[K12OSN] Fedora 3 = 4.2 - right? Ready to use it - production -

Wed Dec 15 02:54:00 UTC 2004

I can't speak yet for the FC 3 version for K12LTSP 4.2, but I can say that
4.1 works splendidly.  I have had it in production all this school year
with nary a hiccup.  In fact, we're finally hitting the "critical turning
point" where K12LTSP has been universally accepted and embraced in the
sense that no one really cares whether or not they have a Linux Terminal
or a Windows box in their room as they feel they can do all the same
stuff.  While this may not sit well with Linux zealots, but from a
practical standpoint, this is precisely what most of us should be shooting
for.  My principal said in a recent conversation, "Based on everything I'm
observing from around the school and in your classroom I think we should
replace your lab this year with those little thin-clients (I have a couple
LTSP Term 150's for a proof of concept showing) you have and get some more
LCD flat panels too!".  So now my current machines and their accompanying
flat panels will migrate out to more classrooms.  We're now at a stage wher
e we're starting to "cycle" through the older donated machines that are
thin-clients with newer hardware.  We're up to our eyeballs in hardware
:-)  I recently got a batch of really nice Gateway 3200's.....nice little
machines....even better once I ripped the guts out ;-)

As for the kill and suicide scripts....they are in 4.2....in fact I think
they've been in since 3.12.  I use "purge-users" and it works fantastic. 
Find it in /opt/ltsp/templates/k12linux   make a small change to a file
(read the comments in the purge-user script....change one thing from "no"
to "yes")  At the end of the day...all users are "dead" and so are their
accompanying processes.  Combined with TeacherTool (which allows me to
graphically see who's logged in and what they're running...and launch,
kill, or logoff as needed) it's a great system.  

Here's a script that I use to very quickly kill users (more for kicks than
anything else)  :-)  Kid logs in...I kill them....they log in again...I
kill them...it's fun to see how many times they'll log in before they say
something to me....meanwhile me and half the class are chuckling while we
watch the "social experiment"....the kids (even the victims) get a charge
out of it.  :-)

#!/bin/sh
#usage-   stop username  ex:  stop jdoe
# stop
# script to logoff a student
#

if [ $1 != "root" ]
then
   for i in $(pgrep -u $1)
   do
      kill -9 $i
   done
else
   clear
   echo "Can't kill the root!!"
fi

###########################

In the end this script is quite useful if you need to do something
quickly.  

I hope to be experimenting with a lot of things during Xmas break....not
the least of which is K12LTSP 4.2.  I also really need to get Chuck
Liebow's Mac Netboot thing going on an LTSP box as well as the whole
RunSpy piece of TeacherTool.  Should be fun!

jim at linux.ca on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 at 8:08 PM  wrote:

>Hello Everyone,   Merry Christmas or  Happy secular Holiday!   I have
>some 
>time off over the Christmas break and have been contemplating using
>Fedora 3 
>on my current 3.01 K12LTSP server.  I have already done a mass cloning of
>30 
>boxes using Fedora3 using K12LTSP fedora2 rpms for Icewm and a few other 
>things.  Everything seems to work just fine.
>
>I am using Fedora3 at home and it seems to be really an improvement over 
>fedora2, especially with the hotpluging of usb sticks and cameras in
>gnome.  
>-Almost consumer desktop ready!-   I have a duplicate system at home with 
>the Fedora3 on it now running just fine so I'm not too worried about
>putting 
>it on the dual mp system at school, but -- I gota ask this list about
>this 
>before I head off and do it.
>
>Eric, James, David, and others??
>
>I have been up to my eyeballs for months now with Yearbook but have been
>an 
>almost daily lurker on this list and have watched the development of 4.2 
>betas...   Any opinions on utilizing the 4.2 beta or straight Fedora3
>plus 
>4.1 K12LTSP rpms to fill in the holes?  I know how to set up the icewm
>only 
>session settings, and have read about the changes to /etc/passwd, group
>and 
>shadow, and how the lts.conf, dhcp.conf and another I can't remember file 
>must be carefully edited/spliced with the previous...
>
>What about the kill/suicide scripts??  Are these still in place in the 
>K12LTSP 4.x series?? These really are necessary.
>
>I would like to do this over XMas.  I will take out the old drives and
>use a 
>newer drive, so if things go bad, I can always re-install the originals...
>
>Thanks for all corrections and new ideas,  Jim
>
>
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David N. Trask
Technology Teacher/Coordinator
Vassalboro Community School
dtrask at vcs.u52.k12.me.us
(207)923-3100