*This is just the beginning, but quite monumental work has been achieved below by Tim Moody, George Hunt and Team here =)*
From: Tim Moody <t...@timmoody.com> Date: Sun, Jul 27, 2014 at 7:57 PM Subject: [Server-devel] XSCE Release 5.1 To: xsce-de...@googlegroups.com, Internet In a Box Working Group < i...@sgvhak.org>, server-de...@lists.laptop.org On behalf of the many contributors to the School Server Community Edition I am pleased to announce Release 5.1. XSCE 5.1 has been tested on a variety of hardware platforms including OLPC XO-4 laptops, 64 bit servers, and VBox VMs. Please help with further testing. To get started (assuming you have git setup) please follow the instructions at https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/master/docs/INSTALL.rst or the instructions in the Release Notes. The 5.1 release can be cloned by git clone https://github.com/XSCE/xsce.git --branch release-5.1 --depth 1 or if you want the entire repository: git clone https://github.com/XSCE/xsce.git git checkout release-5.1 The release notes that follow are at https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/master/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst Release Notes for XSCE 5.1 Release 5.1 pursues two parallel goals, the addition of New Features and Improvements to Existing Features. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#new-features>New Features <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#samba> Samba In addition to being a web server, XSCE can now operate as a file server. For this release /library/public is publicly shared by default, but another directory can chosen by changing the variable {{ shared_dir }}. N.B. that an XO does not have a samba-client installed by default. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#xovis> XOVis The XO Visualization package, created by Martin Dluhos, draws graphs that represent XO usage extrapolated from backup files on the server. There are a number of ansible variables that can customize this package. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#vnstat> vnStat vnStat is another arrow in the management quiver that allows console-based network traffic monitoring for analysis and trouble-shooting. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#easier-customization-and-administration>Easier Customization and Administration With 5.1 we begin a framework to make customizing installations easier. - Introduction of vars/local_vars.yml: variable values in this file will override the values in vars/default_vars.yml. A new git repo has also been created, https://github.com/XSCE/xsce-local, in which branches can be used to store variable settings for a particular deployment. - Conditional Install: we have begun to add install and enable flags for optional features. Hopefully this will be built out further in the next release. - Standard Admin User: Variables are in place to add an administrative user the name and password of which can be customized through local_vars.yml. There is also provision for a custom authorized_keys file which can be specified for a particular deployment. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#support-for-fedora-20>Support for Fedora 20 A new rpm repo has been added with rpms for Fedora 20 at http://download.unleashkids.org/xsce/repos/xsce/testing/. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#improvements> Improvements <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#internet-in-a-box> Internet-in-a-Box The version of IIAB has been upgraded to include Full Text Search in the wikipediae and in Open Street Maps. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#squid> Squid Whitelist filtering and https filtering have been added. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#ansible-structure>Ansible Structure Nine aggregate categores have been created to make a clearer delineation of xsce features. Changes required by ansible 1.6. have also been implemented. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#openvpn> OpenVPN OpenVPN was in previous releases, but without sufficient customization to make it easily implemented. This is now greatly improved and includes support for 3g modems. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#portal> Portal More localization and directory-driven content menus have been added. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#testing> Testing <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#server-install>Server Install To get started please install git and ansible and then issue as root: cd git clone https://github.com/XSCE/xsce.git --depth 1 -b release-5.1 cd xsce ./runansible On an XO-4 the machine will reboot and it is necessary to execute ./runansible again. Some services, such as samba and Authserver, do not become active until a reboot. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#server-tests>Server Tests A testing checklist is at https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/master/docs/TESTING.rst. The first step in automating testing is reflected in https://github.com/XSCE/xsce-tests, which includes scripts that can be loaded onto an XO client to perform basic smoke tests. Please help test this and file bugs at https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/issues?state=open <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#platforms> Platforms - 64 bit Intel: tested on both VBox and physical machines. - XO-4: the install works, but it may be necessary to issue ./runansible more than once or use the runtags command to install in smaller steps. <https://github.com/XSCE/xsce/blob/release-5.1/ReleaseNotes5.1.rst#known-problems>Known Problems - Pathagar has a problem at source and is not installed by default. - On XO-4 it is sometimes necessary to reboot when network is configured and NetworkManager fails to restart. Tim Moody _______________________________________________ Server-devel mailing list server-de...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
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