[olpc-help] Various thoughts

[Andrew]

>Andrew,
>
>First, thanks very much for contacting us with your questions. I don't
>yet have a very good sense of what your end goals are (or of what your
>mental picture of how the laptops will be used is) so I need to ask you
>some dumb questions now in order to be able to better help you in the
>future.

at this early stage we can only state our goals in broad, general terms; simply to further and facilitate our existing educational mission for South Carolina public schools (in this case, grades K-5).  However, we do recognize the need to start concretizing the day-to-day integration of the laptops into the lesson plans (i.e., we do not yet have the latter). To devise the plans we first need to know all our technical options, limitations, and pitfalls to avoid.

That said, there are additional benefits that go beyond the explicitly stated curriculum - such as the child's sense of ownership of sophisticated technology, the hands-on experience and the cognitive confidence that comes therewith. A window to the vast virtual world and invitation to do broad exploration, over and beyond the stated curriculum. Encyclopedic reference.  The mesh network's collaborative potential is VERY promising as well - it could take us to realms of more effective pedagogy, if applied smartly (and that's a big IF)

>> 1) root passwords. 
>
>What are you trying to protect by setting a password?

Well, first, it seems highly unconventional to have linux systems with null root passwords. It was my own first (and perhaps knee-jerk) reaction to raise the concern what appeared to me as a "security hole" here.

I understand that ssh-ing has been disabled for both users "root" and "olpc".  

But couldn't there be unwanted intrusions still? Statistically speaking, given the number of units in circulation, there will be several linux-savvy adults with access to a school-program XO, and, of those, perhaps a few might be compelled to make unwanted modifications. (I am just theorizing.)

And what about the possibility that the child inadvertently hoses the system, deleting system-critical files, or deleting good data (as root)?

>Who is supposed to know the password?

I suppose, any of the adults involved in the process, who are willing to do maintenance/updates should be able to have root access (after being trained, of course).

What if we wanted to allow the XO-owning children to access the internet via ANY public access point - that would mean we could not implement dansguardian or the like. Nor would we be able to filter internet content on the child's local system (if they had root access they can remove and local filtering). Believe me, once they realize their content is being filtered, a lot of them WILL begin to explore ways to defeat the filter, and many of those will quickly understand the meaning and (high) value of being root.

(Can you not see angry parents contacting the administration about their children loading inappropriate content onto the XO's?)

>When do you want to set the passwords? (or reset them?)

Prior to handing them out to the pupils, i suppose.

>> I have never heard of such a thing. Can a script (run with run
>> privileges, i suppose), automatically (re)set the root password?
>
>Certainly.

>> Ideally... (unique password for each unit):
>Please explain why this would be your ideal situation.

Security. Supposing, somehow, a pupil learns the root password for his or someone else's XO.  If every XO has the same root password, the entire batch is instantly compromised.

>> 2) I have set up a DHCP server & internet gateway that works. However,
>> when the XOs boot, they do not automatically try to obtain an IP
>> address from the 172.18.0.1 ("school server").  
>
>What build are you running?

The two sample units one of my colleagues purchased during last Christmas' purchasing window are both Build 656 

>> 5) Is it possible to use an external midi input device with the TamTam
>> activity, to record the midi tracks? (a normal Midi keyboard)
>
>The CSound hackers definitely use midi keyboards with their software.
>TamTam is based on top of CSound so even if TamTam doesn't support midi
>keyboards today, it can probably be made to do so for a reasonable
>expenditure of effort.

thanks. Will explore. 
If anyone else is curious: so far i /have/ played a midi file using aplaymidi and a usb-midi device, with no additional driver or application installations.