Comments on: New To ubuntu But need lots of help

By: House Help Desk

House Help Desk — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:07:15 +0000

Wubi keeps most of the files in one folder, and if you do not like it, you can simply uninstall it as any other application.
Wubi is Free….

But first, I would get some computers up and running….

Good Luck….

_____________________________________
Whiteblack

By: quizz

quizz — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:45:23 +0000

i think it’s too late, buy maybe ltsp would have made any help? but surely you need one good server for that

By: DerHesse

DerHesse — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:06:12 +0000

- use OEM Install Mode, during ubuntu setup. (once)

- Clone this machine to a DVD.

- Apply the clone to every Computer, regardless what hardware you are using, Start each machine and set User and Machine individually during initial boot.

By: John Eddie Kerr

John Eddie Kerr — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:59:36 +0000

A good book to have on hand would be “Moving to the Linux business desktop by Marcel Gagne”
here is a review:

http://www.osnews.com/story/8552/Review_Moving_to_the_Linux_Business_Desktop_By_Marcel_Gagn_

The chapter on thin clients is very good, something not mentioned so far, but may be worth consideration.

The December 2008 Linux Pro Magazine has a story on iTalc. iTalc is a program that “gives teachers complete control over the digital classroom an integrates the PC as a learning aid tool”

But first, I would get some computers up and running.

Join the wftl-lug at http://www.marcelgagne.com/wftllugform.html

Good luck

By: TankerKevo

TankerKevo — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:55:23 +0000

This link walks you through the setup of systemimager: http://wiki.systemimager.org/index.php/Quick_Start_HOWTO

By: TankerKevo

TankerKevo — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:36:27 +0000

WUBI is great, but then you will still need to have or purchase 43 Windows licenses.

I’m with Ken on this one, check out http://wiki.systemimager.org/index.php/Main_Page .

By: Bill Randle

Bill Randle — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 06:08:17 +0000

Are you familiar with WUBI? I’m kind of a newbie also, and I think this is great, it worked perfectly for me. The link to the site is http://wubi-installer.org/
I cut and pasted this from the site.
Wubi is Simple

No need to burn a CD. Just run the installer, enter a password for the new account, and click “Install”, go grab a coffee, and when you are back, Ubuntu will be ready for you.
Wubi is Safe

You keep Windows as it is, Wubi only adds an extra option to boot into Ubuntu. Wubi does not require you to modify the partitions of your PC, or to use a different bootloader, and does not install special drivers. It works just like any other application. Wubi is spyware and malware free, and being open source, anyone can verify that.
Wubi is Discrete

Wubi keeps most of the files in one folder, and if you do not like it, you can simply uninstall it as any other application.
Wubi is Free

Wubi and Ubuntu cost absolutely nothing (free as in beer), but yet provide a state of the art, fully functional, operating system that does not require any activation and does not impose any restriction on its use (free as in freedom).

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:32:37 +0000

One word - systemimager

This will do exactly what you need and it’s easy to set up and use.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:20:49 +0000

You may want to look @ Ghost for Linux
http://freshmeat.net/projects/g4l/

By: Matt Kukowski

Matt Kukowski — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:24:33 +0000

Look into puppetd or puppet. It allows you to manage (easily) thousands of machines from a central machine.

In other words, if you need to change something on ALL the servers, you do it from the master and the puppet computers follow what ever rules you set. Google.com uses puppet!

By: aethiolas

aethiolas — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:13:21 +0000

Working in a department that has to deal with multiple computers of the same type in a lot of situations unfortunately I have not found a truly easy way of doing what you’re asking. Obviously I think that cloning is your best bet but afterward you will need to boot individually into each computer and rename the machine by hand. This is an extra step that I personally hate having to complete(400+ Dell Laptops to need to be renamed is not fun @ all). But its the best solution I’ve found so far. Good luck!

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:46:36 +0000

What exactly do you mean by “make it where I can see each computer differently on the network?”

Not sure what pcdiskclone is.

I have two suggestions for you. Handle users and groups by copying /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/group from one master machine to the others. It’s not very sophisticated but it does work. Obviously password changes and new accounts will have to take place on the master box.

Look into making your own .deb meta package. It’s pretty simple. In that package you can include a list of dependencies for applications you want installed through apt. Then you can install them all with dpkg -i or by making your own repository and hosting the .deb there. I prefer the latter.

Also, if people are going to be storing lots of their own files I recommend looking into NFS for the /home directory. You’ll probably want a big disk in one of the machines to hold all their data if you take that route.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:28:59 +0000

These are good questions, but you’re just scratching the surface. I have 2 recommendations:

1) Connect with your local Linux Users Group. Nothing like being able to talk, face to face, with folks about technical stuff.

2) Start a thread at either the ubuntu or edebuntu forums on this topic - you will get very specific answers tp your questions.

Hope this helps.

By: Drew

Drew — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:06:59 +0000

This procedure should be exactly what you need.

http://mybrainrunslinux.com/node/2

You will have to manually install ubuntu with the individual network names.