IntelligentMirror nightmare

Believe it or not, a month later, I'm still unable to get the local rpm repository set up using IntelligentMirror.

Here's what I've done so far, following the instructions provided in the INSTALL file (http://kulbirsaini.fedorapeople.org/stuff/intelligentmirror/INSTALL)

1. Made sure all required packages were installed.

yum install squid python python-urlgrabber python-iniparse httpd

OUTPUT:

Package 7:squid-3.1.10-1.fc14.i686 already installed and latest version
Package python-2.7-8.fc14.1.i686 already installed and latest version
Package python-urlgrabber-3.9.1-7.fc14.noarch already installed and latest version
Package python-iniparse-0.4-2.fc14.noarch already installed and latest version

2.

IntelligentMirror

I'm preparing to set up IntelligentMirror so that, according to the Fedora Project wiki about Infrastructure/Mirroring, "only the updates your local users actually need will be cached on your local mirror."

I'm following the instructions from http://kulbirsaini.fedorapeople.org/stuff/intelligentmirror/INSTALL

Cloning

Today, I started cloning the Fedora 14 system onto the hard drives of the other computers that will be part of the school computer lab. I spent part of the time setting up Apache2 to read user directories so that each workstation can host its own student-maintained website.

The configuration is in the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file:

I commented out UserDir disabled, and uncommented UserDir public_html.

Then I ran into the trouble of SELinux disallowing Apache2 from accessing user directories. This was remedied by setting SELinux to permissive mode in the file /etc/selinux/config:

SELINUX=permissive

Finally, there was a permissions issue even after I changed the permissions on the public_html directory to 711, giving the directory the executable bit for both group members and others. The problem was the absence of the executable bit on the user's home directory. As superuser, changed added the executable bit:

su -c 'chmod go+x student'

Set up autologin through GDM2

Enabled autologin through GDM2 by editing the /etc/gdm/custom.conf file to have the following settings. In this example, AutomaticLogin is set for the user "student" because that is the username I set up for the students who will be using these systems.

[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=student

Packages installed on top of basic Fedora 14 installation

At the charter school, I've installed the following packages for the kids.

LibreOffice
GIMP
Inkscape
PyMol
bkchem
R
gnuplot
LaTeX

I'm also setting up the sshd and httpd servers (which came with the basic install) to start on boot. I ran ntsysv as root and then put an asterisk next to sshd and httpd.

Setting up GNU/Linux lab for kids at local high school

I'm currently setting up a computer lab for kids at a local charter school. Last week I set up one system with the beta release of Fedora 14. This afternoon, I updated the packages and began installing LibreOffice, R, gnuplot, PyMol, bkchem, LaTeX, GIMP, and Inkscape.

I feel bad about this, but I also installed Adobe Flash. I'm regretting it. When I return to the school in two days, I think I'll replace Adobe Flash with GNU Gnash.