[2/2] experiences with refurbishing

[tlang@freeway.apana.org.au (Tony Langdon)]

 >>> Part 2 of 2...

 ke> I think what will happen now is that my friend will take some time to
 ke> get acquainted with Linux before he feels capable of training his
 ke> student.

Definitely, Product knowledge in the areas you're training is a must
(though you don't need to have the same in depth knowledge that those of
us who administer Linux boxes have).  In other words, a trainer would
have to "prep" on the course material and feel comfortable with it
themselves.  Those who are proficient in particular areas could teach
these to students without too much drama.

 ke> We did the work on his dining room table because his den was not
 ke> available.  It was very messy and time consuming. We need a
 ke> semi-permanent space for various reasons: 1. We need some core
 ke> facilities: power boards, a network maybe, some working machines as
 ke> servers maybe. 2. We need holding space to take up the slack between
 ke> what is donated and what is needed. 3. We need a skip to dump the
 ke> things we cannot use, e.g. faulty or simply unusable like old
 ke> terminals. 4. We need a space that can be documented so that helpers
 ke> can find their way around easily. I'll try to persuade him to make some
 ke> space in his den. He also said he might be able to find some space at
 ke> his workplace.

Space is a must, for storage, training and preparation.  A network would
be helpful for several reasons, especially if training takes place.
Having "pre-configured" system images on the server would save time in
cleaning up after that "Advanced Administration" course that trashed the
machines. :-)  Pop in a floppy, log in as root (and mount the server
over NFS) and do the good old mke2fs, untar routine and you're back in
business. :-)

Perhaps some of installation techniques I learnt in a similar
environment, combined with the Hard Disk Upgrade How-To and a little
hacking might be useful. :-) (also found a small DOS partition with
loadlin and a Linux kernel to be very useful on these sort of "volatile"
setups. :-) ).

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