Wondogenet - the first Ubuntu Install

Today was a brilliant day. I always look forward to working at Wondogenet as the staff here are especially motivated. I was excited to find out how things had gone over the past year. I was very impressed for several reasons. The more important ones:

• The computers had been well used and they were both still working. So much so that the health officer complained (in the nicest possible manner) that she had trouble getting staff out of the computer room. :D
• There was a local 'IT guy' who had installed WinXP on one of the computers resulting in a Win2K - WinXP dual boot. How much does one have to love Windows to actually have a Win2K/WinXP dual boot?! But, he had managed to retain the e-library in the process. Cooool!!!

However, as expected the entire e-library directory structure was a mess. None of the shortcuts worked any longer and finding any content was a chore in spite of the fact that it was all still there on the HDD. The staff were keen to retain WinXP and I therefore decided to do a clean install of Ubuntu on the other PC. As I mentioned earlier, these PCs were several years old.

Eureka - Using Ubuntu Repos from USB HDD

Tommorrow, I start work at Wondogenet. And, I still hadn't figured out how to get Synaptic to look at my USB HDD. No internet - I miss ubuntuforums, boohoo :(

And, then a stroke of complete brilliance - okok, a slight exaggeration. Nonetheless, this is uber-cool for a linux noob. Treat the repos folder on the USB HDD as a webfolder and Ubuntu will think it is downloading from the network. XAMPP and my linux books to the rescue. I had already installed XAMPP on my laptop.

Create a new folder in htdocs to serve as container for repos

sudo mkdir /opt/lampp/htdocs/ubuntu

Did I want to copy 28GB of data on to this folder...naah. Certainly not on to the PCs at the health centre. The next command does the trick by binding the folder on the USB HDD to the folder on the local webserver.

sudo mount --bind /media/USBHDD/ubuntu /opt/lampp/htdocs/ubuntu

Let me test this out.

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start 

Let's see what my own Ubuntu repository looks like.

The next thing to do was to test Synaptic - just for the pleasure of seeing it work. But before that, I edited sources.list to point to the new repository.

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources_orig.list
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

I deleted all the entries and added these new ones.

deb http://localhost/ubuntu/ hardy main universe restricted multiverse
deb http://localhost/ubuntu/ hardy-security universe main multiverse restricted
deb http://localhost/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe main multiverse restricted
deb http://localhost/ubuntu/ hardy-backports universe main multiverse restricted

And, finally making sure that everything works.

sudo apt-get update

Let me try installing Gnochm, a utility to view .chm files (one of my e-learning materials was in this format - don't ask!).

sudo apt-get install gnochm

After opening and closing Synaptic and restarting my laptop and doing this all from scratch again (just to be sure) I went to sleep. Time to test this out in Wondogenet.

Arguments for (and against) Ubuntu

Ubuntu, unarguably, is one of the most popular distributions of linux for PCs.(1, 2, 3). The reasons for this are best argued with a live CD in hand. The simple reason is that Ubuntu works. It takes linux out of geekland and puts it right in front of the average user. I am no expert. I am a trainee surgeon and I have been using Ubuntu for the past 2.5 years. I have had my fair share of 'glitches' but nothing that the Ubuntu community did not have a solution for. Ubuntu has allowed me to learn more and do more of what I love (computers, duh!). I am comfortable using and tweaking Ubuntu and that is the most important reason why I feel confident I can pull this off in Ethiopia.

The second reason is the lack of IT skills or support in the places that these computers are installed. Their knowledge of any environment (Windows or Linux) was extremely limited. For many of the staff at these health centres the computers that I had installed last year was their first and only exposure to IT! They had nothing to lose or unlearn/relearn with Ubuntu. The learning curve would be similar with Windows or Ubuntu. And, with non-existent local technical support, a broken system was a broken system, be it Windows or Ubuntu.

Thirdly, I had decided to present all the content through a web browser. Apart from a few minor multimedia compatibility issues, the operating system should make no difference. Most of these issues are fixable.

All of the above are really reasons for 'why not Ubuntu'. However, there were several reasons why I feel Ubuntu may actually be better for this scenario.

As I described in an earlier post, the Windows environment in Ethiopia is riddled with viruses and other malware. Ubuntu would be relatively safe from these and hopefully remain secure.

It is exceedingly easy to corrupt a Win2K system. Restricting a user meant creating user accounts and such, for which I had no time last year. All installs allowed the default 'administrator' access - a recipe for disaster. However, Ubuntu's default user has no admin privileges and all administrative tasks require a password. This by itself is a deterrent and easy to teach - if the computer asks for a password, don't do it!!! Except, of course when you logon!

Ubuntu is (and will be) free. This has significant cost implications for us. With Win2K obsolete and WinXP nearly there, I need a dependable platform that I know will remain free/cheap for the foreseeable future. As these computers were old, I always have the option of switching over to an alternate lightweight distro should Ubuntu get too bloated in future.

The Plan

Even as I watched them use the computers for a limited time last year, they were able to consistently move shortcuts and folders/files from one folder to the other breaking the entire setup. I had scanned about 10 computers in various scenarios using AVG 7.5 and averaged 200 threats, mostly trojans/viruses. Most PCs that were functioning were doing so in suboptimal states. A good example was the PC used for admin at Yirgacheffee. The clerk would switch it on at 9.00am and it would be ready for use after the 11.00am coffee break!!!

I decided on two things broadly.

1. Switch half the PCs over to Ubuntu
2. Reorganise all the elearning content (including new stuff) so that everything is presented through a browser and the original files lie hidden.

The reason for the second is fairly obvious. What they can't see or access, they can't break. Moreover, using a browser makes the interface uniform for all the content and therefore quicker to learn and easier to use. Moreover, it removes the need for installing proprietary windows software (some material had to be avoided, inevitably) and access to the e-library would be similar regardless of whether they were on a Windows or an Ubuntu PC. Thus, the e-library could ease their transition over to using Ubuntu.

The reasons for switching half the computers over to Ubuntu are less clear and justify a separate post.

The Objectives

We are leaving for Ethiopia for 2 weeks starting 24th of October. Several activities have been planned. My role is to 'fix' all the computers back to working order as well as to update the e-library. I will therefore be working almost exclusively in rural settings at the following health centres:

• Wondogenet
• Alaba
• Yirgacheffee

None of these health centres have high speed internet. Wondogenet has dial-up internet access thanks to its very dynamic health officer. Everything would depend on being prepared and I simply don't have the time. I have been asked to help with networking computers at the library in Hawassa Medical School. I have been told too late and I do not think my itinerary will allow me to do it this time.

The Setup

In October 2007, I setup 6 PCs (P4 1.7Ghz, 256-512MB RAM, 40GB HDD, Win2K, no internet) at three rural health facilities in Southern Ethiopia to function as e-libraries. This project was the first of its kind in Ethiopia to focus entirely on front-line health professionals working in resource poor health centres. I had had very little time last year to set them up and all of them except one had default Win2K installations. In one PC at Alaba I had installed a system utility software that limited access to most administrative tasks. All of them had their HDD partitioned into two 20GB partitions with the OS on one and e-library on the other. AVG anti-virus 7.5 and anti-spyware were installed on all of them. Openoffice, VLC and Firefox were some of the other software that were also installed. The IT skills of the users was extremely limited and technical support was non-existent. A year had passed and all I knew was that some of the computers were 'not working' with no further details provided. This could be due to anything from as simple as a broken power socket to a burnt mobo. I simply had to go there to find out.