SLIDE 1
Lernstick A Debian derivative for Schools in Switzerland Gaudenz - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Lernstick A Debian derivative for Schools in Switzerland Gaudenz - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Lernstick A Debian derivative for Schools in Switzerland Gaudenz Steinlin gaudenz@debian.org DebConf 15 22. Aug 2015 k c i t s n r e l Outline Lernstick Overview 1 2 How to help - Improve collaboration with Debian Questions 3 k
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SLIDE 3
l e r n s t i c k
Project Goals
- Mobile and secure learning environment
- Runs everywhere
- Low administrative overhead for schools
- Ready to use for (Swiss) schools
- Bring your own device (BYOD)
- Non technical End-User focus
- Stable base system + latest applications
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l e r n s t i c k
Project structure
- Not much structure really
- Funded by the University of applied Sciences of
Nortwestern Switzerland
- Free support for schools in Northwestern Switzerland
- Support contracts for other schools
- Two people working part-time on the project
- Ronny Standtke (Project founder)
- Gaudenz Steinlin (me ;-) )
- Not much infrastructure
- Package repository (reprepro)
- Download site for ISO images
- GIT repositories on Github
SLIDE 5
l e r n s t i c k
Project structure
- Not much structure really
- Funded by the University of applied Sciences of
Nortwestern Switzerland
- Free support for schools in Northwestern Switzerland
- Support contracts for other schools
- Two people working part-time on the project
- Ronny Standtke (Project founder)
- Gaudenz Steinlin (me ;-) )
- Not much infrastructure
- Package repository (reprepro)
- Download site for ISO images
- GIT repositories on Github
SLIDE 6
l e r n s t i c k
Project structure
- Not much structure really
- Funded by the University of applied Sciences of
Nortwestern Switzerland
- Free support for schools in Northwestern Switzerland
- Support contracts for other schools
- Two people working part-time on the project
- Ronny Standtke (Project founder)
- Gaudenz Steinlin (me ;-) )
- Not much infrastructure
- Package repository (reprepro)
- Download site for ISO images
- GIT repositories on Github
SLIDE 7
l e r n s t i c k
Variants
- Standard Lernstick (~4.3G)
- Includes various Desktops (GNOME, KDE, XFCE, ...)
- As much software as fits into a DVD
- Open and unrestricted environment, students can examin
the environment and learn from it
- Paswordless sudo root access by default
- Lernstick Exam Environment (~2.0G)
- Restricted version for Exams
- Disables all access to internal and external devices
- Firewalled network
- Intended for Bring your own device exams
- Custom builds for support contract customers
- May include proprietary software
SLIDE 8
l e r n s t i c k
Variants
- Standard Lernstick (~4.3G)
- Includes various Desktops (GNOME, KDE, XFCE, ...)
- As much software as fits into a DVD
- Open and unrestricted environment, students can examin
the environment and learn from it
- Paswordless sudo root access by default
- Lernstick Exam Environment (~2.0G)
- Restricted version for Exams
- Disables all access to internal and external devices
- Firewalled network
- Intended for Bring your own device exams
- Custom builds for support contract customers
- May include proprietary software
SLIDE 9
l e r n s t i c k
Variants
- Standard Lernstick (~4.3G)
- Includes various Desktops (GNOME, KDE, XFCE, ...)
- As much software as fits into a DVD
- Open and unrestricted environment, students can examin
the environment and learn from it
- Paswordless sudo root access by default
- Lernstick Exam Environment (~2.0G)
- Restricted version for Exams
- Disables all access to internal and external devices
- Firewalled network
- Intended for Bring your own device exams
- Custom builds for support contract customers
- May include proprietary software
SLIDE 10
l e r n s t i c k
Technical Overview
- Mostly Debian
- Debian stable + Debian backports + Own backports + 3rd
party packages + some Lernstick specific packages
- Based on Debian Live
- GNOME as default Desktop, others available
- Distributed as ISO image with highly compressed
SquashFS
- Usually installed on a USB drive with a persistency
partition
- i386 planing to move to amd64
- Trying to keep delta to Debian as small as possible
SLIDE 11
Specific software – DLCopy
SLIDE 12
Specific software – DLCopy
SLIDE 13
Specific software – Lernstick Welcome
SLIDE 14
Specific software – xmlboot
SLIDE 15
l e r n s t i c k
Lernstick specific software
- lernstick-guest
- Fast user switching
- Mounts the home folder from an external USB Stick and
logs in the user
- lernstick-firewall
- Used in the Exam Environment
- Iptables and tinyproxy
- Simple interface in Lernstick Welcome to whitelist services
- JBackPack
- Simple backup GUI to rdiff-backup
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l e r n s t i c k
Lernstick specific software
- lernstick-guest
- Fast user switching
- Mounts the home folder from an external USB Stick and
logs in the user
- lernstick-firewall
- Used in the Exam Environment
- Iptables and tinyproxy
- Simple interface in Lernstick Welcome to whitelist services
- JBackPack
- Simple backup GUI to rdiff-backup
SLIDE 17
l e r n s t i c k
Lernstick specific software
- lernstick-guest
- Fast user switching
- Mounts the home folder from an external USB Stick and
logs in the user
- lernstick-firewall
- Used in the Exam Environment
- Iptables and tinyproxy
- Simple interface in Lernstick Welcome to whitelist services
- JBackPack
- Simple backup GUI to rdiff-backup
SLIDE 18
l e r n s t i c k
Deviations from Debian
- Non-free packages in base install (NVIDIA and ATI drivers,
firmware)
- Some more non-free software installable in “Lernstick
Welcome”
- Optimizations for non technical users
- Mostly small things like desktop file changes, improved
icons, internationalization
- Upstreamed by bug reports if applicable and accepted
- Live specific customizations
- Mostly fixups of hardware assumptions (eg. sound card
configuration in /home)
- SecureBoot support
- Because our users don’t know how and don’t want to
modify BIOS settings
- We have our own shim signed by Microsoft
- Willing to help to bring this to Debian if there is interest
SLIDE 19
l e r n s t i c k
Deviations from Debian
- Non-free packages in base install (NVIDIA and ATI drivers,
firmware)
- Some more non-free software installable in “Lernstick
Welcome”
- Optimizations for non technical users
- Mostly small things like desktop file changes, improved
icons, internationalization
- Upstreamed by bug reports if applicable and accepted
- Live specific customizations
- Mostly fixups of hardware assumptions (eg. sound card
configuration in /home)
- SecureBoot support
- Because our users don’t know how and don’t want to
modify BIOS settings
- We have our own shim signed by Microsoft
- Willing to help to bring this to Debian if there is interest
SLIDE 20
l e r n s t i c k
Deviations from Debian
- Non-free packages in base install (NVIDIA and ATI drivers,
firmware)
- Some more non-free software installable in “Lernstick
Welcome”
- Optimizations for non technical users
- Mostly small things like desktop file changes, improved
icons, internationalization
- Upstreamed by bug reports if applicable and accepted
- Live specific customizations
- Mostly fixups of hardware assumptions (eg. sound card
configuration in /home)
- SecureBoot support
- Because our users don’t know how and don’t want to
modify BIOS settings
- We have our own shim signed by Microsoft
- Willing to help to bring this to Debian if there is interest
SLIDE 21
l e r n s t i c k
Deviations from Debian
- Non-free packages in base install (NVIDIA and ATI drivers,
firmware)
- Some more non-free software installable in “Lernstick
Welcome”
- Optimizations for non technical users
- Mostly small things like desktop file changes, improved
icons, internationalization
- Upstreamed by bug reports if applicable and accepted
- Live specific customizations
- Mostly fixups of hardware assumptions (eg. sound card
configuration in /home)
- SecureBoot support
- Because our users don’t know how and don’t want to
modify BIOS settings
- We have our own shim signed by Microsoft
- Willing to help to bring this to Debian if there is interest
SLIDE 22
l e r n s t i c k
Deviations from Debian
- Non-free packages in base install (NVIDIA and ATI drivers,
firmware)
- Some more non-free software installable in “Lernstick
Welcome”
- Optimizations for non technical users
- Mostly small things like desktop file changes, improved
icons, internationalization
- Upstreamed by bug reports if applicable and accepted
- Live specific customizations
- Mostly fixups of hardware assumptions (eg. sound card
configuration in /home)
- SecureBoot support
- Because our users don’t know how and don’t want to
modify BIOS settings
- We have our own shim signed by Microsoft
- Willing to help to bring this to Debian if there is interest
SLIDE 23
l e r n s t i c k
Improve collaboration
- Collaboration with DebianEDU
- Upload our stuff to Debian where possible
- lernstick-firewall, lernstick-guest, lernstick-keyring
- DLCopy, JBackPack and LernstickWelcome need cleanup
first (Java :-( )
- Are packages only useful on a Lernstick system
appropriate in Debian (eg. lernstick-config)?
- Some packages are hacks and probably not appropriate for
Debian (eg. lernstick-desktop-diversions)
- Upload some/all of our backports to backports.debian.org
- Make development process more transparent (wiki, TODO
list, ...)
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l e r n s t i c k
Improve collaboration
- Collaboration with DebianEDU
- Upload our stuff to Debian where possible
- lernstick-firewall, lernstick-guest, lernstick-keyring
- DLCopy, JBackPack and LernstickWelcome need cleanup
first (Java :-( )
- Are packages only useful on a Lernstick system
appropriate in Debian (eg. lernstick-config)?
- Some packages are hacks and probably not appropriate for
Debian (eg. lernstick-desktop-diversions)
- Upload some/all of our backports to backports.debian.org
- Make development process more transparent (wiki, TODO
list, ...)
SLIDE 25
l e r n s t i c k
Improve collaboration
- Collaboration with DebianEDU
- Upload our stuff to Debian where possible
- lernstick-firewall, lernstick-guest, lernstick-keyring
- DLCopy, JBackPack and LernstickWelcome need cleanup
first (Java :-( )
- Are packages only useful on a Lernstick system
appropriate in Debian (eg. lernstick-config)?
- Some packages are hacks and probably not appropriate for
Debian (eg. lernstick-desktop-diversions)
- Upload some/all of our backports to backports.debian.org
- Make development process more transparent (wiki, TODO
list, ...)
SLIDE 26
l e r n s t i c k
Improve collaboration
- Collaboration with DebianEDU
- Upload our stuff to Debian where possible
- lernstick-firewall, lernstick-guest, lernstick-keyring
- DLCopy, JBackPack and LernstickWelcome need cleanup
first (Java :-( )
- Are packages only useful on a Lernstick system
appropriate in Debian (eg. lernstick-config)?
- Some packages are hacks and probably not appropriate for
Debian (eg. lernstick-desktop-diversions)
- Upload some/all of our backports to backports.debian.org
- Make development process more transparent (wiki, TODO
list, ...)
SLIDE 27
l e r n s t i c k
How to help
- We always appreciate backports
- Advertize it in your school/community
- Some nice ideas for the future
- Replace xmlboot by a X11 programm running in the initrd
- Port live-boot to dracut and an event driven model
- Explore snapshot based approaches instead of Filesystem
- verlay
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l e r n s t i c k
Questions?
SLIDE 29
l e r n s t i c k
References
- Lernstick abstract in English:
http://www.imedias.ch/projekte/lernstick/ lernstick_abstract_english.cfm
- Lernstick Website (mostly German):
http://www.lernstick.ch/
- Debian Derivatives Census (includes links to our repository