No subject

installation.  It is currently running Solaris 7 and an old version of
the SunRay protocol software, and it is uncertain whether Sun will
supply a free upgrade or charge money for it.  IMHO Sun should provide
it for free considering the amount of problems the school has had with
their product.  Prior to this server swap, Ginlack, the Principal of
Mililani was considering approaching "ActionLine" to make public this
bad situation that was bordering scandalous, with a $40,000 lab being
almost completely broken for over a year - what an interesting public
relations nightmare that would have made, $40k wasted taxpayer money,
hundreds of kids being denied an opportunity of technology learning.

I suspect that the current Solaris 7 installation is poorly secured and
possibly already compromised.  Eventually I'd like to do a complete
reinstall and I could use help from the group from people knowledgeable
with Solaris.  For now though, all the GNU tools should be installed
including a working compiler, then OpenSSH and VNC so it can be securely
administrated remotely.  Java SDK should be installed.  StarOffice 5.2
should be upgraded to StarOffice 6.0, but I need to write some scripts
to handle automatic profile creation so people don't have to go through
the somewhat confusing "Workstation" install for each user.  I already
have these scripts for StarOffice 6.0 on Linux, so this shouldn't be too
hard if the GNU tools that it depends on are installed.  After these
things are stable, I'd like to replace the current CDE desktop with
Gnome2.


Mililani had a Windows Celeron lab served by an ancient Novell 4.10
server doing only a print queue.  This lab was not uplinked into the
school network, so they were running only IPX.  Unfortunately the lack
of Internet makes it extremely difficult because they teach Oracle and
Java in that room.  When they do plug the room into the Internet, the
Windows machines easily DHCP and go online, but suddenly printing stops
working and the Novell server beeps like crazy.

After some analysis Elayne and I figured out that the Intel print server
appliance was talking only IPX, and it was severely confused when the
campus network is connected to that lab.  It would somehow be confused
by some other Novell server elsewhere on campus, lose its connection to
the local Novell server (talking IPX) and stop printing.  We attempted
to use its built in TCP/IP accessible control panel in order to enable
SMB protocol printing, but it seemed to be completely unresponsive to
anything over TCP/IP protocol despite its diagnostic printout saying it
had a valid IP address.  I ended up setting up a temporary Linux NAT box
using MonMotha's script to isolate IPX into that room, while allowing
the Windows machines Internet access.  This is a temporary kludge until
I get around to replacing the Novell print queue with a Samba print
queue on that Linux box.  For now the teacher is happy, and I trained
her in logging to the Linux console and enabling or disabling eth0.  She
likes the flexibility of disabling the Internet within that room during
certain classes so it wont be a distraction for the students when they
don't need it for certain lessons.  This is the same teacher that needs
an Oracle server for students to practice SQL statements.

There is still the possibility of a Linux thin client lab for two
classrooms.  More details on this later...

What Help Is Needed for Mililani
--------------------
1. Solaris knowledgeable help.  I am going in today to install GNU tools
and SSHD so I can continue working on it from home.  I think I can
handle this much, but I will need help with more difficult things like
operating system upgrades later.
2. Oracle on Linux help.
3. Intel Netexpress print server appliance and Samba print queue setup. 
I haven't done a Samba print queue before.  Has anyone configured that
before?  I may need help in figuring out how the Intel appliance can be
re-configured to work with anything other than IPX.
4. Later the school is interested in Unix knowledgeable people coming in
to help train some teachers and students in Solaris and Linux, and also
mentor students in certain Unix related projects.

More details later...
Warren Togami
warren at togami.com