[K12OSN] Using ibooks in conjunction with k12LTSP/debianedu servers

Jim Kronebusch jim at winonacotter.org
Thu Dec 15 14:15:45 UTC 2005


> centralized  authentication and file shares. The big hang-up that 
> I'm having right  now is how I will get the laptops to authenticate 
> and use network  storage (so they can be backed up) when they are at 
> school, while  still allowing them to function when the older 
> students and the  teachers take them home. Any bright ideas on how 
> to handle this.
> (I'm fairly certain that I can get LDAP or the new directory server  
> setup, the question is how to handle the issue of different  
> authentication/storage at different locations)

This is a tough one with OSX.  I tried to get this figured out over the
summer.  I have a tutorial on how to authenticate OSX to SAMBA/LDAP for
authentication and automatic nfs mounted home folders mounted from the server.
 The hang up that shut me down was the lack of file extensions.  I found this
in the last days before going live and it stopped me in my tracks.  I have not
revisited this since.  What I found was when I NFS mounted a drive to OSX it
was unable to pull the proper info to determine file types without extensions.
 And thanks to years of OS9 and prior none of the staff documents had
extensions.  All files just show up with terminal icons and left the staff
guessing what they had originally created it in.  I didn't dare set the staff
out trying extensions to get the files to open.

Second problem you have is the iBooks and them going offsite.  I did not find
a way to "sync" a local home folder with one on the server.  My thought was to
set these up with local accounts and local home folders (like normal) but then
create a logoff script that would rsync the local home folder with the folder
on the server, and run the same script on login.  This would work like roaming
profiles syncing on Windows and should allow things to function when offsite
while still appearing to work like the other machines.  I never got to writing
the scripts due to the extension problem.  But I think OSX has built in
sections for running scripts on logon/logoff so it should be fairly simple.

By the way the tutorial works for full roaming profiles on OSX.

Hope that helps.

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