[Server-devel] Regarding my OLPC XS Wishlist

[Jerry Vonau]

On Thu, 2011-06-02 at 09:20 +0000, Aleksey Lim wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 02, 2011 at 06:29:51PM +1000, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
> > On 28 May 2011 08:31, Aleksey Lim <alsroot at activitycentral.org> wrote:
> > > On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 11:39:54AM -0400, Bernie Innocenti wrote:
> > >> On Fri, 2011-05-27 at 21:14 +0545, Abhishek Singh wrote:
> > >> > Dear All,
> > >> > I've put down my OLPC XS wishlist at
> > >> > http://asingh.com.np/blog/olpc-xs-my-wishlist/ . Please comment upon it.
> > >> >
> > >> > Thank You.
> > >>
> > >> Thank you! Forwarding this to the Dextrose list as well.
> > >
> > > I've also CCed guys who do XS work in .au
> > >
> > > Abhishek: thanks for sharing your wishlist.
> > >
> > > From my side, I see the whole picture in case of school server like having:
> > >
> > > * sugar-server[1], the base of any school server. it doesn't provide
> > >  stuff like moodle (too complicated to be basic) or puppet (useless on
> > >  this level, since configuring sugar-server should be just install
> > >  packages/iso and do some automatic work, the higher levels might user
> > >  puppet or so)
> > > * any additional services that might be useful in some deployments but
> > >  are not basic, eg, moodle or wiki.
> > >  sugar-server should provide needed info via reliable API for these
> > >  services.
> > >  in my mind, such services might be formed as separate projects (like
> > >  sugar-server-moodle) to make it possible to attach it on purpose
> > >  (there might be useful configuration tool that is being used in
> > >  sugar-server, mace[2]).
> > > * final products that include components on purpose (but sugar-server is
> > >  a required one). It is entirely depends on local needs.
> > 
> > We are looking to make our XS-AU[0] more modular to suit different use
> > cases. Our initial goal
> 
> > (completed over a year ago)
> If I got it right, it is still the same OLPC XS code base but w/ tweaks?

more or less, yes. [1]

> sugar-server in that case is a new project w/ more tough and localized
> design.
> 

As long as it can offer the all the same core services as the XS, I'm
game, as dextrose is where we want to go anyway. 

> > work on a single interface to integrate well into existing networks.
> > Installation is via USB and fully scriptable via kickstart files.
> >

With the usb race fixed with a revised anaconda rpm [1] headless in now
possible, you get need to tweak the kickstart files to your liking.


> > The current XS is very monolithic and bureaucratic. It requires
> > moderate sysadmin skills to install and maintain. Maintaining the
> > presence service is cumbersome and impractical in our schools. The
> > turnover of teachers and students is far too high to ensure that
> > anything gets managed properly.
> 
> > We're looking to slim down the XS-AU such that we can have a simple
> > collaboration server (which we currently call "XS Lite") that is
> > installable in a classroom as a drop-in appliance.
> 
> ie, just having jabber server and somehow let students know where it is?
> 

Populating a single field in sugar control panel is trivial, "OK class
right click -> My Settings -> network -> add "needed info" to the
Server: field. click "check"." That can be a first day in class routine
IMHO.  

> > is an ejabberd.
> 
> btw, I'm planing to use Prosody instead of ejabberd. I have really bad
> experiance w/ ejabberd - on jabber.sugarlabs.org it eats too many
> resources for regular 10-30 online users. Prosody is slim and light app
> and it alsready works fine w/ sugar-0.88.
> 
> > Registration, Moodle, Squid, backups and so on are
> > unnecessary. Each teacher can run their own server for their own
> > class. Conveniently, this could easily run on an XO (XS-on-XO).
> 
> in other workds there is no need in sugar specific stuff at all - just
> install jabber server from packages (maybe w/ sugar specific patches) and
> write its url on studensts' boxes.
> 

see above. As an offshoot of this you could turn this XO into an updates
server quickly with the mini-server idea of mine. [3]
  
Jerry

1. http://dev.laptop.org.au/projects/xs-au/wiki
2. http://download.laptop.org.au/XS/F11/XS-AU/bleeding/RPMS/
3. http://dev.laptop.org.au/projects/mini-server/wiki/Using