[clue-tech] Things I learned at installfest.

[David L. Anselmi]

We had a relatively small installfest--only 10 or so.  We could have used more help though, there 
were some time consuming problems and no one to hand them off to.

There was an old Compaq laptop that requires software to get to the BIOS.  Normally the first disk 
partition contains that.  Since we didn't have that we had to get their utilities to build bootable 
floppies.  Luckily we had a box with a floppy drive and Windows to make them.

But the laptop didn't have a floppy.  So we used Linux to rip the images and then (later) built a CD 
with both images.  Since they were floppy images it was easy to put both of them on a CD and use 
ISOLINUX to boot them.

There was a PCLinuxOS 2007 box that needed a wireless driver built.  That turned out to Just Work, 
although it wasn't obvious how to get the module loaded at boot (no, /etc/modules didn't work).  My 
guess is that rebuilding the initrd might help.

It's nice to be reminded that some things are a lot easier on new hardware or new distros.

We also installed openvpn on a Sheeva plug.  We didn't fool with RSA keys for authentication so 
there were some changes needed to make it work in static key mode but it wasn't too hard.  The 
howtos for openvpn are pretty good.

Thanks to everyone who came, and those who would have rather been with us than wherever they were.

Dave