Hello all,

Here's an overview of the classroom machine disk setup:

- 3 partitions: 1-Windows, 2-edubuntu, 3-debian
- grub is installed into the MBR and reads the menu.lst file on edubuntu

What the classroom clone script does:

- partitions the drive into three 6 GB primary partitions
- lays down the images
- resizes the file systems to fit the partitions
- installs grub into the MBR, pointing to the menu.lst file on the
second partition

This method works, but has its limitations:

- always creates 6 GB partitions, even if drive is larger than 18 GB
- only three partitions
- has to be in the specified order, i.e Windows first, etc
- updates to the Debian or Edubuntu kernels are not reflected in the
custom menu.lst file.  So kernel updates have to be added by hand.

The future ...

The way the disk should be laid out:

- 4+ partitions: 1-grub, others ...
- grub should be installed in the first sector of each linux install,
pointing to the menu.lst file in its own partition
- grub should also be installed in the MBR, pointing to the menu.lst
file on the first partition which chain loads all the other systems
- the first partition's filesystem should be vfat to allow editing
from other OSes, namely Windows.

What the clone script should do:

- partitions the drive based on the size of the drive, the number and
size of the images, and the filesystem in the images
- lays down the images
- resizes the file systems to fit the partitions
- adjusts the grub/boot.ini files on the file systems depending on
which partition it gets installed to
- creates a custom menu.lst file on the first partition based on
information in the other partitions
- installs grub into the MBR, pointing to the menu.lst file on the
first partition

Thoughts?

Regards,
- Robert

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