<div>On 11/1/06, Tom Wolfe <<a href="mailto:twolfe@sawback.com">twolfe@sawback.com</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> ...can you recommend an inexpensive sound card that will work out of the box?</blockquote><div> Ensoniq AudioPCI Soundblaster 128 PCI </div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">thanks again, Tom Wolfe Morley, Alberta On Wed, 1 Nov 2006, Gentgeen wrote: > On Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:24:59 -0700 > "Tom Wolfe" <<a href="mailto:twolfe@sawback.com">twolfe@sawback.com</a>> wrote: > > > Hi folks, > > > > I've been test driving K12LTSP a little, and have done some looking > > around the lists and googling to see if any resolutions to some issues > > I've notice are there... and thought I'd run things by this list. > > > > 1. A shortcoming in general with Linux is default support for > > (proprietary) Internet multimedia formats. The typical response from > > K12LTSP supporters seems to be "We decided to not support proprietary > > formats"... but realistically, I need to provide students with *easy* > > access, for example, to CBC's website (<a href="http://cbc.ca">http://cbc.ca</a>) which has > > windows formats as its default (*very* limited .ogg support) :( Real > > Player, Shockwave and Flash are other examples. > > > > This is not a shortcoming of Linux, but a shortcoming (or at least a > short sightedness of the manufacturers. Mplayer, and some codecs will > take care most multimedia files out there but you mentioned some of the > ones that do not work. > > Real Player -- there is Helix, but I have not tried it. Real Player has > released a player for Linux, but if I recall it is out of date. You > would have to check. > > Shockwave -- Talk to adobe on this one :-) > > Flash -- As you may have noticed, the Linux support here is a full > version behind. The Linux version has always been a little behind, but > now you may have noticed it is a full version behind. It still works > for many sites, but some insist on you having Flash 8, so that can be a > pain. The reason it is a full version behind now is that Adobe has > decided to rewrite the code for Linux Flash. BIG KUDOS to them for this > move, but it does put us at a disadvantage over the short run. (see > <a href="http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/breakingnews.jhtml;jsessionid=T3KZ3F51SMLPOQSNDLPSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleId=192501179"> http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/breakingnews.jhtml;jsessionid=T3KZ3F51SMLPOQSNDLPSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleId=192501179</a> > for some details.) > > > > We can philosophically decide to not support proprietary formats, but > > in doing so we are also deciding to deny students access to (the bulk > > of?) internet multimedia information. > > > > It is not a philosophically issue, but a legal/tech issue. Distros can > not ship certain players, so you have to get it yourself (just like in > the windows world). Or there just is no player for Linux, and this is > an issue outside of the communities control. > > > I believe that these need to be supported by any OS used in an > > educational setting. Like pdf files, these are just way too entrenched > > to dismiss, and they should be supported by default. > > But unlike PDF, they are still CLOSED. At least PDF is an open format. > (not as in FLOSS, but as in anyone can use it) > > > > > 2. Sound -- I have about 25 workstations I'd like to use with > > K12LTSP... but they are all pretty diverse platforms: many different > > NICs, sound cards, and video cards. Is there any easy way to do > > this...? Or is it a matter of researching each individual hardware > > setup to get things rolling? I'm thinking of sinking for a couple > > dozen $20 network cards so that at least I have that in common. > > Besides, booting workstations with floppies seems to me to be too much > > of a hassle. > > I would spend the $20 on standardizing the sound card, assuming your > network cards are PCI and they are 100Mbps. Sound is where all your > "hassle" will be, not with the network card. As noted, get PCI cards, > and get ones that are well supported in Linux. > > An easy way to do what? With video and audio, you can use the "auto" > option in your lts.conf and most will automatically be detected. (after > that, I would find out exact what cards the "auto" option did find, and > then change your config file. This will make the boot process faster, > and you don't have to do all the leg work in finding all the card info). > > With the booting from floppies... guess that depends on what you are > doing. If your clients have a hard drive, you could use this: > <a href="http://www.wizzy.org.za/article/articlestatic/14/1/2/"> http://www.wizzy.org.za/article/articlestatic/14/1/2/</a> > This is what I do here. Another option would be buy NICs with bootroms, > but I am pretty sure that is more then 20 buck each. You could also > check the BOIS of the machines, some might be able to boot from the > network to start with (if they have the NIC on board I assume). > > As for booting from Floppy (if that is the road you must use) -- But the > Universal boot floppy in the drive, then pull the drive back 1 set of > holes. Put a cover plate over the hole(s) (or maybe some duct tape). > Hassle gone. Now just like haveing a Hard Drive. > > > > > 3. rdesktop -- why isn't this standard with K12LTSP installation? > > Sure, it's easy enough to yum install rdesktop, but...?? > > > > Why doesn't Windows come with Quicktime standard? Sure it's easy enough > to exe install Quicktime, but...?? > > Come on, is this really an issue for you? > > > 4. K12LTSP on Pentium I & II / 10 Mbps networks -- slow and unusable! > > I see lots of people talking about using old hardware with K12LTSP but > > I'm only getting acceptable performance from PIII/500+ MHz 100 Mbps > > NIC, and this seems to me to be a minimum hardware requirement. Even > > then, something like Celestia crawls compared to the way it does with > > a local hard drive installation. Any tips? Am I missing something? > > I have a PI client, 64 MB RAM and a 2MB RAM Sis Video card. Not the > fastest of my clients, but for email, web, abiword, solitaire, and it > does just as well as the others. Now I am useing IceWM and ROX and not > Gnome/KDE but that is more a user decision then a hardware decision. > > Another client is a 233MHz processor, 128MB RAM and a 4MB RAM video > card. Works just as well as my fastest client. That one is the same as > above, but has a 500MHz processor. > > Your real issue here is the network speed. You REALLY need to use > 100Mbps - 10 is just TOO slow. I've done it, and it works, but I would > not want to do it for a long time and with 20+ clients. (I did it as a > proof of concept with 1 off the shelf PC as the server, and 10 old PCs > as the clients. Then as we got the money, we did the various upgrades > needed. STARTING with the network backbone.) And if you are going to > have 20 clients, you need Gig at the switch. > > Have you tried Celestria on the PII as a native app (i.e. not LTSP). > I am pretty sure that 90% of distros out there on a PII or less will > choke. Believe me, I have tried. It talks a special distro to may > my PI work as a stand alone. > > > > > BTW, my Dell SC1425 server works fine so long as I don't use it as an > > X terminal itself... something to do with the video card, but I'm not > > worrying about it for now. > > > > ...and if any of this has been over-discussed already my apologies, > > please ignore or refer me off list to the right place for answers. > > > > Despite the hurdles I'm pretty interested and optimistic. It seems > > like an amazing project, though certainly NOT "easy and working, duh?" > > yet. > > K12LTSP has to be one of the most "easy and working" distros I have > seen. (And I have worked with all of the big names, and many of the > little guys as well). But you have to come at it with the right > knowledge and equipment. Would you send an American football player > into an Australian Rules Football game? Nope. They are both football, > both sports, but each require a different set of knowledge and/or > special equipment. Same with the Windows World and the Linux world. > Both are OS's, both use i386 architecture, but they require a different > set of knowledge and/or special equipment. > > > > > Regards, > > Tom Wolfe > > Morley, Alberta > > > > _______________________________________________ > > K12OSN mailing list > > <a href="mailto:K12OSN@redhat.com"> K12OSN@redhat.com</a> > > <a href="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn">https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn</a> > > For more info see <<a href="http://www.k12os.org">http://www.k12os.org </a>> > > > > > > > -- > <a href="http://gentgeen.homelinux.org">http://gentgeen.homelinux.org</a> > > ############################################################# > Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem > your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone then in bad > company. - George Washington, Rules of Civility > > _______________________________________________ > K12OSN mailing list > <a href="mailto:K12OSN@redhat.com">K12OSN@redhat.com</a> > <a href="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn">https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn</a> > For more info see < <a href="http://www.k12os.org">http://www.k12os.org</a>> > _______________________________________________ K12OSN mailing list <a href="mailto:K12OSN@redhat.com">K12OSN@redhat.com</a> <a href="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn"> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn</a> For more info see <<a href="http://www.k12os.org">http://www.k12os.org</a>> </blockquote></div> -- Robert Arkiletian Eric Hamber Secondary, Vancouver, Canada Fl_TeacherTool <a href="http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/Fl_TeacherTool/">http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/Fl_TeacherTool/</a> C++ GUI tutorial <a href="http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/">http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/ </a>