[OLPC-AU] [Sugar-devel] Software Update and HTTP proxies
Jerry Vonau
jvonau at shaw.ca
Wed Jan 19 17:44:35 EST 2011
On Thu, 2011-01-20 at 08:51 +1100, James Cameron wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 12:53:15AM +1100, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
> > Can Software Update as seen in Sugar 0.84 on OLPC OS be made to work
> > through HTTP proxies?
>
> Yes. It uses the http_proxy environment variable if that is defined. I
> was able to add that to .sugar/debug and as a result tcpdump showed me
> that Software update was using the proxy.
>
Ok, you can define the proxy in .gconf/system/http_proxy with gnome or
gconftool-2 but the variables don't enter sugar's environment.
> If the proxy requires authentication, then the authentication tokens
> should be included in the http_proxy value. The school can provide a
> proxy account that (a) only works with the addresses desired, (b) blocks
> particular activities, and (c) helps to isolate normal Browse use of the
> laptop from Software update.
>
> export http_proxy=http://$USER:$PASS@$PROXY:$PORT/
>
> or
>
> export http_proxy=http://$PROXY:$PORT/
>
> where
>
> $USER is the username for authentication,
> $PASS is the password for authentication,
> $PROXY is the host name or IP address of the proxy server,
> $PORT is the TCP port number to connect to on the proxy server.
>
At least it can be set somewhere easy.
> > Can it pick up the same proxy setting as Browse?
>
> Browse does not use the http_proxy environment variable, so I guess not.
>
Browse does respect the .gconf/system/http_proxy, when set to a
non-existent proxy, you get a refused error.
> > The problem we have is that the Internet at all the schools in
> > Australia have HTTP proxies, so Software Update won't work on its own.
>
> The problem we have is that Sugar, unlike GNOME, does not have a desktop
> configuration item for HTTP proxy? I can't imagine primary school
> children getting that right. ;-)
>
> In environments with the XS School Server, a transparent proxy can be
> configured. That's one of the main benefits, in my opinion.
>
Thanks for the heads up,
Jerry
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