On Sun, Aug 05, 2007 at 03:06:10PM -0500, Dave Walker wrote: > I hope to place a PC running Etch in our small (tiny, actually) > airport building for use by pilots. The PC will be used to access > perhaps 10 web sites (plus or minus) over a DSL connection and to run > a few utilities to show GMT and a calculator and maybe a few > additional applications. The box will also serve as a real-time data > collection platform and web server for a local weather observing > system, so I want to prevent it from being re-booted. >
Be very careful. These are two very different applications to put on one box. You don't want the weather reports to stop going out if the desktop freezes the box. A box that runs X, is almost by definition more prone to needing to reboot than one that doesn't. Ditto if you use a Desktop environment instead of a simple window manager. If you really need it to be one box, here's what I would suggest: Set up the server stuff first. Setup a chroot for the desktop stuff, one that gets copied when used. Use the pam module so that when the desktop user logs in, they get a fresh clean chroot which gets distroyed when the user logs out. Use icewm with the toolbar configured with the common tools. Also note that Xfce seems to use more and more memory; I don't know if it has been fixed. Determine if you need a full-fledged web browser for those 10 sites or if something like links2 or dillo will work. Hint: dillo is plain with a gtk interface, links2 adds javascript but doesn't have a gtk interface, whereas for flash you need a full browser like iceweasel or Konqueror. Provide an alternate means for an administrator to log into the machine; ssh or serial console (or both). You may want to setup syslog to send logs to another machine and put something on that machine to monitor the logs. Good luck, Doug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
