LON-CAPA Installation Instructions
for the 05/24/2001 developer's release
Scott Harrison, last updated 05/19/2001
What you need:
- a RedHat Linux compatible computer that is hooked up to the ethernet
with a working IP address,
- a LON-CAPA installation CD,
- and an installation boot floppy.
Starting instructions:
- Turn the computer off.
- Insert the "LON-CAPA Installation Boot Floppy"
- Turn the computer on.
- During boot-up, insert the "LON-CAPA Installation CD-ROM"
- (For systems with bootable CD-ROM devices, you can just use
the CD-ROM and not use the installation boot floppy).
Warnings:
- Installation will remove all data on your computer.
- This is a prototype installation release of a developing software system.
- We are developing documentation on the LON-CAPA installation
at http://install.lon-capa.org/. Documentation is not well developed
on these pages, but it may be of some help in understanding the system
internals.
- Standard legal disclaimer: Use this software at your own risk. By
using this software you assume all liability for its operation.
Installation screens:
The following installation screens present an example
installation for a computer grover.morphy.edu (12.34.56.99) done by a
Doctor Herbert Sherbert. Since this is the first installation
of a LON-CAPA server at Morphy University, Dr. Sherbert chooses
to install a library server which can store educational resources
(as opposed to an access server which simply load-balances high
amounts of web server requests). For those experienced with
RedHat-type installations, there are really only two screens which are
specific to setting LON-CAPA system parameters.
- Installation Welcome Screen. Just press the
"Enter/Return" key at this first screen.
- Language Selection. Choose English. (It is the
only supported language so far in the translation tables associated
with the installation). Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- Keyboard Selection. Most likely, you have a "us"
keyboard which is the default setting. Select "OK" to advance to the
next screen.
- Welcome to Learning Online!. This screen
directs you to look for more information at http://install.lon-capa.org/.
Please be advised that documentation on these pages is not highly
developed. Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- Installation Type. Five options are presented on this
installation screen.
- Install LON-CAPA Library Server
- Install LON-CAPA Access Server
- Install LON-CAPA Library Development Server
- Install LON-CAPA Access Development System
- Upgrade Existing Installation
If this is the first LON-CAPA machine you are setting up at your
institution, I strongly recommend you select "Install LON-CAPA Library
Development Server". The first two choices are run-time servers which
are significantly more secure (for instance, do not support telnet,
just ssh). These choices do not support X-windows or other system
amenities which will make tinkering and learning about the LON-CAPA
system more difficult. Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- Manual Partitioning. Read the screen. Write down
the amount of RAM on your system. Multiply the RAM by ten and
calculate the number of MEGAbytes (not kilobytes) of swap space
your system is recommended to be on your hard drive.
Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- Current Disk Partitions. More information
on using disk druid to properly configure a linux system is present on
many different internet sites that you can find with an internet
search engine like www.google.com. One such site is
http://www.linuxinfor.com/rhl70/s1-textmode-partition.html.
Partition your hard disk. Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- Choose Partitions to Format. Select all your partitions
and select "OK". (You probably do not need to check for bad blocks
during the format).
- Hostname Configuration. Dr. Sherbert would
enter grover.morphy.edu. You would enter the host name corresponding
to the working IP address attached by ethernet to your computer.
Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- Network Configuration. Do NOT use bootp/dhcp.
LON-CAPA only works with static IP. Enter in the IP address of
your computer (e.g. 12.34.56.99). Find out the correct values
for netmask, gateway, and primary nameserver from other personnel
at your institution (or look at information present on currently
connected computers). Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- Library Server Configuration. "LON Host ID" can be
any set of alphanumeric characters. This host id must be unique (per computer)
in terms of the entire worldwide LON-CAPA network. The system administrator
e-mail is where periodic status reports are e-mailed in the event of
system startup, shutdown, malfunction, and routine checks. The domain
is a set of alphanumeric characters unique to a given institution.
The final two fields, "Load Limit" and "Expiration Time", allow
for the handling of server load and cached educational resources.
We recommend that you leave these two fields at their default values.
- Library System Settings. Many different kinds
of computers are used at Morphy University: Macintosh, Linux, BSD, and Windows
3.1/95/98/2000/Me/NT. To provide flexible and easy access to the library
server for faculty participants, Samba is selected to enable Windows/Network
Neighborhood file shares (e.g. Loncapa_morphy/Morphyl1). Apple Shares
is selected to enable Apple Share connection with the Apple "Chooser"
(e.g. LONCAPA_MORPHYL1). NFS is selected to enable user-specific network
file services for Linux (and other) computers with NFS client utilities.
NTP Server allows for the synchronization of time and should be set to
an IP address that supports the XNTP version 3 protocol; if left blank,
there will be no time synchronization on the server, though it's
time is expected to remain relatively constant (and correct if the machine
is configured properly). Kerberos realm allows for authenticating students
and instructors based on an institution's Kerberos version 4 password-checking
scheme (if supported by the institution). IMPORTANT: You will
need to add an entry to hosts.tab (second "Add" key) corresponding to
your new installation. Dr. Sherbert would enter something corresponding to
morphyl1:morphy:library:grover.morphy.edu:12.34.56.99.
- Mouse Selection. Enter the appropriate values
for describing the model mouse attached to your computer.
Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- Time Zone Selection. You probably do not want to select
the GMT option. Just enter in the time zone of your institution.
(If the time is incorrect upon system bootup, and you cannot or do not want
to connect to an NTP server, you can always reconfigure the system time
with the command, as root, /usr/sbin/timeconfig).
Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- Root Password. Enter in your machine's root password.
Be creative and decide on something non-guessable.
Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- Web Server Password. Enter in your machine's
password for a user 'www'. Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- Add User. Add a user to the machine.
Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- User Account Setup. Perform any additional
changes to the user accounts on your machine.
Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- X probe results. (We assume you have a detectable
video card). Select "OK" to advance to the next screen.
- Warning, Installation to begin. You will
now erase all data on your hard disk and install the LON-CAPA
system. Select "OK" to courageously begin.
- Package Installation. A carefully selected
set of RPMs is being installed that provides full LON-CAPA system
functionality.
- Bootdisk. If you want (though it is probably
not necessary), you can insert a fresh (NOT your LON-CAPA installation
boot floppy) floppy disk to help ensure you can boot up your LON-CAPA
server system.
- Monitor Setup. Select what kind of monitor is
attached to your computer (or just choose custom). Several screens
will follow which guide your configuration of your computer monitor.
(Note that this configuration only occurs with development servers,
since the other servers do not support X-windows). It probably
makes sense to start "X" up when booting if it appears it is
correctly configuring your computer monitor.
- Note about hosts.allow. To enable various kinds
of network connectivity (including appleshares, network neighborhood,
telnet, ftp, nfs) from other computers on the internet, you may want
to adjust your /etc/hosts.allow table after boot-time. (The web server
and the LON-CAPA network layer do not depend on /etc/hosts.allow however.)
Dr. Sherbert added the following line to his /etc/hosts.allow file to make sure
other computers at Morphy University could access grover.morphy.edu:
ALL: .morphy.edu
Alternatively, to allow wide access (though password-protected) to anyone
in the world, Dr. Sherbert could have added
ALL: ALL
- Complete. Select "OK" to reboot the system.
Be sure to remove your installation medium (both the CD-ROM and installation
floppy) before boot-up.
Booting up for the first time:
Feedback:
- Specific ideas on how to manage the installation can be sent to
harris41@msu.edu. In terms of bug reports, we would also like to hear
from you, but there is no need for great detail (or despair?) since the
bug is most likely already on our "to-do" list.