Any thoughts on managing multiple computers in an education setting

[Jesse Griffin]

I have done what you suggest, creating systems that auto-update and also
distributing a tar file that has a pristine copy of a user's home directory
(on reboot the home direction is returned to its original state).  This
setup ran on around 150 computers and worked well, all things considered.
I could probably dig up some of those scripts if you were interested, but
they are about 7 years old now, the basics are still the same though.

However, having also just setup Chrome OS on several dated HP Minis, I
would not go back to my scripted setup.  I know you said you didn't want to
go that way, but it has about 95% of what you are asking for--I'd suggest
trying it at the least.

Thank you,
Jesse Griffin

On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 1:15 PM, Eric Dunbar <eric.dunbar at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thought: Have machines auto-update themselves
>
> I'd like to be able to propagate package installs/removals to the machines
> WITHOUT ever having to intervene. I'd especially like to be able to make
> changes to the guest/default home account (e.g. preferences) without having
> to maintain a sever to control these machines.
>
> I'm wondering if it's possible to turn a home directory into a package
> that can then replace an existing home directory on the destination machine
> and be autoupdated from a personal repository when changes are made to the
> 'golden master' home directory.
>
> http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/30303/how-to-create-
> a-deb-file-manually
>
> Hmmm. I'm now also wondering if it's possible to make these machines
> install new packages through the auto-update mechanism. Create a single
> package that has as its dependencies any new packages you want installed.
> Now, will packages installed as dependencies then proceed to auto-update
> themselves or will they remain static until the fake package specifies new
> dependencies? (this is simply musing--I'm not prepared to put in that
> effort yet).
>
> What I've run into is a problem with Chrome not playing nice with Guest.
> It seems that Chrome (and Opera) won't run in the Guest account under
> Edubuntu/Ubuntu unless you specify --no-sandbox.
>
> The search continues.
>
>
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