Problem: Maintaining usability under server load

Solution: This problem turned out to be intractable. Early testing indicated that CPU utilization would spike to nearly 100% for brief periods of time. RAM utilization remained steady at approximately 300mbs, in fat client testing. Extrapolated to 7 clients, the server would theoretically require at least 2gb of RAM, although 4GB would probably be preferable for a full featured desktop experience. CPU requirements would have been similar. Ultimately, the hardware requirements to run 7 clients would have been far outside our resources for this project. An LTS model may be achievable with more modest use cases, fewer clients, or a finely tuned hybrid LTS/fat client architecture. For MSMBC, network equipment may have also have been a limiting factor. The major requirement motivating the request for LTS architecture was simply to have all of the lab computers networked; given this requirement, it was far more efficient to deploy fat clients.

Problem: Easy disaster recovery/reinstallation

Solution: Our solution was to create a “remix” of the Ubuntu 8.04 distribution that would make reinstallation easier to manage. This involved pre-installing support for Adobe Flash, MS core fonts, a wide variety of archiving formats, the complete software stack of educational and religious software required, etc. We removed OpenOffice from the LiveCD install disc in order to accomodate more software. Our rationale was that it would be simpler for a community partner to do a default installation and only have to install OpenOffice than to have OpenOffice but have to do multiple, complex operations. We successfully completed a training exercise teaching this easy method of installation.

Problem: Accessibility scheme for the elderly

Solution: Our solution was to write a script which runs a full desktop magnifying application. Unfortunately, the software is clumsy to use, and requires a second script to issue a “killall magnifier” command, as the program is launched as a background application. We were able to implement an easy to use solution, although it does require some additional training.

Problem: Wirelessly networking the lab without having wireless cards for each computer

Solution: We decided to use a hardware wireless bridge in conjunction with two wired switches. Initially, we tried putting OpenWRT, a Linux firmware, on an old wireless router. Unfortunately, the router did not have sufficient memory. We ultimately purchased a Linksys WET54G.

Problem: One of our clients would not run DBAN.
Solution: We determined that the CD drive was not functioning and switched it out with a scrapped machine.  Now works fine.

Problem: Ubuntulite would not recognize harddrive in Client 5. Probably not a hardware problem; missing drivers?
Solution: Ubuntulite must be installed over the network, but was not hooked up.  We also switch out the harddrive after connecting the machine to the network and everything installed correctly.

Problem: Open DNS:posted edits to CLI for Linux install to wiki
Solution:

Open a terminal window:

$sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf.auto

$sudo gedit /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf

• If this doesn’t work type the following line in the terminal widow:

$sudo apt get-install gedit

• Press yes if asked to download software. Try the second command from above again.

Append the following line to the document that opens (copy and paste into the document; at the end is fine)
prepend domain-name-servers 208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220;
Save and exit

Type in the terminal window:
$sudo ifconfig eth0 down

$sudo ifconfig eth0 up

Check the GUI under DNS to see if the OpenDNS IP addresses are there. OpenDNS should now work.

Problem: Networking in the church- there is no ethernet connection in the computer lab, and only two outlets
Solution: We used the already available wireless network to connect the computers using a wireless bridge and two wired switches. We also put half of the computers on one outlet and half on the other, used surge protectors, and eliminated some of the speakers so there would be less need for outlets.