We need more work on this. The
installation is based on debian-installer.
> 2. X-Terminals:
> I understand by this that the workstations of the pupils start with
> a local Linux but the graphical login and the home directory are
> supplied by a X-Server-Server. The X-Server-Server should also work
> as an application server. Only a browser, an email-client and some
> office programms should start from the local machine.
The closest thing we got is the workstation profile, where user
authentication and user/group information is fetched using LDAP, and
the home directories are mounted from the server. All programs run
locally on the workstation.
> That means for the distribution that it should include a
> workstation-/client-installation and a server-installation
We do.
> 3. "Blackboard Server"
> A school is well served if it has a school-wide Internet and Mail Server
> with maybe a school wide mailforum or also chat forum, with hideable spaces
> for the teachers and so on. I call it a "Blackboard Server", which supports
> the intra-school communications.
We have plans in this area, but nothing is finished yet. One plan is
to install the publishing system eZ publish. Very little work has
been done in Skolelinux in this area
> 4. Terminal Server:
> In some situations this is a usefull solution. But I don't think it
> is a general solution because it seems to be a problem, if a whole
> classroom is booting from the TS over the net at the same time. For
> all other sirtuations a Terminal Server is a fine thing. DebianEdu
> should include it, too
LTSP works just fine.
> 5. Windows Clients
> A Distribution for schools should finally include a way in which to
> administrate windows clients:
> - safe logins via Samba
> - Booting via BOOTP
> - Restauring Windows partitions with some kind of Linux techniques
> (for instance by BpBatch or just by making copies of Windows
> partitions under Linux which can be recalled if the pupils have >
> again destroyed a Windows installation)
We have some ideas in this area, but have prioritized other tasks for
now. Part of our message is that the school should stop spending
hours keeping track of software licenses, and in this context it make
no sense to work hard on windows integration. If we got more people,
I guess we would have someone working no this as well. :-)
> 6. Proxy-Server
> Needless to say that a school distribution needs a proxy to control
> the Internet access.
We include squid, and are also in contact with a project developing a
proxy/firewall system able to block Internet access for specified
classrooms when needed, to be able to block access while the students
have their exams and tests.
> I think the DebianEdu project should divide in two branches: one
> concentrating in developing good application software, and the other
> should concentrate on good installation and server software.
Well, I agree with Ben Armstrong that it is outside the scope of
DebianEdu to develop software from scratch. That is better done in
other contexts.
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