Ubuntu Draft: Available on Tap February 21, 2007
Posted by Carthik in ubuntu.trackback
I don’t know how this has managed to evade my attention for all of 9 months – clearly, I am slacking. 🙂
Imagine having a network port you could plug into to install Ubuntu! Well, its not so hard, apparently to serve Ubuntu on tap!
The Ubuntu Port is a neat little idea. It was installed by the combined efforts of David Basden, Matt Johnston, Davyd Madeley, James French (who broke the network, twice), one power drill, a multimeter named Albert and the Klone Krone. Davyd’s gallery has some photos.
To install Ubuntu, all you have to do is plug in to the tap, reboot, choosing to boot from network, listen to the Ubuntu theme song, and press Enter as Ubuntu gets installed. Installing from a CD might be simpler, but it sure ain’t as sexy/geeky.
Heck, this is a must-have for every install fest, and university tech support office!
Ubuntu Blog 
They had one of these at linux.conf.au. I didn’t have any reason to use it, though. 😉
I would really like to be able to find the code that those guys used to do that. It would be really handy in a corporate/educational/OEM deployment sort of environment.
Jeremy, TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) is pretty much all you need for the magic to happen: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/Netboot or https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/QuickNetboot
It needs a better sign.
Yeah, Robert Collins set one up for LCA. http://geekosophical.net/random/ubuntuontap.pdf is the sign we used. If you’re not providing the kubuntu option, use http://geekosophical.net/random/ubuntuontap.svg to remove the kubuntu bits.
A friend of mine told me this story:
At the university they had setup a network to automatically install linux machines, I guess for setting up the computer pool.
They had a visitor, who happened to come around lunch. He plugged his laptop in, and went to lunch with them.
When they returned, he was not amused: he now had Linux on his laptop… apparently he had set his laptop to boot from network if available, and didn’t pay attention when plugging in his laptop… 🙂
So make sure you have a broadly visible switch for that, with a few laptops already plugged in (just don’t set them to boot off the network, or make your installer smart enough to not overwrite existing Linux installations). Some random visitors will plugin their laptop and some will “accidentially” get a new operating system. 🙂
All you’re missing now is the ‘Ubuntu’ beer tap handle right above it. Awesome idea.. I like it!
That is great! You need a beer tap right next to it though so you have something to enjoy in combination to the sexy theme song.
Awesome idea, but the wiring on that krone jack is shocking, really really shocking :P.
This alone is why we need more people familiar with data cabling in F/OSS :D.
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Aegir –
For the UCC, that’s top-notch cabling, by which I mean the closest the power drill came to a 240V line was more than 5mm.
We’re currently looking for donations to a new defibrillator, though.
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That is the coolest thing I have ever seen. What would be better though, is if the cable actually came out of a sink, or, as stated above, a beer tap.
Also, of course, you would need a handle or knob to turn it on 😀
[…] Ubuntu blog […]
loooool u need make it with red color
very interesting…thank you
I would really like to be able to find the code that those guys used to do that. It would be really handy in a corporate/educational/OEM deployment sort of environment.
That is great! You need a beer tap right next to it though so you have something to enjoy in combination to the sexy theme song.
They had a visitor, who happened to come around lunch. He plugged his laptop in, and went to lunch with them.
That is great! You need a beer tap right next to it though so you have something to enjoy in combination to the sexy theme song.
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