[493] in athena10
Suggested amendments to the Athena10 docs.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (William Cattey)
Tue Sep 16 16:27:56 2008
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From: William Cattey <wdc@MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:27:10 -0400
To: Jonathan Reed <jdreed@mit.edu>, athena10@mit.edu
Although I have used Ubuntu before, I don't "think in ubuntu", I
think in Red Hat so installing Athena 10 has tripped me up in a
couple ways.
1. Local account same as Athena account use case.
I always create the first account to have the same name as my Athena
account.
This means that I have to follow the special instructions to delete
and re-create
my account.
By the way, step #4 does not work under VMware on a Red Hat system,
because ctrl-alt-f1 never gets to VMware. The X server grabs it. (I
couldn't figure out how to deal with that, so I just ssh'd in.)
Step #7 did not work for me either. useradd wdc admin complained and
gave me a usage message.
I'm not sure what to suggest here. Perhaps, an initial instruction,
"If you are installing fresh, and installing workstation, AVOID
creating the initial account with the same name as your athena
account, or see FAQ item below."
Ultimately the procedure did not work for me and needs to be re-checked.
2. Ubuntu was not forthcoming about needed updates.
The first time I did the test install, I took the proffered updates.
There were only two. The updater didn't say there were any more. I
guess you "JUST HAVE TO KNOW" to push the updater to check again, and
again until it comes up clean."
Red Hat always checks at boot time, and offers notice that it's
checking updates, and gives a timely indication of availability of
updates. I'm surprised that Ubuntu is less usable in this regard
than Red Hat.
I suggest we give additional instructions to people who are doing a
fresh install to either start software updater by hand or to keep
clicking on check till it comes up clean. Waiting 5 minutes after
the first update happened, or after a reboot after the first update
happened did NOT offer me updates. Instead, part way through the
Athena install I get notified there are updates.
3. Unfamiliar warning messages
After the Athena install script ran to completion, the Software
Updater applet ran and alerted me to the important message:
apt-file update needed
You may need to update or create the apt-file cache.
Running this command likely needs an active internet connection.
I guess everybody knows this means that they have to run the command
apt-file update
and that it's a perfectly reasonable command to run.
We probably want to tell people whether to ignore this alert, or to
actually run the command.
----
I think we need to think a little bit more about the use case of
someone who is:
Only familiar with Athena from having use it in the clusters.
Is not an Ubuntu wizard.
The way things stand that person could easily fall into the same
traps I did.
I don't think there should be traps. We did the extra work to create
a plug-compatible
Athena on ubuntu to serve present Athena folk and expand to
individuals. I am
concerned that the use case I name above is the most common use case
and that we blew it.
-Bill
----
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----
William Cattey
Linux Platform Coordinator
MIT Information Services & Technology
N42-040M, 617-253-0140, wdc@mit.edu
http://web.mit.edu/wdc/www/
