Before the workshops start, approach your partner organisation for help with identifying workshops participants with special needs and/or mobility issues. If you have more than one facilitator, consider dedicating one to assisting these participants. Here is a photography form.

For the first workshop, the priority is on physically moving, taking apart and rebuilding the PCs, there is no need for power in this workshop for the participants.

Remember to keep one PC for the facilitators to work on, and a second to keep untouched to refer to during the rebuilding sections.

Print out photo permission forms and sign-on sheet (if required)

Arrange tables or benches - each participant will need about an arm's reach of space

Separate components into towers and monitors, with the keyboards, mice and cables boxes

Set-up 'the oracle', an extra computer to refer to

Set up CCC-Server and connect it to your projector

Make sure the projector appears in settings/display in the whisker menu, and is not mirrored

Open the CCC wiki in firefox and drag it onto the project display

This workshop is a blend of physical trouble shooting and software installations. As with Workshop 01 before the workshop starts run through the check-list. Things to look out for

Prepare the Xubuntu 14.04 installer USB - see below

Set-up power extension leads and power boards - each PC needs two power points

Set-up your projector and plug the 'oracle' or another known working pc into it

Gaff tape down any leads across doorways or walkways

Prepare to set up CCC LAN (end of workshop)

Before the workshop starts we need create the Xubuntu USB installers. You will need as many USB sticks as you have participants and a couple spare. The USB sticks should be at least 4gig in size.

First up lets grab the latest Xubuntu 14.0464bit image from our Australian mirror at aarnet.edu.au

We'll use gnome-disk-utility to write the Xubuntu Installer to our USB sticks. Install it with

sudo apt-get install gnome-disks

Launch it from the whisker menu.

Launch gnome-disk-utility

Insert your USB and select it in disk-utility.

Select USB

Select restore disk image form the top right.

Restore disk image

Now select the image you want to restore.

Select image

You'll most likely find it in your downloads folder.

Select Xubuntu

You will be warned here if your USB stick is too small - in this case we've got plenty of room. Click start restore.

Select Xubuntu

You will be asked if sure you want to continue.

Select Xubuntu

Enter your admin password.

Select Xubuntu

And after about 5 minutes you should be done.

Select Xubuntu

You can make multiple USB images with a USB hub like this. follow the same procedure, but double check you are restoring to the right device!

Setting up the LAN is a great way of involving participants in trouble-shooting as there will probably be some shuffling around needed and cables plugged and re-plugged. For a smaller workshop without the CCC-wifi your network will look like this;

If you want to use CCC-wifi then try this;

If you have a workshop with more than 15 CCC-PCs, or a large room to cover, you can use the CCC-wifi as a second switch to extend the network

Here are some general instructions.

but be prepared for a bit of cabling chaos - warn your participants to watch their step until the cables are all taped down.

Find best place for ethernet router - ideally equal distance from most participants - connect it to power

Connect the CCC-server to the ethernet router

Connect each CCC-PC to the switch, it doesn't matter which port you use

If using the CCC-wifi - connect to its WAN port wifi networks is 'ccc'

Check physical connectivity - you should see the green 'connect' LED lit on the switch for every plugged in cable

Check network connectivity - check in the network information menu that each CCC-PC is connected to an ethernet network

Tidy up and tape down cables

Prepare for Workshop 04 and 05

  • ttt/preparation_04
  • by Andrei Maberley