Expo 2009/Computer

This year expo is using a machine donated by Frank. Wookey is fettling it.

Here is a very useful list of things that need doing to a new machine for it to be the expo machine:

• Choose a suitably big disk; digital camera photos/videos, survey scans, and the package repositories quickly add up. Curently 500GB, split into LVM volumes. 128GB for music, 60Gb for debian archive and svn repository. The rest for system and expo files.
• Install stable Debian (or Ubuntu for more bling but less reliable upgrades). Add an "expo" user during install. The expo password is "gosser". The root password is the same. Probably best to set it to auto log in with this user. Make sure the development tools are installed.
• Make sure a fairly low resolution is selected in the X configuration, as the monitor used on Expo is fairly old. 1280x1024 may be too high; try 1024x768 as a starter and adjust in Austria.
• Make sure opengl hardware acceleration is working. That will mean binary drivers if the machine has an NVidia card (avoid if possible). Both kernel and X drivers are needed. To check OpenGL try the test programs, and use ldd to make sure they aren't using software emulation.
• Install OpenGL development packages if the relevant header files are not present. libglu1-mesa-dev is required for Aven.
• Install survex build dependencies

For survex either: 1) Compile wxWindows *without* Unicode support and *with* OpenGL support. Explicit options are needed to get both of these. Install in /usr/local/. Build survex 1.1 and install in /usr/local. You need to use a configure option to point at the newly-installed wxWindows, or else it will take the system-installed one which will fail. Make sure the binaries are on the expo user's path once Survex is installed. or, 2) Install or build/install Debianised version of survex that is unicode compatible.

• Make sure Aven works properly and smoothly.
• Install the ssh server.
• Install svn.
• Install the python imaging library (needed for expoweb updating).
• Build dump3d test binary in survex (needed for expoweb updating)
• Check out the expoweb repository to use as a test for apache.
• Install apache. Make it serve from the expoweb checkout. Set the home page for the expo user to be the Expo front page, served from the checkout. (Some thought should be had here as to the best directory layout; it is probably best to have a checkout used for editing, in ~expo, and another one which is used for the apache serving.)
• Install the script for updating the apache-served checkout from the repository. The person will need to ask me for the script.
• Install anything needed for Troggle; possibly Postgres. This will be a pain in the arse, so start early. (If someone suggests using MySQL, say no, and use Postgres instead.)
• If Troggle is to be used seriously, thought needs to be given as to how to back the data up. Don't skimp on this, because it could bite us one day, and we'll lose a lot of data. Backing up a database is not entirely straightforward if it is in Postgres. It can be done in that scenario using pg_dump; or alternatively by stopping the database server then cloning the database directory (but beware that this produces a backup not transferrable between Postgres versions).
• Clone the entire Debian (or Ubuntu) repository, as appropriate, onto the local disk (use apt-mirror to do this). Point /etc/apt/sources.list at this checkout, and make sure packages install correctly from it. Make sure you clone all of the repositories including non-free parts, as we might need things from there.
• Install any GPS tools required. Do this in England rather than Austria, even though the package archive is now on the disk, in case it needs something not in the standard distribution.
• Install any digital camera tools required, likewise.
• Make sure transfer of files from a USB stick works, preferably without needing to explicitly mount it.
• Make sure transfer of files from a USB camera works. There are two types: those that appear as mass storage devices, and those that do not (including many Canon cameras); make sure both work. gtkam is probably the program to use, at least for the Canon ones.
• Install gimp, for image editing/viewing, and ufraw, for decoding camera RAW files. There is a gimp plugin for the latter.
• Make sure sound works, and that the volume control works. Some motherboards don't have hardware volume controls. Install a suitable music player.
• Sort the desktop out with appropriate shortcuts for viewing web pages, commonly-used surveys, etc.
• People sometimes want to play videos, and that may require codecs not in the standard distribution, so install whatever is necessary in England.
• Configure printing. The Expo printer is a Samsung ML-5100A, and it takes PCL, not PostScript. If there isn't a suitable driver available, use the standard HP Laserjet 4 PCL driver, which should be ok.
• There should be a CD/DVD burner in the machine for backup, if possible. Make sure burning works before leaving England. You need SCSI generic support for it to work; this may be autoconfigured, but may not be.
• There is a scanner in Austria, but I don't remember exactly which one it is. Install xsane and determine whether any drivers not in the standard distribution may be required; if so, grab them just in case. The rest will need to be configured in Austria, which should be done early, since it can be a pain.
• Clone the repositories just before going to Austria. The person will need to ask me to do this; give ample notice.
• Configure the network appropriately for the spud hut (we use 10.0.0.100 for the Expo machine usually, I think). Don't change this subnet or the wireless router will need reconfiguring too. The box should have a static IP address.
• Make sure the machine boots without a network cable plugged in.
• Double-check that the dataset processes using cavern, and can be viewed using Aven. Process all of the usual files that people will want to see (all, 161, 204, etc).
• Double-check that viewing the website from the machine works without the network cable plugged in.
• Upon arrival in Austria, check how surveys print from Aven. Some fiddling with the margins will almost certainly be required. Best to fix this before a lot of people want to print and draw up.