ControlAula can be built and installed from source code in the traditional Unix way:
./configure
make
make install
or if you are a lucky Debian (and derivatives) user, just install the controlaula package.
To compile ControlAula, the following applications are needed:
- ANSI C compiler
- Gambas2 version
1.9.50, or any later version. These gamba components are also needed:
gb.form, gb.crypt,
gb.net.curl, gb.settings and gb.gui (version 1.9.90 or later for the
executable to work for Qt & gtk, if compiled with version 1.9.50
gb.gtk is needed)
To use ControlAula, these applicationss are also needed:
mini-httpd,
vlc,
x11vnc, xvncviewer,
gobby,
zenity or kdialog, wakeonlan,
avahi-utils,
sendfile,
bittornado,
curl and gksu or kdesu
After installing ControlAula and the necessary applications, you can begin
to use it pretty fast, as it's explained in the next section.
Quick Start:
Following the Extremadura schools naming criteria
Installing ControlAula in a classroom with these conditions:
- Classroom names follow this format: classroom_name-o01,
classroom_name-o02, ... for the students PC, and classroom_name-pro for
the teacher's computer. "Classroom_name" can be any combination of letters and
numbers (it must begin with a letter). Valid examples are:
classroom1-o01, library-o03, lab1-014, etc.
- Teachers must belong to a Unix group called teacher.
The application will work out of the box. For aesthetic reasons,
starting the application as a teacher on a teacher's PC is recommended,
in order to use the "Classroom setup" to get a visual distribution of the
the PCs that best fits the real classroom distribution.
General use
If the previous section's criteria are not met,
the application must be setup before starting to work. These are the
necessary steps:
- On the teacher's PC, create a new Unix group called teacher, and include all the teachers' logins in that group.
- Start the application as a teacher, click on the Setup button and
fill in -- at least -- the values for: Classroom Name & Teacher IP.
The rest of the options are not mandatory, if you want to have a
more detailed description take a look a the documentation for sysadmins.
- The previous step will have generated a file called /etc/sirvecole on the teacher's computer. This file must be copied to /etc on every computer in the classroom.
- Continuing to use the application as a teacher, click on the "Classroom
setup" button and create a setup. Then double click on the buttons for
the PCs that are going to be used, and assign them names. The name
must be the computer's Unix hostname, without its domain name (if any).
- Keeping the teacher's computer powered on with the application started, restart each student's PC once.
After these steps are followed, the application is ready for use on all the classroom desktops.
