[ubuntu-us-ma] Ubuntu Client and OS X Server

[David Crawford]

Hello Folks,

This is my first post, but I've been a subscriber for some time.

I am keenly interested in deploying Ubuntu based laptops (Intel, AMD and
Legacy PPC) in my school's OS X Client/Server environment.  

The main motivations are:

1) Apple has priced us out of the market
2) Linux is free, supports all hardware platforms and has a great
repository of Education Apps. 
2) We have a great demand for mobile computing in the school and a fair
amount of legacy machines that do not run the latest OS X versions very
well.

We currently are an exclusive OS X shop, but that is no longer a viable
option going forward.

I currently run 6 Xserves, 2 of which are dedicated File Servers running
AFP as the main service.  I use LDAP for authentication.

I am demoing a brand new HP6535b running 8.10 and some G3/G4 iBooks
running 5.04.  I attempted installing PPC 8.04 and had no luck, so I
decided to start with the oldest distro and work my way forward.

I've read various articles on Linux/OS X integration running LDAP and NFS,
but their doesn't seem to be a one stop resource for people working on as
a mainstream solution.

I am able to bind to my OS X LDAP master, but have not been able to use
this to login as a networked user from the Login screen.  I have also
succeeded at mounting a network homefolder via SSH from the Desktop, but
not automounted at the time of login.

Primary Goals:

1) From the linux client, have the users authenticate and automount their
network homefolder.
2) File share without permissions issues (I have had issues when using
SFTP)
3) Be able to image Linux clients over the network.  I am currently trying
PartImage.  Are there better solutions?

Main Questions:

Is anyone working on this solution?  Is this viable?

Any suggestions would be great.

Thank you,

David Crawford (dhcrawford on the MassTeam site)

Systems Administrator 
Up-Island Regional School District

Phone : 508 696-7738 EXT 111 or EXT 220
Fax: 508 696-7739
Email: David_Crawford at mvyps.org


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