JaSauders

Hi all. Scratching my head here with this one and still striking out... curious if anybody may have any thoughts. We're using Intune, Windows 11 23H2, user driven setups. In a small-ish sample of our student device population, I'm finding that about 10% of our students cannot see all apps in Company Portal as available to install. Specifically, the dividing line seems to be whether the apps are user-behavior install or system-behavior install. To clarify, 100% of our devices can see system-behavior apps, but only 90% can seemingly see user-behavior apps. What's weird is I can't find a difference as I compare a problematic account/device to a working account/device, namely because: - Licenses match - Devices are updated and recently rebooted - Both user accounts are in the exact same group, where that group is what's assigned to the app as available - Both devices are compliant - Both devices are identical (make, model, OS, OS version) Unfortunately there are some MS Store UWP apps I want to make available to Company Portal for students to install on their own, but with a decent portion of our fleet just simply not seeing these apps, it makes it difficult to lean on as a trustworthy app delivery device. What's even more troubling is if I check a problematic device on Intune, it'll say under Managed Apps that an app is available to install (suggesting it's fine) yet on the actual device if I open Company Portal, it's 100% not there... it's as if Intune is straight up lying to me and I have no idea why... Anybody see this before? Really struggling with finding a fault here.

Hi friends. My understanding is that Promethean has discontinued the ActivSlate; something heavily utilized in our district. With spare supplies running out I'm looking for an alternative route going forward. I'm curious if anybody has a similar-to-activslate recommendation. Couple thoughts on the radar to share: 1) I really, really don't fancy the idea of using an actual tablet (Android/iPad), as the penalty for an accidental drop is significantly higher. 2) I'm hopeful that I can find something sustainable. In my search a huge portion of what I'm finding appear to be, do I dare say, knockoffs. The majority of these options don't scream "this company will be here in 3 years", much less a few months. 3) Needs to be wireless and needs to be able to hit the back of a standard sized classroom. 4) Currently surveying the Wacom Intuos tablet, but having some issues with range. Likewise, the sensitivity with interacting with the device isn't quite on par with what we had with the ActivSlates. More testing needed, but so far, it's not feeling like a direct replacement option. The problem is searching for specific devices in this category really blurs the results, as countless other items find their way into my search results that have absolutely nothing to do with what I'm after. Figured I'd ask here to see if anybody is utilizing anything with any degree of success. Would absolutely appreciate any and all insight! Thanks!

I struggled with it a bit. If we go the EOG route, we're limited with basically no transitions, but can control the delay, and it's crazy simple to set up and maintain all the way around. With the SMB link, users with access can drop in images, maintain it the way they want, manage it when they want, etc etc. I had difficulty finding a downside to this, outside of being unable to dress it up with flashy animations and transitions (which really isn't a priority). I mean, we want it to look good, and we can make it look decent via the content/styling on the slides (and IT laying a base-layer with some logo'd images users can work from would help), it just wouldn't be flashy flashy. It being a project that isn't 100% maintained by IT, controlled by IT, and updated by IT is a higher priority. We could lump these things into puppet for automated management, even. I'm trying to pry myself away from this idea in an effort to be open minded, but unless there's a slam dunk crazy awesome amazing "this is exactly what you need, trust me" solution out there that takes EOG's capabilities and builds onto them, yet maintains its simplicity, I may find myself suggesting this to the others and see how it sticks.

Hello friends. I am looking around to see what kind of digital signage solutions there are. We have several RPi's and would like to utilize them for such a task. I've never done digital signage before, so I'm trying to read as much as possible in an effort to see what's involved. I looked into Xibo, which seems to be a popular one based on search results on this forum. Xibo seems to fit the bill well given it's open source and can be installed on Linux. I should mention that we are almost certainly looking into an open source/Linux based solution, as nearly our entire district is running open source software -- even client systems. The thing with Xibo that I wasn't sure about is it appeared as if the Xibo client software for Linux kind of died off. I saw discussion suggesting an alternative route was being considered, but nothing seems to have materialized yet. Likewise, it seemed like the latest Xibo still requires php5, requiring that I downgrade php via a PPA on a 16.04 server that I tested it with. That's... fine I suppose. I could also run with 14.04 as that's supported, but it kind of raised an eyebrow. On a hunch I thought I'd look at a possibly simpler, "out of the box" idea. I came across two, though I question how far these ideas would go in practice. One would utilize VLC, which would auto launch VLC full screened upon starting up the system. So you figure, Linux box, auto login, automatic script to launch VLC playing a predefined video (call it /home/user/Videos/Live.mp4). This, of course, would require that a video be created, but things like Movie Maker, kdenlive, etc could fill that void. The Videos folder could be shared out via Samba, allowing users with access (IT, principals, etc perhaps) to make the content and drop it in the directory. Downside is VLC wigs out if it's not killed first before switching it. So if I rename Live.mp4 to Old-Live.mp4, VLC will go nuts and spam errors, though if you kill VLC, rename the video over SMB to whatever name is being called (i.e. Live.mp4), and kick off the script again backgrounded, it works great. This command idea is something like: vlc --no-video-title --loop --fullscreen /home/user/Videos/Live.mp4 The other was perhaps a simple slideshow. Using EOG (eye of gnome), I can easily kick off an automatic 1 liner bash script (eog --slide-show /home/user/Slideshow/Live) upon auto-login that launches this slideshow. Figure that /home/user/Slideshow is shared out via SMB, with a folder inside called Live. Whatever images are in the Live folder = what would get played. Upside is, there's no killing anything. It just works. I can swap out whatever I want at any point, it'll just carry on through the next loop. The delay can be controlled globally by a dconf key (5 sec default, could be set to whatever). This approach would allow IT, principals, etc to kind of "manage" the individual files within /home/user/Slideshow (Slideshow being SMB'd out), and know whatever they drop in "Live" is... well... live. Downside: Someone has to create the JPGs that would go into this, though between the capabilities of MS Office, LibreOffice, and of course, Gimp, this would be possible. On the upside, folks could get playful with the designs, and IT could even provide some base frames to work from with the school logo, etc, already on it -- just need to add text over top. For the most part, the folks in question outside of IT who I have in mind to maintain the content are capable of managing things like JPG creation. Video creation might be a little more hit and miss, though I suspect (famous last words?) this would be a teachable thing without too much training. The goal is to have something Linux based, light, and reliable. I've read some conflicting reports about certain digital signage solutions that the stream died off for xyz reason, etc. Likewise, for it to be something that folks maintaining their own buildings can manage (i.e. more hands-off from IT, let principals do their thing on their time without having to wait for a tech), would be absolutely great. While elaborate, sophisticated transitions would be nice, at the end of the day we just need something that won't require a ton of focus, maintenance, etc. Like everybody else reading, there's other priorities on the radar, and adding one more thing would be nice to -- well -- kind of avoid. In short, that's where my thoughts lead me. I'm not married to any particular solution. Just trying to dig up some info so I can shove a bunch of ideas on a table and hash out the good/bad/ugly. I wanted to relay my thoughts here to see what others thought. Bad idea? Plausible? Is Xibo more do-able with our platform choice than what I gathered from my reading? Is there a Xibo alternative worth looking into that fits the set-it-and-pretty-much-forget-it paradigm? Open to all ideas. Thanks for any and all suggestions.

It appears as if my issue was related to ia32-libs, which allows 32 bit packages to work with 64 bit systems. I understand that ia32-libs was removed from Ubuntu 13.10. Some blog comments around have suggested this is due to 13.10 coming with better multiarch support. Thing is, the packages have to be built with this in mind. Since Mimio 11.11 was seemingly packaged for ia32-libs, I ran into this brick wall. Again, just pieces of comments stitched together in this synopsis, but it kind of makes sense. For kicks I spun up Ubuntu 13.10 32 bit in a virtual machine. Mimio 11.1 worked fine. This solidified that it was definitely a 32 bit vs 64 bit issue (32 bit package, 64 bit OS). Mimio says they support 64 bit Linux distributions, so this shouldn't be an issue. Ultimately I found a suggestion to install the following: sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libgcc1:i386 gcc-4.6-base:i386 libstdc++5:i386 libstdc++6:i386 Which is, as I understand it, the missing packages that are needed to make 32 bit packages work under a 64 bit OS without the regular ia32-libs package that we've seen in prior releases. Mimio eventually will error out with missing dependencies, but a sudo apt-get install -f should fix that. Once done, Mimio will be installed, but it won't launch until you change the ownership of /home/youruser/.mimio to youruser:youruser, since by default it's root:root. So in short... 1) sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libgcc1:i386 gcc-4.6-base:i386 libstdc++5:i386 libstdc++6:i386 2) sudo apt-get install -f 3) sudo chown -R youruser:youruser /home/youruser/.mimio Attn: Mimio Developers. Please, PLEASE, I cannot stress this enough, please fix these issues. I mean, at the very least, document these things. I've seen absolutely zero documentation on this issue and only came across these steps through reading and troubleshooting. This isn't acceptable. Fixing these issues would really help out a lot of your userbase and save a massive amount of frustration.

So... this isn't entirely solved it seems. I tried to install other software unrelated to Mimio but I hit a brick wall when I had to dpkg --configure -a. Thing is, each time I do that, it hangs indefinitely. With the assistance of another veteran Ubuntu user, we came to the conclusion that the mimio-studio.postinst script was problematic. It was located in /var/lib/dpkg/info I believe. I removed it and ran through the process, which ultimately purged Mimio altogether. This was fine, as Mimio, so far, has been nothing but problems on Linux. For kicks I tried to install the .deb again through Software Center (last time I just did a dpkg -i in terminal), but it would just hang. For more kicks, I spun up a brand new 12.04 LTS VM, but that too was problematic. The veteran user I mentioned above took a look at some of my logs and said immediately that this package was terribly designed, and said bluntly that the developers should be fired. This, of course, is a bit of a concern given our huge Ubuntu deployment we have at work. Granted, currently our Ubuntu deployment is across the vast majority of our student systems and the teachers are not using Ubuntu at the moment (which is where the Mimio software is utilized) but what irks me is Mimio's claim that they support it when it is clearly problematic. That, coupled along with the unknown future (maybe teachers will be on Ubuntu for our next deployment? Who knows), it leaves me a bit concerned. I opened a support request with them but haven't heard back yet. So with that said, I'm curious as to what sort of experiences, issues, troubleshooting, workarounds, and maybe even success stories you guys have had with Mimio on Linux. Anybody?

Nevermind. For some reason the hidden mimio directlry (/home/me/.mimio) was owned by root:root. I changed it to me:me and it works fine. Kind of frustrated I didn't find it sooner, but most importantly, I'm kind of frustrated I didn't see it documented... anywhere... not to mention this isn't really a common problem (at least in my experience) where things written to the home directory are owned by root. I only came across it when I was in bed on my tablet trying to stay awake long enough to Google around more when a user on some random blog post commented about it from an older version of Mimio. On a hunch, I drug my sorry rear end out of bed, ls -l, oh hey... chown'd it up and bingo bango.

Hello friends. I am trying to get the latest Mimio (11.11) working on my Ubuntu 13.10 system. I downloaded the .deb and installed it through software center. I noticed it says i386 at the end and I am on a 64 bit install. I did not see any notations or FYI's about using 32 or 64 bit on their download page so I figured it was okay. It installed without error. Thing is, I can't seem to open it. If I locate Mimio Notebook and launch it, nothing happens. No errors mind you, but simply nothing visibly takes place. If I go into System Monitor, I see a Mimio instance there as if it's running in the background. Yet... I got nothing. Is there a trick to getting Mimio to work without fuss? EDIT: Here's the output... jason@JS-E430:~/Software$ sudo dpkg -i mimio-studio_11.11-0en_i386.deb Selecting previously unselected package mimio-studio. (Reading database ... 261236 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking mimio-studio (from mimio-studio_11.11-0en_i386.deb) ... Setting up mimio-studio (11.11-0en) ... Could not parse file "/usr/share/applications/mimio-collaborate.desktop": Key file contains line '?[Desktop Entry]' which is not a key-value pair, group, or comment update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated) MDKLoadLibrary('/var/opt/mimio/system/aps_componentmanager1.so') failed: libudev.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory MDKLoadLibrary('/var/opt/mimio/system/dev_hid1.so') failed: libudev.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory MDKLoadLibrary('/var/opt/mimio/system/aps_componentmanager1.so') failed: libudev.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory MDKLoadLibrary('/var/opt/mimio/system/aps_projector1.so') failed: libudev.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory MDKLoadLibrary('/var/opt/mimio/system/aps_view1.so') failed: libudev.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory MDKLoadLibrary('/var/opt/mimio/system/dev_hid1.so') failed: libudev.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory MDKLoadLibrary('/var/opt/mimio/system/aps_componentmanager1.so') failed: libudev.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory MDKLoadLibrary('/var/opt/mimio/system/aps_projector1.so') failed: libudev.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory MDKLoadLibrary('/var/opt/mimio/system/aps_view1.so') failed: libudev.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Processing triggers for shared-mime-info ... Unknown media type in type 'all/all' Unknown media type in type 'all/allfiles' Unknown media type in type 'uri/mms' Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmst' Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmsu' Unknown media type in type 'uri/pnm' Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspt' Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspu' Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ... Processing triggers for gnome-menus ... Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ... Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index... Processing triggers for mime-support ... Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ... update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.11.0-17-generic jason@JS-E430:~/Software$

Since I replied last to this thread, we have introduced nearly 2,000 more Ubuntu laptops to our network, bringing the total number to about 4,000, which very easily constitutes the vast majority of our infrastructure. I've also stopped tinkering with elementary OS as some of its 'design limitations' felt a bit hindersome to me. My wife and mother still use elementary OS and love it, but I've decided to give Ubuntu another clean and clear shot with 13.10, and so far I've found myself thoroughly enjoying it. Once I got in the groove with how Unity works, it really showed me how nice of an interface it is and how efficient you can get things done. Granted, this is just my perspective though, everybody's mileage varies. For me, Linux has always been the key component that ties everything I do together. The particular distro and desktop environment is often up for question, but so far, Ubuntu and Ubuntu based derivatives have always been a top choice. I'm pretty okay with that.

We're facing a growing issue where VHS players are dying and they are not being purchased anymore. Some of the content on these VHS tapes are still valuable, hence why they are still used, but the lack of plentiful VHS players to show the content has been a concern. I began to wonder if we could just rip the VHS's and burn them to DVDs, but I'm unsure of the legalities behind this. I thought I remember reading about some copyright law that allows users to rip/burn/do whatever they want with their media as long as they use it in the same demeanor as the original media intended. In other words, if I have a DVD, I can legally rip that DVD and store it on my personal server. I mean, it's still mine, and I'm still using it in the same way that I did before when I had the DVD. I'm not sure where I read this or even if it's entirely accurate, but it's a vague memory in my mind that is sticking out, so I figured I'd ask. Ultimately I have a feeling the licensing will matter with each individual company who published this media, which would mean having to track down every one of these organizations to ask them this very question. Eh.

Yeah - in this day and age, working on Windows feels like a chore, whereas working on Linux feels like I'm getting crap done so I can close another project, get home, and do my thing with the family. That's not to glorify Linux into some sort of non-problematic beast and to make Windows sound like it's entirely filled with problems, I mean Linux has had its issues too, but based on personal experience of having to manage a few thousand machines on each platform, Windows absolutely takes the cake for requiring more of my time and continually pushes my level of patience. I cannot stress that enough. For the last week I've been using elementary OS, which is an Ubuntu 12.04 (LTS) based distro. So far I really dig it. The degree of minimalism (yet enough features to let me do my job) is huge to me. Regardless of the distro, I love being able to fire up a LiveUSB instance and installing it, 99% of the time without having to worry about drivers (just the occasional wireless driver for those awful Broadcom chips). No licenses to worry about. No bloatware to unload. Just paste my long saved apt-get install command and presto, 10 minutes later I have 30 additional applications installed. At the end of the day, the best operating system is the one that does the job best for your needs. Use what works best for you --- I do.

This looks fantastic. I will look into it asap. THANK YOU!

Hello friends. A question came up today and I'm not too sure what out there exists for this. Reason like this make me wish there was a tech oriented Pinterest (or maybe there's a sub category on Pinterest for tech?). Ha, anyway, so the idea is this. I'm looking for the ability to be on a tablet (within wifi range) or laptop with a web frontend that can control the text input being displayed on a screen inside the building. Think of this use case scenario... I am standing outside. I have a device in my hand on the wifi with the web interface pulled up and logged in. Little Johnny's mom is here. I hit a button and it displays on the flatscreen TV mounted on the wall inside that Johnny Ramone is dismissed. I've heard of projects being done where people put Raspberry Pi's on the back of TVs and feed them the signal via HDMI, and then over the network these Raspberry Pi's are controlled by a centralized mini server of some sort. I just have *no* idea what that software is and am having a hard time with my blind fire Google searches. Figured I'd ask here in case anybody was like "aw yeah totally I just did this with A+++ results."

I've bounced between every Linux distro known to man (or at least the top 20 most common distros you've heard of at least), along with a ton of desktop environments. I have been using Cinnamon and Gnome 3 lately depending on my mood and I enjoy them quite a lot. I do find some 'meh' factors of each one though, but I try to remind myself I'm a spoiled Linux user with endless choice. If I was on Mac or Windows, I wouldn't have any of that choice period. Lately I've been spending most of my time on elementary OS, which is Ubuntu based (big bonus for me) and easy to use yet can do all of the complex tasks I need to at work. It helps that my place of work (public school district) has been migrated from a largely Apple-centric district to a Linux-oriented district with a handful of Windows 8 systems in the mix. I really enjoy my job, because I get to use iOS/Android/Chromebooks/OSX/Win7/Win8/Linux all in one environment. I can tell you one thing too... there are times on Linux where I admittedly get frustrated, and because prior to this job I spent literally all of my time on Linux, I couldn't help but to think "maybe I should just get a Mac, or get Windows, and be done with it". As time passes and as I use OSX, Windows, and Linux more and more, I can assure you one thing: No operating system is perfect, and today's Linux environments aren't as problematic (in comparison to other platforms) as some people (still) make them out to be. If it's a piece of software, it's going to have its quirks and problems.

Blunt 2c: I really couldn't care less what looks too much like Apple and what looks too much like Windows. I need an operating system that gets in my way when I need it to, out of my way when I need it to, to be simple to use yet advanced when I need to complete a task that matters. In all of the distros I've used, Elementary OS has delivered all of those parameters to the fullest. I still use other distros, and have a ton of interest still vested in Gnome 3, Cinnamon, Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Fedora, etc., but eOS has been a nice experience for me, whether at home or at work. I do have to say, I used to be a firm believer in using a distro that is best tailored to the user's needs and abilities, and I still find that to be somewhat true, but I have found this "crazy simple to use" yet "does all of the advanced tasks I need it to" cocktail to be one I really enjoy. I love being able to use the same distro for my job that I would recommend to, literally, any family member of any experience level.