The course took place on Fri-Sat 1-2nd of April 2005
First day Friday 1st of April 2005 1pm - 6pm
The course was given by ezabi and contained the following based on the course outline used by the Alexandria group as follows
Who We Are:
- what is eglug
- who we are ?
- who are the people giving the course
- it`s totally Volunteer work from Eglug
- it`s totally Volunteer work from Life Makers Port Said
Background:
- History of GNU/Linux
- When and why Unix have been coded.
- GNU' Not Unix and Richard Stallman.
- Linus and the kernel
- 4 Freedoms
- GPL
- Why Linux
- Security
- Open Source.
- No worms ,no crashes and no more blue screen of death.
- Almost no price.
- True multiuser system.
- What Linux Consists Of
- Kernel
- X server
- GNU tools
- GNU Development tools
- Desktop
- What is Mount points
- Linux single Tree system
- /mnt
- why mount?
- Hardware problems
- Winmodems problem.
- How to get help
- distro. docs.
- Google.com/linux
- eglug.org
- Eglug Channel @ irc.freenode.net
Installation BackGround:
- How to boot from the cdrom
- what is the basic concepts of installing any operating system:
- Partitioning.
- Hardware Detection.
- Locale Selection ( Keyboard / Time / Location ).
- Package Selection.
- Boot Loader.
The Installation:
- what F1 do
- low resolution installation.
- text mode installation.
- Security Levels.
- Partitioning:
- Get the harddisk ready for Installation under windows by deleting one partition from windows.
- Use resizing tool if u have one partition.
- What are the 4 choices:
- Use Free Space.
- Erase Entire Disk.
- Use The Free Space Of The Windows Partition.
- Custem Disk Partitioning.
- using Ext3
- using custom partitioning
- /
- Swap
- /home
- what is / and what / have inside.
- / is directory and physical driver in the harddisk.
- why we can have seperate /home.
- Packages Selection:
- Root User:
- password should be hard and complex.
- very important user.
- root home directory is /root NOT /.
- using advanced options when your network is using any authentication services.
- Add users:
- Accept user.
- Add more than one user.
- user auto login KDE.
- Boot Loader
- install it as MBR is the best for new users.
- Configuration:
- Country
- Time
- AutoDetect the sound card / mouse / printer /
- Network
- Graphical interface
- Card Detected
- Must test the options.
- choose the resolution.
- What are Services.
- Last Screen
- Advanced
- Reboot
Second day Saturday 2nd of April 2005 11pm - 3pm
The course was given by ezabi and contained the following based on the course outline used by the Alexandria group as follows
- X structure
- What is the X server ? What does it do ?
- What is KDE ?
- What is windowmanager ?
- Other desktop choices
- KDE intro
- Virtual Desktops concept
- Control Center
- Panel, etc....
- Package Management intro
- The concept of packages
- The purpose of packages
- Installing RPMs graphically
- Popular Apps
- Office suites discussion
- Graphics (GIMP)
- Multimedia (xmms, eye of gnome, xine, gmplayer etc...)
- IM (gaim)
- Internet (mozilla, epiphany, konqueror)
Mandrake Control Center (quick skim) Command Line
- Essential command line tools, ls, cd, pwd
- File creation
- Piping and redirection
- File permissions and changing permissions
- Creating a simple script
As a training methodology some parts of the second session were handed to the Port-Said group to provide the training in the session by themselves and it proved to be quiet successful
Cons
- Limited lab resources, the course took place in a local cyber-cafe and we had some problems in the installation that were later overcome
- Some timing problems due to work circumctances by both groups and limited time constraints
- Life Makers were short on funding due their investment in orphans day related event
Pros
- High interest and enthusiasm from life makers attendees
- The potential of the atendess to later promote the free open source software and further deliver training and awareness among their local community, they have a well organized approach and provide good potential for EGLUG to further expand their activities in this part of the country
- The attendees had a good IT background which was a major facilitator as well as some already had GNU/Linux background and wanted to get aquainted with the training approach of EGLUG
Conclusion:
Life Makers Port Said agreed that they will deliver training in GNU/Linux to their local community and a local training center is providing its facilities for free for this concern
Extra:
In a later meeting with Life Makers the following points were discussed:
- Provision of necessary tools to ease migration of application developers coming from an M$ background, gtk tools with programming background was suggested but further feedback is required from EGLUG members
- Provision of a clear list of alternatives of applications on windows environment for user migration
- Provision of a copy of the open CD which will be handed to TW33TY to deliver later
- An agreement of a work framework for further cooperation with EGLUG to provide future seminars in Port-Said different formal and non-formal bodies and maybe a future installfest
- A request for a methodology to spread GNU/Linux among local businesses, such a request will be forwarded to AOSBC and maybe EGLUG can help with small businesses
- A section for newbies on EGLUG where they can freely post their issues
- The state of arabization and the need of unification of efforts regarding this issue
- The usual request for more arabic content on EGLUG
Thanks for the Alex group Darkie, Linuxawy and Sherbo for the initiative and the guiding course outline