Ideal Linux distro for a computer lab

I'm looking for a good Linux distribution to install on a ~40 PCs programming laboratory. The desktops need to be user-friendly for both Linux and non-Linux users (which means that's probably a KDE/Gnome desktop). I think that a rolling-release distro (like Arch) is out of question, since updating 40 boxes would be really messy (if there's no automated way to update all the machines at once).
What Linux distro would you recommend installing on such lab?

No matter what distribution you are going to operate, thats quite a few machines to setup at any one time. I'd recommend that you use the distribution you are most familiar with. So why not use Arch?
Probably the best way to do it would be to use kdemod for your desktop. Two of the machines should be set aside for special functions. The first machine is your test machine. You perform all the updates on here manually. Make sure the updates work etc before you roll them out to the other machines. (I am assuming they are all similarly specced if they are in the same lab).
Setup a ftp server on the second machine and use that as your repository. When you have sufficiently tested the updates, update the repository as needed. You can then run say a weekly cron job on each of the lab machines which will update them to the latest packages in your repository. This will significantly reduce the amount of work you have to do to maintain the lab. Also has the advantage of reducing the amount of bandwidth you use when updating them. Whilst downloading 100-200mb of updates on one machine isn't too bad, hammering those out accross say 40 machines is completely different. Whichever distribution you decide on running, you will need to maintain a local repository.
Also if you need to re-image a machine, then all you need to do is grab the packages from the ftp server locally rather than going accross the internet. Means you reimage much faster.

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Which linux distro for ASM

Hi,
I have just purchased a new PC and would like to use oracle ASM, could anyone suggest the best free linux distro for this purpose.
I have read recently that there are problems when trying to use ASM on Ubuntu,.... does anyone have any suggestions of a suitable distro?
Thanks in advance

806595 wrote:
Hi,
I have just purchased a new PC and would like to use oracle ASM, could anyone suggest the best free linux distro for this purpose.
I have read recently that there are problems when trying to use ASM on Ubuntu,.... does anyone have any suggestions of a suitable distro?
Thanks in advanceWhat do you plan on doing with it?
If you're looking to learn Oracle then i would ditch ASM as a starting point (it'll complicate your life to begin with) and go with just installing the database, working from there. A simple and effective installation i've done a couple of times is Oracle XE on Ubuntu (very smooth installation, never a problem). This is a great lightweight installation suitable for learning.
I have CentOS running Oracle 11.2 on a PC at home with ASM (did it for a learning experience) and it was quite a pain to get going (though i'm admittedly no DBA with minimal *nix experience ... was a great learning experience though). Once going it's pretty smooth, though every time the kernel gets upgraded i have to head out to find new RPM's for ASM to be able to properly communicate with the Kernel (if you don't do this, you perform a kernel upgrade and reboot your machine you're going to be without a database).
So it really depends on what your level of experience is, how much patience you have, and what you're looking to get out of the experience.

Need Suggestions for Student Computer Lab - Multiple Users on IWeb

I need some suggestions on how to best show students in the computer lab to save their Domain file to their thumbdrive. It seems some students are saving previous users Domain Files to their thumbdrives. There has to be an easy solution. Students are using IWEB for their Digital Portfolio projects and they are do to be presented in June. For some reason students are not saving their work before the end of class.
This is how I instruct them to save their work:
File Save
Open Finder, Click on Student User, Library, Application Support, Iweb, then drag Domain file to their thumb drive.
This way when a new student comes to use the same computer either a new domain needs to be created or they open the domain file in their thumb drive.
Suggestions Please!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you!!!!

Thank you for the suggested forum. It seems so simple but students just don't get it. As a Lab Tech and not the Administrator, I can not install any programs.
Message was edited by: lorisu

Should I use the 64 bit or 32 bit Linux distro for Oracle Service Bus

I'm going to install OSB for the first time on Oracle Linux 5.3 for development use. Does it matter whether I install OSB on the 32 bit or 64 bit version of Oracle Linux?
I've had better luck with 32 bit Linux distros in the past, but if there's a benefit to using the 64 bit distro I'll use it. My hardware has 4 GB of RAM, which I hope is enough for development use.
Thanks.
Dean

I found this post on the Ubuntu forums which indicates trouble running Workshop on ubuntu. Maybe OSB works but Workshop has problems on Ubuntu:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1137863

Copying iBooks for iMac computer lab

We want to share free Common Sense Media iBooks to all users in a K-12 computer lab (21 iMacs running Mavericks) without the need to download them for each student from the iBooks Store. I was able to copy the iBooks folder (xxxxx.ibooks) to a student computer, but was not able to open it through iBooks. Is it possible to store iBooks on the computer hard drives so the students have access to them?

No, the books are tied to the Apple ID.
They have to download them from iTunes.

Essential Linux Apps For A Computer Science Student

Yo all,
I'm studying CS at Cardiff Uni (Wales). Pretty shat, but that's besides the point. What I'm wondering is, are there any other CS students who use linux for doing work, and if so, what apps do you use?
For example, our labs have things like Matlab and Mathematica, I'm not sure if there are any non-license equivalents. I need software for mathematics/graphs, development tools for HTML (any WYSIWYG?), Java, PHP, maybe Perl.
Atm I'm using Bluefish for editing web stuff, and Jedit for Java, tho it tends to bugger up sometimes and I lose keyboard functionality.
If anyone has any suggestions for editors, IDEs, generally useful stuff, I'd be interested to know.
Peace hermanos.
T

tmadhavan wrote:For example, our labs have things like Matlab and Mathematica, I'm not sure if there are any non-license equivalents. I need software for mathematics/graphs, development tools for HTML (any WYSIWYG?), Java, PHP, maybe Perl.
try TeXmacs (GUI) and Octave. Octave has the same syntax with Matlab and does a good job. [no toolboxes though]. You can find it in ArchLinux. Also SciGraphica (a tu repo) is nice, R (mostly statistics), Rpy (via python), and of course PYTHON as a calculator and much more.
Atm I'm using Bluefish for editing web stuff, and Jedit for Java, tho it tends to bugger up sometimes and I lose keyboard functionality.
Bluefish is nice, if you want GUI, try nvu (nvu.com). It's Open Source.
I don't know Jedit and what you lose. There are TONS of JAVA Editors, also you can run eclipse (and with the new VE it rocks)
If anyone has any suggestions for editors, IDEs, generally useful stuff, I'd be interested to know.
Anjuta, KDevelop, Eclipse, MonoDevelop, Emacs, Vi and so on..
Peace hermanos.
T
Greets from Greece

Please recommend Linux Distro for 9ids installation

Has anyone successfully installed 9ids (9.0.2) on a linux distro other than Redhat AS 2.1 and SuSe SLES7.
If so what distro and version. Any additional packages needed? I have followed the installation instructions and have attempted its intall on several different distributions and have been unsuccessful.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

why dont you go for debian, it has a wonderfull package management system called dpkg, and also uses "apt" to get packages and it resolves dependencies if broken, go for it you wont be desapointed.

Compaitble Linux distro for Tecra520 cdt

Hello all,
need a bit of information on what Linux Distro would be suitable for my beast.
I know that ubuntu tends to work on all newer tosh machine's my problems are trying to locate a older distro that works on the more antique models, any of the 500-550cdt models.
My machine runs XP at present, with a full comliment of RAM@160Mb, BIOS ver. 6.8, 40Gb hard drive, TEAC DVD-ROM (standard CDROM doesn??t like CDRW or DVD discs). I have had a CD-RW drive working although the front wasnt flat so that came out, not tried a DVDRW drive yet. Currently experimenting with a Solid State 8Gb CF Card, (well got to get rid of some weight :)
Any other Tecra 500-550cdt users still out there in the ether?
Any information would be great on my quest for a suitable distro.

Ubuntu seems to be Toshiba's preferred distro
More info:
http://linux.toshiba-dme.co.jp/linux/

Configuring 30 new IMac's for a computer lab.

I work at a technical college in the IT dept. and we just got our first ever new Apple IMac's. Is it possible to configure one computer similar to symantec ghost without having to enter personal information (credit card number and setting up .mac accounts) and so that one student account is created that they can automatically sign in with. We don't have a lot of mac experience on campus.

You don't have to create a .mac account just skip that step when you get to it.
Are you trying to give each student one account or each Mac one account?
As an aside you may like to take a look at Apple Remote Desktop (link) which allows you to control multiple Macs from one.
mrtotes

Arch Linux for Google Compute Engine

Hi Arch users,
I’ve created a tool that can create an Arch Linux image for Google Compute Engine. It has the compute-image-packages software preinstalled so basic GCE integration works.
I’m working to improve the boot times and shrink the image since it’s a bit larger than I’d like it to be. You can follow the instructions below to boot a virtual machine running Arch.
The source code is hosted on Github: https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/ … ge-builder, pull requests welcome!
I've already built one today and has been made public on Cloud Storage at gs://jeremyje/arch-stable/arch-v20140906.tar.gz
Instructions to boot a VM with the image:
1. Create a project or pick an existing one. Turn on Compute Engine.
https://console.developers.google.com/
Click "Create project"
Enter a project name and project id.
Go to Compute > Compute Engine
If necessary, enable billing.
2. Add the Arch Image to your Project
Go to Compute > Compute Engine > Images
Click "New image"
Name: arch-v20140906
Description: Arch Linux built on 2014-09-06
Source Type: Cloud Storage object
Cloud Storage Object Path: gs://jeremyje/arch-stable/arch-v20140906.tar.gz
3. Create an Arch Linux instance.
Go to https://console.developers.google.com/
Select your project.
Compute > Compute Engine > VM instances > Add Instance
Select a zone, machine type, and select the “arch-v20140906” image.
You can SSH into the VM by clicking on the SSH button after you create it.
If you like command line here's the equivalent.
Google Cloud SDK: https://developers.google.com/cloud/sdk/
# Install Python2
pacman -S python2
# Install Cloud SDK
export CLOUDSDK_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python2
curl https://sdk.cloud.google.com | bash
echo “export CLOUDSDK_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python2” >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
# Login, create a project
gcloud auth login
# Add the image to your project.
gcloud compute images create archlinux gs://jeremyje/arch-stable/arch-v20140906.tar.gz --description “Arch Linux built on 2014-09-06”
# Create the instance booting Arch
gcloud compute instances create archvm --zone us-central1-a --machine-type f1-micro --image arch-v20140906
Lastly, there’s no official support for these images but if you find a problem please file a bug or submit a fix on Github.

Hi! Do you have any update of your Arch image?
Thank you

High school computer lab: turning off iSight, disabling Photobooth

We purchased new iMacs for our computer labs, and the iSight camera plus Photo Booth have been nothing but needless distractions since the school year began. I think that it is UNACCEPTABLE that Apple did not foresee the need to turn these cameras off and provide a way to do so in system preferences, rather than forcing people to rely on a command line hack to get this done.
I also find it incredibly stupid to provide people WITHOUT administrator privileges the option of changing the account pictures through Photo Booth. This is just idiotic. All of the account pictures for our public accounts (where all system preferences are locked) have been changed to photo booth pictures and it takes time to change them back on 90+ computers.
Yes, I know that Photo booth access can be disabled, but it is like it never entered Apple's mind that these computers might be used in computer labs, otherwise, (a) the option to turn this camera off would have been provided, and (b) they would not have included an option in an application which allows a person without admin privileges to change an account's picture. If the ability to change an account picture is turned off, shouldn't photo booth know this? Stupid.
Just venting.
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

I have sent apple my feedaback because I have a similar problem. I have a mobile MacBook Lab and can't seem to find a way to disable the option in Photo Booth that sends the photo taken to the users login account picture. This cuts down on my administrative efficiency because I have to change the user account pictures back to its original. The problem that there is no option to disable the "send to accounts feature" in a school enviornment is the students who use photo booth to take obscene photos and then send them to the accounts picture.
Please help me with a solution. Is there is a way to recreate the Login window to it's, original established set of account pictures, after a user logs out of their account? These MacBooks are used by many different grade levels including 1st and 2nd graders and I cannot expose them to the obscene login pictures.
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

I am going to be presenting for my Fundamentals Of Speech class in a few weeks a presentation on how Linux can be a great alternative operating system for most students at my school. After I present, I am planning on giving away CDs of various Linux distros for them to try and see for themselves if they would like to use a Linux-based operating system. I want to come up with some that are able to fit on a CD, preferably, but a DVD would also work if needed. I have a large spindle of CDs but no DVDs, so spending $0 would be nice.
I was thinking about Ubuntu 12.04 and variants, but I don't know about other good distros for beginners. What do you all think?

I think that the least shocking of a change would be with Linux Mint. Its menu positioning kind of mimicks the windows environment. The last time I tried Ubuntu (11,04 I think), I kind of remember there being a cd and a dvd, where the dvd simply had all the non-free stuffs that is available as a download anyway while installing. This was a while ago, and I am not sure that it is how it is now... in fact andjeng says otherwise.

Looking for Help on how to get wireless near computer lab

Ok Im Near A Computer Lab, And I want to get free wifi. I can log into the router from one of the computer lab's computers by the >192.168.1.1 and see passphrase, wep keys all that stuff...
My Question is how can I get internet at home from this router?
More info about router:
Firmware Version: v2.0.02
Mod: Wireless-N Broadband Router WRT160Nv2
Questions I need answered:
Basic Things Like, Mainly:
-What Adapter Do I Need? Is My Idea Plausible? What Information Do I need To Log Into This Internet connection from home? What Are The Consequences Of Leeching Internet this way? just stuff to get me going.
-If I Succeed In Getting Internet From The Computer Lab's router, Will "They" Be Able To See My Personal Email, What I search For on the internet, Downloads Things like this?
Other Maybe Useless Info: I have a old Wireless-G PCI Adapter Model No. WMP54G, I Have Not Tried But I Dont Think The Card Works And Is Broken Do To After Installed The Toolbar Icon Was Completly "Greyed Out"

I'm pretty sure the "computer lab" settings are configured and restricted that is why the default address is not working. Basically, if it is not your network more so if the network is secured, then definitely, you will not gonna be able to connect unless they had provide you the wireless settings like the SSID and the password. However though, if it is unsecured, then, that's no problem at all.
As with your wireless adapter, check on the links below:
Installing the WMP54G v4 for the first time
http://kb.linksys.com/Linksys/ukp.aspx?vw=1&docid=bf9526ef1fbf4b0e8dbaecb48950d7e8_3769.xml&pid=80&r...
Checking if the WMP54G v4 is Installed Properly
http://kb.linksys.com/Linksys/ukp.aspx?pid=80&vw=1&articleid=3767

Is there a solution for Higher Ed Computer Labs?

I am an instructional Technician for the Photography Department at a Community College. We currently purchase and use the Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium here in the Photography, Graphics and Journalism departments. We have over 150 Macintosh computers licensed with your product and we are very interested in the Creative Cloud.
Currently we purchase the licenses for all of our student and faculty computers, we are hoping that you will be developing an education solution for computer labs like ours.
What we would like to see is an arrangement that would allow our students to subscribe to the Creative Cloud for a three-month period that would be paid for prior to the first day of classes. This would avoid classroom disruptions from students failing to pay if the subscription was on a month-to-month basis.
While I understand that the current Student and Teacher edition at $19.95 is a limited promotion, a price of $20–$25 per month or $75 for a three-month period would be less than the cost of a textbook and could be easily charged as a class fee.
A potential problem is that students sometimes do not use the same computer all the time. If students are taking multiple classes in different labs, they need to be able to access the programs on several computers. I am currently subscribed to the free trial month and my impression is that the subscription is dependent on logging in with an Adobe ID. If this is the case, students should be able to use this log in to access the software they need on whatever computer they are at as long as they have an active (paid) login, and are not logged in on another computer.
As it is everywhere in education, our program budgets are tight. The Creative Cloud would allow us to save a significant amount of funds while still offering the most current technology to our students and faculty. The ability to access any software we need and allowing students the ability to access the programs at school and at home will empower both our faculty and students. Additionally, the availability of cloud storage will allow students to work on files at home and at school seamlessly.
I am making several assumptions:
Pricing –
Student and faculty pricing will be available.
A price will be established for a three-month period to facilitate a college semester.
Access –
Students will be able to access the programs on more than one lab computer.
Is access controlled by logging in with an Adobe ID?
Once the software has been installed on a computer, will any student with an Adobe ID be able to access it?
We are hoping to be able to implement this by next fall, so I am anticipating that these details will be worked out before then.

Great to know this I will be sharing it with my professors also. To have the "team" version would be great! Many problems occur for students with portable storage units. The worst is forgetting to download a project and take it with you. which really hurts our timing on a project to completion. Also as the projects grow in size we can end up with storage issues as some files are very large. This sounds like a grand solution.
Thank you for answering my question earlier Mr. Rice. Now I need to get back to my assignments. bye.

Can I install photoshop trial version on student computer lab for teaching student ?.

can I install photoshop trial version on student computer lab for teaching student ?
or school need to buy a license.

I don't see that anything would stop you installing the trial, though it is not for that and the license might forbid it, not sure. But the trial lasts 30 days and cannot be extended or repeated. You are expected to buy software used in teaching, though there may be academic discounts.

Ideal Linux distro for a computer lab

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