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Meeting minutes from the Philly Meeting on 4/28/2007

DATE/TIME:

Saturday, April 28, 2007 11:00 am to 3:00 pm

ATTENDEES:

• Stan Pokras
• Alex Launi
• Kevin Valentine
• Jim Fisher
• Ben Agre

DESCRIPTION:

The Ubuntu LoCo PA (Philly region) is planning to use the Nonprofit Technology Resources (NTR) warehouse as a location for our “install-fests”. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss how we can plan to use the NTR warehouse for out first and future install fests.

TOPICS:

The following is a list of topics covered. Some could not be answered completely so they may need to be revisited.

1. Can we get three wireless access points (WAPs)? Each one will support a specific type of wireless encryption: none, WEP, WPA-PSK. This is the rough plan:

   1. AlexL says that he can get up to three Buffalo WAPs running OpenWrt from his employer. This can only be done for this first install fest.

   2. Each one of us can contribute a WAP for use with the install fests. StanP says he has a couple. We didn't check but we're fairly certain they only support up to WEP-128. We still need another WAP that can support WPA-PSK.
   3. Setup a single PC to act as a router for all three forms of encryption (or more). Install three wireless NICs and set them to Master. I'm sure there's more to it than that. Anyone familiar with this?
2. Do we use KVMs? There are plenty of monitors, keyboards, mouse, and power outlets. We want to avoid using KVMs because it may take away from the experience of installing Ubuntu. We could also run into hardware issues.
3. How do we advertise for the install fest?
   1. Radio
      • StanP knows some people from WMMR and WMGK
      • AlexL knows someone from WXPN
   2. Mailing Lists
      • CTCNet mailing list via StanP
      • NTR mailing list via StanP
   3. Fliers at key locations
      • AlexL knows some graphic artists
      • Plaster all colleges with the fliers
      • University of Pennsylvania
      • Drexel University
      • Temple University
      • Saint Joseph's University
      • Villanova University
4. What rooms will be used and how many people can fit in them?
   1. For the first install fest, two rooms on the second floor will be used. This room can hold 16 – 18 people.If we don't have enough space, there is more room down the hall.
   2. Install fests after June 19th can be held in the downstairs room closest to the garage door. That room can hold 24 – 26 people. We will also still have access to the room on the second floor. For a total of 40 to 44 people.
5. How do people register for the install fest? AlexL says he can make a sign up form on the meetlinux.com site. Generally what we want is contact info, number of people they plan to bring, and hardware specs of their PC. We need to discuss the content of this some more in the forum or irc.
6. JimF pitched a great idea to StanP. He said that some people may want to install Linux but not on their existing PC. NTR has some REALLY inexpensive desktop PCs. During registration on meetlinux.com, people can specify that they will be installing to a PC they plan to purchase from NTR. Also, for those people not interested in resizing their existing Windows partition, they can buy inexpensive hard drives from NTR to add as master drives.
7. Do we have enough Ubuntu CDs? This is a tricky subject. We have several options:
   1. AlexL has ordered 30 CDs from Shipit but they may not come in time for the install fest. We also need to have some “alternate” and Ubuntu CDs. More on that in another section.
   2. KevinV has a media changer that can automate the burning of up to 200 CDs. The only problem is the CD label. It would be great to have silk screens for the CDs but the cost and lead time could be prohibitive.
      • AlexL knows some people that may be able to do some silk screening
      • KevinV will modify his sw to burn up to 200 CDs.
   3. Burn CDs with KevinV's system. Use a Sharpie to label them. Fast, cheap, and ugly.
8. What version of Ubuntu do we start with? This was easy. We plan to use version Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn.
9. What flavors of CDs do we bring to the install fest?

   1. Ubuntu (live) x 30 <-- can do many more if necessary

   2. Ubuntu (alternate) x 5
   3. Xubuntu (live) x 5
   4. Ubuntu 64-bit (live) x 5
   5. Ubuntu PPC (live) x 5
   6. Puppy Linux x 5
   7. Damn Small Linux x 5
10. Should we use any non-Ubuntu flavors of Linux? Some people may show up with P1, 133 Mhz, 16 MB ram laptops. We don't want to push them away so we came up with a rough scale for flavor usage. This table can be refined later:

    • 	Processor	RAM	Disk	Linux Flavor
      1	< 300 MHz	< 128 MB	< 3GB	Puppy Linux or DSL
      2	300 – 500 MHz	128 – 256 MB	>= 3GB	Xubuntu
      3	> 500 MHz	> 256 MB	>= 3GB	Ubuntu

11. Need people to sign a waiver before we install Ubuntu on their machine(s). KevinV will talk with his lawyer wife about getting a template for this. These areas need to be covered:
    1. Loss of data
    2. Software legalities (patents)
12. Have an overhead projector running an Ubuntu presentation in a continuous loop during the install fest. It should have the following content:
    1. History of Linux and Ubuntu
    2. Review of the installation
    3. Review of post install configuration
    4. Review of cool applications
       • compiz / beryl

       • OpenOffice

       • Gimp
13. After the install we should give the user a package of items.

    1. Links to LoCo documentation on their desktop

    2. A piece of paper with LoCo contact info and information about our group

    3. Some additional CDs that contain tutorial screen casts

    4. Configure software so the LoCo can be easily reached:

       • Xchat defaults to freenode.net and #ubuntu-pennsylvania

       • The homepage for Firefox is our LoCo forum

14. What roles will each of us play during the install fest? We are all going wear many hats. We're just not sure how many yet. Once we figure out what team members will be attending, we'll also get a better idea of what expertise we're lacking. Some critical areas that need special skill sets are the following:
    1. Wireless (driver and encryption)
    2. Video (general driver issues, direct rendering)
    3. 3D desktop (same vein as Video but more focus on use of compiz/beryl)
    4. Logical Volume Management (seeing multiple disks as one, mostly desktops)
    5. Install to external usb drives. Requires skill with grub and UUID.
    6. Printing
    7. Power Management for laptops.
15. Establish a rough date for the next team meeting. Sorry, this was missed. Perhaps we can figure this out in the next IRC meeting on Wednesday.
16. A date for the first install fest. StanP and found an ideal date. June 2nd. The duration will be from 10am to 6pm. However, StanP suggested that our team members get there at 9am to setup.
17. 8 hours is a long time. We should break up the install fest into several 2 hour sessions with ½ hour breaks in between: 10a – 12p, 12:30p – 2:30p, 3p – 5p. This way team members only have to commit to a single session and they won't get burned-out.
18. AlexL mentioned that we should establish a weekly support night on IRC for all these new Ubuntu users. Thursday was suggested but we should discuss this more with the other team members.