[Server-devel] OLPC Australia XS concerns

[Martin Langhoff]

On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 8:54 PM, Sridhar Dhanapalan
<sridhar at laptop.org.au> wrote:
>  * we need the XS to behave well on an *existing* network (i.e.
> single interface), without trying to be a gateway or duplicating core
> network services (DNS, DHCP, etc.)

Yes, and that's the direction in which I want to take the XS.

>  * while other XS efforts are keen to add features, we want to be as
> trim as possible

Agreed -- I want to keep XS as simple as possible.

> We started the XS-AU when it had become clear that XS development had
...

and XS-AU was done in a very useful way; Jerry's work is in many
senses stuff that I intend to follow with the XS going forward.

> We've been working on a prototype "XS Lite", which is essentially an
> XS-AU with everything except ejabberd stripped away. Our deployments
> are done at the classroom-level; a teacher receives XOs for the
> children in their class once they have completed the necessary
> training. We would like to provide a simple server with that
> allocation of XOs. This means that the server needs to be low-cost and
> easy to implement (plug-and-play). We are assuming that there is *no*
> technical expertise available at the school.

That's an interesting concept. I hadn't thought of that. If this
classroom-XS runs its own network, and nothing else, you'll need
hostap, or an AP. If it's going to be part of a wider network
(school-wide, perhaps w Internet access) it needs 2 NICs. Ah, I see
you've thought of that.

> the XO's WLAN can be the AP

Note that running hostap is not a trivial endeavour.

cheers,


m
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 martin at laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC
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