The working site for the conference committee of FOSS4G 2013
From the to-do list: Workshops and code sprints
❏ Test that lab PCs boot OSGeo-Live 7.0 *USB*
(Jeremy Morley)
Comments
Jeremy Morley on September 9, 2013:
At present, they don't. And they don't start from DVDs. I'm urgently trying to fix this (at least we've had machines configured this way in the past, for my teaching and for OSGIS).
#heartinmouth
Jo Cook on September 9, 2013:
Eek- does this mean *all* labs or just Geography?
Jeremy Morley on September 9, 2013:
I've not been to the others but I suspect it's the default state to stop students hacking the local drives (which is possible from a live system). B26e is set up ok because i use this mode in my teaching - B29 was set up like this because that's how we've run OSGIS in the past there, but I suspect there have been new machines in the room since then which has turned this off. I'll updated you asap.
On a better note, I'm getting an associate account that we can use to log people on to the Windows systems themselves for the workshops that can be run like this (there's one with a pre-packaged set of software to run from USB, for example).
Jeremy
Jeremy Morley on September 9, 2013:
(I've emailed the support groups for the clusters - if no reply by the morning I'll ring them. It may help that the Trent & Hallward labs are in a different support group from SGC - more staff to cover the ground if each machine needs logging into the change the BIOS settings).
Matt Walker on September 9, 2013:
Thanks for the update Jeremy, fingers crossed :-)
Jeremy Morley on September 9, 2013:
Everything crossed, believe me!!!
Matt Walker on September 10, 2013:
I'm a little hesitant to ask but, any news?
Jeremy Morley on September 10, 2013:
It's under consideration by IT Support... SO MUCH STRES!!
At least the marquee & ice breaker are all settled (give or take the last minute payment of the marquee company's bill in the next ~15mins!!)
Jeremy Morley on September 11, 2013:
OK, progress (mostly because I know who to talk to these days and don't have to rely on the IT requests triage system). They're gathering bodies together to go and do the BIOS updates in the labs. Putting Chrome into B26e and updating Oracle VirtualBox are second priorities. We won't get any extra packages installed into VirtualBox though.
Mark Iliffe on September 11, 2013:
Great news Jeremy. Slowly slowly catchee IT Support.
Jeremy Morley on September 11, 2013:
Kind of - actually closer to GEOHULK SMASH IT SUPPORT! SUBVERT SYSTEM! SMACK HEADS TOGETHER! To borrow an identity.
Matt Walker on September 11, 2013:
Great news indeed :-)
A thousand thank yous!
Is it possible for us to test boot from USB and DVD fairly early on just to be sure?
Jeremy Morley on September 11, 2013:
Update:
BIOS updates should be done in time for me to test DVD & USB booting on Friday around the various labs, giving them Monday for trouble shooting.
Chrome will be in B26e (might only appear on Monday).
The Oracle VirtualBox instance in B26e can't be updated in time & will remain at 4.1 (and similarly, no new extension packages). Mark has identified an virtual box on a stick that may be useful - http://www.vbox.me
-- Jeremy
Jeremy Morley on September 12, 2013:
Just received:
"Hallward LG101 and Clive Granger B29 have now been updated and tested with the new settings to allow booting from USB devices.
Trent B16 should be completed Friday morning."
I'm going over to test USB & DVD booting in Hallward and SCG B29 now.
Jeremy Morley on September 12, 2013:
Hallward 101 - boots Live 7.0 DVD (left in image) and USB (right). USB is half the time.
Couldn't get into Trent B16 just now but I've had a message to say that cluster has been done, and they've tested it so we should be good to go with plain Live DVDs or USBs (anyone actually using this solution?!)
Ian Edwards on September 16, 2013:
Not booting from USB in Hallward library:
WUIHALTR machine numbers...18, 25, 26
± machine 20 starts to boot but gets stuck on a black screen.
These machines not checked 1, 2, 3, 7 & 8
Comments
Jeremy Morley on September 9, 2013:
#heartinmouth
Jo Cook on September 9, 2013:
Jeremy Morley on September 9, 2013:
On a better note, I'm getting an associate account that we can use to log people on to the Windows systems themselves for the workshops that can be run like this (there's one with a pre-packaged set of software to run from USB, for example).
Jeremy
Jeremy Morley on September 9, 2013:
(I've emailed the support groups for the clusters - if no reply by the morning I'll ring them. It may help that the Trent & Hallward labs are in a different support group from SGC - more staff to cover the ground if each machine needs logging into the change the BIOS settings).
Matt Walker on September 9, 2013:
Jeremy Morley on September 9, 2013:
Matt Walker on September 10, 2013:
Jeremy Morley on September 10, 2013:
At least the marquee & ice breaker are all settled (give or take the last minute payment of the marquee company's bill in the next ~15mins!!)
Jeremy Morley on September 11, 2013:
Mark Iliffe on September 11, 2013:
Jeremy Morley on September 11, 2013:
Matt Walker on September 11, 2013:
A thousand thank yous!
Is it possible for us to test boot from USB and DVD fairly early on just to be sure?
Jeremy Morley on September 11, 2013:
BIOS updates should be done in time for me to test DVD & USB booting on Friday around the various labs, giving them Monday for trouble shooting.
Chrome will be in B26e (might only appear on Monday).
The Oracle VirtualBox instance in B26e can't be updated in time & will remain at 4.1 (and similarly, no new extension packages). Mark has identified an virtual box on a stick that may be useful - http://www.vbox.me
--
Jeremy
Jeremy Morley on September 12, 2013:
"Hallward LG101 and Clive Granger B29 have now been updated and tested with the new settings to allow booting from USB devices.
Trent B16 should be completed Friday morning."
I'm going over to test USB & DVD booting in Hallward and SCG B29 now.
Jeremy Morley on September 12, 2013:
Matt Walker on September 12, 2013:
Jeremy Morley on September 12, 2013:
And here it is in Sir Clive Granger B29! Here, DVD was marginally quicker.
Ian Edwards on September 12, 2013:
Jeremy Morley on September 13, 2013:
Ian Edwards on September 16, 2013:
WUIHALTR machine numbers...18, 25, 26
± machine 20 starts to boot but gets stuck on a black screen.
These machines not checked 1, 2, 3, 7 & 8