[ubuntu-us-ut] ubuntu-us-ut Digest, Vol 42, Issue 6

[Charles Curley]

On Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:56:28 -0600
"Chris R." <riseley at gmail.com> wrote:

> Charles, Thanks so much for the publicity about the Bring Your Dead
> Computer Back Life Day. It's cool to know that other people think
> this is a fun idea as well.

You are welcome. Thank Brad R. at goodbyemicrosoft.org as well.

> 
> The club has a lot of energetic participation so we will try to pull
> this off as well as we can.
> 
> Someone mentioned driver problems with modems.  This really can be a
> sticking problem (I have my own horror story to share on the topic for
> anyone who comes down on Nov. 14th).  We're hoping most of the
> systems that get brought in will have network cards or ports.  Audio
> drivers can also need some troubleshooting but I have personally
> overseen 20 resurrections like we're envisioning here on systems from
> the late 90s and everything has worked perfectly each time.  The help
> pages are usually well ordered and not too difficult to execute.
> We'll keep our fingers crossed.

I know Brad R. mentioned such problems in his writeup. He's been doing
it for several years, so with any luck you won't see very many
obstreperous modems. Winmodems will be ticklish; avoid them if possible.

> 
> We're glad to hear that some of you Utah LoCo members might be able
> to make it down.  The nifty discs from Canonical will really impress
> the locals as well so I hope those get to you and that you might
> shoot some down.

You didn't mention a skeet competition. :-)

> 
> Regarding this:
> "Would it be possible to allow remote root access (via SSH) to these
> computers so that the more experienced folk can help out as needed
> remotely? I'm thinking about driver issues and other fun things like
> that."
> 
> This sounds like a great idea but it is beyond my technical savvy
> personally.  I will contact one of our local Unix fellows I know and
> see if he can help arrange this. He's great with terminal commands in
> Ubuntu.  I'll keep you posted.

What you'll need:

* A standalone throwaway computer on the network in the installation
  room. By "throwaway" I mean you'll have no problems wiping the drive
  when you're done. It doesn't have to be fast; we'll only use it as a
  jumping off point to the computer where the problem lies.

* Firewall access to the throwaway box. This means convincing the
  college's network admins that (properly done) this is no threat to
  the college's network. Since this is a show-stopper and may take some
  convincing, it's the first thing to go to work on.

* SSH and SSH-agent running on the throwaway box, firewalled as
  appropriate.

* Public keys of your remote volunteers. At your option, ask them to
  email the keys to you over a digital signature.

* Your remote volunteers should run ssh-agent (most recent Ubuntus
  handle this for you).

* If you want to see what we do as we do it, bone up on "man screen".
  This suggests a large display for the throwaway computer. Most TVs
  these days have RGB inputs.

I think that's it. Anyone else?

> 
> Thanks very much for being so welcoming and receptive of our first
> message to the group.
> 
> -- Chris



-- 

Charles Curley                  /"\    ASCII Ribbon Campaign
Looking for fine software       \ /    Respect for open standards
and/or writing?                  X     No HTML/RTF in email
http://www.charlescurley.com    / \    No M$ Word docs in email

Key fingerprint = CE5C 6645 A45A 64E4 94C0  809C FFF6 4C48 4ECD DFDB