[Server-devel] usbmount alternatives
Tony Anderson
tony_anderson at usa.net
Tue Nov 13 10:45:10 EST 2012
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 !
>
>
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