Full Circle Magazine FR

Linux has always had a reputation of being a good way to reuse old computers. In fact this is how free software slipped into The Working Centre’s Computer Recycling Project. The project began in the late 1990’s as a way for those out of work to get access to a computer to create resumés. Around mid 2001, one of the project volunteers started putting together a Linux distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux called the Working Centre Linux Project (WCLP). WCLP was a desktop distribution designed to run on a 486SX/25 with 16MB of RAM and a 400MB hard drive. WCLP was the start of free software use in the project. Around mid 2005, the volunteers developing WCLP abandoned the project. Other refurbishing-oriented distributions, like RULE (Run Up-to- date Linux Everywhere), were becoming pretty popular, and Ubuntu Linux was on the horizon. It was also around this time the project implemented a SAMBA file server used in conjunction with cloning software. The SAMBA server worked so well that other parts of The Working Centre – besides the Computer Recycling Project – started storing data there. The original SAMBA file server has gone through several upgrades over the years (from hard drive to motherboard), but still uses a modified version of smb.conf that we started with.

One of the great salvations for the project has been the fact that we’ve been able to take a hard drive running Linux out of one system and stick it in a completely new system with relatively few problems (not something you can do with proprietary OS’s because of the whole licensing issues, not to mention driver issues). We had a major hardware failure in one of our systems (we hadn’t looked close enough at the motherboard), and were able to use the hard drive in a computer with a motherboard from the same manufacturer but with a different model number. That system was running a desktop Linux distribution and we were able to restore it on the new motherboard without too much trouble. Late 2005, I started working closer with the project to take it from a once-a-week drop-in project to a 5-day-a-week operation (we’ve since scaled back to 4 days a week to allow for other work to take place in the space). One of the projects I’d been working on while volunteering was a PHP/MySQL parts database. The database was hacked together using a script I’d found. That project was the start of what became a custom PHP/MySQL Point-Of-Sale (POS), based on an existing open source project: OSCommerce. A few months after I started, we had the opportunity to switch spaces into a much more spacious building. During the downtime, we took the opportunity to better lay out the POS. One of our on-staff IT developed the interface, while a programmer we hired for a short period worked on coding the POS.

We actually considered Microsoft Dynamics before hiring anyone for the project, but, at the time, it wasn’t available in Canada, and, even if it was available, we weren’t convinced that it would have given us the flexibility we needed. The decision to hire a programmer and develop the POS ourselves turned out to be a wise decision. The programmer we hired completed the project early, so early that we didn’t really get a chance to completely debug the application. But since we had access to the source code, and we had someone on staff who was better with PHP than me, we could debug the application without begging a third-party company to make changes. It also meant that even I, with my limited PHP/MySQL knowledge, could make minor changes to the code (which I’ve done over the years). For the past several years we’ve had a volunteer come in once a week and maintain the code for us. The volunteer has been cleaning up the code, making a few changes to the interface, and separating the code from the OSCommerce back end, so we can release the project as a completely independent FLOSS POS.

As the project grew, we moved a lot of documentation to an Intranet I set up on a system using the Drupal CMS (Content Management System). The system holds a lot of forms and paperwork that volunteers need, as well as information about The Working Centre, the Computer Recycling Project, environmental regulations, safety processes, and processes for building, testing and repairing systems. One of our staff has since added a PXE network boot server on the same machine – to allow us to deploy a variety of Linux distributions. We also keep everyday tools on the PXE server including Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN), memtest86+, HDT (Hardware Detection Tool), and Live Linux environments. Before the PXE boot server, volunteers were always asking me to burn a DBAN/memtest86/other tool CD. Now, volunteers either set up the computer to network boot in the BIOS, or use an Etherboot gPXE CD for systems that don’t support network booting in the BIOS. At the core of the Computer Recycling Project is a table with 8 workstations (7 running Xubuntu, 1 running Ubuntu). Each workstation is on a Keyboard Video Mouse (KVM) switch to allow volunteers to work on repairs or builds on the top, and search for information using the workstation below the table. On another table, we have a special system; a tower system with a couple of IDE and SATA controller cards in addition to the IDE and SATA ports on the motherboard. This system is used for DBAN-ing hard drives (we hate to say wiping hard drives because technically DBAN overwrites data on the drives). DBAN resides on our PXE server, so normally all volunteers have to do is hook up the hard drives, then turn on the DBAN machine. We jumper all IDE drives to cable-select – to make the process simpler for volunteers without a lot of computer building experience.

On the back wall behind the workstation table are 5 monitors and 4 KVM switches. The four monitors with KVM switches all have 4-port KVM switches, so up to 16 computers can be set up on the back wall. Normally, this counter is used only for things that take a bit more time: running memtest86+ on a system for example. The 5th monitor is connected to a small- form-factor computer running XBMCbuntu (a Linux+XBMC distribution) that replaced an aging stereo with a failing CD tray. In another area of Computer Recycling lies one of the more interesting work areas where 3 motherboards are mounted on the wall. These motherboards are used to test different types of RAM (currently we’re only testing DDR and DDR2 since we rarely see any older SDRAM or newer DDR3- based systems). These systems all boot off a multi-tool USB key created using Yumi multiboot USB creator. We’ve also started using Phoronix Test Suite to more accurately gather information about video card RAM at this work area. Phoronix Test Suite has a system-info switch to show information about a system, including Video RAM (VRAM) information. The project gets a lot of systems with video cards that don’t have VRAM information anywhere on the cards.

Without question, Free Libre Open Source Software has helped the project, and every year our organization budgets a small amount of money to give back to a few open source projects. Being able to look at the code has helped the project adapt to changes over the years. When (in Canada) Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Provincial Sales Tax (PST) became a single Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), I was able to make the changes necessary to keep information on our POS about previous sales and deal with the new tax setup. One of our volunteers has updated the POS several times so we can show different reports we need to see. LOSS has saved us the cost of upgrading software licenses every few years. One of the side effects of having Linux on the computers used by volunteers is the change in attitude of many of the volunteers from indifference towards FLOSS to one of appreciation. Volunteers see just how easy Linux installs on many of the systems we work with. When a volunteer does get stuck, it’s usually because of a hardware fault in the equipment they’re working with. Many volunteers have come in knowing nothing about Linux, and they now support people who arrive with Linux- related questions, or help recommend Libre software on other platforms. And it’s because of FLOSS and the work of volunteers that we’re able to help a lot of people without good access to technology.

RESOURCES : The Working Centre’s Computer Recycling Project - http://www.theworkingcentre.org/computer-recycling/178 WCLP (uses a very old kernel, out of date) - http://wclp.sourceforge.net/ RULE (tribute site) - http://rule.zona-m.net/ SAMBA - http://www.samba.org/ Memtest86+ - http://www.memtest.org/ Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) - http://www.dban.org/ HDT - http://www.hdt-project.org/ Etherboot/gPXE - etherboot.org/wiki/index.php XBMC - http://www.xbmc.org/ Yumi multiboot USB creator - http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yu mi-multiboot-usb-creator/