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http://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn is an effort to document how to install, configure and use Debian on some specific hardware. Therefore potential buyers would know if that hardware is supported and owner would know how get the best out of that hardware.

Requirements

There are different ways of set up a Skolelinux solution. It can be installed on just one standalone PC or a regional wide solution at many schools operated centrally. This variety of configurations makes a huge difference on how things are set up regarding network components, servers and client machines.

Hardware requirements

The purpose of the different profiles is explained in the network architecture chapter.

  • the computers running Debian Edu / Skolelinux must have either i386, amd64 or powerpc processors.
    • On powerpc, the installation media will only boot on machines of the newworld sub-architecture, which are the systems from apple with a translucent case
  • thin client (LTSP) servers need two network cards when using the default network architecture:
    • eth0 connected to the main network (10.0.2.0/23)
    • eth1 (192.168.0.0/24) serving the thin-clients
  • disk space requirements depend on profiles used, but any disk larger than 10 GiB will be sufficient for installation, though you should have at least 20 GiB on the main server for production use. As usual, the bigger the better.
  • for the thin clients can run on 64 MB RAM and 133 MHz processor. Recommended minimum is 128 MB RAM. Swap is required. Consult advice #1.
  • for workstations or standalone PCs 450 MHz, 256 MiB RAM and 8 GiB disc space are recommended minimum requirements
  • for diskless workstations (also known as stateless workstations, lowfat clients or half-thick clients) 256 MB RAM and 800 MHz or more is recommended minimum requirements. Swapping over the network is automatically enabled, the swap size is 32mb, if you need more you can tune this by editing /etc/ltsp/nbdswapd.conf on tjener to set the SIZE variable. Please tune up the swap size either locally on the pc or on the server. Please consult advice #2 and make at least 512 MB swap on a 256 MB RAM lowfat client.

  • for Laptops 256 MB RAM and 450 MHz are minimum requirements

    1) Due to memory usage on the thin clients X-server when running Firefox and OpenOffice.org, 128 MB RAM is recommended minimum.

    2) On 256 MB RAM lowfat clients the spell checker makes OpenOffice.org hang i the swap space is to small. Then the sys.admin has to disable the spell checker on OpenOffice.org or students has to kill OpenOffice losing their work. Enabling at least 512 MB swap on a 256 MB RAM diskless workstation counter this problem, and the spell checker runs smoothly.

Hardware known to work

A list of tested hardware is provided from http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Hardware/ . This list is not nearly complete :)

http://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn is an effort to document how to install, configure and use Debian on some specific hardware. Therefore potential buyers would know if that hardware is supported and owner would know how get the best out of that hardware.

An excellent database about hardware supported by Debian is online at http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/.

Requirements for a network setup

  • a router/gateway (IP 10.0.2.1) providing access to the internet (when using the default network architecture)
  • for the main server (10.0.2.2): this is the one single computer in the network which get's the tjener-profile installed

  • workstation(s) and/or thin client (LTSP) server(s)
  • thin clients clients

Internet router

A router/gateway, connected to the internet on the external interface and running on the IP address 10.0.2.1 on the internal interface, is needed to connect to the internet.

The router should not run a DHCP server, it can run a DNS server, though this is not needed and will not be used. (If the router runs a DHCP server you must disable the DHCP server on the main server and you will loose some features and certain documented procedures will work differently. So better disable the DHCP server on the router.)

If you are looking for a i386 based solution (so that you can reuse an old PC), we recommend IPCop or floppyfw.

If you need something for an embedded router or accesspoint we recommend using OpenWRT, though of course you can also use the original firmware. Using the original firmware is easier, using OpenWRT gives you more choices and control. Check the OpenWRT webpages for a list of supported hardware.

It is possible to use a different network setup, this is the documented procedure to do this. If you are not forced to do this by an existing network infrastructure, we recommend against doing so and recommend you stay with the default network architecture.

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