[Server-devel] usbmount alternatives

[Tony Anderson]

On 11/12/2012 07:47 PM, Anna wrote:
> Just throwing this out, but incron might be something to look into.  For
> example, I've set up root's incrontab so that if a specific file is
> modified, a script automatically runs with root permissions.
>
> You could set root's incrontab up to watch /run/media/olpc/ and when a
> directory is created there (i.e. any USB drive is automounted), incron
> would call your script and run it as root.
>
> Again, just brainstorming here.  I won't be offended if someone says
> that's a terrible idea.
>
> Anna Schoolfield
> Birmingham
>
> On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 6:09 PM, Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org
> <mailto:holt at laptop.org>> wrote:
>
>     Thanks Tony..adding a couple others involved too :)
>
>     On 11/12/2012 6:59 PM, Tony Anderson wrote:
>
>         Hi,
>
>         First, usbmount is the software that mounts a removable drive.
>         So I would think Fedora is replacing it with an alternative
>         (some software has to perform that function). CentOS is still
>         using usbmount.
>
>         Usbmount provided for a script to be installed by the
>         administrator that would be run whenever a removable drive was
>         mounted. Daniel Drake uses this to execute a series of XS
>         specific scripts (these scripts were developed for OLE Nepal and
>         are not in XS-0.7). The scripts he developed for OLE Nepal look
>         at the mounted drive and checks for the presence of specific
>         folders. If these folders are present then a corresponding
>         script is executed.
>
>         So there are two approaches going forward:
>
>         1. Implement the capability on the usbmount replacement.
>
>         2. Execute a script via ssh from an XO, a url, or even direct
>         access for a school server on the teacher's XO.
>
>         I am planning to use a 'generic script' on the server:
>
>         if [ -f "$UM_MOUNTPOINT"/XC/xc-install ]; then
>              log notice "Installing XC"
>              cd $UM_MOUNTPOINT/XC
>              if bash xc-install; then
>                  log notice "XC installed successfully"
>              else
>                  log notice "XC install failed with code $?"
>                  error_beep
>              fi
>         fi
>
>         Essentially it tests whether the drive has a folder XC with a
>         file xc-install., if so it is executed. If not, nothing happens.
>
>         The xc-install script is on the mounted drive and does whatever
>         is needed.
>
>         XC is the counterpart to XO and XS and refers to the content for
>         the school server (XS being the software). This isn't hard and
>         fast. The XC script can (and does) add packages (e.g. mediawiki
>         or django) not in XS-0.7. Of course, it can also change the
>         server configuration.
>
>         The script needs to be run with root privileges. In Sridhar's
>         scenario this could be a bit tricky. I set up the school server
>         for login by admin by password and su to root (requiring another
>         password). This works well when you have itinerant technical
>         support who may need to administer school servers at many
>         different sites. If a teacher is to accomplish this, it would
>         probably be easiest to arrange for the teacher to login via a
>         public/private key pair and be given root privileges.
>
>         It would be relatively easy to give the teacher's laptop a
>         special menu line in the XO icon or in the console so that no
>         command line interface would be needed. Essentially I am doing
>         this sort of change with a script which works after the XO
>         install (it could, of course, also be baked into the build). In
>         the latter case, all of the laptops would have the extra menu
>         line so the school server could be configured only to accept the
>         teacher's click (e.g. identify teacher by serial-number so that
>         only the teacher's public key would match).
>
>         Tony
>
>
>
>
>     --
>     Help kids everywhere map their world, at http://olpcMAP.net !
>
>