This project is primarily organized around creating and popularizing the Berkeley Common Environment (BCE).
Full documentation for the project is available on our gh-pages website: http://collaboratool.berkeley.edu.
provisioning: BCE can be created using packer with the appropriate json file. See the HOWTO.md file for more.
reference: This folder contains information that might be useful later.
The safest base image appears to be the vanilla 64-bit ubuntu server image.
There are several approaches we've tested, including:
- A 2-step process of manual base OVA creation followed by scripted deployment
- Fully scripted process using vagrant
- Fully scripted using packer
Dav and Ryan identified and implemented the following specifications for the summer VM (via the packer method, vagrant method is similar, but is not verified to produce exactly the following):
- OS: Ubuntu Server 14.04 (64-bit)
+ Python packages installed via pip/easy_install since it is likely they
will need to be upgraded mid-term while the Ubuntu python-* packages
do not change.
+ R packages come from rrutter and c2d4u PPAs since they are kept
up-to-date while the Ubuntu r-cran-* packages do not change.
+ Hide the grub menu and Linux kernel boot messages.
- User: Single auto-login user ("oski") with no password sudo. Insecure
default password of "oski".
- VirtualBox:
+ Window is resizable for XFCE on Ubuntu (note, not for LXDE).
+ bidirectional clipboard enabled
+ bidirectional drag-n-drop enabled (but only working host to guest)
- Desktop: XFCE
+ One panel with launchers for Terminal, Browser, File Manager, Text
Editor (gedit)
+ Substitute solid color for background image
+ Remove desktop icon for Trash and File System. Leave Home icon.
+ Benoit and Ryan suggest an icon on the desktop pointing to /media,
VirtualBox's parent of all Shared Folders.
+ Black-on-white text in terminal since it is easier to see when
projected in class
+ Change the panel's Application menu icon to a generic computer icon
from XFCE's logo.
- Dav would like to have some git GUI. Thunar and gedit both have git
integration but Thunar is pretty weak, gitg seems to be the standard gtk
version (thus suitable for unity, LXDE, XFCE...). Need to evaluate Thunar
for 14.04 still.
- Hiding messages, etc. maybe doesn't fit in with the "glass brick" model
where we don't hide the plumbing.
- Investigate box file format to reduce size
- Problems with GTK error messages (gedit and firefox at least)
- Auto-mount filesystems doesn't work (but `sudo mount -t vboxsf <name>
<mountpoint>` works). (Permanent folders do get mounted.)
- Get host to guest drag-n-drop working
This master branch is a reboot of the repo now in collaboratool-archive. Sadly, while some of the materials copied here were authored by @BagOfMostlyWater, that history is lost. But, I hope you find that the 2 degrees of magnitude reduction in repository size is worth it!
Another source of materials while we're settling is in collaboratool-base, which represents @davclark's first stab at a minimal provisioning approach.