[Bio-linux-dev] USB-stick checksum failures

[Tony Travis]

On 09/03/15 12:07, Tim Booth wrote:
> [...]
> So I guess the bug here is that the md5sums file isn't being updated.  I
> could probably submit this as a simple bug report/patch to Ubuntu.  On
> the other hand, I might well look into disabling this feature on the
> Bio-Linux sticks, because it seems to me that even if the md5sums file
> is fixed it's liable to cause more problems than it fixes modifying
> these files.  What do you think?

Hi, Tim.

I agree about disabling this feature, because I think the /cdrom
filesystem on the 'live' USB-stick should be read-only. I think you
might be right that some of the problems we had at the workshop in
Jorhat were because of changes to the initramfs. At the time, some
people thought it might be dodgy Minke Informatics USB-sticks :-)

In fact, I bought the sticks from a reputable supplier:

  http://www.bespokeusb.com/

However, the sticks were physically vulnerable in a crowded classroom
and some got bent or were simply knocked out by people walking by. We
didn't have desks, we just had 'tablet-arm' chairs instead - not good!

I did ask the participants to install "gdebi" and use it to install
RStudio, but I expected all the changes to occur in /casper-rw. We were
giving them experience of downloading and installing the software, then
using it to learn about programming in R...

Got good feedback from the AAU B4GD workshop despite these problems!

Bye,

  Tony.

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