Source: http://serveratschool.net/doc/manual/workstation.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 08:39:00+00:00

Document:
This chapter describes the setup of a Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition workstation that will serve as the basis for all clients in the school. The following tasks will be discussed.
From this prepared client a so-called 'image' will be made. An image of a hard drive is an identical copy of the hard drive, including empty sectors, akin to cloning the data. Also known as creating a 'mirror image' or 'mirroring' the drive or creating a 'ghost image' (adapted from: http://precisecyberforensics.com/glossary.html). This image can be downloaded to all workstations using Ghost for unix or 'g4u' for short. That procedure is described in chapter V. Managing disk images with ghost for unix. During the setup of the workstation and the installation of software many milestone images will be made to save your precious work. The installation of educational software will be discussed in chapter VII. Installing educational software.
In this chapter we assume you know and can make use of a few DOS commands and programs: commands like CD, MKDIR, COPY, and the programs FDISK.EXE, FORMAT.COM and RAWRITE.EXE. When these commands and programs are unfamiliar to you, please ask help from someone who knows these basic operations. In the text, we try to be as elaborate as possible.
DOS is not case sensitive. When DOS commands, filenames and program names are used in the text, UPPERCASE characters are used. This does not mean you have to type uppercase. Commands etc. can be issued in lower or upper case, even mixed.
Windows is not case sensitive but is case preserving. When Windows-specific names are used in the text, we try to preserve the case, e.g. H:\My Documents rather than the otherwise equivalent H:\MY DOCUMENTS.
Linux is case sensitive. Filenames, commands and their options must be issued case matching. Linux does what you say, even when you say the wrong things.
In both DOS and Linux, commands are invoked with an [Enter]. We will omit "... and press the [Enter] key on your keyboard" with every instruction in order to keep the documentation as readable as possible.
Navigate to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Display | Settings.
This means that you have to click on the Start button at the bottom left of your screen, then navigate to Control Panel, then click the Display icon, then select the tab Settings. Note that there are many ways to achieve the same result, e.g. opening the Start button can be done using the mouse or by pressing [Ctrl-Esc] or the special Windows button on the keyboard. The choice is yours.
The names of buttons are displayed between square brackets, e.g, [OK], [Next], [Finish].
The keys on the keyboard are displayed as follows: [Enter] for the 'Enter' key and [Tab] for the tabulator key. Combinations of keys are displayed as follows: [Alt-U] means: 'press and hold the Alt key and hit the key labeled U' and [Ctrl-Alt-Del] means: 'press and hold the Ctrl key and the Alt key and hit the Del key'.
Before starting the installation process you should check the following points extensively. Taking care of them in this stage prevents a lot of trouble later on.
The motherboards should be the same, i.e. the same chipset.
The BIOS versions should be the same.
The BIOS settings should be the same.
All workstations have to have the same network interface.
All workstations have to have the same video board.
All workstations have to have the same sound board.
All (network, video, audio) cards must be located in the same expansion slots in the workstation.
The hard disks should have the same geometry (cylinders, heads, sectors).
The hard disks should be connected to the same IDE-bus (preferably the master device on the primary IDE bus).
If ncecessary, consult section 3. Preparing the server in chapter II. Preparing the hardware for installation of the ServerAtSchool Installation Guide. The suggestions given there also apply to the workstations.
NOTICE: If you use g4u to manage disk images it is especially important that all the hard disks are identical or at least have the same geometry. The g4u program simply rewrites a complete disk, including information about this geometry. Sometimes it is possible to use an image of a (say) 4 GB disk after restoring it to a 6 GB disk, but success is not guaranteed. An in-depth explanation is beyond the scope of this manual. Use SYS.COM. You are on your own.
In practice there will be slight differences which are acceptable and allow for using the same image on all workstations. One difference might be the optional CD-ROM player. Even if you use workstations without a CD-ROM player, you need at least one workstation with a CD-ROM player. Otherwise you will have a hard time to install Windows from CD-ROM and/or additiona network drivers from CD-ROM. Note that you could also add a CD-ROM player to a workstion temporarily. As soon as you have the workstation up and running (including network connectivity) you might be able to proceed without CD-ROM player. This would make your workstations more identical. You can consider removing the CD-ROM player just before creating the final image (see 4. Creating the golden image in chapter VIII. Managing user profiles).
When hardware differences occur, a restored client will certainly show problems during its startup. Some of those may just be annoying, e.g. a different video monitor connected to the workstation which yields a message like 'Windows has detected new hardware'. These problems are solved by a simple '[Next], [Next], [Finish]'. More severe problems are caused by different chip sets and indeed different disks.
NOTICE: A special note on built-in modems: you may want to remove those devices from the workstation. Generally they are not needed to communicate with the outside world because the ServerAtSchool server takes care of that. Furthermore, sometimes these devices are recognised as a networking device. This can yield problems that are difficult to resolve.
Be sure that you have all the necessary software at hand. Here is an incomplete list.
Also make sure that you have all necessary licenses and -codes that are required to complete the installation.
Please make sure that you have the documentation that comes with the workstation hardware. You may need it during installation.
Note that it is important to choose a good SMB password for this account. You do not want a spurious login on this account which messes up your carefully arranged Desktop, Start Menu, USER.DAT and whatnot by someone guessing the correct password for the 'scholar' account.
NOTICE: It is very convenient to make the 'scholar' account a member of the 'janitors' group. This grants various privileges to this account, in particular it allows access to shared directories like /home/userdata/home/groups/janitors/shortcuts (or H:\My Documents\janitors\shortcuts). That is very handy for storing shortcuts ('icons') as you install educational and other software. You build your collection of shortcuts systematically this way without risking to lose them to an accidental deletion.
Before starting the actual work, find yourself a school notebook (of the paper variety). Make it a habit to write down everything during the setup of the workstation. See also section 5.1 Documenting your work below.
Before you can install the operating system on the workstation, the hard disk of the workstation must be prepared. This preparation consists of the following three steps.
If you are using a second-hand computer or even an existing computer of the school that has already been used before, chances are that there is still information stored on the disk. This information might or might not be sensitive. However, you probably do not want to distribute it throughout the school, even if it is not so easy to retrieve it. Much more important is the fact that it takes more time and space to create an image of a disk filled with random data than it is of a disk where all unused parts of the disk contain nothing but zero's (null-bytes).
The partition that is to be used for installing software on the workstation has to be large enough to hold all necessary files. However, it should not be much larger because eventually you could end up with random data in the unused space on the disk. As a rule of the thumb: a 4 GB partition is usually large enough to hold all necessary files (both of the operating systen, the utilities and the educational software). Given the fact that all modern disks are (a lot) larger than 4 GB, it is necessary to manually partition the hard disk. On a 20 GB disk, you would use only 4 GB. The remaining 16 GB would be initialised to zero's once and remain in that state. That allowes for good compression with g4u and therefore a quicker restore.
There are several programs to fill a disk with zeros. We think 'Autoclave' is the easiest. It originates from the University of Washington. See http://staff.washington.edu/jdlarios/autoclave-discontinued/index.html. A copy of Autoclave version 0.3 is included on the ServerAtSchool CD-ROM. By default it is also installed in the 'install' share under 'goodies' on the ServerAtSchool server.
If you have not yet created an Autoclave diskette, you can follow the instructions in sections 3.1.1 Creating an Autoclave diskette on the server or 3.1.2 Creating an Autoclave diskette on another computer below to do so. If you have the Autoclave diskette, you can proceed with section 3.1.3 Zeroing the hard disk below.
The easiest way to get the diskette is to make it during the installation of the server. See section 13.4 Creating a g4u boot floppy in chapter V. Configuring all ServerAtSchool components in the ServerAtSChool Installation Guide.
In short the procedure is as follows.
Insert a 1.44 MB diskette into the diskette drive of the server. Note that all information on this diskette will be overwritten.
After a short while dd(1) is done and your bootable diskette is ready.
Remove the floppy from the drive and label it something like 'Autoclave boot floppy'.
This is the preferred method to make the diskette because it's quick and easy compared to the alternative procedure discuessed in the next section.
NOTICE: You need to have root privileges for this procedure. You can obtain those by logging in as root at the console. You can also logon to the server using your regular account and escalate to root privileges using sudo(8), if you are authorised to do so.
You can now proceed with the procedure in section 3.1.3 Zeroing the hard disk below.
Another way to create an Autoclave diskette is to use the DOS/Windows environment on a different computer. In order to make the diskette you need the following two files.
An image file of the autoclave program: CLAVE03.IMG.
A program to write the image to a diskette: RAWRITE.EXE.
Insert the ServerAtSchool CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive on the DOS/Windows workstation.
On the Windows Desktop, doubleclick on 'My Computer'.
Navigate to: d:\ServerAtSchool\goodies (where d: is the CD-ROM drive).
Copy the file RAWRITE.EXE to a temporary directory on the workstation. Remember in which directory you saved the file.
Copy the file CLAVE03.IMG to the same temporary directory on the workstation.
Navigate to: Start | Run. The Run window opens.
Click [Browse]. The Browse window opens.
Navigate to the temporary directory where you saved both files.
Select the file RAWRITE.EXE and click on the [Open] button.
You are back at the Run window. The path and file name are in the Open: field. Click [OK].
At this prompt, type the filename of the diskette image, i.e. CLAVE03.IMG.
Enter the letter associated with the diskette drive. Usually this is the letter 'A'.
Insert a blank, formatted 1.44 MB diskette in the diskette drive of the workstation.
Now you see three lines of text showing you the status of the process. The last line indicates the progress.
When the diskette is ready you see: Done., indicating the diskette writing process is finished.
Remove the diskette from the drive and label it 'Autoclave boot floppy'.
The Autoclave diskette is ready for use. You can now proceed with the procedure in section 3.1.3 Zeroing the hard disk below.
In order to scrub the hard disk and fill it disk with zeros (null bytes), you should take the following steps.
Insert the diskette labeled 'Autoclave boot floppy' into the diskette drive of the workstation and boot the computer. If the workstation does not boot from the diskette, enter the BIOS Setup, set the boot order to start from A: first and retry.
When the diskette is started you see a big 'WARNING!' message in red. At the boot: prompt, press [Enter], or wait a while for system to boot from the diskette automatically after a time out.
After loading, you are asked to type the phrase "I understand.". Please do so and type: I understand. and press [Enter]. Do type the dot and do not type the double quotes. Please note that using 'Autoclave' really removes all data from the hard disk.
The 'Drives found' menu opens and you can specify the drive to be zeroed. In our case there is only one drive, so enter: 1.
A list of erase levels appears. The first one is to zero the disk only. Choose this option and type: 1 at the Level (1-5,Q)?.
You get a last warning message: Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? (Y/N). Type: y.
The disk wil be zeroed. This can take some time. Please wait until you see the message Done followed by a line with a single #.
Now remove the Autoclave diskette.
The complete hard disk has now been overwritten with null bytes. An image of a disk filled with exactly the same bit pattern is very easy to compress (for g4u). Compression levels up to 100 times are possible. For example a 20 gigabyte disk. Say four gigabytes are used for the software, so 16 gigabytes of null-butes remain and can be compressed to 160 megabyte. That is a time- and diskspace saver.
Now you have written your large disk with zeros, you can create a small partition with the ususal Windows tool FDISK.EXE. This tool can be found on the Windows 98 SE CD. Although we assume the usage of these progams is well known, here is a short reminder. If you want to create a partition of 4 GB on the (say) 10 GB hard disk of the workstation you are installing, you need to boot the computer from the CD and subsequently use FDISK.EXE.
NOTICE: Even when you have a small disk, say 4.3 GB we advise to make the partiiton a bit smaller. If the computer manufacturer equipped the computers with 4,3 GB disks of two different brands or two different types, small differences may exist in the total amount of disk space. It is better to be safe than to be sorry. You won't miss the 300 MB on a 4.3 GB disk.
Take the following steps to boot the computer from the CD-ROM.
Check that the workstation is configured to boot from the CD-ROM. If it does not, enter the BIOS Setup and set the boot sequence to start from the CD. If your workstation is not able to boot from a CD you may need to resort to using the Winodws Startup diskette, which is packed with the OS. The remainder of this section assumes that your workstation boots from the CD-ROM.
Place the CD-ROM in the CD-ROM player and (re)boot the workstation.
The CD-ROM starts and the 'Microsoft Windows 98 CD-ROM Startup Menu' is displayed. Select the second option: 2. Boot from CD-ROM using [CursorUp] or [CursorDown] followed by [Enter] or simply by pressing '2'.
A new screen appears: 'Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu'. It has three options. Select the second option: 2. Start computer with CD-ROM support, again using [CursorUp] or [CursorDown] followed by [Enter] or by simply pressing '2' followed by [Enter].
Drivers are loaded and you end on the A:\> prompt.
At this point you have a basic DOS running. There is a (simulated) A:-drive which contains some 20 essential files occupying a total of about 1 megabyte. There is also a D:-drive containing the 650 MB Windows distribution files in 3500 files in 1100 subdirectories. Note that this A:-drive is part of the CD-ROM and that you can not save anything on this A:-drive for it is read-only.
If you wish to partition the hard disk of the workstation you should take the following steps.
At the A:\> prompt type FDISK followed by [Enter] in order to start the partitioning program.
An important message is displayed on the screen. In essence this message tells you that you should enable large disk support for this disk. It means that Windows will be using the FAT32 file system which allows for disks larger than 2 GB. Accept the suggested answer on the question Do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)......? [Y] by pressing [Enter].
The FDISK Options screen appears. Four options are available. Choose option 1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS drive by pressing '1' followed by [Enter].
The Create DOS Partitions or Logical DOS Drive screen appears.Three options are available. Choose 1. Create Primary DOS Partition by pressing '1' followed by [Enter].
A message Verifying drive integrity followed by an increasing percentage is displayed. This means that the disk is being checked.
Eventually the Create Primary DOS Partition screen appears. You are presented with the option Do you wish to use the maximum available disk size for a Primary DOS Partition and make the partition active (Y/N ......?[Y). Do not accept the default choice, but press 'N' followed by [Enter].
A message Verifying drive integrity followed by an increasing percentage is displayed. This means that the disk is being checked, again.
After some time you are being asked a question like: Enter partition size in Mbytes or percent of disk space (%) to create a Primary DOS Partition ......: . Note that the full disk size (here: 10257 megabytes, 10 GB) is the default value. Do not accept this default but enter a suitable value for your situation, for instance 4 GB or 4000 MB. Enter '4000' and confirm the dialogue by pressing [Enter].
The Create Primary DOS Partition screen appears once again. Notice the message at the bottom of the screen: Primary DOS partition created. Also note that the screen shows a table with a single entry describing the newly created C: partition of type PRI DOS, a size of some 4000 Mbytes and a still UNKNOWN file system. Follow the instruction at the bottom of the screen and press [Esc] to continue.
The FDISK Options screen appears again. Note that the following message is displayed on the screen: WARNING! No partitions are set active - disk 1 is not startable unless a partition is set active. Choose option 2. Set active partition by pressing '2' followed by [Enter].
The Set Active Partition screen appears. It shows the partition table with the single entry as before and the following question: Enter the number of the partition you want to make active ....[ ]. Answer the question by typing '1' followed by [Enter].
Note that now the letter A is displayed in the column labeled Status. Also note the message Partition 1 made active. Follow the instruction at the bottom of the screen and press [Esc] to continue.
The FDISK Options screen appears once again. Follow the instruction at the bottom of the screen and press [Esc] to exit FDISK.
The following message appears on the screen. You MUST restart your system for your changes to take effect. Any drives you have created or changed must be formatted AFTER you restart. Shut down Windows before restarting. Once again, follow the instruction at the bottom of the screen and press [Esc] to exit FDISK.
The screen is cleared and you are back at the A:\> prompt.
The result of this procedure is that a single partion of 4 GB on the hard disk now exists. Also this partition is designated the 'active' partition which means that this partition can be used to boot the computer from after the operating system has been installed.
Note that it is necessary to reboot the computer for the changes to take effect. After rebooting, the partition has to be formatted. This is discussed in the next section.
After the C:-partition is created with FDISK.EXE it must be formatted using FORMAT.COM. However, after FDISK the computer must first be rebooted from the Windows CD-ROM, using the same procedure as before.
If it is not still there, place the CD-ROM in the CD-ROM player and (re)boot the workstation.
Drivers are loaded and you are once again back at the A:\> prompt.
At this point you can use FORMAT.COM to format the C:-partition. However, note that The FORMAT.COM program is not on the A: drive but on the D: drive, in the WIN98 directory. Therefore you have to either start the program including the exact pathname or change to the directory D:\WIN98 first, taking advantage of the built-in search path that always includes the current directory.
In order to format the C:-drive you should take the following steps.
The following message is displayed on the screen.
DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST!
Answer the question with 'y' followed by [Enter].
The formatting process wil start. You see something like this on the screen.
The percentage increases as time goes by.
After a while the following messages appear on the screen.
After these messages the formatting is complete.
Now the following prompt appears on the screen.
Simply press [Enter] here because there is no point in assigning a volume label to a drive that is subsequently cloned, thereby giving all drives exactly the same name.
FORMAT.COM now shows an overview of total space, space used by the system and available space. This refers to the space on the formatted drive (partition), and not the complete disk. Then the program terminates and once again you are back at the A:\> prompt.
At this point the C:-partition of the disk has been formatted, i.e. a file system has been created in the partition. This file system is of type 'FAT32'. This is the standard type for large drives, i.e. drives larger than 2 GB.
Note that the /S switch made sure that the files necessary for the minimal bootstrap (IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM) were copied to the disk. The effect is that the computer is now able to boot from the hard disk, eventually yielding the well known C:\> prompt, without the need for a boot floppy or indeed the bootable Windows 98 CD-ROM.
NOTICE: It is very efficient to keep the computer running at this time, i.e. for once you do not need to reboot. The C:-partition is ready for use, the three essential system files are transferred and you are ready to proceed with the basic installation. This will be discussed in the next section.
This section describes the basic installation of the Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition software on the workstation. The first step is to copy the necessary installation files from the CD to the C: drive. The second step is to run the Setup-procedure from the hard disk, i.e. without using the CD-ROM.
The computer we use to illustrate the whole process is a 'difficult' one. It is a Dell Optiplex GX110 with network, video and audio on the motherboard. These devices require additional drivers not available in the standard Windows distribution. Also this computer has no way to set the BIOS to a well known state via an option 'Restore factory defaults' or something like that in the BIOS Setup.
The basic installation will not take place directly from the Windows CD, but from the C: drive. This is done by copying the Windows .CAB files and all other setup files in the WIN98 directory to the hard disk. It is very convenient and time saving to have your .CAB files on the C: drive. Whenever Windows needs a file from a .CAB file, it will not ask for the CD, but simply look for it on the disk.
NOTICE: In case you wondered: .CAB files are so-called 'Cabinet' files. These archive files each contain one or more other files much in the same way as in a .tar file or a .zip file.
At this point we assume that you have partitioned and formatted the C: drive according to the instructions in the two previous sections and that the computer still is running, having been booted from the Windows CD.
Here are the steps you should take to copy the relevant installation files from the CD to the disk.
Change directory to C:\ by issuing these two commands.
Create the directory that will hold all installation files by issuing the following command.
Change directory to C:\WIN98 by issuing the following command.
Copy the relevant files from the CD to this newly created directory using the following command.
It may take a while before the 100+ cabinet files and other files are copied.
At this point the Windows 98 CD-ROM is no longer needed. You should remove it from the CD-ROM player and store it in a safe place, for future reference. All necessary files are now copied to the hard disk. You can now reboot the computer from the C: drive, e.g. by pressing [Ctrl-Alt-Del]. The computer will reboot from C:.
After rebooting the computer, the following is shown on the screen.
NOTICE: Some very self evident steps during the basic installation are not described below. For instance, when you want to create a Windows rescue diskette, you have to have a blank, formatted, HD diskette ready with the erase protection set to 'off'.
NOTICE: We assume that the workstation is properly connected to the server, either directly via a crossover cable or via a hub or switch. The server should have a working connection to the Internet. That allows for downloading additional software (drivers, security fixes, documentation etc.) if necessary.
NOTICE: You may want to take a look at the file SETUP.TXT. This file contains some more information about the Windows 98 setup process. This file was copied to C:\WIN98\SETUP.TXT in the previous section.
Here are the steps you should take for the basic installation of Windows 98 SE.
Start the installation by issuing the following command.
The installation will start with a routine check of the system after you press [Enter].
After initialising, Setup prompts you to click [Continue]. The Setup Wizard is now being initialised.
The 'Select Directory' dialogue appears. Accept the default choice (C:\WINDOWS) and press [Next].
The 'Preparing Directory' screen appears and eventually vanishes.
The 'Setup Options' dialogue appears. Accept the default choice ('Typical') and press [Next].
The 'Windows Components' dialogue appears. Select the option 'Show me the list of components so I can choose'.
The 'Select Components' dialogue appears. Make the following changes to the selection of components.
Of course you can select or deselect other items as well. It is up to you. Note that it is possible to add components lateron.
Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
The 'Identification' dialogue appears. Enter the requested information in the three fields. For the Exemplum Primary School the following applies.
The 'Establishing Your Location' dialogue appears. Select the relevant country from the list and press [Next] to confirm the dialogue.
The 'Startup Disk' dialogue appears. Press [Next] to continue. At this point you can either create a Startup Disk by pressing [OK] or skip this step by pressing [Cancel].
The 'Start Copying Files' dialogue appears. Press [Next] to continue. The necessary files are now extracted from the .CAB files. This may take some time.
After all files are extracted the computer automatically reboots itself and Windows is getting ready to run for the first time.
After this reboot, the 'User Information' dialogue appears. Enter the requested information in the two fields. For the Exemplum Primary School the following applies.
The 'License Agreement' dialogue appears. If you want to continue with the installation procedure, you now have to check the box labeled 'I accept the agreement'. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
The 'Windows Product Key' dialogue appears. Enter a valid code. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
The 'Start Wizard' dialogue appears. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Finish]. Windows will now initialise the hardware database and start hardware detection procedure. This may take some time.
Eventually the 'Date/Time Properties' dialogue appears. If necessary, enter the correct settings in 'Date' and 'Time'. At the 'Time zone' select your correct time zone in the dropdown menu (see notice below). The 'Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes' setting is indifferent; the server takes care of Daylight Saving Time (DST) and the workstations always follow the server time. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Close]. Further automatic configuration now begins. Eventually the computer automatically reboots, again.
After rebooting, Windows may automatically configure even more hardware (e.g. the monitor). Eventually the 'Welcome to Windows 98' dialogue is displayed. Unckeck the option 'Show this screen eacht time WIndows 98 starts' and close the dialogue by pressing [Close].
At this point a Desktop is displayed containing a handful of icons such as 'My Computer', 'My Documents', 'Internet Explorer' and 'Recycle Bin'. The basic installation of Windows 98 is now complete.
NOTICE: The reasons to choose computer name 'C21' in the 'Identification' dialogue are explained in section 5.1 Default configuration in ServerAtSchool, in chapter V. Configuring all ServerAtSchool components in the ServerAtSchool Installation Guide. The computer name 'C21' or c21.exemplum.serveratschool.net is the first name in the range of static IP-addresses. This requires a mapping between the hardware address of the computer's network card and the IP-address. This will be discussed in general in section 2.4 The list of MAC addresses in chapter V. Managing disk images with ghost for unix. The mapping for this workstation is discussed in section 7.2 Finding the MAC-address for computer C21 below. Note that by convention the fully qualified domain name of the workstation (c21.exemplum.serveratschool.net) is written in all lowercase characters, whereas the computer name in the Windows environment (C21) is written in all capital letters.
NOTICE: The name of the workgroup in the 'Identification' dialogue should match the name entered in the Samba-configuration, see section 12.1 The Samba configuration file in chapter V. Configuring all ServerAtSchool components in the ServerAtSchool Installation Guide.
NOTICE: It is very important that both the client and the server agree on the same time zone. See section 4. Time zone in chapter III. Using the text mode installation program in the ServerAtSchool Installation Guide. If the client and the server have different opinions about the modification times of files, it may become difficult for the server (the hourly backup) to determine which is the latest version of a particular file.
Your workstation installation is now under way. You already have invested quite some time in this workstation. It would be a waste if you lose your work when something goes wrong further down the line. One measure you could (and should) take is to periodically save the exact status quo of the workstation by making an image. Another one is to document your work, writing down exactly what you have done.
An important aspect of 'saving your work' is to document exactly what you did and what you installed on the workstation. In practice it is hard to remember every keystroke you did and every button you pressed. If you write down what you did (on paper or otherwise), you create an audit trail. That could prove very valuable when, for some reason, you have to install an application again (perhaps because you get new hardware and have to create a new workstation from scratch).
There are different approaches possible. The first one is to keep this documentation on the server, in a file that is accessible for members of the group 'janitors'. A logical location for such a 'journal' or 'diary' would be a directory H:\My Documents\janitors\install (or /home/userdata/home/groups/janitors/install).
Another approach is to keep track of the status of a workstation (or a workstation image) by documenting changes in a file on the workstation itself. A good place to keep such a track record is a plain text file in the root of the C: drive, e.g. C:\CONTENTS.TXT. You can edit this file with EDIT.EXE or NOTEPAD.EXE. You should simply write down every step you took during the installation and save the file on the C:drive before you make a new image. In this way you keep track of your actions. It is not uncommon to end up with 15 images when installing many applications. Of course when the final image is there and proves to be working good over some period of time, you can delete some of the intermediate images.
Maybe the chipset of your workstation was correctly identified by Windows. Maybe network-, video- and audio cards were automatically recognised, drivers found and flawlessly installed. But then again this might not be the case. If some driver seems to be missing you might be tempted to go ahead and install them directly after the basic installation has finished. This might turn out to be not such a good idea. Here are some examples to illustrate this point. These are real-world examples encountered on different schools.
Imagine the following situation. After a long search you finally have found the necessary audio driver files for your workstation on the Internet. During installation it proves to be the wrong driver. Unfortunately, the driver cannot be properly uninstalled and some useless (but how can you tell?) files remain somewhere on the disk. You search the Internet again and you find and install the driver, this time the correct one. You hope. Eventually everything works fine, but you now have a workstation that is "polluted" with some useless stuff. You can never tell if this stuff will come back and haunt you at a later time.
Imagine the following situation. You have almost finished the complete installation; only application 'Y' must be installed and then you are finally done... Hurray!
Unfortunately, as you discover after the installation, application 'Y' seems to disturb application 'X' which was installed earlier. Both applications need the services of utility program 'Z'. Unfortunately, application 'X' wants 'Z' version 2 (which is currently installed) but not a later version whereas 'Y' requires 'Z' version 4. At this point you have a workstation with 'X' and 'Z' version 2 and half of application 'Y' which does not function properly due to a version conflict.
At this point, you can no longer trust your basic installation. Also, there might be other hidden quirks that can play up after weeks or even months. When you would have made images periodically during the installation no serious harm would have been done. It would simply have been a matter of returning to a previous 'known-good' image and taking it from there.
Chapter V. Managing disk images with ghost for unix discusses the processes involved, notably section 4. Restoring an image on a workstation and section 5. Creating an image of a workstation. With the g4u program you simply would have restored the workstation to the state before some vague, ill documented application ruined your up until then fine installation.
While the workstation is being restored, you can relax and think what action to undertake with the suspect application. Did you overlook something during the installation? Try again! Install it with other options? Go ahead! All these possibilities can be tried without the danger of losing all your work. When you have found the correct solution, you again restore the last 'known-good' image and install you final solution.
The bottom line is that you should periodically create a new image using g4u. Let's call them 'milestone images'. After you have reached the 'ultimate' image, you may want to consider to delete a few of the older milestone images. Until then it is best to keep them all.
It is not a bad idea to keep at least one basic image. For example, the one with the basic installation, with Windows Update (security fixes), with all drivers installed, but without any additional software.
To conclude this section: it is definitely time to make an image! You should now shut down Windows the usual way (e.g. Start | Shut Down | Shut down) and continue with the procedure in section 5. Creating an image of a workstation in chapter V. Managing disk images with ghost for unix. After you have created an image you can return here and continue with section 6. Installing drivers below.
Drivers can cause serious headaches, specially when dealing with older hardware and with undocumented hardware. In schools using second hand computers this is often the case. In this section we will discuss the rather 'normal' situation of problems with chipset drivers, network drivers, audio drivers and video drivers.
If you need to search for drivers on the Internet, it is important that the network interface is fully functional. However, before that is done, the network interface itself has to have the correct drivers. This is yet another chicken-and-egg problem. In this section we will discuss potential problems with the low-level drivers (including the network drivers). In the next section we will return to the additional configuration of the network interface. It is possible that you have to go back-and-forth between configuring the network interface and searching for drivers and downloading them from the Internet.
The 'chipset' is the collection of microchips that control the communication between the main processor, memory and other devices on the motherboard such as the disk controller. The chipset drivers usually come with the motherboard or have to be searched for on the Internet at the motherboard manufacturers site. They need to be installed first, before the other drivers you may need to install. Follow the motherboard manufacturers instructions. After installation of drivers, restart the workstation and check the results.
You can check if all chipset drivers were found by navigating to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | System | Device Manager. When you see big yellow question marks at items in 'System' like: PCI, bridge, System board, etcetera, the drivers were not found. Consult the motherboad documentation, perhaps on the driver/motherboard CD-ROM, etc. When nothing is available, your quest on Internet starts here. When you have found drivers, install them and repeat the check.
The same procedure as for checking the chipset can be used for checking for the network interface controller (or simply NIC). Navigate to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | System | Device Manager. When you see a question mark at 'Other devices' | Ethernet controller, no NIC driver was installed.
If by chance the 'Enter Windows Password' dialogue appears, press [Cancel] or hit the [Esc] key.
Navigate to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | System | Device Properties. There is no driver found for the NIC, indicated by the yellow question mark before the 'Ethernet Controller'.
Have your NIC driver diskette or CD ready.
In the 'Device Manager' tab, select the '? PCI Ethernet controller'. Click on 'Remove'. Accept the warning message by pressing [OK].
In the 'Systems Settings Change' dialogue accept the suggestion to restart the workstation and press [Yes].
After rebooting, the 'Add New Hardware Wizard' is displayed. You get a message like 'This wizard searches for new drivers for PCI Ethernet Controller. Press [Next] to confirm the search.
In the next dialogue you are prompted with the question 'What do you want Windows to do?'. Accept the default option 'Search for the best driver for your device [Recommended]'. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
In the next dialogue you can indicate the location of the driver software: diskette, CD-ROM drive, or specify a locaton. Select the proper location, insert the diskette or CD-ROM and confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
If the search on the selected location was successful, the next dialogue shows the NIC's name. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
Follow the directions on the screen, possibly by pressing [Next] and [Finish]. This may take a while.
After the driver is installed, you are asked to restart the cient. First remove the driver diskette or CD-ROM from the drive and then confirm the dialogue by pressing [Yes]. The system reboots.
After rebooting the 'Enter Network Password' appears. Please do not enter a name or password and do not press [OK]. Press [Cancel] instead or simply hit the [Esc] key.
At this point the driver for the network interface controller is installed. The standard Windows Desktop is displayed on the screen.
NOTICE: There are many other ways to install driver software. Much depends on the effort the manufacturer has made if there is a full-fledged software installer or just a diskette with a few kilobytes of bare driver software. Please consult the appropriate documentation.
The NIC drivers are now installed. This can be inferred from the fact that the yellow question mark is no longer visible when you navigate to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | System | Device Properties. Also you can see that a new icon is added to the Desktop: the 'Network Neigbourhood'. For now this is enough evidence that the installation of the drivers was successful. We will return to configuring network connectivity shortly, see section 7. Network connectivity below.
Install the video driver, either from the diskette(s) or CD-ROM packed with the motherboard, or otherwise. The procedure is basically the same as for a NIC. Delete the unrecognised driver, restart the workstation. The 'New Hardware Wizard' will take care of searching for drivers. Install the driver.
If the driver is installed. check if you can change screen resolutions by navigating to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Display | Settings. ServerAtschool recommends a 800 x 600 pixel resolution as standard, but you can use other resolutions as well, depending on the capabilities of your hard- and software and the requirements educational software may impose. The resolution is set in 'Screen Area'. Another recommendation is to set 'Colors' to High Colors 16 bit. This is done in 'Colors'.
NOTICE: When your school uses different brands and types of monitors it's a good idea to connect each one of them to the workstation in the course of the software installation process. They will be recognised and a 'New hardware found' message will be displayed. As a rule a simple [Next], [Next], [Finish] is enough to add this monitor to the list of 'known' monitors, preventing the 'New hardware found' message in the future.
The installation of the audio drivers is basically the same as for NIC and video. However, some audio equipment (headsets) are connected to the workstation via USB rather than via a 3.5 mm jack. Please make a consistent choice: either use USB headsets or use the direct connection. If you mix them you might end up with 'New audio hardware found' messages after all.
Connect the audio output device to your workstation what will be connected to all workstions in the school; either speakers or headphones.
Navigate to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Sounds.
In the 'Events' list: select a sound that has a speaker icon, e.g. 'Asterisk'.
The 'Preview' pane now shows the image of a loudspeaker. Also the button for 'play sound' (a small black right-arrow) is un-grayed. This is an indication that the sound card drivers are found.
Press the 'play sound' button and check that the output device in fact produces the selected sound.
Navigate to: Start | Programs | Accessories | Entertainment | Volume Control and adjust to the school's preferences, i.e a volume that is appropriate for the place where the workstation is used. When using headphones, take care not to damage the ears of your pupils.
Sometimes mice need driver software. Install it in the same way as described earlier. Try to eliminate any fancy mouse control software that installs itself in the task bar. It will only distract pupils and when they 'play' with the settings, e.g. swapping the meaning of the buttons, the mouse may become unusable for others.
At this moment there is little more to do than ckecking if the mouse functions. In the section 11.2 Tweaking the image for ServerAtSchool we will give some additional tips.
When the motherboard has USB connectors, the driver for the USB controller may need to be installed, either from the CD or diskette that came with the motherboard or otherwise.
You can check if the driver was found in: Start | Settings | Control Panel | System | Device Manager. Now yellow question mark serves as an indication that the drivers are installed correctly. Configuration of actual USB-devices is discussed in section 10. Configuring devices below.
You can check in the Device Manager if all hardware has its drivers. In that case you will not see any question marks in the list. If there are, consult the motherboard manual or the manufacturers internet site. Maybe it helps, otherwise do not be disappointed. Maybe it's something you do not need.
After the NIC drivers are installed successfully the network connection has to be setup, too. It is also efficient to retrieve the MAC-address of the network interface on your workstation. Both procedures are discussed below.
You should take the following steps.
If necessary, reboot the computer. The 'Enter Network Password' dialogue is displayed. Click [Cancel] or hit [Esc]] on your keyboard. Do not specfy a username and password.
Navigate to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Internet Options | Connections.
Press the button [Setup] in order to start the Connection Wizard to connect the computer to the internet.
The 'Internet Connection Wizard' dialogue appears. Select the third option in the list: 'I want to setup my Internet connection manually, or I want to connect through a local area network (LAN)'. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
The 'Setting up your Internet connection' dialogue appears Select the second option: 'I connect via a local area network (LAN)'. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
The 'Local Area Network Internet configuration' dialogue appears. If necessary, uncheck the option 'Automatic discovery of proxy server (recommended)'. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
The 'Completing the Internet Connection Wizard' dialogue appears. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Finish]. Note that this will start Internet Explorer immediately.
Internet Explorer opens and you have connection with the Internet through the ServerAtSchool server. The browser will show the default start page.
In the 'Address' field of Internet Explorer type: http://server/ and press the [Go] button. The school's home page (created with Site@School) should appear.
These simple tests prove that the network interface is working and you have a connection with the server and with the Internet.
NOTICE: There may have been an icon on your desktop by the name of 'Connect to the Internet'. Doubleclicking that icon should have presented you with the same 'Internet Connection Wizard'. However, it also might have taken you to a setup procedure for one of the 'Online Services'. You have prevented this unexpected behaviour by going through Control Panel and Internet Options. Either way, if you have completed the wizard, the icon will be removed from the desktop automatically.
NOTICE: It is possible that the system tries to seduce you to setup an e-mail account and/or install Outlook Express. Resist the temptation and just say no. ServerAtSchool comes with its own mail server including webmail with access control based on client IP-address. For a school this is a much better proposition.
NOTICE: It is possible that your local systems administrator has enabled the proxy server. In that case you should enable the proxy settings in the Internet Connection Wizard too; both the proxy server and the client software should agree on this or else it will not work.
In order to give your workstation a fixed IP-address using the DHCP-server you should provide a mapping between the workstation's hardware address or MAC-address and the IP-address. In this chapter we are working with the master workstation. We named this workstation 'C21' before. Now would be a good time to make sure that the workstation is always given the corresponding IP-address 172.17.2.21. Note that this requires some work in the configuration of the DHCP-server on the server, too.
In order to retrieve the MAC-address of the workstation, you should take the following steps.
The 'IP Configuration' dialogue appears. Make a note of the 'Adapter Address'. It looks like this: 00:B0:80:9B:DC:F7.
(optional) Observe the IP Address on the line below the Adapter Address. It will look something like 172.17.2.239.
Close the 'IP Configuration' dialogue by pressing [OK].
NOTICE: The IP address you observed is an address from the so-called dynamic pool. You really want to have an address from the fixed pool. See also section 5. DHCPD in chapter V. Configuring all ServerAtSchool components in the ServerAtSchool Installation Guide.
If you want to link the fixed IP-address 172.17.2.21 to the MAC-address 00:B0:80:9B:DC:F7 you just retrieved, you should take the following steps.
Logon to the server and provide yourself with root privileges.
Edit the file /etc/dhcpd.conf, e.g. using nano(1) or vi(1) and add the following lines inside the pool with static addresses.
After editing the configuration file, the DHCP-server should be restarted. You can do this with the command 'server dhcpd restart'.
At this point you can reboot the workstation (do not enter username or password but press [Cancel] or hit [Esc]) and use WINIPCFG once again to see if the workstation now has the correct IP-address.
NOTICE: The mapping between MAC-address and IP-addres has to be done for all workstations in the school. This will be discussed in section 2.4 The list of MAC addresses in chapter V. Managing disk images with ghost for unix.
NOTICE: You might already have noted the MAC-address in an earlier stage if you would have used the ifconfig ex0 command with g4u as discussed in section 3.3 The client's MAC address in chapter V. Managing disk images with ghost for unix.
Now that networking is configured on the workstation it is time to update Windows. Strictly speaking this is not a part of a basic workstation setup and certainly not a part of setting up networking. However, it is important to keep up-to-date, especially where security fixes are concerned. There are several minor (and major) issues that you need to address. The Windows Update feature is a convenient way to keep your workstation as secure as possible.
Navigate to: Start | Windows Update. Internet Explorer starts.
You get a security warning before an update of the Windows Update is installed. After accepting it with [Yes], you end up on the Windows Update site.
Follow the link 'Scan for Updates'.
Chances are that several critical updates were found. Follow the link 'Review and install updates'. Accept the security warning by pressing [Yes].
At this point the latest version of Internet Explorer is installed. Follow the instructions that are presented to you to install this update. A long installation process starts to update Internet Explorer. Time for a cup of coffee or another hot or cold beverage of your choice.
Eventually Windows Update prompts you to restart the computer. Follow the advice and repeat the procedure untill at least all available security fixes are installed. There may be time for another beverage.
At this point your workstation is as patched as is possible. Now is certainly a good time to make a fresh 'milestone image' as per the procedure described in section 5. Creating an image of a workstation in chapter V. Managing disk images with ghost for unix. Do not forget to update the file C:\CONTENTS.TXT before creating a fresh milestone image. After you have created an image you can return here and continue with a bit of fun.
At this point you have just created a fresh 'milestone image'. It is time to enable the workstation to connect to the Samba server, to logon to Windows Networking. This enables users to access to their home directories, their documents and printing facilities. Roaming profiles are also discussed below, but note that the personal profiles are enabled later.
After perhaps another reboot and [Esc]'ing the 'Enter Windows Password' dialogue, continue with the following steps.
Navigate to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Network | Configuration.
You may see lots of network components installed. You can safely remove the following components.
Uninstall them by selecting them and pressing the [Remove] button.
Select 'Client for Microsoft Networks' and press [Properties].
The 'Client for Microsoft Network Properties' dialogue opens. In the 'Logon validation' pane, change the following settings.
Check the box 'Log on to Window NT Domain'.
In the 'Windows NT Domain' entry field, enter the workgroup name you entered before. (For the Exemplum Primary School this would be 'EXEMPLUM').
In the section 'Network logon options', leave the radio button on 'Logon and restore network connections'.
Confirm the dialogue by pressing [OK] at the bottom of the 'Client for Microsoft Networks Properties' dialogue.
(optional) While you are here, you may wish to install printer sharing. Press the button [Add] and navigate to: Service | Add | File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks. Press [OK] to confirm. Note that you may or may not need this service. See section 10.4 Sharing the local printer with the network below for an application.
Next, press [OK] in the 'Network' dialogue.
You are prompted to reboot via the 'System Settings Change' dialogue. Please do so by pressing [Yes].
After this reboot you see a different logon window, the 'Enter Network Password' dialogue. Enter the following.
Confirm the dialogue by pressing [OK] or simply by hitting the [Enter] key.
At this point a smallish black window flashes by, showing you a few commands that are being executed during logon. Since the commands being executed are stored in a script on the server, you can be certain that the connection between server and workstation actually works. The script would not work and the black window would not be visible if the connection could not be made. This process is explained in detail in chapter X. Logging in and out.
Eventually the 'Set Windows Password' dialogue is displayed. In this dialogue you are prompted to enter a 'Windows Password' (as opposed to a 'Network Password'). By default both passwords are chosen to be the same. Please delete the asterisks in the first password field at the 'New password' prompt and leave the second password field ('Confirm new password') blank. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [OK]. (See notice below).
You are now logged in. The desktop is visible and if you browse the network (using the 'Network Neighbourhood' icon), you can 'see' the server.
NOTICE: With leaving the 'Windows Password' blank (by removing the asterisks in the pertinent dialogue) you save yourself some typing. Windows still creates a file named after the user (here: SCHOLAR.PWL in the directory C:\WINDOWS). We will take care of disabling this feature lateron (by setting the registry key DisablePwdCaching), in section 11.2 Tweaking the image for ServerAtSchool below.
NOTICE: The 'scholar' account used here to logon will be the account under which all software will be installed. That is its only raison d'etre. Therefore this account should not be used as a real production account; it should be kept as clean as possible.
Now that you have established a connection to the Samba server, you can also make the 'My Documents' icon on the desktop point to the user's documents on the server. You should take the following steps.
Right click on the 'My Documents' icon. A dropdown menu opens. Select 'Properties'. The 'My Documents Properties' window opens on the 'Target' tab.
Click on [Browse]. The 'Browse for folder' window opens.
Double click on Scholar on 'Server'(H:). You see two or three directories: a hidden directory '.profile', 'My Backups' and 'My Documents'. Select the 'My Documents' directory.
The 'My Documents' directory will open. At the bottom of the 'Browse for Folder' window, press [OK].
You are back at the 'My Documents Properties' window and in 'Target folder location' the path to the 'My Documents' directory is visible: H:\My Documents.
At the bottom of the 'My Documents Properties' window, press [OK]. The window closes and you are back at the desktop.
Check if you really are looking at the 'My Documents' on the server by double clicking on the 'My Documents' icon on the desktop. You should at least see the 'janitors' directory. For further explanation on this 'My Documents' directory see chapter XI. My Documents and My Backups.
NOTICE: Of course it would have been possible to simply change C:\My Documents into H:\My Documents by simply typing in the new location. However, this only works if you do not make typign errors.
As an extra precaution you can warn users who try to save documents on the local drive, i.e. in C:\My Documents directory, by creating a file there and naming it something like 'DO NOT SAVE YOUR DOCUMENTS HERE.txt'. This document will show up whenever a user navigates to C:\My Documents in order to save a file. The contents of this file can fully explain why saving on the local drive is not a good idea.
All ServerAtSchool users can have their own personal, roaming profile, i.e. when a user logs in on a workstation (any workstation) she finds the applications that she is entitled to, including all personal settings. A personal profile is kept on the server. Basically it consists of the following.
The file USER.DAT, stored in H:\.profile\USER.DAT. This is the part of the Windows Registry that holds all personal settings.
The shortcuts stored in H:\.profile\Desktop. This collection of .LNK and .PIF files basically defines the user's Desktop.
The shortcuts stored in H:\.profile\Start Menu. This collection of .LNK and .PIF files basically defines the user's Start Menu.
Access to the various applications is controlled by adding or removing shortcuts to or from the user's Desktop directory and/or the user's Start Menu directory. All members of the 'janitors' group are entitled to add or remove these shortcuts. For the Exemplum Primary School both the local systems administrator (Freddie Frinton, userid 'ffrint') and the ICT coordinater (Amelia Cackle, userid 'acackl') are allowed to manipulate these shortcuts. For more information, see chapter IX. Shortcuts, desktops and start menus.
Some configuration has to be done before these personal settings are in effect. The procedure will be discussed shortly. However, it is best to postpone flipping this switch until most of the educational software has been installed. This gives you the least headaches with 'unknown settings' and endless prompts of applications insisting that they need to be installed first even though this has already been done. We will enable personal profiles in the aforementioned chapter IX. Shortcuts, desktops and start menus. Please be patient.
By the way, now is a good moment to make a fresh 'milestone image'.
If you really want to know the gory details for enabling personal profiles, read on. If not, you can safely skip to section 10. Configuring devices below.
NOTICE: We mention roaming profiles here but do not do this step at this moment! This final step must be postphoned at least until after chapter VII. Installing educational software. Consider yourself warned.
Navigate to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Passwords | User Profiles.
Check the option 'Users can customize their preferences and desktop settings. Windows switches to your personal settings when you log on'. The 'User profile settings' pane become ungreyed.
In 'User profile settings', check both options. This includes both the Desktop and the Start Menu settings to the profile.
Confirm the 'Password Properties' dialogue by pressing [OK].
Windows will ask you to restart. Do so.
At this point the personal settings will take effect. It means that as soon as a user logs in, the current settings as they are stored on the server are copied from the server to the workstation. This includes a copy of USER.DAT and all the items found on the Desktop and in the Start Menu. As soon as the user logs out, the (possibly changed) USER.DAT and items on the Desktop and in the Start Menu are copied back to the server.
The first time ever a new user logs in, nothing is copied from the server because at that time there is nothing to copy from the server (the directory H:\.profile\ is basically empty). As soon as this user logs out the first time ever, a copy of the default USER.DAT and the Desktop and Start Menu of the Default User are copied from the workstation to the server. This explains why it is important to first get all the settings right (by installing educational software etc.) without having personal profiles, only to enable the personal profiles after the workstation is 'complete'. In other words: the process of installing (educational) software eventually builds a single USER.DAT on the workstation which will be used as a template for new personal profiles as soon as they are created, i.e. when a new user logs out for the very first time.
As stipulated above, enable this functionality only when you have installed all software. Please follow the instructions in this section when you have progressed to section 3.1 Enabling roaming profiles in chapter VIII. Managing user profiles.
A useful guide during this part of the installation is chapter 3 of Using Samba, 2nd ed., Jay Ts, Robert Eckstein & David Collier-Brown, February 2003, O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, CA, USA, ISBN 0-596-00256-4. See [Ts, Eckstein, Collier-Brown] in Appendix B. Bibliography.
Now it is time to install all kinds of peripheral devices that keep teachers from their work: printers, scanners, USB sticks, cameras, cardreaders, etcetera.
Most peripheral devices, printers in particular, either have a parallel port or a Universal Serial Bus (USB). The best way to configure a device with a parallel port is to start with the workstation switched off. Then the device should be connected to the parallel port and switched on. Only then the workstation should be switched on. You will get a familiar warning 'New hardware found' or the drivers are automatically installed. In the first case, when you navigate to: Start | Settings | Printers, you find the installed printer. In the latter case, you can install the printer software in much the same way as the NIC driver. You can check the installation via Start | Settings | Printers.
The best way to configure a USB device is not connecting it to the USB port initially. First install the driver (from a CD-ROM or otherwise), if necessary reboot, and only then insert the USB device or its cable into the workstation. New hardware will be found and automagically recognised.
NOTICE: Serial devices with RS-232 interface, Firewire and Bluetooth devices are beyond the scope of this manual. Please consult the manufacterers documentation.
This section focusses mainly on the installation of printers on the workstation, be it that various flavours are discussed.
ServerAtSchool has extensive print functionalities. There are different ways in which a printer can be accessed from a workstation, depending on the printer(s) you have and the connection method you use. Two different alternatives are discussed in detail in section 20. CUPS of chapter V. Configuring all ServerAtSchool components of the ServerAtSchool Installation Guide, We will continue with these examples below.
In section 10.2 Configuring the JetDirect network printer below we will configure the workstation for an HP Laserjet with built-in network interface. The server part of this printer is already configured during server installation (see 20.1 Setting up a JetDirect network printer with CUPS in chapter V. Configuring all ServerAtSchool components in the ServerAtSchool Installation Guide).
In section 10.3 Configuring a local printer below we will configure the workstation for an HP Deskjet 930C with parallel interface.
In section 10.4 Sharing the local printer with the network below we will discuss the way a locally connected printer can be shared with the network. This step is necessary before other workstations (or the CUPS server for that matter) can print to the printer connected locally to a workstation.
In section 10.5 Configuring a locally shared printer via the server below we will discuss the necessary steps that make the example in section 20.2 Setting up a shared printer via SMB of chapter V. Configuring all ServerAtSchool components of the ServerAtSchool Installation Guide actually work.
During the installation of the server, you have made the decisions depending on your hardware. The Exemplum Primary School has one network printer (the HP Laserjet) which is installed in the central hall. There is also a parallel printer (the HP Deskjet 930C) which will be connected to workstation 'C34' using a parallel cable. This printer will be located in the Faculty office.
NOTICE: This subject can be quite confusing. This is mainly caused by the fact that the 'master' workstation you are preparing (computer 'C21') will eventually be cloned to computer 'C34', too. Among other things this means that if computer C34 needs to do something that requires particular software, the software needs to be installed on the image, i.e. it has to be installed on computer 'C21'. And, if computer 'C34' is to share the parallel printer with the network, then computer 'C21' necessarily has to do so too, for 'C21' is 'C34' and 'C34' is 'C21' once the single workstation image is restored on all workstations.
NOTICE: The third option mentioned in the Installation Guide (a printer connected to the parallel port on the server) is comparable to installing the networked printer discussed in section 10.2 Configuring the JetDirect network printer below, at least as seen from the workstation. Therefore it will not be discussed. Furthermore, this is rather uncommon in a school where the server usually is located in an unaccessible place such as a broom closet.
There are even more ways to connect a printer but an in-depth discussion is beyond the scope of this manual.
When you have installed a network printer as described in section 20.1 Setting up a JetDirect network printer with CUPS of chapter V. Configuring all ServerAtSchool components of the Serveratschool Installation Guide, you can configure the printer on the workstation. This procedure is actually quite straightforward. You should take the following steps.
Navigate to: Start | Settings | Printers. The 'Printers' screen appears.
Double click on 'Add printer'. The 'Add printer wizard' opens. Press [Next].
Choose to install a Network printer. Press [Next].
In the new screen, press [Browse]. The browse window opens.
Browse to the server and select the relevant printer share. In the example this would be the 'laserjet'). Confirm the dialogue by pressing [OK].
You are back at the previous screen. The name of the printer is visible in the entry field. Again following the example from the Installation Guide, it is \\SERVER\laserjet.
In the same screen you are prompted with the question 'Do you print from MS-DOS based programs?' Answer the question with 'No' and confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
Next you enter the manufacturer and model selection dialogue. Select the manufacturer and model or, when the model is not in the list, install the printer software from a diskette, a CD-ROM or from the Internet. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
You see the printer name, specified by the model name, e.g. HP LaserJet 4/4M PostScript. This can be inconvenient and also confusing for end users. Therefore change the name to something more meaningful, e.g. Printer Central. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
You are now asked if you want to print a test page. Please follow the recommendation and answer: 'Yes (recommended)'. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Finish].
After installing the necessary drivers you return to the 'Printers' screen. You can see that a printer called 'Printer Central' has been added.
The printer is installed and when the printer is switched on, it should print the test page. Please check if everything looks OK.
NOTICE: We chose another name for the printer; we changed 'HP LaserJet 4/4M PostScript' into 'Printer Central'. The reason is that we think end users can recognise and select a printer with such a name more easily than some gobbledygook combination of brand name and model name. Furthermore, if one day the central printer is replaced by another brand/model, users could still use the familiar 'Printer Central'. In general end users don't really care about brands and models as long as their print job is processed quickly.
Note that you need to configure a printer locally before you can share the printer with the network. This section deals with configuring a locally connected printer. In the example we use this is a Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 930C connected to the workstation via a parallel cable.
The real 930C will be connected to workstation 'C34'. However, we are now busy creating an image that eventually will be cloned to computer 'C34' too. Therefore we have to install the local printer on the master image machine (computer 'C21'), even if this particular computer will never have a local printer connected to it when the school network goes into production. It is a good idea, though, to go to the Faculty office now and fetch the printer. It would be handy to be able to test the parallel connection right here, right now, on machine 'C21'. You do not want to wait until your 'golden image' is distributed, only to find out that the printer does not work. So go ahead, and hook up the 930C to your workstation (for now). Make sure it is switched on.
In order to configure the local printer you should take the following steps.
Navigate to: Start | Settings | Printers | Add printer. The 'Add Printer Wizard' opens. Press [Next].
On the screen 'How is this printer installed to your computer?', mark the option: Local printer. Press [Next].
The printer selection menu opens. At the 'Manufacturers:', select a manuafacturer (here HP). At the 'Printers:' side the list of available printers becomes available. Find and select the printer and press [Next].
If the printer is not in the list (like our HP 930C), click the button [Have Disk]. The 'Install from Disk' window opens and you can select a location where the drivers can be found, e.g. a CD-ROM. Proceed installing the printer using this disk and eventually press [Next].
Choose LPT1 as the printer port. Press [Next].
You see the printer name, specified by the model name, e.g. HP DeskJet 930C. In this case accept the suggested name (it helps you distinguish between local printers, see notice below). Leave the option for default printer as-is. The laserprinter ('Printer Central') defined in the previous section is a good choice as default printer. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
After installing the necessary drivers you return to the 'Printers' screen. You can see that a printer called 'HP DeskJet 930C' has been added.
Note that if a print job is submitted to the printer called 'HP DeskJet 930C', it will always be directed to the parallel port of the workstation. Obviously this will only work if a real printer is in fact connected to the parallel printer port. In the Exemplum Primary School this will be the case only on computer 'C34'. That is: the printer will be connected to the workstation located in the Faculty office. For all other computers the 'HP DeskJet 930C' is more or less meaningless. However, it is necessary that the drivers are installed, even if they would only be used on computer 'C34' and not on the machine you are working on right now (machine 'C21').
Also note that in this case we kept the suggested name for the printer ('HP DeskJet 930C') rather than change that name to something like 'Printer Local'. Of course there is nothing wrong with that (the same reasoning as that for 'Printer Central' applies). However, if the school would have another local printer but of a different model connected to another workstation, say an 'Epson Stylus 800' connected to computer 'C49' it would be confusing to distinguish the local HP printer and the local Epson printer. By keeping their default names you can easily distinguish the printers. Eventually you end up with an image that has two 'local' printers, one called 'HP DeskJet 930C' and one called 'Epson Stylus 800'. Because you are making an image both printers have to be defined.
The rule of the thumb is that printers accessed via the network could have a name indicating their physical location (e.g. 'Printer Central', 'Printer Faculty', 'Printer Principals') whereas locally connected printer should have their default names (e.g. 'HP DeskJet 930C', 'Epson Stylus 800'). If you stick to this rule you can tell by the name of the printer how it will be accessed.
Before a printer can be shared with the network, the appropriate network software has to be installed and configured. We will discuss this in section 10.4.1 Enabling printer sharing below. Once that is done, the actual local printer has to be shared. This is discussed in section 10.4.2 Sharing the local printer 'HP Deskjet 930C'.
See also section 9.1 Netlogon where the subject of file and printer sharing was briefly touched. Before you can use a shared printer, the printer sharing service needs to be installed. Actually this step is not a part of the printer installation but of networking; i.e. adding a service.
If yo have not yet already added this service previously, you should take the following steps.
Press the [Add] button. The 'Select Network Component Type' dialogue opens. Select 'Service'.
The [Add] button becomes available. Press [Add]. The 'Select Network Service' dialogue opens.
If not already selected, choose 'File and printer sharing for Microsof Networks'. Press [OK] at the bottom of the 'Select Network Service' dialogue.
You are back at the tab: Configuration. The service 'File and printer sharing' has been added to the list.
At the bottom of the tab, press the button [File and printer sharing]. The file and printer sharing dialogue opens.
If not already marked, check 'I want to be able to allow others to print to my printer(s)'.
If necessary, leave the mark on 'I want to give others access to my files' (see notice below).
Press [OK] in the 'File and Print Sharing' window. The window closes.
Press [OK] at the bottom of the 'Network' window. The window closes, the service is enabled. You might be noticed that a newer version of a file SERVER.VXD already exists. Confirm the dialogue and keep the newer file by pressing [Yes]. (The newer version was installed during Windows Update).
You need to restart the workstation. Please do so.
NOTICE: Enabling file sharing is not necessary, however it can be convenient. First of all, it's not that unsafe. You are not sharing anything. You only enabled the service. A real-world application of file sharing would be the following example.
The school has workstations without diskette drives; a security precaution. Only one workstation in the school has a diskette drive. It's the only client in school with the ClamWin virus scanner. On that client you can share the A: drive for the other workstations. So, when someone has data on a diskette, they would need to take it to that particular computer, where it can be scanned for viruses before the data are retrieved from the diskette. The data retrieval itself can then be done from another workstation via the shared drive A:.
At this point the necessary software for sharing printers (and files) is installed. You now have to actually share a printer with the network by taking the following steps.
Navigate to: Start | Settings | Printers. The 'Printers' window appears.
In the collection of printers find the local printer that was installed in section 10.3 Configuring a local printer above. In our example this would be the 'HP DeskJet 930C'. Right click on this printer icon. A dropdown menu opens.
Select 'Sharing'. The 'HP DeskJet 930C Properties' dialogue opens (on the tab 'Sharing').
Move the selection from the default 'Not Shared' to 'Shared As'. The three fields in the 'Shared As' pane become ungrayed.
Confirm the dialogue by pressing [OK]. The window closes and the parallel printer icon now has a blue 'hand'; it's shared.
NOTICE: The 'Share Name' you entered (here: HP930C) should match the share name configured in section 20.2 Setting up a shared printer via SMB in chapter V.Configuring all ServerAtSchool components in the ServerAtSchool Installation Guide. This share name will be used to link the print queue deskjet on the server to the local printer on computer 'C34'. If these share names do not match, printing to the printer via the network will not work.
Note that the 'Comment' you added (here: HP DeskJet 930C (parallel)) is displayed when you browse the network via 'Network Neighbourhood' with all details visible. Unfortunately, because you are working with an image that is cloned to all workstations, this comment will always be the same for all workstations. Therefore you can not use this field to say something like 'Maria's DeskJet' or 'Lev's Epson'; it has to be a generic comment.
At this point all preparations have been made for using a shared local printer via the server.
The local printer has been installed (in section 10.3 Configuring a local printer).
The local printer has been shared with the network (in section 10.4 Sharing the local printer with the network). We used the share name HP930C in our example.
A print queue has already been created on the server (in section 20.2 Setting up a shared printer via SMB in the Installation Guide). We used the queue name deskjet in our example. This queue is visible in the 'Network Neighbourhood' as \\SERVER\deskjet.
What remains to be done is to add yet another printer to the workstation.
NOTICE: In a way you are now installing the HP DeskJet 930C for the second time, in the same workstation image. The first time was in section 10.3 Configuring a local printer. Here we will be installing the same printer but under a different name: 'Printer Faculty'. This name and hence the printer can be used from any workstation in the network. The local printer added in section 10.3 is only meaningful to one workstation in particular, namely workstation 'C34'. On that workstation the local printer must exist because something must be there before it can be shared; you can not share 'nothing'.
If you want to add the printer to the workstation you should take the following steps.
Browse to the server and select the relevant printer share. In the example this would be the 'deskjet'). Confirm the dialogue by pressing [OK].
You are back at the previous screen. The name of the printer is visible in the entry field. Again following the example from the Installation Guide, it is \\SERVER\deskjet.
At this point the 'Add Printer Wizard' detects that you have already installed the relevant drivers for this printer model. Accept the default choice ('Keep existing driver (recommended)') and press [Next].
You see the printer name, specified by the model name, e.g. HP DeskJet 930C (Copy 2). This can be inconvenient and also confusing for end users. Furthermore, a printer with a similar name already exists in the image (see notice below). You chould change the name to something more meaningful, e.g. Printer Faculty. Leave the option for default printer as-is. The laserprinter ('Printer Central') defined earlier is a good choice as default printer. Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Next].
You are now asked if you want to print a test page. Please do not follow the recommendation in this case and answer: 'No'. At this time there is no workstation 'C34' and hence also no working 'Printer Faculty' (see below). Confirm the dialogue by pressing [Finish].
After installing the necessary drivers you return to the 'Printers' screen. You can see that a printer called 'Printer Faculty' has been added.
When you are prompted for the printer name, you should not accept the default name which is constructed from the brand and the model followed by something like '(Copy 2)'. By the same reasoning we used to change the name of the laserprinter from 'HP LaserJet 4/4M PostScript' to the easy to understand 'Printer Central', we change the name 'HP DeskJet 930C (Copy 2)' to the easy to understand 'Printer Faculty'. Now everyone knows that this is the printer located in the Faculty office.
Keep in mind that on the server this network printer queue is configured to connect to workstation 'C34'. Since you are currently working on the image, using workstation 'C21', there is not yet a workstation 'C34'. This means that at this point you can not properly test 'Printer Faculty'. If you really want to make sure that everything works like it should, you should take the following steps.
Upload a milestone image from 'C21'.
On 'C21', navigate to: 'Start | Settings | Printers. Right click on 'Printer Faculty' and select 'Properties'.
Press the button [Print Test Page]. A test page should be printed on the printer connected to 'C34'.
At this point the default printer is 'Printer Central'. This may be the correct choice for most workstations. In section 4.4 Setting the default printer in chapter V. Managing disk images with ghost for unix the procedure for changing the default printer is discussed.
A USB printer is comparable to a parallel printer in the way it is connected. Please consult the printers manual for the installation instructions. As a rule you should first install the printer software on the workstation. After that is done (and perhaps after yet another reboot) you should connect the printer to the workstation and have it recognised automatically via the 'New Hardware Wizard'.
A USB printer can be shared with the network in much the same way as the parallel printer we used as an example in the previous section.
NOTICE: Many USB printers come with complex printer control software. This software installs itself as a system service on the workstation. The software will then automatically start when the workstation is booted, occupying resources (memory, processing capacity) that could be useful for applications. If at all possible you should disable this kind of 'fancy' control software. It serves no real purpose and it only works on the particular machine which is connected directly to the USB printer. On the other workstations this software is simply useless.
NOTICE: Depending on the bundled driver software, a special 'USB printer port' that is printer-specific may be created by the software. It means that when you have a total of say 5 HP DeskJet 845C printers, 5 different 'USB printer ports' will be necessary. Each port is linked to an individual printer by using the printer's serial number as part of the 'USB printer port' name. This means that it is not possible to use one of those 5 printers as a pars pro toto but that you really have to install all printers.
We do not need to elaborate on the test procedure. Whenever during the configuration of a printer you are asked if you want a test page, please do say: Yes!' (if possible). When the image is downloaded on a random client, i.e. not client C34, check if printing to C34 is actually possible.
We treat the scanner, USB stick, camera, cardreader, USB disks, wireless mice, kindergarten keyboard, illuminated news trailer, etc. in a general way.
The installation depends on the way of connection; via the USB or the parallel port. Please refer to the device's documentation. As always, try to minimise the amount of installed software. Most of the fancy features are less than useful but it still takes up valuable space and processing capacity.
NOTICE: Depending on the available exotic peripherals your school may have (camera's, scanners, CD/DVD burners, etc.) it may make sense to concentrate all of those on a single workstation. Perhaps the workstation of the school's caretaker is the right machine? Obviously this machine will then no longer be a 'standard' machine that the 'standard' image as created on 'C21' can address. However, having two different images, one generic and one very specific, may be good way of dealing with the odd one out.
NOTICE: If you have a multi-purpose 6-in-1 card reader or similar (allowing you to copy images from different memory cards from different types of electronic cameras) you may encounter the strange phenomenon that you sometimes can not access your own H: drive on the network. This may be due to the fact that drive letters E:, ..., J: are 'taken' by the card reader. A work-around is to insert a memory card after you have logged on to the network successfully. You should also remove the card again when you are done with it. Sometimes it may be possible to configure the software of the device to skip specific drive letters. This depends on the driver software that comes with the device.
By the way, now would be a good time to create yet another milestone image.
After the basic installation and configuration of the printers and other peripheral devices, there is still more work to do. Section 11.1 Recommended software below discusses a few software packages that may prove to be very handy in a ServerAtSchool environment. Section 11.2 Tweaking the image for ServerAtSchool deals with a few changes in the various default settings, including modifications in the Windows Registry. In section 11.3 Cleaning up we discuss some methods to make the image as clean as possible, e.g. by emptying the Trashcan before creating a milestone image.
The following list of software packages can now be installed on the image. You did make a milestone image, just in case, didn't you?
DAEMON Tools is a virtual CD player. After it is installed, the workstations do not need a physical CD-ROM player but instead can work with CD-ROM images stored on the server. Installation of this software package is discussed in chapter VI. DAEMON Tools virtual CD player. Additional information about creating these CD-ROM images can be found in section 6. Managing CD-ROM images in chapter III. Janitor. Feel free to work your way through chapter VI. DAEMON Tools virtual CD player now and afterwards come back here.
QRes is a small freeware application, created by Berend Engelbrecht and released under the BSD License. For further details and source code, see the author's website at http://qres.softwarecave.nl or take a look at http://sourceforge.net/projects/qres.
This tool provides automation for the Microsoft QuickRes screen mode change in Windows 95 and 98. It allows you to change color depth and screen resolution without restarting the computer. QRes is very useful for older educational applications that require low resolution and color depth. The latest version of QRes can be found on the ServerAtSchool CD. By default the QRes installation package (qres-setup1090.exe) is also copied to /home/share/install/goodies/qres at install time.
If you wish to install QRes you should take the following steps.
Navigate to: Start | Run.
Select the file qres-setup1090.exe and press [Open] in the 'Browse' dialogue.
You are back at the 'Run' window. Press the [OK] button to continue. This will start the QRes installer.
You get a message: This will install QRes. Do you wish to continue? Confirm by pressing [Yes].
The program will unpack and after unpacking a 'Readme information' window is presented. Press [Next] to continue.
A 'Choose destination location' window opens. A target location is suggested. Accept the default and confirm by pressing [Next].
The 'Select Program Folder' opens. Accept the choices and confirm by pressing [Next].
If a warning message: 'Detected Windows 98 with built-in Quick Res. Microsoft Quick Res is not enabled on your PC (see Help)' is displayed simply accept the message (for now) by pressing [OK].
After installation is complete, accept the suggestion to reboot the workstation. Press [Finish] to continue.
If the installation routine complains about 'QuickRes is not enabled', you should enable it. You can do this by taking the following steps (after the workstation has rebooted an you are logged in with the 'scholar' account once again).
Right click on an empty spot on the desktop. A pop-up menu appears.
Select 'Properties'. The 'Display Properties' dialogue appears.
Press the [Advanced] button. The video controller properties dialogue appears.
Check the box labeled 'Show settings icon on the task bar'.
Press the button [Apply]. The QuickRes icon appears on the task bar.
Press the button [OK] to return to the 'Display Properties'.
Press the button [OK] once again to close the dialogue.
After installation is complete you find an extra tab 'QRes' in the properties of regular shortcuts as normally found on the Desktop and in the Start Menu. You may want to check this by navigating to (for instance): Start | Programs | Accessories and opening the 'Notepad Properties' by right clicking on the Notepad item and selecting the properties.
When an application needs adjustment of size and color, use the configuration options in this QRes tab. The options speak for themselves. If you are unsure, you can consult the help-function by navigating to: Start | Programs | QRes | QRes Help.
NOTICE: For some versions of Windows, notably Windows ME, it is necessary to apply a patch. Please refer to the ZIP-files located in \\SERVER\install\goodies\qres\patches. For a generic Windows 98 environment these patches are not needed.
PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator. It is written and maintained primarily by Simon Tatham and can be downloaded via the projects home page at http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty.
PuTTY can be used to connect to the ServerAtSchool server from any workstation in the school or from home. A systems administrator will be particularly happy with PuTTY because it enables working in a comfy chair or at home on the couch with a laptop rather than hanging upside down in a broom closet where the server happens to live.
You can download the latest version of PUTTY.EXE from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html. At the time of writing the latest release version was 0.58.
If you want to use PuTTY you should at least download the program file PUTTY.EXE. A good location to store it would be the directory C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND on the workstation. The next-best choice would be on the server, in the directory /home/share/program1/BIN/ or P:\BIN as seen from the workstation.
By keeping the program in the workstation image you always have it at hand, even if for some reason the Samba server has stopped working (you could use PuTTY to login and restart Samba). An advantage of keeping PuTTY on the server is that it is easier to upgrade it to the latest version, when necessary. The choice is yours.
Another useful program that you might want to install in much the same way is PSCP.EXE. This is the Windows-implementation of scp(1). It can prove to be very useful to securely transfer files from one computer to another where one of the machines is Windows-based.
If you want to have all the benefits of the complete suite of programs you may want to download the WIndows-style installer with 'everything'. Look for putty-0.58-installer.exe.
If necessary, create a shortcut to PUTTY.EXE the usual way. Note that you need to be a member of the group 'janitors' if you actually want to do something useful at the server command line after logging in with PuTTY. After logging in you can use sudo(1) to gain root privileges (when you know the root password). The proper commands and more information can be found in the section 21.3 Managing privileges via sudo in chapter V. Configuring all ServerAtschool components' in the ServerAtSchool Installation Guide.
The perfect basic image is almost ready. There might be a few things you like to add or tweak. Here is our 'best practices' list in which we sum up what we came across in the schools we installed ServerAtSchool. Please make your own choices.
DOSKEY.COM is a program in DOS which allows you to recall and edit DOS commands from the command line. It is part of the Windows 98 software and is located in C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND. If you add the call to this program in C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT it will be automatically loaded each time the computer is started. It may save you retyping DOS-commands because you can recall commands from the command history using [CursorUp]. Here is an example of a complete AUTOEXEC.BAT, with the line of interest emphasised. Note that your version of AUTOEXEC.BAT may differ from the example below, maybe because of sound drivers that are loaded or other programs that are loaded via this file. The important thing is to add the line with DOSKEY.COM.
You can read DOSKEY.COM's help function by opening the DOS environment and issuing the command DOSKEY /?.
Even though you may have opted not to install Outlook Express, sometimes the Outlook Express icon pops up in the taskbar and on the desktop. It is best to remove the icon(s) since Outlook Express is not necessary in a ServerAtSchool environment.
Of course you can adapt font type and size to further improve the readability.
In 'Item' you can set 'Icon Spacing (Horizontal)' from 43 to say 55 and line up icons.
Navigate to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Display | Screen Saver. Set the screensaver to [None]. Press the button [Settings] and set Energy saving for the monitor to 'never turn off monitor and hard disk'. You could also get there via navigating to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Power Management.
This way the workstation is always in a ready state. If you (or a pupil) wants to use the computer it should be ready now and not at some point in the future after disks have been spinning up, screens have been restored and monitors have once again warmed up.
One of the more annoying habits of Windows is the following. When a new user logs in on a workstation for the first time, she first sees the 'Enter Network Password' dialogue. That's OK. After successful logon a dialogue with the following is displayed.
Why is this? This is an attempt to make access to the complete system of workstations, servers and networking more 'userfriendly' and 'easy' by storing various passwords in a password cache. This password cache is kept in a file named after the user, with the extension .PWL. For instance: for the (new) user Mary Astell with userid 'mastel' the file C:\WINDOWS\MASTEL.PWL is created, on the local machine. The password that is asked here (the so-called 'Windows Password') is used to protect the contents of this .PWL file. By default Windows suggests you to re-use the same password as you used for access to the server (the so-called 'Windows Networking Password'). Even worse, this password is already entered once in the name of 'userfriendlyness'; you only have to enter it one more time.
One should not leave files with passwords floating around on a disk as easy accessible as the C: drive.
One should not re-use the same passwords again and again because if one is compromised, all are compromised.
The best is to get rid of the .PWL files and make sure they do not return automagically. The solution is to disable the password caching mechanism alltogether. This can be done by manipulating the Windows Registry.
The registry is, in brief, a central database for storing system-wide and application-specific settings and also configuration information. In the case of roving (or roaming) profiles, part of the settings are user-specific.
Windows provides a tool to edit the registry called REGEDIT.EXE. Editing the registry can be tricky: if you make an error the workstation might no longer work at all. Fortunately with the help of the g4u images it is easy to go back to a previous known good state. However, you still need to check and doublecheck whenever you change a registry setting.
A good way to make modifications to the registry is to prepare the changes in a simple text file (using NOTEPAD.EXE or another plain text editor) and subsequently process that file with REGEDIT.EXE. This gives you the opportunity to check your changes before you actually apply them. Furthermore by keeping these .REG files you always know what you did afterwards. In a way it helps you documenting your changes.
If you want to suppress the password caching by editing the Windows Registry, you should take the following steps.
Navigate to the directory H:\My Documents\janitors and create a new directory ('folder') called regedit. You will use this directory to store the file you are going to create.
With NOTEPAD.EXE, create a new file.
Note that there are seven zero's and a single one. Also note that there is a single blank line after REGEDIT4.
Save the file under the name PWDCACHE.REG in the directory H:\My Documents\janitors\regedit.
End you session with NOTEPAD.EXE. You are back at the desktop.
Now navigate to: H:\My Documents\janitors\regedit, perhaps via the My Computer icon on the Desktop or otherwise.
Doubleclick the file PWDCACHE.REG in that directory. The Registry Editor prompts you with: "Are you sure you want to add the information in H:\My Documents\janitors\regedit\PWDCACHE.REG to the registry?"
The Registry Editor responds with "Information from H:\My Documents\janitors\regedit\PWDCACHE.REG has been successfully entered into the registry."
Press [OK] to confirm the dialogue.
Now reboot the workstation in order to let the changes to the Registry take effect.
After completing this procedure and logging in as user 'scholar' you should not be prompted for the Windows password. New users will also not be irritated by the annoyance of password caching.
NOTICE: Much more registry settings can be used to tweak the configuration. See chapter VIII. Managing user profiles for more information.
We also want to get rid of the Scheduled Tasks in the Task bar. If you want to stop the Task Scheduler and prevent it from loading automatically after the next reboot, you should take the following steps.
Rightclick on the Task Scheduler icon in the Task bar.
A small menu pops up. Select the first option from this menu: 'Open'. The 'Scheduled Tasks' program opens.
Navigate to: Advanced | Stop Using Task Scheduler'. The Task Scheduler icon now disappears from the Task bar.
Close the program via File | Close.
(optional) Reboot the computer and verify that the Task Scheduler does not start.
Note that if you ever need to re-enable the Task Scheduler, you can navigate to Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Scheduled Tasks and then go to Advanced | Start Using Task Scheduler.
You might want to use POLEDIT.EXE to further configure the workstation. Treating this subject is beyond the intention of this manual. A good reference is the Microsoft Windows 98 Resource Kit, Microsoft Press, Redmond, Washington, US, 1998. POLEDIT.EXE and related topics are discussed in chapter 8: System Policies. However, before you start using POLEDIT.EXE you should read chapter VIII. Managing user profiles and specifically section 2.2 Preparing policies. At this point you should not use POLEDIT.EXE on your workstation, read the aforementioned section first.
There are various ways to deal with the traces of the last user that used the workstation to logon. If you use the 'scholar' account as the last account to login before you create your (almost) perfect image, then the cloned image on every workstation will show this username 'scholar' in the network logon dialogue the first time the cloned workstation is booted. Even though you have a good password for this special account (you do, don't you?), there is no need to draw everyone's attention to this account name. A possible solution is to create yet another .REG file, say H:\My Documents\janitors\regedit\USERNAME.REG. The contents of that file may look like the illustration below.
You could also show a message in that field by using a slightly modified version of USERNAME.REG as illustrated below.
Note that this 'trick' (an empty name or a message) only works once, at the next logon. Therefore you have to redo this setting every time, just before you create another (milestone) image with g4u. Also note that you can not use more than 20 characters including spaces for this 'username' variable.
NOTICE: It could be very handy if you kept a copy of USERNAME.REG on the C: drive. This way you can reset the username without the need to be logged in. I.e. you can 'login' by pressing the [Cancel] button or hitting [Esc] and still be able to erase the last username with the .REG file.
If you never want to show the name of the previous user on the workstation you could use the register setting as shown in the file LASTUSER.REG below.
Note that this is a more 'permanent' setting; the effect will be that the name of the last user is never shown in the 'Enter Network Password' dialogue. It also means that pupils have to enter their nest account ('grade8', 'grade7', ...) every time, even if it is the only account using that particulare computer. That can be annoying too.
You can reverse the effect by changing the dword value from '00000001' into '00000000' and processing the .REG file once again.
NOTICE: Much more registry settings can be used to tweak the configuration, see chapter VIII. Managing user profiles.
A very annoying feature in Windows is the so-called 'Autorun' feature. This feature makes that every CD-ROM which is inserted into a CD-ROM player will automatically start playing or, depending on the CD-ROM, start installing software. This makes it very hard to reliably manage installed software via assigning shortcuts to users. The feature can be disabled, but only on a per-user basis. Now would be a good time to disable the feature for 'the' user. Lateron we will deal with this feature for all users, see section 2.2 Preparing policies in chapter VIII. Managing user profiles. A full explanation can be found in section 5. Calculating the NoDriveTypeAutoRun registry setting in Appendix C. Worksheets.
The feature could be disabled by changing the registry with the following recipe.
An important argument to disable the feature are the so-called copy protected audio CD's. If you try to play one of those on a computer, the CD might automagically install software onto the computer which limits your rights accessing the music on the CD, under the pretense of 'Digital Rights Management' or DRM. In some cases such an innocent-looking music CD might install software that hides itself from prying administrators eyes while at the same time crippling the PC. This is a very good reason to stay away from this Autorun feature. It can also make installation of educational software a little easier.
You might want to change various mouse properties by navigating to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Mouse.
In the tab 'Buttons' you could adjust the doubleclick speed. Many young children do not yet have enough eye-hand coordination to properly move and doubleclick the mouse. This can result in 'strange' errors and 'weird behaviour' of the computer, even though the machine does exactly what it is told to do.
you may be under the impression that you doubleclicked. However, if you are not fast enough, the system considers your so-called doubleclick as two separate events where the first event was even combined with a mouse movement. That would be interpreted as 'move the selected directory into the one 1 line higher (or lower) in the list of directories', followed by 'select the directory 1 line higher (or lower)'. The effect for the untrained little user is that her directory vanishes into thin air. Not very 'userfriendly'. Therefore setting the doubleclick speed lower can result in less errors and a better 'user experience'.
In the tab 'Motion' you could lower the pointer speed, much for the same reasons of hand-eye coordination. Letting the mouse leave a pointer trail can help identifying the location of the mouse on the screen, especially on 'busy' screens with many 'loud' colours some educational software makers seem to like so much.
Finally in the tab 'Pointers' you can select a complete set of mouse pointers (called a 'scheme') or you can change individual pointers such as the 'Normal Select' pointer or the 'Busy' pointer.
A few 'schemes' are available in the standard Windows 98 distribution. Navigate to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Windows Setup | Desktop Themes if you consider installing additional schemes. Note that these take up quite some space (23 MB) for limited added value. (The schemes also contain wall papers and sounds).
Alternatively you can add a few 'bigger' cursors to the system by navigating to: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Windows Setup | Accessibility. Look in 'Accessibility Tools' for high-visibility mouse cursors.
The ServerAtSchool distribution CD contains a file with a collection of completely free mouse pointers. Look for the file CURSORS.ZIP. By default this file is copied to the server during install, into /home/share/install/goodies or \\SERVER\install\goodies. Installation instructions are as follows.
Unzip CURSORS.ZIP into some temporary directory, e.g. V:\CURSORS. The file unpacks into seven subdirectories.
Open the directory V:\CURSORS via My Computer. You can read the README.TXT file and browse the directory tree that was created.
Also open the directory C:\WINDOWS\CURSORS. Put both directories side by side on the screen.
Copy the cursor files you like or consider useful from V:\CURSORS\CUR_xx straight to C:\WINDOWS\CURSORS.
When you are done with copying the cursors you can remove the temporary directory V:\CURSORS.
At this point you have added your selection of cursors (.CUR files) and animated cursors (.ANI) to the C: drive. You now have to configure the mouse to use these cursors.
Select a particular pointer from the list, e.g. 'Normal Select' or 'Busy'.
Use the [Browse] button to choose your cursor, from C:\WINDOWS\CURSORS.
(optional) Save your work in your own 'scheme' using the [Save As] button. You could have your own customised 'Exemplum Primary School' scheme.
Note that not everyone likes or needs huge cursors. Depending on the school's policy you might allow teachers to choose their own 'scheme' lateron. See also section 2.2 Preparing policies in chapter VIII. Managing user profiles. For now the choices you make are the 'standard' or 'default' choices.
NOTICE: By copying the cursors individually ('hand-picked') from the cursors collection to C:\WINDOWS\CURSORS you keep the image as clean as possible. However, it is necessary to have the mouse cursors stored on the C: drive; you can not select cursors stored on a network drive because they are not available when you are not logged in.
In Internet Explorer or any other browser you can adjust the following settings.
Set default opening page to the URL of your schools website. At Exemplum Primary School this is http://www.exemplum.serveratschool.net.
Set font type to one that resembles your reading methods.
Limit the cache size to say 5 or 10 MB or so.
Disable auto check for updates (you can to that yourself periodically via Windows Update, no need to bother your users with unexpected pop-ups while they are finally working with the computer).
Disble on demand downloads for Internet Explorer and other browsers.
Set 'Do not save encrypted pages to disk'.
NOTICE: You may need to update or extend your browser with various add-ons or plug-ins in order to be able to play 'special' content from the web, e.g. movies that require QuickTime or Flash player. Please refer to Appendix A. Additional software for some more suggestions.
Now would be a good time to update your electronic documentation, e.g. the file C:\CONTENTS.TXT and/or the journal file you keep on the server (see section 5.1 Documenting your work above).
After that is done it is time to clean up a bit. You may want to take a look at the following ToDo-list before you make your next clean(er) image.
Browsers: empty the caches, remove cookies, delete histories and delete visited pages that are made available off-line. It takes space in your milestone image.
Desktop, Start Menu and Taskbar shortcuts: Remove the following icons: Outlook Express, Setup MSN Internet Access, Online Services, Connect to the Internet, DAEMON Tools, Task Scheduler. Shortcuts to fancy control programs (network interface control suites, specific printer tools, intelligent' but otherwise useless mouse control software, etc.) may also be unnecessary, adding to the 'clutter' on the desktop. Please keep it clean.
Desktop properties: perhaps set 'Auto arrange' for the desktop so all icons always line up from left to right.
Downloads: when you have created a (temporary) directory for downloaded programs, drivers and the like, you can also delete its contents and perhaps even the directory itself. It may be handy to first make a backup copy for future reference, perhaps in H:\My Documents\janitors\downloads.
Recent files: navigate to: Start | Settings | Taskbar & Start Menu | Start Menu Programs. Press the [Clear] button in the Documents menu pane to reset the list of recently used files.
Perform the actual cleanup by pressing [OK].
Defragmentation: Navigate to: Start Menu | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragmenter. Defragmenting can speed up file access.
Log out and 'log in' again without specifying a username and a password (i.e. pressing the [Cancel] button or hitting the [Esc] key). Then process the registry file USERNAME.REG you created in section 11.2.8 Dealing with the previous user logon before.
Note that this cleanup should be done before every new image. Also note that cleaning the username (with USERNAME.REG) should be the last thing you do before you create a new image.
Of course many more tweaks are possible. When you use images and g4u, you can experiment your way up to the perfect image for your school without having the fear of losing all your work. You can simply go back to a previous 'known good' image if you make a mistake or other trouble occurs.
The workstation is ready, but not for general use by pupils (or teachers for that matter). It lacks standard tools and educational software. In Appendix A. Additional software we do a few suggestions for additional software that may come in handy on a school. In chapter VII. Installing educational software, we give some hints and examples on various educational software packages and the ways you sometimes have to work around design flaws.
If you have followed all the instructions in this chapter, you have already worked your way through chapter V. Managing disk images with ghost for unix and chapter VI. DAEMON Tools virtual CD player. The next chapter to read would therefore be chapter VII. Installing educational software.
Now, how about a hot or cold beverage while the next milestone image is uploading...?

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