[K12OSN] *sigh* FC2 issues

[David Trask]

"Support list for opensource software in schools." <k12osn at redhat.com> on
Saturday, August 21, 2004 at 5:54 PM +0000 wrote:
>Has anyone tried skolelinux 1.0? I am dling now.  It looks lighter than 
>k12ltsp, which could be useful. The idea of a light core with add-on 
>modules appeals to me. Any look at freeduc for this sort of thing? I am 
>not suggesting any is better, but that there are a few ways to look at 
>an educational thin client/linux  environment.
>Re the hardware issues..... I had failing hardware on my initial install 
>of fc1, on my upgrade to fc2 on my personal box, an nforce2. Non-k12ltsp 
>fedora provided me with these issues...and my by now boring disl.ike of 
>fedora.

First of all, I'm not an advocate of buying pre-built servers.  That being
said...I did buy my current K12LTSP servers from Daktech....because I had
the money and I didn't want to frig with it....I had enough on my plate. 
BUT...what I'm noticing is this.  My servers are very much brand name
whiteboxes.....all Intel guts...Seagate or IBM SCSI
HD's....Xeon's....etc....etc.  Dual processors....built in sound (not that
sound matters on a server)...built in video....one with built-in dual gig
nics...and one with one 10/100 and one gig nic built-in....so I had an
Intel gig nic added as well.  I can say that I have had absolutely NO
hardware related problems with FC1 or FC2.  I've been running both on
various servers... most are similar to what I've described above and
....no issues at all.  I'm wondering (and please don't kill me for
this)....if some folks are dealing with off-brand hardware or too much
hardware (aka better video cards than necessary in a server....etc.  That
are causing these issues.  I'm not saying that these issues should be
overlooked in development or anything like that, but in order to stabilize
your own environment for the time being....

A week ago I was in Exeter, NH USA helping the tech folks for SAU 16
schools build their new K12LTSP and Samba/LDAP servers along with several
E-Smith/SME servers.  They bought and built some really nice servers
(SuperMicro I believe)....but they bought the pieces and assembled the
servers.  I did notice that the guts were brand name in nature....Intel
stuff and so forth....I loaded K12LTSP 4.1 based on FC2 with no issues at
all.  Steve Kossakoski (on this list) can provide more detail as he is the
Assistant Superintendent in charge of technology for that district and a
big linux advocate.  The servers were very impressive and very inexpensive
considering what they got.  Speed wise....WOW!  Very slick!  

Lastly....would it be possible to package a version of K12LTSP 4.1 based
on the Linus kernel as opposed to the Redhat influenced kernel?  Then we
could do some head to head testing...OR if someone could post a thorough
HOW-TO on the wiki or something as to how to acquire and compile and thus
use the Linus kernel on our K12LTSP 4.1 systems (make very thorough as
many of us have never compiled a kernel...myself included and have no idea
where to start....don't assume we know ANYTHING)  ;-)  That's my $.02

PS.  School starts in a little over a week....that's when my new FC2 based
Samba-LDAP server and K12LTSP 4.1 server will begin to get a real
workout....I'll keep ya'll posted...wish me luck!  (picture David with
fingers crossed and furiously knocking on wood)  ;-)

David N. Trask
Technology Teacher/Coordinator
Vassalboro Community School
dtrask at vcs.u52.k12.me.us
(207)923-3100