Maintenance

I've installed the Tutor (teacher) version of the Sanako Study 1200, a VOIP language lab package on the Mac mini and the Student version on the iMacs. Martin and I took it for a bit of a test drive and it appears at least generally useful. We had some trouble figuring out how to get files to students, though. What it needs is a shared directory where it can find files. It creates a folder structure which duplicates the "sessions" available (A-F) and requires files to be shared to be stored in the appropriate directory. I'm sure there's a method of automating it, but haven't found it in the provided docs yet. Anyway, I got that working. Network speed is, of course, no issue. Also, shared drives (like squash) need to be pre-mounted on student stations before playback can occur. This makes me wonder if we'll need a server OS on teacher stations if ALL materials are on the server. If so, I can fiddle something on the server to accommodate the XP connection restriction AND the teacher desire to bring in materials as they see fit.

I also sent some of Dr. Niang's video files (40-sh to 60-ish MB each) and they just worked. Bang!, they were up and running without having to download the whole thing first. That is fabulous.

The one thing I have not found is a method of doing the telephone conversations that Lab 300 supports. Frankly, I suspect they've dropped that as the network overhead would be crippling.

The system appears to be based around an initial feature set that can be augmented by purchasing modules and incorporating them. The interface apparently remains the same, merely adding buttons and so forth to the existing GUI. Modules to add include Blackboard support (ugh), and a content creation module (audio, video and the like). There are others, but I can't download any to assess their value.

Conclusion for today: I think we should talk to U of A about their experience with it, and get a ballpark quote for the record.

So I've been beavering away on a system that dual (or triple) boots AND provides a local R/W storage partition that is accessible from each OS. Choosing a common filesystem is tough, though:
* EXT2/3 drive exists for Windows, but the only one available for Mac OS doesn't work properly, so that's out.
* HFS+ drivers exist for Linux, but the Windows one costs $40+/machine - too much
* FAT32 is crap for all kinds of reasons.
* NTFS drivers exist for Linux and Mac OS (NTFS-3G) but when I write a file to the NTFS data partition from Mac OS the data is gone on reboot - this not a good thing. I discovered that it is because NTFS-3G is a userspace filesystem it generates a UUID for the partition each time. I *think* this is why the data is toasted, but I don't find others complaining (why?).
* other, more exotic filesystems (JFS, ReiserFS, ZFS, UFS etc.) aren't supported well enough on ANY non-native operating system.

I conclude that this is not worth solving in the context of a lab setup. Here's one solution:
The new labs will require a server to store teaching materials. We can build an inexpensive machine (>$2000) with heaps of storage (~4TB) and multiple NICs, on a gigabit network. The machine will export NFS and SMB/CIFS shares that get picked up by Mac OS (NFS) and Windows (SMB/CIFS). This will provide very fast storage that is available from any machine in the domain.

Erik is doing a workshop which requires Skype.
I have pushed the installer to all Lab B machines, and can install it silently from the Ghost console with this command:
c:\documents and settings\administrator\desktop\skypesetup.exe
and the following parameters:
/verysilent /sp-

If we want to remove the link added to the desktop, then do:
del "c:\documents and settings\all users\desktop\skype.lnk"

UPDATE: Skype does not need to have a global firewall exception to work. It should, however, have a registry setting applied that denies it supernode powers. The file looks like this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Skype]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Skype\Phone]
"DisableSupernode"=dword:00000001

The reg file and other info on Skype in an educational settings was pinched from here: https://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/twiki/view/CF/SkypeConfiguration
and here:
http://its.ndsu.edu/security/it_security/index/skype_use_at_ndsu/

Something to investigate if we deploy Skype on all lab machines (at least in Windows) is how to do away with the annoying post-install setup and account setup and firewall warning. I imagine it's just a "Default User" profile adjust and deploy thing.

note: I added 30 minutes to this post for subsequent work on this topic

Problems getting a 4-partition, 3OS machine set up.
Because Bootcamp will only create 2 partitions it isn't simple to build a triple-booter in the approved manner.
Formatting the drive as 4 partitions (using GUID map) leaves Windows unbootable, but adding an MBR meant that Mac OS didn't show up in the Startup disk pref pane. As a result, I was not able to make Bootpicker work the way I had hoped: the machine would either only boot in to Windows (or Linux, depending on GRUB) or I'd get a blue screen when I tried to boot in to Windows (using the keyboard to choose OS on boot). Adjusting GRUB or boot.ini works, but is not elegant.
The solution (found here: http://www.twocanoes.com/forums ) is to set the LAST partition on the disk to be Windows. Apparently the Intel Macs won't recognize the bootability of Windows unless it's last on the list. Also, when cloning the new Windows install to another machine, the new machine needs to be partitioned in the same way:
e.g.
partition 1: Storage
partition 2: Mac OS
partition 3: Linux
partition 4: Windows
or boot.ini will need to be adjusted to point to the right partition.

So, what I'm doing right now:
1: boot from external Leopard
2: Format drive as above (4 partitions with Windows last)
3: Use NetRestore to build Mac OS partition from Leopard_clean.dmg on external drive
4: Boot to Windows install disk and install Windows (make sure to format partition as NTFS)
5: Boot in to Windows and install Windows drivers from Leopard disk.
6: Boot in to Leopard and install/configure Bootpicker
6b: If it is a dual-booter (no Linux), run this command in OS X to disable the Linux choice in Bootpicker:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.education.bootpicker linuxPartition -bool FALSE

UPDATE: 4 partitions won't work. MBR only supports 4 primary partitions and GPT does not support extended partitions. Combining these two limitations means that a dual partition system disk can have a maximum of 4 primary partitions. In addition, Apple reserves the first primary partition for the "EFI System Partition". That leaves us with only three partitions to play with, one for each OS.
(from http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/Triple_Boot_via_BootCamp )
So, I'm going with 2 partitions (in the case of the labs, no Linux). 30GB for Windows, at the end of the disk and the rest for Mac OS.

Useful disk commands:
sudo diskutil mergePartitions "Journaled HFS+" "Mac OS" disk0s2 disk0s3
which will merge partitions 2 & 3 using journaled hfs+ and name the resulting partition Mac OS.
and
sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 60G "Linux" "Linux" 17G "MS-DOS FAT32" "Windows" 15G
which will resize disk0s2 (the main partition volume) to 60GB and create a 17GB volume called Linux with linux formatting and a 15GB FAT32 volume called Windows.

Some hotfixes and updates are not labelled with a date. nLite requires them to be sorted by date, as that is the order nLite slipstreams the patches. As of now, the updates that we care about, with no date stamp are:
IE7-WINDOWSXP-X86-ENU.exe - release date: 2007/10/04
KB923789 - 2006/11/14
Others have screwy dates (instead of yyyy/mo/dd some patches use something like mo/dd/yyyy)

Other patches cannot be integrated for some reason (no feedback on error):
js56nen - release date: 2003/03/19
KB824105 - release date: 2003/09/03
HMTCDWizard (included in a RyanVM Addon, though) - release date: 2003/09/25
KB833407 - release date: 2004/02/10
gdidettool - release date: 2004/09/14
KB917283 - release date: 2006/07/11
KB937057 - release date: 2007/09/11
KB937058 - release date: 2007/09/11
KB937059 - release date: 2007/09/11
KB937060 - release date: 2007/09/11
The last four (937057-060) are VBStudio patches and I'm not sure they *need* to be slipped.
I'll try using HFSlip on these, but I'm not sure when I should slip them.

Slipstreaming WMP11 has been problematic unless I slip it without additional patches. I'm going to try adding the patches with nLite or HFSlip

Others still complain in a nondescript fashion:
KB890830-V1.35.exe (error is: not to be installed, but run)
WindowsRightsManagementServicesSP2-KB917275... (error is: not supported for integration)

Took a longer look at this problem:
1) I uninstalled the USB hubs with Device Manager and allowed Windows to re-install them. Didn't work.
2) Booted the machine with a Linux LiveCD. It reported that there was NO communication with any USB ports.

My conclusion: motherboard is screwed. At least in so far as the USB hubs are concerned. This is not unexpected as the machine has always run at the upper end of the acceptable temperature range. It is still under warranty so I'll get the CStore to come down.

Problem: if the board gets RMA'd what do we do in the meantime?
Answer: Pull station 24 from Lab C and rebuild it as the TS.

UPDATE: I have a call in to the UVic CStore to come in and have a look.

Eoin reported this late in the day, while Greg was at a meeting, so I started dealing with it, and Greg appeared later. We managed to get the machine working with PS2 keyboard and mouse; no clue as to why the USB ports all seem to be dead.

Got one of the new iMacs for testing. It didn't ship with Leopard installed (came with an upgrade disk), so I upgraded.
Installed a bunch of apps including Parallels (with Windows and Ubuntu).
After discussing various implementation options with Martin it became clear that an all-VM based solution to deploying the Sanako system will not work (at least, not easily). As a result, I used BootCamp to partition the drive (32GB for Windows), and installed Windows. As I used a custom install disk, there are a couple of issues to sort out, but I'm close to being able to testing the Sanako system on it. I'll need a USB>serial adapter to test the teacher station part of this equation, and then I'll need to work out the USB headset/soundcard config.
Once all of that works I'll need to get the BootPicker working.