Re: [Server-devel] Lesotho project network server: obstacles needs
Hi Janissa I am copying you separately a document that we use in PNG and Solomons that helps with a basic default installation of XS 0.6 and some very basic Moodle settings. It's a bit country/project specific so I need to clean it up before sharing on this list. I have installed from a USB stick before, but it's a while ago. OLPC-AU do this so will leave that to Sridhar. We use CD based installation. I too am learning by seat of my pants so happy to share your experience! David Leeming -Original Message- From: jbalc...@laptopstolesotho.org [mailto:jbalc...@laptopstolesotho.org] Sent: Saturday, 28 April 2012 8:17 a.m. To: David Leeming Cc: 'XS Devel' Subject: RE: [Server-devel] Lesotho project network server: obstacles needs Hi David, Sorry for my delayed reply. Thanks for your comments and advice. Please do send me the specs for the EPC-AT270 you are using. I tried downloading the XS operating system from the OLPC website onto a dongle/flash drive and installing it from that onto the PC we have designated as our server, but the installation failed. Later, we had two computer specialists reformat the PC and try the same thing without success. Each time, we got errors that said the XS files were incomplete. Did you install your XS software from a dongle, or did you download it directly onto your server? If you installed from a dongle, do you have any suggestions on what we might be doing wrong? Do you know if there is information anywhere with very detailed, step-by-step instructions for installing the XS from a dongle? We are all total Linux and XS novices, and none of us have ever operated a server before. Since we haven't been able to install the XS, I'm unfamiliar with the XS features you mentioned (Moodle home page, /library, class segregation etc.) Thanks, Janissa Janissa Balcomb jbalc...@laptopstolesotho.org Laptops to Lesotho Inc. www.laptopstolesotho.inc - Hi Janissa Your programme sounds very worthwhile and I wish you all the best with it! Maybe I was not clear, but my point is that for us, the XS (we are using v0.6) installed on a low power e-box such as the EPC-AT270 (I can send you the spec sheet, it is available in Australia not sure where you are) has proven exactly what you seem to be looking for. Very low power, running at 15W or less on 12V DC solar power, with auto-power on enabled so even if there is a power outage the locals don't need to intervene. At one site it ran 18 months continuously and no problems. The access points all using DC power via PoE too. Our schools in PNG only theoretically have Internet access in some locationsas the quality of service is insufficient. Even if it were, it's only for the teachers due to cost. But the teachers do have some limited options with 3G dongles if they wish to sign up to the OLPC-Australia XO-Certification programme (extended to Pacific) laptop.moodle.com.au and so we spent time training them to do so. It is true one does need some initial centralised or outside expertise to set the servers up but in our case we are all Linux novices really and we get by. On site, as I said the servers are very useful, but as in your case we have to just install and leave them and expect little maintenance work although as time goes on various champions emerge. I am typing this in the remotest place in PNG, and yet I am planning today to training one teacher to be able to do some role assignment work on the XS Moodle in some schools we can't visit this time. I guess this list can help you design a suitable configuration for the XS. As I said in our case it is really basic, just using the Moodle home page as a links page to folders of resources in the /library, and some upload folders and the general news/forum. We don't use the class segregation as yet because we are unable to assist when the students change class at the new year, so the strategy is just to tell teachers try not to overload the server, coordinate with each other etc. In the future we can improve on it. David Leeming Solomon Islands Rural Link P.O.Box 652 Honiara, Solomon Islands +677 7476396 (m) +677 24419 (h) www.rurallink.com.sb -Original Message- From: server-devel-boun...@lists.laptop.org [mailto:server-devel-boun...@lists.laptop.org] On Behalf Of jbalc...@laptopstolesotho.org Sent: Monday, 16 April 2012 9:07 a.m. To: server-devel@lists.laptop.org Subject: [Server-devel] Lesotho project network server: obstacles needs I work with a non-OLPC-affiliated XO laptop project in Lesotho. Our project uses G1G1 XO-1 laptops we buy on the open market and refurbish ourselves. Like David Leeming in PNG (see Server-devel Digest, Vol 60, Issue 13, Topic 1 -- Re: Looking for new low power server hardware candidate), I work with schools in a very remote area with rough terrain, difficult access, limited resources, and poorly trained teachers. Unlike David's area, our schools do not have access to
Re: [Server-devel] Collaboration XO-1 with XS
When the problem happens, it'll be interesting to see the output of olpc-netstatus and olpc-xos cmdline utilities on XOs that have trouble and on those that don't. There's additional debugging info you can get from ejabberd on the XS. There's a page in the wiki (in the XS techniques page?) that lists all the debugging/diagnostics steps for collaboration. What James mentions is correct, too. A reconnection is what is probably fixing it. hth, m On Apr 28, 2012 5:14 AM, David Leeming da...@leeming-consulting.com wrote: ** Hi James, I have been fairly familiar some time with using the basic default installation of the XS. It is specifically the combination of XO-1 build 883 / Sugar 0.94.1 with XS0-0.6 which has thrown up some issues - with collaboration. A typical situation when we observe this recently: a workshop with 20 teachers, all who have freshly installed release 11.3.0 on their XO-1sand registered on the workshop XS and restarted. All have been accessing the Moodle pages with no problems and the links to the public content in the /library folder. I will have been using the XS network wirelessly to an XO that is running Classroom Broadcast Activity, with no difficult whatsoever. So there is no need to ping the server to understand that the XOs are all properly connected and registered, although I take your point and would have done more diagnostics if i knew how to isolate the issue with the collaboration problem we experienced. We were able to replicate the issue on identically set-up servers. The issue is: not all the other connected XOs appear in the neighbourhood view, and when trying to demonstrate collaboration using the set up above, it was only rarely that the sharing icon appeared on other XOs neighbourhood view even though all else seemed to be working fine. I tried using the discard network history with a few XOs only once at the end of the workshop, and we then run out of time. I tried again with my own setup later, using two XOs only, and replicated the issue but the discard history did not work then. So that might not be useful information. Perhaps I should rephrase my question: Was it intended that collaboration should work with XO-1s running release 11.3.0 using the XS-0.6 default installation? Secondary question, if this is not working, and I have made no customisation other than add some links using aliases presented as links on the Moodle home page, what can I do to trouble shoot? David Leeming -Original Message- From: qu...@us.netrek.org [mailto:qu...@us.netrek.orgqu...@us.netrek.org] On Behalf Of James Cameron Sent: Friday, 27 April 2012 7:39 a.m. To: David Leeming Cc: 'XS Devel'; 'OLPC Devel' Subject: Re: [Server-devel] Collaboration XO-1 with XS On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 06:38:00AM +1000, David Leeming wrote: [...] we work around it by for instance using ?discard network history? which seems to help. I was deeply involved in the discard network history feature at one point in development, and at the time the only thing it did was to remove access point names (ESSIDs) from the list of known access points. I've just checked the code and that is still only what it does. So I'm surprised it is having an effect. But congratulations for finding it does have an effect. I know nothing about the network at the location. Is there more than one access point name available? If so, at the time of the problem, the reason the button is having an effect may be because a disconnection has led to the laptop associating with another access point, and pressing the button would prevent that. If not, then the button is only serving to disconnect the laptop from the network. You may find the same effect to occur by clicking on the access point in the network neighbourhood view. Lastly, whether activities are open at the time of the forced disconnect and reconnect may be interesting. Next time, please do some technical diagnosis at the time of the problem ... use Terminal activity to ping the server. As I have recently seen examples of TP-Link with OpenWRT access points that silently block data flow, it reminds me that some diagnosis is worth doing. In the cases I observed, data flow was restored by reconnecting. That you currently reconnect to work around the problem may be a coincidence, or it might be this same kind of problem. -- James Cameron http://quozl.linux.org.au/ ___ Devel mailing list de...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] Lesotho project network server: obstacles needs
Hi David, The document you sent looks extremely helpful. Thanks so much! Janissa From: David Leeming Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2012 3:19 AM To: jbalc...@laptopstolesotho.org Cc: 'XS Devel' Subject: RE: [Server-devel] Lesotho project network server: obstacles needs Hi Janissa I am copying you separately a document that we use in PNG and Solomons that helps with a basic default installation of XS 0.6 and some very basic Moodle settings. It's a bit country/project specific so I need to clean it up before sharing on this list. I have installed from a USB stick before, but it's a while ago. OLPC-AU do this so will leave that to Sridhar. We use CD based installation. I too am learning by seat of my pants so happy to share your experience! David Leeming ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
