-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1
Hi guys,
I was introduced to XSCE Appliance Mode, which raises some great
possibilities, but also some difficulties which need to be addressed,
and which Internet-in-a-Box appliances have already faced.
If a school server is installed on a network in appliance mode, and
does not serve as the network's DNS provider, then it becomes very
difficult for client XO's to find it since it has no name.
We have faced the same issue with IIAB appliances, and compensate for
it by providing mDNS/avahi and Samba NMB naming services.
- From any Windows, Linux, or Mac when an IIAB appliance is on the
network it is accessible from either http://know (Windows) or
http://know.local (Mac or Linux) - our hostname is always know.
Installing these services is just a matter of `apt-get install samba
avahi-daemon' (Debian - something yum in Fedora).
A big problem we've faced with IIAB appliances on XO deployments is
that the OLPC OS does not turn on mDNS name resolution by default in
/etc/nsswitch.conf (although the necessary software is installed). On
the XO laptop, all that is required is a `yum install nss-mdns` to
rectify the situation.
If you are creating a new image for the XO laptops, I strongly urge
you to install nss-mdns to activate mDNS resolution.
It will make School Server, IIAB, or other content sources on the
network running in an appliance mode practical without the need to
resort to difficult DNS modifications and static IP addresses.
The XSCE installer should similarly install samba and avahi-daemon on
the school server to publicize the host name.
If XSCE can be used in appliance mode with mDNS and NMB name
resolution, I would be seriously considering discontinuing our
(Debian-based) IIAB appliance hardware in favor of IIAB running on
XSCE on something like a Cubox for all our IIAB deployments.
I raised this issue on the OLPC devel mailing list last summer and it
favorably received:
http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/devel/2013-July/037559.html
- -braddock
-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/
iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJSwkd5AAoJEHWLR/DQzlZuM9MIAJ2tYe3gDvA9vm9KvG4z3U6m
WsnEQKXIDOSljqxdrVitDGgcxBLjKFFUXzevpBsr+ibhG2QdF2kN3IcihYv1hT00
ScChTpxqYcc3/PXipSoeZE8jUz+H8t/B6sI2+YpJQIf5ffAVP0PkAS+2rgmBdIWF
5zfs26pYnJVB00opZHFyKOes4GNNZqGnbpmVocKDS+o3jBYvxiTE98e51hB48dWu
Fof95sKYg2S7FH3Z1LRQF/IiIZsDRqmezfqLgxykEBkW34g3RZfDadBcFxxNqkrv
FJH/G2lMhpjGierfszVT8cf0LlCC4mUze7yMF8So6GdthL+zjBqzYcVVx85SkHw=
=yHKO
-END PGP SIGNATURE-
___
Server-devel mailing list
Server-devel@lists.laptop.org
http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
