[SLUG] Linux Kiosk @ USF

From: Tom E. Craddock Jr. (sigtom@sigtom.com)
Date: Fri Feb 10 2006 - 15:03:15 EST


Hi,

Ive recently started working at USF in the registrar/admissions office
as a support tech. Its part time, I like the work, and the people here
are great. Im not sure how many of you are familiar with USF in Tampa,
but here in the Registar's office, we have 10 PCs set up that allow
students to logon to Oasis (which is the student/faculty web
app/portal). It gives them access to class registration, paying for
classes, etc. The PCs are now running Win 2000, using Active Desktop to
make the home page (set to the Oasis Announcment page) the background.
They do allow the students to check email thru their USF accounts, and
Ive been told they would like to allow students to access webmail esp so
they can check thier own email (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, whatever) in case
there are classes or professors listed in the emails that they need
access to while using Oasis here in our office.

Ive been told that I can switch all the PCs over to linux. My boss'
like the idea of using linux, they like the fact that many students wont
be able to/arent able to 'mess up linux like they can Windows', and that
any web exploits are mainly targeted to IE and windows boxes, as well as
spyware/adware. Ive been thinking of how best to do this, and would
like input from the list.

Heres what Im thinking so far, please correct me if Im wrong.

Id install Kubuntu (Im a KDE fan) Breezy Badger on a server. This would
be my LTSP server (using Ubuntu since LTSP has been integrated into this
distro). That machine would have either one 20 GB and one 100 GB HDD,
the 20 GB holding the OS for the server, the 100GB holding all my boot
images/kernels/fs needed for my clients and wold be exported w/NFS to
each client for /home and the like. Ive never used LTSP before, but
have been reading all I can on thier site and wiki to get some ideas of
the software. Is it correct in my thinking that I would make just one
boot image/kernel, and then all 10 PCs would be able to use that same
kernel as long as each PC had the same hardware; or no matter what
hardware the machines have, identical or not, they would all use a diff
kernel? Hope that question made sense. I thought that LTSP would just
use one kernel that all 10 PCs would use, so upgrading is as easy as
just upgrading one kernel and fs, and all PCs would be updated, or is
that incorrect? The 10 PCs we have now are all at least P2s Ive been
told, but havent checked. Id hopefully be able to boot each one with
netboot thru the BIOS using the network interface, but can always get
around that with a boot floppy if need be.

Im looking for a solution thats mainly easy to keep working (no downtime
is good, the PCs are only on 9 hours a day, so its not 24/7 at least)
and is easy to deploy to at least 10 diff machines, maybe scalable if
the powers that be like it enough. Does anyone have any suggestions for
that idea? Id like to be able to keep on using the PCs we already have,
as that keeps costs to nothing (well except my pay hehe). Is there
anyone thats deployed LTSP in a similar env, and if so, have any tips?
I appreciate it, and look forward to the lists reply.

Tom Craddock
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked
Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages
posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 18:16:07 EDT