Here are a few photos of NABB's library, before and after. Before the conversion, the room was mainly used for storage and eventually became a dumping ground for all the items the teachers no longer required in the classrooms.

Space is at a premium in Holmfirth J I & N School, it was therefore essential that whatever furniture was fitted accommodated as much as possible.

Before
This was the NABB's library back in April 2007.














After
In August 2007 it was complete.
































There are 17 thin clients housed in the room. The Promethean ActivBoard is connected to a Windows XP machine in a server cabinet 15m away. The USB leads use repeaters so no data is lost. A standard USB connection can be no longer that 7-10m before a repeater is required.


Each HP 5725 thin client is mounted to the bottom of the furniture using HP's quick release bracket. This provides quick and easy access to all the cables & means that a client is very quick to swap.

It's been almost a year now since Promethean revealed that they're working on Linux drivers for their range of ActivBoards and still no news of when and if it's to be released to the public.

Through piecing together information I've googled, it seems that Promethean advertised for a Linux/Mac software tester back in March, it's unclear if they managed to recruit anyone for the position. Now they're again recruiting for a similar position :

Software Tester: "You will be responsible for testing the full range of software & hardware products on Windows, Mac & Linux platforms. You will assist with maintaining the issue database & will liaise with other departments to qualify issues raised from internal & external users."

This is becoming quite a problem for us because as I've mentioned before it's the school's intention to make the transition to FOSS. There is certainly more demand for Linux support from Promethean, especially this year, but the exact numbers are unclear. I would therefore urge Promethean to adopt a platform-agnostic approach within a reasonable time frame to satisfy this increasing demand.

I came across a few tools today to ease the setup of common Ubuntu addons. Commonly installed applications & drivers like ATI and NVidea drivers can now be installed with just a few clicks.

These two programs are a great addition to an install of Ubuntu. It saves time having to go through the repositories and find the additional utilities often required. Easy Ubuntu is easy, graphical and safe.

Here is a screenshot:

















This is what Easy Ubuntu does:

Multimedia

• Enhance video player: Install a better multimedia backend (totem-xine replace totem-gstreamer)
• Free Codecs: Add Support for playing mp3 and other non-free formats
• Binary Codecs: Add support for proprietary video and audio formats (w32codecs) (only x86)
• libdvdcss: Read commercial and encrypted DVDs
• MIDI: Add support for playing midi files

Web

• Flash: Enable the Macromedia Flash plugin (only x86)
• Java: Enable the Java plugin (Sun Java for x86, amd64) (IBM java for ppc)
• Videos: Enable viewing videos embedded in webpages

Archives

• RAR: extract and create RAR archives
• ACE: extract ACE archives
• 7-Zip: Extract 7-Zip archives

System

• Repository list: Main, Universe, Multiverse and PLF (replace your previous sources.list)
• Fonts: Install Microsoft and other nice fonts
• DMA: Enable Direct Memory Access to improve DVD reading (breezy)
• Nvidia: install the official driver to enable 3D on Nvidia graphics cards
• ATI: install the official driver to enable 3D on ATI graphics cards

Voice Over IP

• Wengo: a free Voice Over IP software (available in dapper)
• Skype: the most popular VoIP software (only x86)

Another application that does a similar thing but is apparently more configurable is Automatix. See the screenshot below:

To see a list of what Automatix is capable of installing:

http://getautomatix.com/wiki/index.php?title=Software_and_Tweaks

Nabb saw it's first small influx of Year 5 children using the the Ubuntu thin clients. They were very impressed.

There were 6 children in all, I told them how to log in to the machines and then left them to explore! They were engrossed by what it had to offer. Given free reign, they obviously went straight for the games. They loved the variety that Ubuntu had to offer and word quickly spread when one of the children found snake.

In an effort to explore their creative potential, I pointed them in the direction of Tux Paint, a basic but feature rich paint program primarily for KS1 & 2 children. I showed them how to use the stamp feature (readily created images) and they were engaged until break time.















A screenshot of Tux Paint.

They wanted to remain in the library through break time, so I let them, encouraging them all to experiment with the applications offered by Ubuntu. Experimentation will never become a problem with the thin client system and I can remain confident that I'll never 'fix' anything again, as administrative tasks are locked down by default.

In contrast, I've just spent two days locking down Windows Server 2003 whilst effectively allowing all our pupils and staff access to their own personal XP environment! Each user now has their own username and password, therefore allowing access to their own personal My Documents. They also have the ability to customise applications and the desktop the way they want. Personalisation is something all kids love - take ring tones and wallpaper on mobile phones for example!

It's taken several months, but we now have a suite of 17 thin clients and 16 further clients in two of the classrooms - reception and year 1. This brings our total PC count to 68, making our child to PC ratio slightly better than 4/1 (3.76/1 to be exact.)

An outstanding job has been crafted in the library. Not only have we managed to house 17 thin clients in the moderate 47 square meters but also the original library's books. Careful thought was given to furniture's design, largely contributing to it's success. We drafted a design which was further refined by the bespoke furniture company. We even saved money by doing some of the simpler woodwork ourselves beforehand, allowing us to get a feel for the ergonomics of the desk and book space. A suspended ceiling was fitted in each of the four sections and lights were dropped evenly into the ceiling grid. Trunking was run around the room to accommodate the electrical sockets and CAT5 cabling.

A 9u data cabinet was mounted on the wall to house the patch panel and two switches. One of the switches extends the school's LAN through to years 1,2 & 3 as well as reception and nursery. The other switch is used for the LTSP, feeding the 17 thin clients in the Library as well as 8 more machines in year 1.

The server is a rather modest AMD64 x2 6200 with 2GB RAM. It has 2 x 10,000 rpm SATA hard drives, however it currently only uses one of these due to an issue with RAID and Ubuntu. We are running Edubuntu 6.10 as an O/S, purely because I felt the support was more thorough.

Upon installing Edubuntu we were faced with a few minor issues:

1) When using Adobe Flash, the server failed to port the sound over to the thin client. This is a known bug and now has a widely recognized workaround.

2) Both hardware and software RAID proved difficult to setup and I decided against it given the short timescale in which to implement and test the system.

3) Dual core support was not enabled, so Edubuntu was only running on one core. There is a simple workaround for this and that is to just change the Kernel. However, I'm not going to do this until I need to, just for the purpose of speed testing LTSP using a single core. Perhaps when the server's load starts getting maxed out I'll enable this. Currently I have only the 32bit version of Ubuntu installed as I forsaw more issues being created if I was to use a 64bit O/S. In fairness it's early days for 64bit programs.

4) GCompriss failed to work in an LTSP environment, again this is a known issue and has a workaround.

We currently use Windows Server 2003 in school acting as a domain controller and file server for all the Windows workstations. So far this has proved really reliable and we are currently working on giving each child their own user name and password, as well as a share of it's storage space. Currently each year group has their own login but this is becoming increasingly difficult to manage for the administrator.

The aim is to use SAMBA on Edubuntu to get the two servers talking, thereby having the same login credentials throughout the school. Currently users have to be setup on the LTSP server separately, in the long term this has the potential to cause a major headache for the Administrator, having to maintain user details on both servers.

I've mentioned before in a previous post about our inability to use ActivPrimary in a linux environment. As yet the software has not been ported to the O/S however, Promethean are working on this, but very slowly. Their main competitor, SMART already have drivers and software in place and have done for a while, I believe that Promethean are just playing catch up. We have been in communication with Promethean and they are going to let our school test the software and drivers they're currently working on.

As a workaround to this problem, we've successfully setup a Windows 2003 server running terminal services. The server is again very modest (P4 3.2ghz, 1GB ram) but at the moment this is a temporary workaround, so investment in a more powerful dedicated terminal server seemed unnecessary. Using RDP in Edubuntu, the thin clients connect to the terminal server and you suddenly have a Windows XP environment running in Edubuntu. The login credentials and share permissions are again determined by the domain controller for the TS environment. It's very impressive seeing all this in action.

The school also invested in a 42u floor standing server cabinet which will house all the schools server equipment in one secure place. We also needed a Windows XP machine to run a Promethean ActivBoard in the library. This was setup in a rackmount server case also sitting in the cabinet. This cabinet has the potential to house all the servers required for each of the classrooms.

We have a total of 10 projectors in school, one for each classroom. Over time they gather dust and this effects the picture to such an extent that it's only visible in a darkened room. For a while the school thought the only option would be to replace them with new ones, however I came across a post in a news group that suggested that they could be cleaned given a certain amount of technical nous. Upon seeing this I asked David if I could experiment with one of the spare projectors to see if I could revive it - after 9 hours I managed to do it - it was very rewarding!

I posted to the school forum upon completion:

I've managed to revive one of the projectors to its former self and it certainly is quite rewarding. Now it works brilliantly, back up to its 1400 strong ANSI lumens!

This particular projector is quite simple in it's layout and all the main lenses and filters are quite easy to get at. I would have liked to have a bottle of compressed air as this would have probably saved me having to dismantle every part of the projector. The prism assembly is the most complicated bit and having took it apart it took nearly 3 hours to get it back together!

Patience is a must if you go this deep! However it improved my understanding and confidence. Given the right tools, and my newly found knowledge it would take a total of between 3-4 hours to clean. I've spent 9 hours on this particular one, but I'm now familiar with every part of it and have even managed to get hold of a service manual, which came in very handy when I put it back together for the second time and found the colours were muddled up!

Thankfully all the projectors we have, apart from the newer ones are of the same brand - Sanyo, so they are likely to be very similar on the inside.

Oh, and no screws left over!

This is the newsgroup post that inspired me:

Hi there, I have a query, the school technician has been cleaning the projectors we have, but in his haste he has used a compressor and blown air and I think dust into the machines. This has resulted in a grainy and dull picture being projected! Has he knackered them? Can they be opened and cleaned to get them back to their pristine state? Any help/ ideas would be massively useful!

Cheers Simon

How can these have been cleaned without opening them. The dust inside them is very fine as it has already passed through the filters (similar to static dust on tv screen). So in answer to the question - No its not knackered just that the dust already inside has probably been forced into the lens/filters area.

I clean our Epson and Sanyo projectors by opening them up and stripping them down. I use a hoover to suck out all the dust and an air duster to blow out dust from the lens area.

Take photos at every stage of dismantling so that it can be put back together. You may have to clean the lens and colour filters. These on our projectors just slide out and need a quick wipe with a dry cloth/paper towel.

We are no proactive in that they are now cleaned regularly before the quality deteriorates. You will need to be brave with the first one you do and allow yourself around 4 hours to complete the first time. You will have to undo all electrical connectors and ribbon connectors and remove circuit board to get to all of the dust.

If you do go ahead pick the dirtiest one you can find as you will get a much better idea of the places that the dust can actually get into. It will also be much more rewarding when you put it back together and find that you no longer need to black out the room to see the picture. This is also cheaper than having to pay someone else to pick it up, clean it and then deliver it back.


Service Manuals
http://www.smpcshop.com/

The school term has now come to an end and the school is free of its usual hustle and bustle. This gives me a great opportunity to get to work on the library.

It's still unclear as to just how things are going to be set out in the library. We've had one discussion about the placement of the trunking which will accommodate the LAN cables. This would be ready to start as of Monday. We still are unclear about the quantity of thin clients we will house, but I would imagine the space could house nearer 20 thin clients. This would lower our overall child to computer ratio to nearly 3:1.

The thin clients have now been sent back to Thin Store after a good trial period. In order to test the load that the server would be taking we setup 20 of our new PCs in the ICT suite to boot using PXE. We bought a 100/1000 switch from CCL computers for around £150.00. Using this we connected a 1000mb link to the server and each PC took a 100mb link. We ran a series of tests, mainly noting the speed and overall functionality of the LTSP thin client network. Here are our findings:

Speed tests using 1 thin client to 1 server:

Power on to Edubuntu logon screen
The HP thinclient took 1:58
The IGEL 3110 took 1:34
The IGEL 3210 took 1:14

From logon screen to desktop took around 30 seconds for each machine.

Loading the GIMP paint/draw application
The HP thinclient took 0:10
The IGEL 3110 took 0:06
The IGEL 3210 took 0:05

Loading the Open Office (word) application
The HP thinclient took 0:06
The IGEL 3110 took 0:03
The IGEL 3210 took 0:04

Loading the Tux Paint application
The HP thinclient took 0:04
The IGEL 3110 took 0:03
The IGEL 3210 took 0:03

Loading Firefox web browser
The HP thinclient took 0:08
The IGEL 3110 took 0:04
The IGEL 3210 took 0:02

Quite an impressive set of times. Functionality is great on all the machines. The HP lagged behind and its graphics capabilities were much weaker than the IGELs, taking longer to redraw the screen than the other two.


Speed tests using 20 (3 Ghz Celeron PCs, 512mb RAM) thin clients to 1 server (Pentium 4, 512mb RAM):

Simultaneous power on to Edubuntu logon screen
1:25 - 2:00

From logon screen to desktop took around 20 seconds - 1 minute for each machine.

Loading the GIMP paint/draw application
0:51 - 1:00

Loading the Open Office (word) application
inconclusive due to bug which has now been remedied.

Loading Firefox web browser
inconclusive due to bug which has now been remedied.

We had a few teething problems with Edubuntu to start off with. It was my fault as I hadn't created an individual login for each user. We all used the same login name which resulted in two of our tests remaining inconclusive.

If two or more sessions have the same login then this will result in an error upon loading the desktop. A user must only be logged in on one workstation, otherwise, that user can't load the same applications they are using on the other terminal they are logged into.

The test really surprised me all round. I was amazed at just how fast things were running, especially given such a modest server specification.

When we get our thin client network running, I would like to install some more RAM in the server and use RAID. £200 would enable us to do this. Therefore bringing the value of our server to around £600.

We never enabled network/intranet/Internet access on the server so don't know how the system would cope with streaming video. My hope is that the IGELs can handle it just as capably as the dedicated ICT suite machines in a Microsoft environment.

CCL Computers
http://www.cclonline.com