On 01/10/2012 07:06 PM, Caryl Bigenho wrote:
Hi Ruben and All,
Tom has warned me that the persistent usbs really _/are/_ persistent
and that eventually they fill up and fail! Not good. That would not
be a problem with a Live CD as nothing is written to it. Therefore,
the extra usb for file storage... journal items, extra Activities and
the like.
Again, please remember we are talking about the average non-techie
educator who wants to bring Sugar to their students on whatever old
machines they may have. While most schools do have a person in charge
of technology, in many cases it is a regular teacher who just knows a
little bit more than other teachers and has the time to do it. They
may get a tiny bit of training, a small stipend, and a special
"title" to go with the job, but that is about it.
In the real world, the latest buzz is all about using smart phones,
iPod touches, and all sorts of tablets with students. Nothing wrong
with that, I guess, but having the Sugar Activities available would be
nice.... and gladly accepted... if we can make it easy to do. Tell
the teachers they need a "thin client" and they may start looking for
a skinny student!
Getting a whole school to buy into something like Sugar is a stretch.
It is a battle that has to be won, one teacher at a time. Maybe when
the others see it in action in some of the classrooms interest will
reach a level where a school wide adoption would be feasible.
So enough with the cliches (sorry I used so many), I need to find out
how to make a Live CD to test this. The instructions are either gone
or buried in the wiki (I guess that is one reason why we are
refreshing it). So here is the information I need:
1) What is the most up-to-date build you folks would recommend?
>http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Trisquel_On_A_Sugar_Toast
Download:
http://devel.trisquel.info/sugar/toast/iso/trisquel-sugar_5.0_i686-20111204.iso
*Install directly from the Live CD:
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Trisquel_On_A_Sugar_Toast#Install_To_4_GB_USB-stick
(This is a full install; not a live install with persistence)
*VirtualBox appliance Just import into VirtualBox for OSX on your MAC:
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Emulator_image_files/Trisquel#File:Trisquel_icon.png_Trisquel-5.0-sugar
>SoaS_v6_Pineapple
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Community/Distributions/Fedora-SoaS#SoaS_v6_Pineapple
*Use "liveinst" command in a sugar root terminal to install to a 4 GB
USB (formatted ext4 no swap)
Download:
http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/spins/linux/releases/16/Spins/i686/Fedora-16-i686-Live-SoaS.iso
Where can I find the instructions for making the Live CD?
* Wiki Instructions: http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Downloads
*Burning a Live CD from an .iso on a MAC This works tg jan 10 2012
Click on the CD.iso ( trisquel-sugar_5.0_i686-20111204.iso) Downloaded
to the desktop
Right click: Open with DiskImageMounter.app
Open: Applications/Utilities/Diskutility.app
Click on Mounted (trisquel-sugar_5.0_i686-20111204.iso) in Disk Utility
Insert Unused CD in Mac Slot
Click on "Burn" on top bar - (burns and verifies Live CD)
This Live CD boots on a PC and a MAC
*How to boot the trisquel-sugar_5.0_i686-20111204 live CD on your Mac
Insert the CD
Shutdown The Mac
Press Power button and hold the OPTION key down until a windows CD is
displayed to the right of the MAC harddrive
Use ==> arrow key to select the windows CD and hit enter.
CD Boots
*Problems:
Very Slow compared to a VirtualBox appliance
No internet connection on CD - VirtualBox works fine
CD ejects on shutdown of sugar cannot insert it soon enough to boot
with option key
Better to use the CD in a PC
*I recommend a VirtualBox Install for a Mac
VirtualBox:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/virtualbox/downloads/index.html
*Here is a complete listing of available appliances (Just import the 2
files; after downloading them)
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Creation_Kit#All_Prebuilt_VirtualBox_Appliances
3) Would it be better to put it onto a DVD since the price is so
similar these days?
It does not matter the file size is much smaller than a CD. But older
PC's may not handle a DVD
4) What type of CD or DVD works best on a wide variety of intel
computers (PC and Mac)? (Brand, R, RW or ???)
5) Can the Live CD be easily cloned with a DVD Rewriter? (I will
probably want to make at least 100 copies)
Use the CD/DVD burner on your machine. It will duplicate one at a time.
see section above: Burning a Live CD from an .iso on a MAC
I have no experience in DVD rewriters....
6) What other things I haven't thought of should I know?
7) Anyone want to stand by to give advice if I get stuck? (Skype call
or irc if you must... I do not type well)
Glad to help by e-mail; cell phone or IRC #sugar.
Regards
Tom Gilliard
Thanks,
Caryl
> Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:21:37 +0100
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> CC: [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]
> Subject: Re: [IAEP] SoaS Breakthrough!
>
>
> > I called Tom Gilliard today during his ski vacation (oops!) to get
> > some help prepping for showing SoaS at SCaLE 10X Jan 20-22. After we
> > talked about several things I told him I had a "wild idea" that I
> > thought the average non-techie teacher could handle. Why not run
> > SoaS from a Live CD and then save all the files you want to keep on a
> > separate usb stick? This could include additional Activities
> > downloaded from the Sugar Labs website that don't "live" on the Live
> > CD.
>
> This should work out of the box in TOAST -without extra activities-,
> you just need to format the usb drive in ext2(-4) and label it home-rw.
> Then, if you have it plugged during the live cd boot, it will be mounted
> as /home and keep any user changes, downloads, activities, journal...
>
> In any case, how is that an improvement over having both the system and
> the home in the usb as usually?
>
> > IMHO this could really be a breakthrough for getting Sugar into
> > classrooms that can't get XOs.
>
> I think live usb systems are nice for some tasks, but not for serious
> deployments. The live usb persistence methods can -and do- fail,
> specially if you don't shut the system down properly, as impatient kids
> tend to do.
>
> The method I think would be a breakthrough for a school is to use a thin
> client environment. One server is enough to run a typical school, you
> only need to manage one standard GNU/Linux computer, the clients need
> no software or configuration, and they can keep whatever they already
> have in their hard drives untouched and usable. Also all the students
> data are in an easy to backup spot, installing an activity in the server
> makes it available for everyone instantly, and you can also combine it
> with class management software like iTALC.
_______________________________________________
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
[email protected]
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
_______________________________________________
Testing mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/testing
