Coredump

• Got the 80-GB HDD from FTIC4.
• Installed the HDD as primary. Booted on primary slave WXP.
• Deleted primary partition (~35 GB) on hda.
• Installed Ubuntu Warty on hda.
• Booted on Ubuntu - SUCCESS!
• …
• …
• …
• [Lots of goobledygeek lines later...]
• Ubuntu boot screen. Yay!
• Fired up terminal window, edited /etc/network/interfaces:

  auto lo eth1
  iface lo inet loopback
  iface eth1 inet dhcp

• Ran sudo /sbin/ifup -a.
• Started Firefox, set up proxy config, and browsed Google.

For now. The firewall’s LAN port is totally fragged, and I can’t even do one-to-one NATing on it just so I can punch a hole to the internet.I’ve given up on doing manual updates on Warty. I’ve ran into a circular dependency on perl and perl-modules. I need those packages to update libwww-perl, which in turn is needed by ltsp-admin. Yep, I could have struck a no/ignore-dependency switch, but I don’t know what that would entail. So instead of totally trashing the Warty install, I’ve placed the server on stand-by for now.

Sayang. We have these 30 cool, totally useless critters in small-form-factor boxes with 15-inch widescreen TFT monitors, and they’re just gonna sit there until I’ve solved the more pressing problem with the firewall.

Sure, I could just as easily put up an old box to add as a firewall, but again, that would take much of my time now that the R&D conference is just around the corner. I’d have to deal with the increased traffic on the intranet, what with the guests going over to the designated kiosks and cubes for the proceedings and possible videostreaming of simultaneous track sessions.

(Besides, I’ve got a paper to present. Speaking of which, I’m glad that I already polished that before my super started doing his frenzied-editing thing again. I pity my cube-farm mates: they were laboring on it Sunday night and into early Monday morning, and when I got back to the office Monday afternoon, they’re nowhere near finishing their papers. One colleague was grumbling that no amount of bola would do the results and conclusions good.)

But I digress. Hay… I was excited pa naman with the installation. Oh well, there’ll be next week for that. I’m looking at it this way: my choice so far of using Ubuntu was fairly safe. While I would have loved to use Bayanihan — heck, ASTI’s our partner and collaborator in some tech research undertaking — it just wasn’t ready when I needed it. The Thin Client Manager, which was put up for a roadshow last month, is still nowhere to be found in their site. Our net-ad says that the Cebu seminar was a blast, but they won’t let him copy the TCM when he was surreptitiously attempting to snag it on his thumbdrive. (Sneaky-sneaky, this BOFH. Hehe.)

I’m very confident that with all the preliminaries out of the way, and all the requirements on hand, the LTSP install would be a breeze. I see it now: a room full of sleek screens with the “poo-colored” theme in the background. Soon, babies, soon…

Am gearing for the installation of a 30-seat thin client setup for our IT training facility.

I’ve ditched Bayanihan Linux (bad media) for Ubuntu Warty. Installation was a breeze, but I got stumped when it came to updating and installing new packages through apt-get.

Seems like a problem with the firewall. Have to negotiate with the net-ad on punching a hole through it so the server can pass through to the net happily.

Okay, I’ve given up on manual updates (downloading .debs, running dpkg or dselect, looking out for dependencies, back to step one, ad nauseam). *sigh!*

That’s just too tiresome. I’m gonna ferret out the problem with apt-get not going through the firewall first. Problem is, the net ad (heh, I’m *just* a net janitor) is on a weekend holiday, and he forgot to give me access to the firewall. I think he disabled the LAN port. Yep, he’s a BOFH. *evil grin*

Well, then, the thin client installation is temporarily on hold — until Monday, at least — but I’m not losing hope. I’ve managed to set up remote access for the server, which now sits happily in the cold room, through some convoluted way. I’ll try poking around tonight. Not tomorrow: it’s a Sunday, full-time QT with the family.

On Monday, I’m sure I’ll get it over and done with, what with the docs I’ve pored through and the friendliness of Ubuntu. Till then…

To be continued…