Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Qemu - My fault for being bleeding edge!

Those that know me will be aware that I am a fan of Debian - I love the package management and you don't get the dross or quirks that come with Ubuntu et al. Anyway, since the announcement that Debian Etch (or v4) was to be released back in December I figured why not upgrade?

Unfortunately, Debian being as stable as it is means that they won't release a version until ALL the major supported platforms (something like 9 out of 15) are completely bug free. As you can guess this is pretty tricky to do... hence the slow pace of new Debian releases.

Because I couldn't curb my enthusiasm, I've been using the release candidate (aka Testing) and I'm very pleased. Anyway... I digress.

As a result of my using this 'bleeding edge' OS, I'm currently running kernel version 2.6.17 which is perfectly stable IMHO. However, to test out my Pykota instructions (see earlier post), I wanted to install VMWare Server (another one of my favourite profucts) but to do this you need the kernel header files and for some reason these haven't been made available in the Debian repositories!!!

What does all this have to do with Qemu? Qemu is an open source virtualisation product which is very easy to install on Debian since it IS in the repositories.

After downloading the Debian Testing install disks (again - I keep leaving them places!) I've started up the app and kicked it off installing. All seems to be going well so far (touch wood) and I will write an update when I've had chance to test it further. It has certainly got around my problem for now though so I should be able to test my Pykota instructions ;-)

Thursday, March 08, 2007

PyKota - Another update!

Following on from yesterday's update, I managed to find some more time between a Nedap meeting, meeting with the architect and cabler for the new extension and ringing DELL to arrange for a new motherboard to be sent out to take another look at PyKota.

I tweaked some accounting settings and re-added the test users. The printing AND accounting now works a treat! YAY!!!!

As a result, I decided to publish my installation notes on EduGeek so that others can learn from my experience. I will be refining these to create a 'proper' installation guide as soon as I get chance.

In the meantime, anybody who is interested can check out the guide at http://edugeek.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7100

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Update on Pykota

OK... so I've been playing with this Pykota lark in every free minute that I've had at work (and many at home too!). I'm sure that it could be a lot easier than this but I'm still learning... I'm by no means a Linux guru.

When I've got the whole thing working, a howto guide will be produced... this is something seriously lacking with Pykota IMHO. There are lots of installation guides but they all seem to make a lot of assumptions and miss significant (if menial) parts out.

Anyway... back to the progress so far. I have configured CUPS with Samba - this was relatively easy. As I mention above, Pykota was the tricky part but it all seems to be working now, bar one 'tiny' detail... it isn't counting the pages :-( This has a knock-on effect in that it prevents the user from printing :-s

Anyway... back to trawling the net for ideas and re-reading the config files.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

A Quick Guide to Thin Client Computing

Many people on EduGeek have recently been looking into thin clients as a way of reducing TCO in their schools. Many of these people have turned to me as I am somewhat of an authority on this. As a result, I promised to write a little guide explaining some of the basics. The guide can be found at http://edugeek.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7035 - enjoy!

As a background, my network setup uses 6 terminal servers running Windows Server 2003 and Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 to server approx 200 thin clients... most of the clients in the school are thin clients.

Eagles of Death Metal @ The Manchester Academy

So... the long awaited Eagles of Death Metal gig was last Saturday at the Manchester Academy. I haven't been to the Academy before (only Academy 2) and I was impressed by the venue. Beer was cheapish (only £2.45 for a pint of Grolsch which is VERY cheap for a gig!) and the room was just the right size.

The support act was Mother Vulpine... a pretty heavy indie rock band comprising of a singer/guitarist, bassist who bounced around like Zebedee, a drummer and a female guitarist. I was quite impressed... their music was OK and the female guitarist wasn't too unppleasent on the eyes ;-)

Then the gig started proper and when EODM came one we bounced our way to about 5 rows from the front! It was great and everyone was having a good time! The only problem is that it was a little warm and cramped so I had to bounce back a couple of rows to try to cool down. My old age (of 25) meant I later had to go back further still as the sweat was still pouring off me!

EODM were fantastic and played a great set. It really was one of the best gigs I've been to in a while. Definately worth watching again!