With Feisty Fawn comes a new Edubuntu
Ubuntu and, to a lesser extent, Kubuntu have been receiving a lot of well-deserved attention with the release of Feisty Fawn. Version 7.04 of this Linux distro is widely acknowledged as a solid choice for "mainstream" Linux users and has some real appeal in Ed Tech because of its ease of use and installation. However, a sister project to Ubuntu is Edubuntu, a package of software designed to support K-12 education. Most interestingly, Edubuntu includes an implementation of the Linux Terminal Server Project, allowing for the creation of diskless thin clients that access an Edubuntu server. If any of you are unfamiliar with Edubuntu,
"Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". The Edubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to schools, through its customised school environment. The current version of Edubuntu is aimed at classroom use, and future versions of Edubuntu will expand to other educational usage, such as university use.
Since I've been on the thin client bandwagon lately, I decided to download and install Edubuntu on my home server and see if it had gotten any simpler to fire up terminal services since the last time I had tried. My last experience with Edubuntu was with a very outdated server (a couple of Pentium II's and a quarter gig of RAM) almost a year ago and it just wasn't pretty. The computer that acts as my home server and gateway is a Pentium 4 with Hyperthreading and half a gig of RAM. Still no production server, but worth a second shot, especially considering how many enhancements Canonical has made to Ubuntu.
So off I go, clearing a spare hard drive for the install. The install was completely uneventful, although I missed the slick partitioner and live CD format for the Ubuntu install (Edubuntu still uses the old, non-graphical installer that many users of older Ubuntu distros will recognize). Aside from a few moments of nail biting (did I really pick the right drive to format in Ext3 and where exactly am I supposed to put my swap file?), the install seemed to be progressing nicely, so I headed for bed.
I woke up this morning, wrapped up the install (yes, please install the boot loader, yes, I do already have Windows installed), rebooted, and...
...*suspenseful music plays here*...
...GRUB Loader Error 21.
So I guess instead of writing about connecting clients tonight I'll be writing about how much of my system I hosed trying to dual boot Edubuntu. That's why they make virtual machines! My mistake.