Need to emulate linux on windows

[mrbios]

I need a small program to do as the title above says, it'll need to be able to do the following:

Terminal only - no GUI

Ability to install the tree package

Ability to create multiple users and groups - the studetns will be creating these, not me.

Create a text file and edit it

Create some basic shell scripts

 

On top of that anything students do needs to be saved so that they can close it down and return to it if need be. Only very basic things, nothing fancy at all, and there's no specific requirements in terms of what packages are needed beside downloading tree. I was hoping some a small linux emulator that could be run directly from a users home directory rather than anything that needs installing if such a thing exists.

 

Any recommendations?

 

Cygwin would have been perfect, but there doesn't appear to be any way of creating users with in it. It can only pull in users from the local machine, apart from that it can do everything else!

Edited November 7, 2014 by mrbios

[tmcd35]

Is this what you are after? https://www.cygwin.com/

[mrbios]

Is this what you are after? https://www.cygwin.com/

 

Ah see my edit

[tmcd35]

Damn you for editing while I'm trying to be helpful: Cooperative Linux

[Steve21]

err unless they changed it can't you just run net user from cygwin still?

 

net user Steve password /add /yes
net localgroup Steve /add
mkpassd -l -u Steve >> /etc/passwd 

 

Don't have it installed here to test it though.

 

*Edit - Or did you mean limited to inside cygwin rather than global?

 

Steve

Edited November 7, 2014 by Steve21

[mrbios]

err unless they changed it can't you just run net user from cygwin still?

 

net user Steve password /add /yes
net localgroup Steve /add
mkpassd -l -u Steve >> /etc/passwd 

 

Don't have it installed here to test it though.

 

*Edit - Or did you mean limited to inside cygwin rather than global?

 

Steve

 

You answered your question with your edit Yea it needs to be limited to within the emulator, as the students ideally need to be able to make groups and users, then assign users to those groups. They'll take screenshots along the way to show what they've done, that's about all they need really, so i don't want anything like a VM for this as it's too bulky when everything minus the users can be done in a nice little cygwin program bar the usrs

 

Damn you for editing while I'm trying to be helpful: Cooperative Linux

 

Will take a look at that one and see if it fits the bill

 

eDIT: doesn't work on 64bit windows ... all our PCs are 64bit

Edited November 7, 2014 by mrbios

[Arthur]

Any recommendations?

QEMU + small *nix distro?

[Norphy]

Does it absolutely have to be running on the Windows PC? Could you not set up a VM with some flavour of Linux on it, enable remote SSH access and stick putty on the Windows clients?

[mrbios]

QEMU + small *nix distro?

 

I tried that, had a few issues, had to remove the sound part from the dsl-base.bat file otherwise it crashed repeatedly on boot. It doesn't seem to wnat to pickup an IP though to get the tree package. Can i download tree manually and get them to install it from local? (also any way to make the dsl terminal only?)

[tmcd35]

Live boot CD?

[Arthur]

Can I download tree manually and get them to install it from local? (also any way to make the dsl terminal only?)

Not sure to be honest.

 

@Norphy's suggestion sounds a bit easier.

[themightymrp]

I recognise that to do list from the OP - we did ours using Raspberry Pi's and students supplied their own SD cards. I realise not everyone has that facility but we have a room just for them

 

Other than that all I can think of is a VM with a distro in

[mrbios]

I recognise that to do list from the OP - we did ours using Raspberry Pi's and students supplied their own SD cards. I realise not everyone has that facility but we have a room just for them

 

Other than that all I can think of is a VM with a distro in

 

Hmmm, i really want to avoid the VM option if i can, i quite like the sound of getting Pis....the computing department has a nice wad of money right now so that could be easily done...I might have a think about that, as it'd be niceto have a few of those about the place.

[themightymrp]

the computing department has a nice wad of money right now

 

Got any spare

[jinnantonnixx]

You could set up single Linux server and set permissions for the users using the sudoers files. Enough to work, but restrict their ability to wreck the system.

 

Examples here:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-edit-the-sudoers-file-on-ubuntu-and-centos

 

Or, set up a single virtual Linux server, make everyone a superuser and accept that you'll roll back the snapshot to restore to a clean server after they've done their thing (i.e. ruined it).

Edited November 7, 2014 by jinnantonnixx

[mrbios]

I think we've decided to go down the damn small linux on a pen drive route with the GUI removed. They need root access apparently for part of what they're doing, and there's not a huge amount of students who will be doing this at once, so we'll be opting for that + putting the tree package into the pen drive for them to install without an internet connection. It's the smallest and cleanest option from our point of view that allows them to tick all the boxes for what they need to do. A bit frustrating having 50 odd pen drives, but computing has money for that and each IT suite has a lockable cupboard to keep them in so it should work perfectly Edited November 7, 2014 by mrbios

[mikeyd101]

i'd make a linux server out of an old machine and have everyone ssh(putty) into it (you only have 1 linux to manage/keep in sync), then use pscp (windows scp) if you need to remote copy files to local. (possibly script to copy sync there home folder to there network folder.

[TheCrust]

I recognise that to do list from the OP...

 

Me too... Looks strangely like a spec I was handed a few weeks back with a "we've decided we'll be doing this later in the year - your problem now" sort of comment from the lead IT teacher.

 

I think the solution for us will involve some form of partitioned linux VM / VDI setup with the students accessing it via remote console. I can't quite see how the student will save screenshots proving they have done work to a secure area when all they will have with a locally-booted image is a console session - but then I'm not a massive linux user so I could be missing something really obvious.

 

From my perspective, at least with something like Putty they can screenshot it and insert the jpg into an evidence document or online answer sheet - and remaining in software they are prevented from having to furtle around the backs of PCs swapping cables over to use Pis or similar on demand. It's so easy to bend pins on connectors or damage ports when you're a ham-fisted student who doesn't care about the kit you're using...

[cpjitservices]

Virtualbox with a Minimal Linux install for Shell only.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

i'd make a linux server out of an old machine and have everyone ssh(putty) into it (you only have 1 linux to manage/keep in sync), then use pscp (windows scp) if you need to remote copy files to local. (possibly script to copy sync there home folder to there network folder.

 

Great idea this would work great... Use Putty for SSH shell access.

[john2k5]

I gave them ubuntu VM's and putty with an IP per student. I modified the sudoers file to restrict the students to only being able to run the needed commands for the assignment (sudo apt-get install tree and a few others) and no-one found a way to break out yet. All in all, it's been a success, our students loved the module. Snapshots are all restored ready for next year.

[Geoff]

coLinux might work too.

 

Cooperative Linux

[CyberNerd]

Koding: Web based linux virtual machines

 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/koding/fgbjpbdfegnodokpoejnbhnblcojccal

[deKay]

This any use to anyone?

 

How to set up a Linux lab with no Linux machines | deKay's Blog

[steveking]

Hi

 

Yes, it looks strangely like some coursework!

 

I'm a teacher (I was a techie before), and it's interesting to see how some teachers tell you what they want installing and let you worry about it! Our network manager wouldn't know where to start and he barely is aware that linux even exists.

 

Anyway, how we're doing it is I've set up a virtual machine (using openvz) for each pupil with pretty limited resources (I think I gave it 128 megs ram, 1 gig hd, that sort of thing) and made a template of a minimal debian install with the school's network stuff already sorted so that apt-get will work. Each vm has a static IP address, and if (when?) they break their vm it's about 10 seconds to restore it back to the original (and backups are taken in case a restore wasn't the right thing to do). I have a class of 28 doing this, and it seems to work fine running off an old quad core desktop with 8gb ram - ask me in October and I'll know if it actually is good enough! We will then get the students to do the tasks from windows using putty, and then they can easily screengrab into Word. The most annoying part of the task is going to be traceroute, which doesn't really work too well inside our school - I think I just about got it working by telling traceroute to use tcp packets instead of udp, but it's a really poor task given that it is to be run in schools.