2008/10/26/#edubuntu.txt

[02:01] <Eeyore-Jr_> Nubae: i'm going to start on my fat client.  what link did you give me this morning?
[02:02] <Eeyore-Jr_> on a fat client, is there a way to get it to only run the graphics programs ?  my fat client would run programs slower than the server.
[02:48] <Ahmuck> is edubuntu a "add-on" cd now ?
[02:50] <stgraber> yes, since 8.04
[03:00] <LaserJock> hi stgraber
[03:02] <stgraber> hey LaserJock
[03:03] <LaserJock> stgraber: nice work on LTSP lately
[03:03] <stgraber> yeah, working full-time on it helps :)
[03:03] <LaserJock> stgraber: Intrepid might work out afterall ;-)
[03:04] <stgraber> I'm finishing the localapps implementation for ltsp-cluster now (testing it basically), then will propose the change upstream
[03:04] <stgraber> basically it's about generating a "Local applications" menu with the softwares that are installed in the chroot
[03:04] <stgraber> so you can do fullscreen youtube with firefox, blender, audacity or skype video conf which weren't possible before
[03:04] <Eeyore-Jr> without a "fat" client?
[03:05] <stgraber> yeah
[03:05] <Eeyore-Jr> neat
[03:05] <Eeyore-Jr> really neat
[03:05] <Eeyore-Jr> how does that work?
[03:05] <Eeyore-Jr> theoretically
[03:06] <stgraber> softwares are installed in the chroot, an entry is added to /etc/ltsp/localapps-menu/ with a .desktop for that softwares
[03:06] <stgraber> when the user session open, a rc.d script is run that'll generate a xdg menu off it
[03:06] <stgraber> so the menu entries will appear on the server, clicking on it will set a X property that's read on the thin client and will trigger the software you clicked
[03:08] <LaserJock> I'd love to be able to run chemistry apps locally
[03:08] <Eeyore-Jr> ah, they run locally?
[03:08] <LaserJock> that's been a big sticking point to me pushing to do an LTSP deployment in my department
[03:09] <Eeyore-Jr> so to run large graphics you would still need a machine capable of doing it
[03:09] <Eeyore-Jr> on the client side?
[03:09] <LaserJock> yeah
[03:09] <Eeyore-Jr> hrm
[03:09] <Eeyore-Jr> so, how do you mix thin and fat then, still have to tell it by mac address?
[03:09] <LaserJock> the point of localapps is to shift CPU load to the client
[03:10] <stgraber> LaserJock: yeah, we were requested to make blender, celestia and some other edu software to work on thin clients, local apps help a lot for that :)
[03:10] <LaserJock> Eeyore-Jr: you have the local apps you want installed in the chroot
[03:10] <LaserJock> Eeyore-Jr: it's still a thin client
[03:10] <stgraber> Eeyore-Jr: localapps can be turned on/off using the LOCALAPPS lts.conf parameter, so you can turn it off for computers that can't run it
[03:10] <Eeyore-Jr> i'm confused sorta
[03:11] <Eeyore-Jr> how does the server know when to turn them off?  mac address?
[03:11] <Eeyore-Jr> listing ?
[03:11] <stgraber> the menu being generated by the thin client, the server doesn't need to know about it
[03:12] <Eeyore-Jr> can i keep asking questions without being annoying.  i'm still trying to understand what's going on
[03:12] <Eeyore-Jr> the menu that is generated by the thin client is generated according to it's specs?
[03:13] <Eeyore-Jr> it generates a "thin" menu if it has certian hardware specs?
[03:13] <LaserJock> stgraber: I guess what Eeyore-Jr is asking is what happens if you have mixed thin clients, only some of which you want to run localapps on
[03:13] <LaserJock> stgraber: can you set LOCLAPPS on a per/client basis?
[03:14] <Eeyore-Jr> i was under the impression that "fat" clients were beefier machines, and requried a special mac addressing schema on the server to identify them
[03:14] <stgraber> LaserJock: yes
[03:14] <LaserJock> Eeyore-Jr: I think ^^ answers your question
[03:15] <Eeyore-Jr> ok, let me re-phrase.  i have 450mhz, 256mb ram machines, but would like to run some gl games, which would require machines with higher specs, such as 1Ghz, 512MB, and 64MB video memory
[03:15] <stgraber> you can turn on/off the localapps using lts.conf which uses mac address, so you can turn off localapps for some thin clients
[03:15] <Eeyore-Jr> on a file on the server
[03:15] <Eeyore-Jr> or a file with a mac address list so that heavy apps are not turned on
[03:15] <stgraber> I'm working on ltsp-cluster where we have a control center that's used to generate lts.conf based on some attributes (including hardware specifications) but it's probably a bit too big for your own installation
[03:16] <stgraber> (we use it with load balancing for really big networks)
[03:16] <LaserJock> Eeyore-Jr: lts.conf is on the server
[03:16] <Eeyore-Jr> actually, i've been thinking about a bewolf ltsp cluster.  is that possible?
[03:16] <Eeyore-Jr> parallel ltsp ?
[03:18] <Eeyore-Jr> well, i think i have a better idea what's going on.  thx for the info, i'll put it in my planning
[03:18] <Eeyore-Jr> it's late.  gnite
[04:10] <Eeyore-Jr_> one thing i noticed is that there were full menus for ltsp.  menus for installing software, etc.  i assume menus can be customized.  installing software always brought up a password prompt.  i can see users confusion on this
[04:10] <LaserJock> Eeyore-Jr: why?
[04:10] <sbalneav> Evening all
[04:11] <LaserJock> sbalneav!
[04:11] <sbalneav> Hey LaserJock
[04:11] <stgraber> hey sbalneav
[04:12] <stgraber> sbalneav: I implemented a "Local applications" menu today, generated by the thin client from a config file in /etc/ltsp/localapps-menu/ :)
[04:13] <sbalneav> Nice
[04:23] <LaserJock> we should set a time for a Jaunty planning meeting
[04:23] <stgraber> yep
[04:27] <LaserJock> Wed. 20:00 UTC?
[04:28] <stgraber> hmm, with release on Thursday, I'd prefer after-release
[04:29] <stgraber> and 19:00 UTC would be better as I need to leave the office at 21:00 UTC (and last hour is usually quite busy)
[04:30] <stgraber> Friday 19:00 UTC would be great (or any time starting from 12:00 UTC)
[04:34] <sbalneav> Sigh
[04:34] <sbalneav> Multibin printing doesn't work in OpenOffice.org in Intrepid.
[04:35] <LaserJock> I can't do it earlier than 19:00 UTC on Friday
[04:35] <LaserJock> but 19:00 would work
[04:36] <LaserJock> sbalneav: no?
[04:37] <sbalneav> No.
[04:37] <sbalneav> I'll have to dig into it.
[04:37] <LaserJock> sbalneav: can you tell if it's on the OO.o end?
[04:37] <stgraber> LaserJock: ok, so let's go with Friday 19:00 UTC
[04:38] <sbalneav> Ubuntu will never, EVER, make it big in business if it can't get this right.
[04:38] <sbalneav> No idea.  It didn't work for hardy, either.
[04:38] <sbalneav> I came up with a patch for cups upstream.
[04:39] <sbalneav> the pstops filter was broken hard.
[04:39] <sbalneav> Talked to Till in #ubuntu-devel, pointed him to the fix, but it's never been patched.
[04:40] <sbalneav> Now cups has changed YET AGAIN, with the "all pdf all the time" printing method.
[04:40] <sbalneav> so now, it's broken.
[04:40] <sbalneav> again.
[04:40] <sbalneav> And I'll have to fix it.
[04:40] <sbalneav> Again.
[04:41] <stgraber> Argh, looks like I found a way to break ltsp-cluster so my test terminal doesn't boot ... of course it's 30km away and my only way to access it until Monday is ssh ...
[04:41] <stgraber> I wish I'd have my test lab at home, would be a lot easier
[04:49] <LaserJock> stgraber: what about the next Wednesday?
[04:50] <LaserJock> I just realized that Friday would be Halloween here
[04:50] <LaserJock> and I'm not sure what my schedule will be since I have the day off
[04:51] <LaserJock> sbalneav: what does multibin printing do btw?
[04:51] <stgraber> oh right, forgot about halloween.
[04:52] <stgraber> LaserJock: Wednesday early afternoon is fine, then I'll need to pack stuff for LTSP BTS
[04:52] <LaserJock> so Nov. 5th at 20:00UTC
[04:52] <LaserJock> that'd be one of our usual Edubuntu meeting times anyway
[04:52] <stgraber> hmm, that's not really early afternoon in my tiemzone :)
[04:52] <sbalneav> Well, with a laser printer in an office environment, you'll often have at least 3 bins:
[04:53] <stgraber> 17:00UTC or 18:00UTC would be a lot better
[04:53] <sbalneav> 1 for plain, one for letterhead, and an envelope feeder.
[04:53] <sbalneav> And often, the manual feed tray filled with legal size.
[04:53] <LaserJock> oh
[04:53] <LaserJock> I thought it was an LTSP thing :-)
[04:54] <sbalneav> Currently, no matter what you set the paper tray as, it comes out on the default bin.
[04:54] <sbalneav> Which means it's a complete non-starter to move to.
[04:54] <LaserJock> stgraber: Ubuntu QA meeting is 17:00-18:00, should we go for 18:00?
[04:55] <stgraber> ah right, the QA meeting :) yeah let's go with 18:00
[04:57] <stgraber> I know of some people at Revolution Linux who will likely also be interested in attending the meeting
[04:57] <stgraber> where do we do it ? #ubuntu-meeting
[04:58] <LaserJock> yeah
[04:58] <LaserJock> I'm writing up an email to edubuntu-devel
[04:59] <LaserJock> stgraber: anywhere else you think I should send it?
[04:59] <LaserJock> heck, maybe I should CC ubuntu-devel
[04:59] <stgraber> yeah, ubuntu-devel may be good too
[04:59] <stgraber> maybe edubuntu-users ? I'm not sure who we have on that list though (I'm not subscribed)
[05:00] <stgraber> send it to the fridge mailinglist too so it gets added to the fridge
[05:01] <stgraber> ubuntu-news-team@l.u.c that's
[06:51] <highvoltage> stgraber: thanks :)
[06:52] <LaserJock> highvoltage: hi
[06:52] <highvoltage> hi LaserZ
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[14:48] <Eeyore-Jr__> stgraber: what is a test lab for you comprise of ?
[14:50] <Eeyore-Jr__> i'd like to attend the meeting
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[18:42] <Eeyore-Jr_> hi.  will *untu and/or ltsp use a quad processor?
[18:44] <Eeyore-Jr_> quad core?
[19:12] <Nubae> Eeyore-Jr sure
[19:17] <Eeyore-Jr_> neat.  that's what i'm picking out for the server
[19:18] <Eeyore-Jr_> and 4G of ram
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