School Server/RIT

For RIT Honors Seminar project.

School Server Fall 2009 Seminar Project

(Draft, please contribute)

Purpose

1. Provide a school server test and development environment for the Honors Seminar participants,
2. Develop School Server systems administration skills,
   1. Backup registered XOs or Sugar Sticks
   2. Host Moodle content developed in class
3. Test and Debug OLPC - Sugar Labs School Server software
4. Develop a School Server SysAdmin training curriculum for volunteers who want to support an OLPC or Sugar deployment

Resources

1. RIT LTL or other hardware
2. OLPC XS development builds, http://wiki.laptop.org/go/School_server
3. http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel and the list archives, archive with search
4. OLPC projects/xs repository, http://dev.laptop.org/git/?q=projects%2Fxs
5. Martin Langhoff's git repository, http://dev.laptop.org/git/users/martin/

schoolserver.rit.edu

Note: Admin log is located on the server at /var/log/adminlog.log

Project Ideas

• Fix Ejabber
• Configure Moodle to our needs
  • Create an Activity(Application) for RIT XOs so students can easily access Moodle
• Moodle xo python api
• XO Backup/Restore
• XO Security [1]
• Deployment "whitebook"
• Provide a service that allows teachers/volunteers (who don't speak english) in the field to communicate via email with technical support voluneers by using the translating service pootle. Incoming and outgoing "tagged" emails would be translated in and out of the server on arrival / departure of the XS.
• Library. Thousands of books stored on server, because of limited XO storage, children are able to pull either one whole book at a time, or bits of the book as they go and read them on the xo.
  • Additionally, they can "check out" books and bring them home on their laptops to read at home, or while not connected to the XS.
  • Run said books through pootle, so children have access to books not in their native tongue.
• In class quizzing. Teachers ask questions, students respond using their XO, quiz results stored on XS. (Think the I>clicker).
  • Possibility of parsing of information, possible graphical heuristics.
  • Is this already a feature of Moodle? (quiz module) / Possible integration or extension of idea with Moodle.

Completed Tasks

• Install Moodle
  • Apache (httpd)
  • PHP
  • MySql
  • Install Moodle

  These experiments are fine to understand the above services. In the end, we want to add instructions and some supporting scripts to modify the standard OLPC School Server to support our campus environment. For example php, and PostgreSql are installed with the School Server, http://dev.laptop.org/git/projects/xs-pkgs/tree/xs-pkgs.spec.in, and Moodle is included in the latest of these builds, http://xs-dev.laptop.org/xs/other/, from what I understand. --FGrose 23:27, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

Network configuration

The School Server, XS, as received is designed and configured for 2 Ethernet adapters,

• eth0 - connected to the wide area network (WAN) or the campus Internet connection,
• eth1 - connected to an access point (AP) which the XOs connect to.

For robustness in unreliable power supply environments, there are scripts that reconfigure features on a frequent basis. This design has frustrated anyone wanting to deviate from the default configuration.

We will have to understand the design, carefully document our adjustments for our environment, and make preparations to restore one or more configurations once we upgrade to a new version of the server that may likely restore some of the default configurations.

Subpages

• School Server/RIT/File Distribution System
• School Server/RIT/XS on XO