2. Educational software
2.1 Software considerations
2.2 Network shares and drive letters
2.3 Where and how to install
2.4 Making preparations
2.5 Documenting your work
3. Example installations
3.1 First example: Bwian's Witing Challenge
3.2 Second example: Roberta's Reading Rally
3.3 Third example: Mad Math Minute
3.4 Fourth example: Treasure Words
3.5 Fifth example: Magical Math
4. After the installation
4.1 Checking the installation
4.2 Cleaning up
What we describe are our experiences in installing numerous educational applications that are used in primary schools in The Netherlands. We have condensed our experience into a handful of different cases, in section 3. Example installations. These examples are based on real educational applications, allthough we have changed the actual titles, to protect the innocent.
Furthermore it would be very efficient to have more than just your 'golden image' machine-to-be at your disposal. A second workststation can be used to get to know new educational applications (by 'trial and error') without messing up your 'golden image'. If at all possible a third machine could be handy to keep your notes.
Of course you should have access to all the necessary software and relevant documentation. Please do remember that some software requires an activation key or a license code.
Please bear in mind that we have chosen the bad examples on purpose. There are many excellent educational software packages, however, we did not want to bore you with trivial examples that boil down to [Next], [Next], [Finish].
Educational software often has lots of images and sounds, especially when it is targeted at the lower grades. Running these programs from the server, and specially when a complete class in the computerlab is using the same application, and when having a 10 Mb/s network with hubs, congestion might occur, causing slow performance. This may result in impatient pupils double or triple clicking in an attempt to speedup the program, thus causing the program to crash or not behave according to what the teacher was trained for.
You might have to find out if these images and sounds laden applications can be run from the server. Or that it is wiser, if the program permits this, to install the sounds and images on the workstation and the program itself, including the database if any, on the server. That might speed up the program while at the same time building a central database with pupils progress.
Very old software is often used for good educational reasons. This software can sometimes no longer live up to today's screen resolutions; the modern hardware is simply too good. This often happens with high-resolution graphics screens. If the application insists on a full screen 640x480, you can hardly work with the application if the screen usually runs at 1024x768.
NOTICE: This particular problem has a work-around in the form of the QRes helper program. See section 11.1.2 QRes in chapter IV. Workstation setup for more information.
Many educational applications use a database or a shared directory to store pupils' progress and other data. It is clear that this data should be stored on the server so that pupils can login from any workstation to work with that application and still continue with their existing data. That is what networking computers is all about.
You have to find out if the application you plan to install uses a database and if it is possible to install the program and the database in different directories.
You probably have CD-ROMs which can have differing installation requirements. Some applications need the CD-ROM to be available in a CD-ROM drive after installation. Others only need the CD-ROM once, during installation. Sometimes you have the option to choose.
Read the documentation and hope for an extensive explanation. (Do not be too disappointed if this does not work). If documentation is lacking and the website of the manufacturer gives no clues either, one solution remains: try-out installations. Maybe the behaviour of the program during its installation tells you something.
There might be strategic decisions on where to install softawre. Suppose the server crashes. Is there any piece of software you want to keep on going even when the server is down? This question might be rethoric, because most applications need the server. However, this is the moment to raise the question.
We do not have the answers to all these considerations. They depend on your school's hardware, software, ICT and educational policies. However, we hope to made clear that installing educational software can cause deep frowns in the foreheads of the local systems administrator and the ICT coordinator.
A file share is "A network resource exported by a server. It usually corresponds directly to a directory on the server which has been exported for network access." (adapted from http://www.obdev.at/resources/sharity/manual/A02-appGlossary.html).
The table shows the UNC name of the file shares. UNC stands for Uniform Naming Convention. The format of a UNC name is two backslashes followed by the (netbios) name of the server, followed by a single backslash, followed by the name of the share. Many software packages accept UNC names. However, older software sometimes chokes on those names and really needs a drive letter to access files on the server.
Drive name | UNC name | Description |
---|---|---|
(local drive) | Drive letter A: refers to the (first) diskette drive) | |
(local drive) | Drive C: refers to the (first partition of the first) disk in the computer. This is the place where the workstations Operating System is stored. Also, necessary drivers and other software could be installed there. | |
(local drive) | Drive D: usually refers to the CD-ROM device in the computer | |
\\SERVER\userid | Drive H: equates to the user's home directory on the server. userid is replaced with the name of the user that is currently logged in, e.g. \\SERVER\ffrint or \\SERVER\grade8. This drive contains all the user's documents and other data files. Details will be discussed in chapter XI. My Documents and My Backups. The H: drive also holds a the personal settings of a user (the so-called 'profile'). | |
(virtual drive) | Drive K: refers to the (first) virtual CD-ROM player, see chapter VI. DAEMON Tools virtual CD player. | |
\\SERVER\PROGRAM1 | This share is for programs, or to be more specific, that part of
program known as the executable and its related files. Important
to know is that this share can be considered read only. No data
can be written on this share by ordinary users. Notable
exceptions to this rule are members of the group 'janitors'.
This share equates to the directory /home/share/program1 on the server.
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\\SERVER\PROGRAM2 | This share is for databases.
The share is both readable and writable by ordinary users. When it
is possible to install the database of a program in its own share,
separated from the program, the database should be stored on this
share. (see notice below).
This share equates to the directory /home/share/program2 on the server.
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\\SERVER\CDROMS | This share is the place where CD-ROM images are stored by the
CD-ROM imaging tool (see 6. Managing
CD-ROM images in III. Janitor).
Just like the P: drive, this share is read only for ordinary
users and read/write for members of the group 'janitors'.
This share equates to the directory /home/share/iso on the server.
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\\SERVER\TMP | This share equates to the directory /tmp on the
server. This share is available to all users to temporarily store
data. It can be used to exchange files between one user and
another. However, only the original owner can delete a file.
Note that the server itself automatically removes files from this
share if they are not accessed for some time (about 4
weeks). Therefore this share should not be used to archive files.
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\\SERVER\INSTALL | The install directory holds a directory with all
sorts of 'goodies'. It is also a good place to store downloaded
files such as drivers or other software. By default no drive
letter is associated with this share, even though I:
would be a very logical choice. Without the drive letter this
share can be accessed via 'Network Neighbourhood'.
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\\SERVER\NETLOGON | This share equates to the directory
/home/samba/netlogon on the server. This directory holds
the DOS batch file LOGON.BAT . This file is executed
whenever a user logs on.
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The connections between file shares and drive letters are established
during network logon (the small black window that flashes by). At that
time the DOS batch file \\SERVER\NETLOGON\LOGON.BAT
is
executed.
NOTICE: Apart from the file shares discussed here, the server may also provide printer shares. These can be seen via 'Network Neighbourhood'. Discussion of printer shares is not the topic of this chapter. See section 10.1 Printers overview in chapter IV. Workstation setup for more information.
The Q: drive deserves some extra attention. This share poses a security risk because every ordinary user can write to it. That also implies that every ordinary user can delete files from the share, either by accident or on purpose. Unfortunately it is necessary to have such a writable share because some educational software packages need a place to store pupil results, highscores, etc. Because of the design of these programs, write privileges are required. This security risk can be somewhat reduced by making this share invisible. The procedure is described in section 2.2 Preparing policies in chapter VIII. Managing user profiles.
The V: drive is the least important share. Its purpose is to serve as a test bed for the local systems administrator, e.g. to 'try' a new software package before installing it for real onto the 'golden image'. It also could be used to exchange files between any two users be it that the original owner is the only person that is able to remove these files on the V: drive. Note that the system itself automatically removes files that have not been accessed in 4 weeks. Therefore V: is definitely not a good place for permanent storage. The size of the share is limited: by default only 512 MB is allocated to the partition that holds this share.
All workstatations in a ServerAtSchool environment should at least
have a C:
drive; the harddisk on which the OS is
installed and maybe other software too. A workstation also should have
either a floppy drive A: or a CD-ROM player, e.g. D:. This is
necessary for use with g4u, see V. Managing disk
images with ghost for unix. If the software for a virtual CD-ROM
player is installed (see chapter VI. DAEMON
Tools virtual CD player), the workstation will also have K: drive
which can hold (virtual) CD-ROMs.
NOTICE: Depending on the number of disks in the computer and the way these are partitioned, the drive letters may differ. Also, if a computer has a second CD-ROM-device or a DVD-player or a CD/DVD burner, other drive letters may also be in use. Special care has to be taken with multi-purpose 8-in-1 card readers because these devices sometimes happen to 'capture' the all important drive letter H:.
P:
, Q:
and R:
P:
share.
P:
(the
executable program and other static read-only files) and
configure the application to store data on Q:
(the
database or datafiles and directories).
Q:
.
C:
.
R:
and access the program and/or necessary files via
the virtual CD-ROM player in K:
.
P:
or somewhere under /home/httpd/htdocs
; the
webserver's document root directory.
Among Windows and network pundits, these choices can lead to heated discussions, only illustrating that many choices are possible. Maybe this is the moment to ask your local Linux or Windows group for advice. Do not be surprised when you meet contradictions. This is complicated matter.
In many cases there is only one installation method: trial and error. When you have to opt for this method, it is a must to write down the exact steps you took during an installation, even the steps that led into the wrong direction. Without good notes it is impossible to track the cause of a failing installation, to circumvent a 'known issue' the next time or to redo a successfull installation when necessary.
At the Exemplum Primary School we have developed a very strict method of installing educational software. It works as follows.
H:\My Documents\janitors\install\software.txt
).
H:\My Documents\janitors\install\software.txt
to
write down every little thing. It has saved us a few times
already, especially when upgrading to a newer version of an
existing software package. By saving the notes in this (shared)
directory, all members of the 'janitors' are able to see what was
done on a workstation during software installation. See below for
more detailed information on this installation journal. See also section
2.5 Documenting your work below.
C:\CONTENTS.TXT
. Every time we successfully
install a software package, we add a line to this file. Also, when
we make a new g4u image, we write the name of the image in this
file, including a date and time stamp. This way you can always
check which image is installed on a workstation simply by looking
at this file in the root directory of C:. See also section
2.5 Documenting your work below.
[Ctrl-L]
,
[Ctrl-T]
, holding down the left [Shift]
key when starting the program, click on a secret 'hotspot' in the
pupil's screen, etc. etc.).
NOTICE: The two additional workstations should at least have some basic functionality, especially the test machine. The easiest way to create a working test environment is to restore a milestone image onto the test machine.This also makes certain that the milestone image that was created before on the 'golden image' machine actually works on another workstation.
H:\My Documents\janitors\install\software.txt
.
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This example of installing 'Traffic Trainer 1.0' leads to the
following addition to the file C:\CONTENTS.TXT
on the
workstation (just before the image is made).
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NOTICE: Even if an application installs smoothly, by the book, it can be rewarding to take notes, if only a short remark that the installation went exactly according the software publishers instructions. However, we almost never have experienced an educational software install behaving completely like the documentation.
In an attempt to make the journal more readable we have emphasised the lines starting with an asterisk (used to indicate the name of the software package) and the lines starting with a dash (used to indicate user input). These examples will not be treated in a step-by-step way, only the problematic installation issues will be discussed in the comments.
NOTICE: As stipulated before the examples all assume that the special 'scholar' account is used during software installation. There should be no more than one user 'scholar' logged in. That would be the user on the 'golden image' machine.
Note that all experiments and installation attempts are carried out on the test machine. The final installation is done on the 'golden image' after the test installation succeeded. This keeps the 'golden image' machine as clean as possible.
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Here we immediately found the SETUP.EXE
in the root of
the CD-ROM. However, your mileage may vary. Often you can find a file
AUTORUN.INF
, in which you find a line, for example
Open=Setup.exe
, or some other executable, or you have to
search the CD-ROM or diskette(s) for an executable that starts the
program or the installer. There are many possibilites and we do not
know them all.
NOTICE:
A short note on file and directory names. We do not like directory
names with spaces and with more than eight characters. We prefer the
DOS 8.3 naming conventions, so we create a directory
P:\WRITING
. Here we will store all our writing
software, including Bwian's Witing Challenge.
In this particular case we could not browse to the exact location
where we want the software to be installed because there was no
[Browse] button in the installer. However we managed to type
P:\WRITING\BWC
manually.
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Even though we tried to change the installation path to
P:\WRITING\BWC\
, the software insisted on adding two
extra levels in the directory tree. Sometimes this happens. It is
simply a matter of accepting this strange behaviour. Trying to 'fix'
it sometimes makes it even worse.
NOTICE:
Some applications only allow you to choose the drive letter. In these
cases you could end up with things like P:\Program Files\Writers
Guild\Bwians Witing Challenge
. On the other hand:
some software only allows installation on drive C: which is
even worse.
No Desktop icons were created automatically. We will create some ourselves by navigating to the installation directory.
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The program seems installed in P:\WRITING\BWC
. After
unloading the CD-ROM and rebooting the workststation the program still
'works'; i.e. both BWC.EXE
and TEACHER.EXE
start. That looks good. It also works when logged in as 'grade8';
better still.
NOTICE: At this point a further test of the program with the checklist in section 4.1 Checking the installation is a good idea. When everything stays OK, the program can be installed 'for real' on the image machine.
NOTICE:
After testing the experimental installation you might want to
try to change some details that failed in the experiment. Resist the
temptation to experiment with your 'golden image'. For example, in this
particular case you might want to instruct the installer to install to
P:\WRITING
, or even P:\
instead of
P:\WRITING\BWC
. That may work, but be careful! It is very
well possible that the installer thinks that P:\
is
NOT acceptable because it is not a subdirectory,
never mind the fact that the path Writers Guild\Bwians Witing
Challenge
is added anyway. Sometimes it really drives you nuts.
Note that you may need to create new icons if you change the install
path.
In the end, we can say, this was an installation on the
P:
share, no database, no CD-ROM necessary after
installation. This was an easy one.
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That is correct: the installer starts automatically, thanks to the
'AutoRun'-feature. We will deal with disabling this feature via
registry key NoDriveTypeAutoRun
in section 2.2 Preparing policies in chapter VIII. Managing user profiles. For now we will
simply accept this behaviour. See also section 11.2.9 Getting rid of Autorun in
chapter IV. Workstation setup.
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Note that the installer has detected an existing version of DirectX. Fortunately this application detects that the installed version is more recent than the version it would install otherwise. What is even better is that this installer has decided to offer you a choice to install the older version or not. Keeping the latest version of these kind of helper software is probably the best choice. Unfortunately some installers insist on overwriting an existing (newer) version with an older one, no questions asked. More often than not this breaks other applications that rely on the newer version. In these cases it is always good to have a milestone image to which you can return.
We unchecked the checkbox 'Start RRR' because we do not want to immediately start the program. First we remove the CD-ROM from the CD-ROM player and then we will try to start the program, in order to find out if the CD-ROM is necessary or not while running the program.
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When we removed the CD-ROM, the program cannot be executed. That is a real bummer. From this (first) installation attempt we did learn a few things.
D:
). That suggests that it will probably not work
even when we would provide the CD-ROM in another CD-ROM drive (such as
K:
).
P:\RRR\Roberta's Reading Rally
we
specified. Further inspection of this particular directory reveals
that only a single .EXE file and a handful of other files were
installed. Perhaps accepting the default location on C:
was not
that bad after all.
The preliminary conclusion must be that this CD-ROM is a candidate for
installing on the R:
drive. The actual installation does
not take too much space on the image, so we decide to accept the
default location in our next attempt. However, first we need to do a
bit of cleaning up, removing the remains of the initial attempt. After
that we can start with a clean slate. The installation report continues.
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D:
drive;
i.e. the CD-ROM player in the workstation, but from the
K:
drive, i.e. the virtual CD-ROM player with a CD-ROM
image located on the R:
drive. When installed
from K:
, the program will ask for a CD-ROM in
K:
, every time the program is requested by a user. That
would be better.
To be able to load a CD-ROM in the virtual CD-ROM player, you have to
create a CD-ROM image and store the image on the R:
share. The Janitor CD-Tool will create the image. This procedure is
described in section 6. Managing CD-ROM
images in chapter III. Janitor.
The installation report continues.
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At this point the batch file ISO.BAT
takes care of
loading the CD-ROM image that was created with the Janitor program
into the K:
drive.
ISO.BAT
shows a message indicating the CD
ABP46A~1.ISO
is being loaded. This is a strange name
because we doubleclicked the file
RobertasReadingRally.iso
. The explanation is as
follows. We started the .ISO
file from
R:
. In chapter V. DAEMON Tools virtual
CD player we configured Windows to open all files with the
.ISO
extension with ISO.BAT
, which is a DOS
batch file. Because Windows considers this program to be a DOS
program it automatically converts the long filename into the familiar
DOS 8.3 format that any DOS program should understand. In
this case the short name of RobertasReadingRally.iso
equates to ABP46A~1.ISO
.
Now we are back at the point where the CD-ROM is inserted into
the CD-ROM drive, be it that this time it will be in K:
rather than D:
. We will now take the same steps as in the
first attempt, be it that this time we will allow the installer to
install on C:
. The installation report continues.
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At this point the basic installation is more or less done. Note that
we accepted the default location. Nothing much will be installed in
this directory as we observed when we peeked in P:\RRR
after the first attempt.
After the installer closes the black DOS-screen with the message from
ISO.BAT
is still visible. We will deal with that
later. For now we can simply click it away with the little
X
in the topright corner of the window.
K:
drive. If this were not the case, you would get an
error message like 'CD-ROM not found. Please insert into drive K:...'.
We will attempt to solve this problem by using the features of
ISO.BAT
, see section 4.3 Using
ISO.BAT in chapter V. DAEMON Tools virtual
CD player.
Roughly we want to:
The installation report continues.
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At this point the original shortcut (called RRR.lnk
) was
copied to the Desktop where subsequently the properties were
modified. In the original copy there was a field labeled 'Target:'. It
contained "C:\Program Files\Roberta's Reading
Rally\rrrally.exe"
(including the quotes).
This is the explicit path to the
application. Apparently the actual program is called
RRRALLY.EXE
and it is stored in the directory
C:\Program Files\Roberta's Reading Rally
. Note that the
complete target string is quoted with double quotes. This is necessary
because the path contains spaces. If not for the quotes the contents
of the 'Target:' field would be interpreted as the command 'C:\Program'
followed by three parameters 'Files\Roberta's', 'Reading' and
'Rally\rrrally.exe'.
By prepending this target with P:\BIN\ISO.BAT
R:\RobertasReadingRally.iso
the target changes into a line
that will be interpreted as a command P:\BIN\ISO.BAT
,
followed by a total of two parameters: 'R:\RobertasReadingRally.iso'
and '"C:\Program Files\Roberta's Reading
Rally\rrrally.exe"'.
This matches the usage listed in third place in section 4.3 Using ISO.BAT in chapter V. DAEMON Tools virtual CD player.
The idea is that the command P:\BIN\ISO.BAT
will load the
(virtual) CD-ROM named R:\RobertasReadingRally.iso
into
the K:
drive. After that is done, ISO.BAT
will execute the program RRRALLY.EXE
. Effectively this
would automate the task of loading the correct CD-ROM into drive
K:
and running the program, all in one go. This is very
efficient.
Note that the shortcut now has the MS-DOS icon. Please do not pay attention to it. We will change this later on.
The installation report continues.
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Something went wrong here, even though the program appears to
start. After inspecting the shortcut we notice that
the file RRR.lnk
has automagically changed into
RRR.pif
. Also there are more tabs and more properties
that can be adjusted. Inspection of the 'Program' tab (which used to
be called the 'Shortcut' tab when the shortcut was still a
.LNK
file) reveals that the contents of the field
'Cmdline:' (which used to be called the 'Target:' field) is
trunctated. The last part of the (long) command line is simply
missing. Instead of
P:\BIN\ISO.BAT R:\RobertasReadingRally.iso "C:\Program Files\Roberta's Reading Rally\rrrally.exe"
it reads
P:\BIN\ISO.BAT R:\RobertasReadingRally.iso "C:\Program Files\Roberta's Reading
It looks like there is a limit on the length of the command line (of 78 characters) and it appears that Windows has silently truncated the command line.
The fact that the application starts anyway must be a result
of the Autorun
feature because ISO.BAT
failed, as indicated by the two messages Bad command or file name
.
The first solution would be to shorten the command line by removing the explicit
path for the RRRALLY.EXE
program, while at the same time
specifying the 'working directory' to be that same path. The two relevant
properties would then look like this:
P:\BIN\ISO.BAT R:\RobertasReadingRally.iso RRRALLY.EXE
"C:\Program Files\Roberta's Reading Rally"
PATH
. By making the directory which contains
the program RRRALLY.EXE
the current directory, the
program is found even when the explicit path to
RRRALLY.EXE
is not specified.
A second solution might be to choose shorter names for CD-ROM
images and to leave off the extension .BAT
in
the program name ISO.BAT
. If the CD-ROM image would have been called
R:\RRR.iso
instead of
R:\RobertasReadingRally.iso
the command line could have
looked like this.
P:\BIN\ISO R:\RRR.iso "C:\Program Files\Roberta's Reading Rally\rrrally.exe"
A third solution could have been to create a new helper script
specifically for this CD-ROM. Such a modified version of
ISO.BAT
might look like this (see also
section 3.3 Installing ISO.BAT in chapter V. DAEMON Tools virtual CD player). Changed
lines are emphasised.
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By storing this batch file under the name P:\BIN\RRR.BAT
the problem with the long command line would be solved because it now
would look like this.
P:\BIN\RRR.BAT
ISO.BAT
to accomodate all long command
lines. This can easily lead to a maintenance nightmare, especially
when upgrading the software.
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After applying these changes we can retry doubleclicking the shortcut. This time the following happens:
ISO.BAT
about loading the CD-ROM is visible
Bad command or file name
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This example was done on the test machine. Obviously the installation has to be done 'for real' on the machine that is used to create the 'golden image'. The program should then be checked as described in section 4.1 Checking the installation below.
NOTICE:
The effect that the CD-ROM also runs automatically can be very
annoying. We will deal with disabling this feature via
registry key NoDriveTypeAutoRun
in section 2.2 Preparing policies in chapter VIII. Managing user profiles. For now we will
simply accept this behaviour. See also section 11.2.9 Getting rid of Autorun in
chapter IV. Workstation setup.
We specifically chose to run the apppropriate command
(here: RRRALLY.EXE
) even though the program is also
started via the Autorun feature. This is because we do not want to
rely on this feature. If we did and the feature was disabled, nothing
would happen. That is worse than starting two instances of the program
in our opinion. Of course, the program should only be started once,
period.
This concludes our second example, which, in the end, was an
installation on the R:
drive. This example showed that
there are many ways to fix startup problems.
NOTICE: We did not choose this program for any educational purpose but only for technical reasons.
Here is the installation report.
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This is a straightforward installation.
As can be seen in the report, the download is first copied to
V:
for unpacking. This is a security measure. You do not
know in advance what is in the zipfile.
The installation described above can serve as a model in several ways.
The README-file contained all necessary instructions to install the
program on P:
and the central database
on Q:
.
Exemplaric in MMM is that many programs lack installers. You have to manually edit one or more configuration file to set the correct path to the database. Sometimes other options also need to be set. It's not especially good or bad to not have an installer.
There is plenty of educational software that uses a database, but does
not allow setting a different location for the database. The best
solution is to completely install these programs on the Q:
share. Even worse are programs with a database that only installs on the
C:
drive of the workstation. This means you have a number of
local databases. In this case the best solution is to look for another
program.
After the program is installed it needs to be checked as described in 4.1 Checking the installation.
In the end this was an example of an installation on the
P:
and Q:
drive.
TW.EXE
of some 8 MB and also a file called
TW.ICO
of a few hundred bytes. If the documentation says
the program can directly be run from the CD, apparently no write
privileges are necessary. It seems only logical to simply copy the
contents of the CD to P:
(which is also read-only for
ordinary users, just like a CD-ROM) and create a shortcut to
TW.EXE
on the Desktop.
Here is the installation report.
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Well that was an easy one.
Alas, famous last words. After removing the CD-ROM from the CD-ROM
player and testing the program (using the account 'grade8') it fails
miserabely: Can't find CD. Exiting...
. That is really
weird: there are only two files on the CD and we copied those to
P:
. The copy is identical and it still does not work.
There must be some 'trickery' on the CD-ROM. It seems like the
installation report will be a little longer than we expected.
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There is a problem. When the CD-ROM is loaded in K:
, the
program will start, just like before when the CD-ROM was still in the
D:
drive. However, when the
TreasureWords.iso
is not in K:
, the link to
TW.EXE
cannot be found. So it seems that we have a
situation comparable to the one with Roberta's Reading Rally (see
section 3.2.3 Loading the CD-ROM automatically
above). The installation report continues.
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This is becoming annoying. Somehow the shortcut does NOT
work, even after we did our trick with ISO.BAT
and
all. This certainly is puzzling.
After studying the properties of TW.pif
once
again it becomes clear that somehow the working directory was pointing
to K:\
. This means that Windows will try to make
K:\
the working directory before the command
line P:\BIN\ISO R:\TreasureWords.iso K:\TW.EXE
is
executed. As a matter of fact the (virtual) TreasureWords CD-ROM was
still in drive K:
during the test above but,
unfortunately in this case, ISO.BAT
always
unloads the old CD-ROM before loading a new one, even if it
is the same CD-ROM. This means that at some point the working
directory becomes invalid because there is nothing loaded in the
K:
drive. This explains the blue screen. The easy
solution: change the working directory in the shortcut properties.
NOTICE:
We have re-used a left-over of a previous experiment. We already
figured out that it would not be a good idea to use the icon on the
CD-ROM as the icon for the shortcut because this file is not available
when the CD-ROM is not available. In the first attempt, however, we
already copied the .ICO
file to
P:\TW\TW.ICO
. We need to remember to clean up
P:\TW\TW.EXE
lateron but to keep the icon file.
The installation report continues.
|
This calls for more drastic measures. Somehow something goes wrong
with ISO.BAT
. Because this script starts with the command
@ECHO OFF
you can not see where it fails. After
commenting out that first line by prepending it with REM
and effectively changing the line into a mere remark, all commands
from ISO.BAT
are displayed on the screen before they are
executed.
After executing the modified ISO.BAT
it is easy to see
that the error message ('Windows can not read from drive K:') is
caused by the following line in ISO.BAT
.
|
This line directly follows the line in which the virtual CD-ROM is
loaded. It looks like loading the CD-ROM needs a little more time. The
instruction to do something with K:\TW.EXE
(here: testing
for existence) comes too early. The solution is to copy
ISO.BAT
to ISOWAIT.BAT
and subsequently
modify the ISOWAIT.BAT
script in such a way that a
pause of say 2 seconds is added right after the CD is loaded. This
gives DAEMON Tools the necessary time. Here is a snippet illustrating
this. The change compared to ISO.BAT
is emphasised.
|
Now we are getting somewhere. This actually works, be it that it now
takes 7 seconds before a program is started compared to the original 5
seconds. However, this is good enough because not all
programs will be using ISOWAIT.BAT
.
Other CD-ROM-based programs such as Roberta's Reading Rally will still
be using the original version of ISO.BAT
without
this extra delay.
Yet another solution might have been to copy the TW.EXE
file to P:\TW\TW.EXE
like we did in the first
attempt. Then a shortcut pointing to P:\TW\TW.EXE
might
have worked too.
The installation report continues.
|
The program still needs to be tested as described in 4.1 Checking the installation. In this case nothing
was installed on the workstation; in the end we only installed an
.ICO
file on P:
and we invested quite some
effort in constructing a shortcut TW.pif
.
This example illustrates that there are many ways to get an
application working. Experimenting on the contaminated machine can
reveal new options. In the end this was an application that requires
the presence of the CD-ROM in K:
, a little like Roberta's
Reading Rally.
|
The .html
extension already revealed that this is web
based software, accessible with a web browser. This software is very
easy to install once the target location is chosen. The question is:
should the content be accessible world wide or only within school?
P:
drive, for example in the mmath
directory. The program can then be accessed by pointing a web
browser to P:\mmath\start.html
.
/home/httpd/htdocs/mmath
. If permissions and
ownership are set correctly, the files can then be accessed from
within the school or outside the school using the website. For the
Exemplum Primary School that would be something like
http://www.exemplum.serveratschool.net/mmath/start.html
.
A big advantage of installing this software on the webserver is that pupils can use the software from home, even if they do not have Windows-based computer at home; an Apple Mac with Safari or a Linux-machine with Mozilla or any other browser will work at least as good.
A disadvantage is that serving the software this way may violate the terms of the software license. Furthermore, it takes up bandwidth on the school's Internet connection. In this example the ICT coordinator decided that the software should only be available within school in order to reduce internet traffic.
The installation report continues.
|
Note that only the contents of the directory D:\Magical
Math
was copied to P:
. There were many more files
on the CD-ROM, such as a version of a particular plugin that might be
necessary or handy. In our case we do not need these files because our
browser already has all necessary plugins. No need to install files
that will never be used.
At this point we have a working shortcut called Magical
Math
. However, there is a problem with this shortcut:
the shortcut has the wrong icon, namely the Mozilla Firefox icon.
We want to use the special Magical Math-icon which we found on the
CD-ROM (in D:\Magical Math\MM.ICO
).
NOTICE:
The shortcut might be a so-called Internet Shortcut (what's
in name?) which is nothing more than a special file with extention
.URL
. Files with this extension are not considered part
of a user's roving profile; Windows only allows .LNK
and
.PIF
files to be used in these profiles. Therefore you
can not use these files. You have to create a file of type
.LNK
or .PIF
.
We fix the issue with the icon shortly. The installation report continues.
|
The shortcut has the MM icon. Now the program should be checked using the checklist in 4.1 Checking the installation below.
In the end this was an easy program to install. Because it basically
is a read-only program it was possible to install on P:
.
P:
, but the programmer made other
decisions and still installs on Q:
or C:
.
COPY Q:\MMMDATA\mmtmp.mdb Q:\MMMDATA\mmtmp-orig.mdb
COPY Q:\MMMDATA\HallOfFame.mdb Q:\MMMDATA\HalkOfFame-orig.mdb
Run the program by registering yourself and checking if your name
exists in mmtmp.mdb
and, when you have made no errors
in the exercise, check if your name appears in
HallOfFame.mdb
.
mmtmp-orig.mdb
and HallOfFame-orig.mdb
back to
mmtmp.mdb
and HallOfFame.mdb
.
This way you make sure the pupils will start with a clean database.
.PIF
file you created rather than the
.LNK
file that was installed in the menu automatically)
After checking all these points, install the program 'for real', on
the machine with the 'golden image'. Do not forget to update
C:\CONTENTS.TXT
with the at least the name of the
installed progam and a date/time stamp.
If you followed the advice to use two or three workstations during installation of educational software, most of the leftovers of the experiments will be on the test machine. The 'golden image' machine should still be a clean machine.
It may be handy to create a fresh 'milestone image' now. After that is done, you may want to restore that image onto the test machine and perhaps on the machine you used to keep notes. This way you have at least one other machine with the current image, ready for another batch of experiments and tests with educational software.
When you have installed all software packages, the Desktop of the
special 'scholar' user account will be filled with shortcuts as will
be the H:\My Documents\janitors\shortcuts
directory. The
Programs section in the Start menu will also contain a long list of
programs.
In chapter VIII. Managing user profiles the personal profiles for all users will be enabled. After that, in chapter IX. Shortcuts, desktops and start menus, we will assign each user and group their own shortcuts.
Authors: Peter Fokker <peter (at) berestijn.nl> and Dirk Schouten <schoutdi (at) knoware.nl> $Id: software.html,v 1.15 2006/03/31 08:16:19 peter Exp $