Dual Booting Linux & Windows is Not a Death Sentence! NERCOMP March 7, 2005 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. To view a copy of this license, visit or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

Introduction About Olin College About Olin College –Mission: Olin College prepares future leaders through an innovative engineering education that bridges science and technology, enterprise, and society. Skilled in independent learning and the art of design, our graduates will seek opportunities and take initiative to make a positive difference in the world. –Scholarship Policy: Every admitted student receives a four-year, full tuition scholarship valued at approximately $125,000 –Official opening: Fall 2002 –Current Enrollment: 219 Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors

Olin Laptop Program All students required to buy the same model of Dell laptop All students required to buy the same model of Dell laptop Laptops are owned by students, but supported by IT Laptops are owned by students, but supported by IT All laptops have four year on-site service All laptops have four year on-site service Loaners Loaners Help Desk uses Ghost to manage Windows install Help Desk uses Ghost to manage Windows install We had a curricular need for all students to have Linux We had a curricular need for all students to have Linux

Do It Yourself Before we had our Linux program Before we had our Linux program Students install Linux on first day of class Students install Linux on first day of class Disaster Disaster

Decision Process First we just did it First we just did it Then we gathered a working group Then we gathered a working group

Academic Requirements Python & several python modules Python & several python modules GCC GCC Java JDK Java JDK Matlab Matlab Emacs Emacs General Linux Tools / Utilities General Linux Tools / Utilities Must be able to Read and Write Windows Fileshares Must be able to Read and Write Windows Fileshares

Student Requirements 90/10 rule 90/10 rule Multimedia must work Multimedia must work Instant Messaging Instant Messaging Ease-of-Use Ease-of-Use

IT Requirements Low or No Cost Low or No Cost Auto Installation Auto Installation Ease of Use Ease of Use Integration into Windows Active Directory Integration into Windows Active Directory –( we decided to postpone this one ) Supportability Supportability –Automatic or painless deployments of security fixes –Active user community –compatible with Ghost – or at least, not incompatible

General Objectives General-purpose, easy to use, build and install General-purpose, easy to use, build and install Primarily to support curriculum Primarily to support curriculum Usable by students with limited Linux experience Usable by students with limited Linux experience Supportable by a small IT staff Supportable by a small IT staff

Possible Solutions – Debian and spin-offs Debian Debian –Stable –Unstable Debian Spin-offs Debian Spin-offs –Knoppix, Linspire, Mepis, Xandros, Ubuntu

Wild Card – Gentoo Linux Source Based Source Based Extremely Configurable Extremely Configurable Very Popular with Hacker/Geek crowd Very Popular with Hacker/Geek crowd

Red Hat Solutions Red Hat Enterprise Workstation Red Hat Enterprise Workstation – education/products/ –Education cost: $25 per copy or site license Fedora Core Fedora Core – –Free

Other RPM-Based solutions Mandrake Mandrake – SuSe SuSe –

Fedora Core Introduction Redhat is no longer producing a free, unsupported consumer-grade Linux distribution. Redhat is no longer producing a free, unsupported consumer-grade Linux distribution. The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from open source software. The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from open source software. The Fedora Project anticipates new releases 2 or 3 times per year. The Fedora Project anticipates new releases 2 or 3 times per year. Security updates are provided for older versions by Redhat for some time and then handled by the community-run Fedora Legacy project. Security updates are provided for older versions by Redhat for some time and then handled by the community-run Fedora Legacy project.

Fedora Core Strengths of Fedora Core Strengths of Fedora Core –Price –Community Support –Predictable Release Cycle –Leading Edge Components –Reasonably High Release Quality –RPM / Yum package system

Fedora Core, continued Weakness of Fedora Core Weakness of Fedora Core –Rapid release cycle –Release cycle is less predictable then we thought –Distribution Bloat –Lack of non-free packages Especially: MP3, Flash, Java Especially: MP3, Flash, Java –“Enterprise-itus”

Criteria for Decision Ultimately, any linux distribution can be made to work Ultimately, any linux distribution can be made to work Any distribution will also require extensive tweaking Any distribution will also require extensive tweaking The most important criteria are community support, availability of common software packages, and packaging system. The most important criteria are community support, availability of common software packages, and packaging system. I prefer RPM to other packaging systems I prefer RPM to other packaging systems Having elected to stick with RPM based systems, Fedora seemed logical Having elected to stick with RPM based systems, Fedora seemed logical –Price –Community –Red Hat

Olinux Overview Customized Fedora install: Customized Fedora install: –Different look –Wireless roaming –Full multimedia support Based on Fedora Core 2 Based on Fedora Core 2 Plan is to stay on FC2 until this summer and then develop an upgrade path to the latest, which should be FC 4. Plan is to stay on FC2 until this summer and then develop an upgrade path to the latest, which should be FC 4.

Multimedia Support Livna.org: MP3 Plugins Livna.org: MP3 Plugins Xvidcore, Xine, Mpeg Support Xvidcore, Xine, Mpeg Support Firefox: mplayer plugin, Acrobat Reader Plugin, Java Support, Real Player Firefox: mplayer plugin, Acrobat Reader Plugin, Java Support, Real Player

Wireless Stuff Ndiswrapper Ndiswrapper – Wireless Roaming Wireless Roaming –Waproamd –Ifplugd –Customized for Fedora and for Olin Wired / Wireless boot-time detection Wired / Wireless boot-time detection –Use mii-tool to determine if a wired link is present

Windows Access We considered making each laptop a native Active Directory Client via Samba / Winbind. We considered making each laptop a native Active Directory Client via Samba / Winbind. Instead we just use local accounts Instead we just use local accounts I wrote a program “olinshares” which makes it easy to mount Windows shares without having to be root or learn the “mount” syntax I wrote a program “olinshares” which makes it easy to mount Windows shares without having to be root or learn the “mount” syntax All laptops have a small fat-32 partition All laptops have a small fat-32 partition

Look and Feel It sounds like a small thing, but theme can be the difference between a student liking Linux from the start and hating it. It sounds like a small thing, but theme can be the difference between a student liking Linux from the start and hating it.

Olinux Look and Feel

Infrastructure / Build Environment Kickstart Server Kickstart Server Local mirrors Local mirrors Build system Build system Custom Repository: yum or apt Custom Repository: yum or apt Olinux: “meta package” that depends on other packages. Olinux: “meta package” that depends on other packages. With FC 3 and above, you can use “yum group install” and define groups With FC 3 and above, you can use “yum group install” and define groups

Problems / To Do ACPI support – power management is poor ACPI support – power management is poor Cold Boot w/o AC problem Cold Boot w/o AC problem More robust multi-media integration More robust multi-media integration Ndiswrapper is fairly limited Ndiswrapper is fairly limited Yum / up2date need to handle kernel modules better Yum / up2date need to handle kernel modules better Greater student involvement in the process Greater student involvement in the process –Tap the wealth of Geek Olin –Open the system to student contributions

Resources Fedora Project – Fedora Project – – My website My website – Linux on Laptops contains a ton of information about getting linux to work on almost any imaginable laptop. Linux on Laptops contains a ton of information about getting linux to work on almost any imaginable laptop. – Livna.org: The best source of non-free packages. This is where go to get MP3 support, etc added back into Fedora. Livna.org: The best source of non-free packages. This is where go to get MP3 support, etc added back into Fedora. – Fedora Tracker is a fantastic resource that searches many different repositories. Perfect if you are looking for a specific package you can’t find anywhere else. Fedora Tracker is a fantastic resource that searches many different repositories. Perfect if you are looking for a specific package you can’t find anywhere else. –

Questions?