Girls Inc PC Setup

This page is a description of the setup we used for the 10 PCs provided to Girls Inc on June 9, 2007.

Partition Layout

Installed Software Packages

• thunderbird
• xchat
• pan
• skype
• frozen bubble

Removed Software Packages

• ekiga (13MB)
• evolution (102MB)

Software Packages That Failed

• chromium: slow, needs dri
• stellarium: really slow and killed X session
• achilles: bogged down the system
• lincity: same deal as stellarium

Miscellaneous

• 45 sec to boot
• 15 sec to shutdown
• 2.6 GB available on hda3 after install
• suspend to ram works
• hibernation works
• direct rendering (dri) doesn't work
• removed 'windows' icon from desktop by disabling in fstab

Config File Modifications

• menu.lst to include a splashimage
• used gconf-editor to add desktop icons
• turned off bluetooth service
• enabled autologin via gdmsetup

Grub Specific Changes

These changes were made in grubs config file located at /boot/grub/menu.lst.

• Custom Splash Screen

• # alternative=false
• # defoptions=splash
• # howmany=1
• # memtest86=false

Questions, Comments, and Concerns

1. /var/log/Xorg.0.log shows "AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI capable". The video chipset is nVidia Vanta/Vanta LT. Anyway to possibly enable dri?
2. We mofified grub's menu.lst file so the menu selections won't change drastically from kernel updates. We also suppressed the (recovery mode) and memtest86+ menu items from being created.
3. We disabled the 'windows' icon from showing on the desktop commenting it out in fstab. Is there a more elegant way of doing this?

4. Didn't get to enforce a disk quota for each /home/<user>.

5. They expect these PCs to go home with the girls so only one user name is needed now, user1.