Request for help implementing Edubuntu and LTSP

Mon Apr 11 04:52:41 UTC 2011

Integrating Edubuntu LTSP into an existing AD network is certainly possible,
but if you want the kind of tight integration you seem to be driving at it
isn't trivial.  If it's the best route for you to go down I can't answer,
it's certainly great when it's all up and running but it can be a trial
getting it to do exactly what you want if you don't have some technical
aptitude, I'll answer some of your other stuff in line below...

On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 4:46 PM, G. T. Stresen-Reuter <
tedmasterweb at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> My name is Ted Stresen-Reuter. I am a web developer and IT teacher living
> (and working) in the Canary Islands. I started teaching middle and high
> school IT in September. Our computer lab has about 20 wintel boxes that are
> about 8 years old. At present, the computers in the computer lab are used by
> students of all ages: nursery school to seniors in high school.
>
> The general school network is all Windows with an Active Directory server
> and most users use the Terminal Server rather than working from their
> desktop. This setup is fine for most administrative duties but not
> necessarily for training (where students need to be able to break things and
> the teacher needs to be able to repair them). Also, in the computer lab we
> may have a wide variety of applications installed that either can't be
> installed on the Terminal Server or aren't appropriate there (since all
> users would then have access to them). In short, we're exploring ways to
> improve the efficiency of the computer lab and edubuntu + ltsp is a likely
> candidate.
>
> The reason for this email is to see if anyone on this list can give me some
> pointers on setting up and maintaing an edubuntu+ltsp configuration or even
> answer some of our questions...
>
> Where is the documentation for setting up groups and policies? Having such
> radically different users it is fundamental that we put them into groups for
> managing what they have access to.
>

If you're talking about policies in the AD sense where the Desktop, menus
and logon/logoff scripts alter depending on your group then Sabayon can do a
pretty good job of that as long as you are authenticating with Winbind.  It
will pick up AD group membership and can apply it's policies accordingly.

>
> Can a single user have concurrent sessions from different machines and if
> so, what negative side-effects does this have? I'm asking because for the
> youngest users it is a logistical nightmare to ask them to remember their
> own username and password and we'd like a single username and password we
> can use for all of them.
>

If they are running off the same central server so these concurrent sessions
(single user) are sharing a home folder, then yes, you'll have problems with
applications like OpenOffice and Firefox.  However, it is really easy to
create individual local accounts for each client and have them autologin
with that account so the Elementary school kids can just sit and have at it!

>
> I need to run Windows games that are 10 or more years old. How well is Wine
> supported?

Wine is supported well enough, if an app works on stand alone it will work
under LTSP as far as I know.  Where it gets tricky is that the free version
of Wine installs everything in the users home folder, which can be bad for
space and maintenance reasons.  We've never followed it up but the paid for
CrossOver version seems to have better support for deployment and central
installation for multiple users.  Conversely, you may be better off ditching
the old apps and trying to find native alternatives.

> On a similar note, if I install a Windows virtual machine will it have the
> same configuration for all users? Will video display properly running across
> a network via LTSP?

Don't know, never tried it!

>
> Can I really use Active Directory to authenticate users as described in
> this article? I tried following the instructions with no luck at all.
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/ActiveDirectoryIntegration

We stay away from Likewise and simply use the various Samba and Pam parts we
need (as I mentioned above, Winbind is probably your best bet for the
tightest AD integration).  The authentication part really isn't that hard,
any how-to on Linux/Winbind authentication with AD will work for you, it
doesn't need to be LTSP specific.  How/if you decide to integrate Networked
home holders of some kind may prove more challenging!

>
> Can anyone comment on their own experience in a similar situation? Should
> we be looking at alternative solutions (we've considered installing basic
> Linux distros with VMWare and making 3 Windows images available: one image
> for each group of students).

Really depends on you and your IT support staff's
knowledge/interest/enthusiasm I would think...

>
> And finally, where else can I go for help getting this set up (logistics,
> not so much technical)? Most information seems to be very technical but what
> I'm looking for is practical help on higher-level topics (like, does ltsp
> make sense in my situation).
>
> Many, many thanks in advance and to the developers for providing such a
> great product for FREE! I really hope this is the winning solution but need
> answers to these questions (and more) in order to be able to make a final
> decision.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ted Stresen-Reuter
> http://tedmasterweb.com
>
>
> --
> ubuntu-education mailing list
> ubuntu-education at lists.ubuntu.com
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>

-- 
Steve Rippl
Technology Director
Woodland Public Schools
360 841 2730
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