View source for COMP 3000 2011 Report Part I: Edubuntu

<h1>Background</h1>
<p>Edubuntu is a derivative of Ubuntu  designed to be used in school classrooms and homes for education purposes. It  is developed by [http://www.canonical.com/ Canonical Ltd] and  an international community of developers, in collaboration with Educators  around the world. The primary target audience of Edubuntu is users within the  6-18 age group and educators. The main goal of Edubuntu is to allow educators  with limited technical knowledge to set-up labs and online learning environments  for students. Thus, it is designed to be very easy to install, use and maintain  for users with limited technical knowledge (i.e. students, educators). It also  promises to provide the best set of education related applications for free, such as the ones included in the [http://edu.kde.org/ KDE Edutainment] and [http://gcompris.net/-en- GCompris] suites that come installed with Edubuntu. Edubuntu is being used in all primary  and secondary schools of The Republic of Macedonia, as part of their <em>Computer for every child </em>program [1]. The Edubuntu community is working with the Qimo 4 kids project to bring Qimo  games and artwork as an installable option in Edubuntu [2].</p>

<p>Edubuntu is built on top of Ubuntu  and it incorporates the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) thin client and  various education related applications. The LTSP thin client allows many people  to use the same computer simultaneously. It does this by having one server  containing all of the applications, where users can use an application by  connecting to the server using a thin client terminal (low-powered, low-cost,  quieter computers without a hard disk). LTSP thin clients also provide  administrators more control over how computing resources are used on the network.  LTSP thin clients can be used with Edubuntu to provide computing services in  schools and classrooms (i.e. setting up a lab etc.).</p>

<p>Edubuntu can be downloaded from the [http://www.edubuntu.org/download Downloads section of the Edubuntu website] directly, or via bittorrent (preferred method). It can also be installed on top of Ubuntu by installing the desired Edubuntu packages using the <em>Applications</em> menu  in Ubuntu or a package manager. Edubuntu can also be accessed in a browser by using [http://www.edubuntu.org/weblive WebLive]. Finally, it can also be ordered on a DVD disk from a [http://www.edubuntu.org/marketplace list of vendors] that carry it, such as [http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi/index.html OSDisc]. The approximate size of an Edubuntu installation is  2.66 GB.</p>

<h1>Installation/Startup</h1>
<p> Edubuntu  was installed in VirtualBox (version 4.1.2) on a Windows 7 host. Below are the  system specs of the host machine:</p>
<ul>
  <li>Processor: Intel Core i5 M 580 @ 2.67 GHZ</li>
  <li>Memory (RAM): 4.0 GB</li>
  <li>System type: 64 bit</li>
</ul>
<h2>Setting up the Virtual Machine  (VM)</h2>
<p>VirtualBox  guest additions were installed prior to setting up the VM for Edubuntu which made  the experience of using Edubuntu in a VM very smooth. The following steps  describe how the VM for Edubuntu was set-up in VirtualBox:</p>
<ol>
  <li>Start  VirtualBox and select the &ldquo;New&rdquo; option from the &ldquo;Machine&rdquo; menu at the top.</li>
  <li>Press  the &ldquo;Next&rdquo; button. In the &ldquo;VM Name and OS Type&rdquo; screen, type &ldquo;Edubuntu&rdquo; in the  &ldquo;Name&rdquo; field and select Linux from the &ldquo;Operating System&rdquo; drop-down box. When  done, press the &ldquo;Next&rdquo; button&quot;.</li>
  <li>In  the &ldquo;Memory&rdquo; screen, allocate 1500 MB of RAM to the virtual machine and press  the &ldquo;Next&rdquo; button.</li>
  <li>In  the &ldquo;Virtual Hard Disk&rdquo; screen, check the &ldquo;Start-up Disk&rdquo; option and select the  &ldquo;Create new hard disk&rdquo; option. When done, press the &ldquo;Next&rdquo; button.</li>
  <li>Use  the &ldquo;Create New Virtual Disk&rdquo; wizard to create a virtual hard disk for the VM:
    <ol>
      <li>Select  the &ldquo;VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)&rdquo; option and press the &ldquo;Next&rdquo; button.</li>
      <li>In  the &ldquo;Virtual disk storage details&rdquo; screen, select the &ldquo;Dynamically allocated&rdquo;  option and press the &ldquo;Next&rdquo; button.</li>
      <li>In  the &ldquo;Virtual disk file location and size&rdquo; screen, set the size of the virtual  disk to 20 GB by changing the value in the &ldquo;Size&rdquo; field to 20 GB from 8.00 GB.  When done, press the &ldquo;Next&rdquo; button.</li>
      <li>Press  the &ldquo;Create&rdquo; button to create the virtual hard disk.</li>
    </ol>
  </li>
  <li>Press  the &ldquo;Create&rdquo; button to create the VM.</li>
  <li>Select  the Edubuntu VM in VirtualBox, and press the &ldquo;Settings&rdquo; button from the top  menu bar. This will open the settings of the Edubuntu VM.</li>
  <li>Allocate  128 MB of video memory to the VM, by selecting the &ldquo;Display&rdquo; option from the  left menu in the &ldquo;Settings&rdquo; screen. In the &ldquo;Display&rdquo; screen, change the value  of the &ldquo;Video Memory&rdquo; to 128 MB from 12 MB.<strong> </strong></li>
  <li>Select  the &ldquo;Storage&rdquo; option from the left menu in the &ldquo;Settings&rdquo; screen. In the  &ldquo;Storage&rdquo; screen, select the &ldquo;Empty&rdquo; option. In the &ldquo;Attributes&rdquo; section  located to the right, click on the CD icon and select the &ldquo;Choose a virtual  CD/DVD disk file&rdquo; option. Browse to the Edubuntu ISO file downloaded on the  host machine, select it and press the &ldquo;Open&rdquo; button.</li>
  <li>Press  the &ldquo;OK&rdquo; button to save the VM settings.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Installing  Edubuntu in a VM</h2>
<p>  After the VM for Edubuntu is  set-up, Edubuntu can be installed in the VM. The steps below describe how  Edubuntu can be installed in a VM:</p>
<ol>
  <li>Start  the Edubuntu VM. Select the Edubuntu VM in VirtualBox and press the &ldquo;Start&rdquo;  button from the top menu bar.</li>
  <li>Select  a language and press the &ldquo;Enter&rdquo; key.</li>
  <li>Select  the &ldquo;Install Edubuntu&rdquo; option from the Edubuntu boot menu and press the &ldquo;Enter&rdquo;  key. Wait for Edubuntu to load the installation files.</li>
  <li>Once  the &ldquo;Install&rdquo; screen loads, press the &ldquo;Continue&rdquo; button.</li>
  <li>In  the &ldquo;Preparing to Install Edubuntu&rdquo; screen, select the &ldquo;Download updates while  installing&rdquo; option and press the &ldquo;Continue&rdquo; button.</li>
  <li>In  the &ldquo;Edubuntu installation options (part 1)&rdquo; screen, select the &ldquo;Install&rdquo;  option under &ldquo;Standard gnome 2.x interface&rdquo; and press the &ldquo;Continue&rdquo; button.</li>
  <li>In  the &ldquo;Installation type&rdquo; screen, select the &ldquo;Erase disk and install Edubuntu&rdquo;  option and press the &ldquo;Continue&rdquo; button.</li>
  <li> In the &ldquo;Erase disk and install Edubuntu&rdquo;  screen, press the &ldquo;Install Now&rdquo; button.</li>
  <li>In  the &ldquo;Where are you?&rdquo; screen, type your geographical location and press the &ldquo;Continue  button&rdquo;.</li>
  <li>In  the &ldquo;Keyboard layout&rdquo; screen, select the &ldquo;English (US)&rdquo; option from the left  pane and press the &ldquo;Continue&rdquo; button.</li>
  <li>In  the &ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo; screen, create a user profile for the VM by selecting a  name, username, password and computer name.</li>
  <li>After  Edubuntu has finished installing, it will display the &ldquo;Finished&rdquo; screen. In this screen, press the &quot;Finish&quot; button to restart the VM and complete the installation.
  </li>
</ol>