Mkahawa internet cafe manager

[melodie]

Hi,
I have been interested in programs meant for small business since some time, and these days I got interested in Mkahawa because it is the only one which is not overly old and could be of some use in the world of Free software. Fancy, in Google, typing "internet cafe under linux" brings back 6 200 000 entries. It does not mean all entries would be related to people having an internet cafe to manage, but it still means there is some interest around the topic in many places in the world.

After several trials, and with the help of people on IRC, I have finally compiled from svn sources and succeeded in starting the program in an Ubuntu 12.04 vbox machine.

Here is the feedback I have provided so far:
https://sourceforge.net/p/mkahawa/discussion/955736/thread/c69fe267

There are still things to improve, however for a Free software for this use, this is still a very advanced tool. There are some pics here:
http://www.mkahawa.net/screenshots.php

I have a problem with the desktop file, which has not been provided in the sources, and is available only in the deb packages which don't work fine.

I would like to ask your help tweaking it to make it work the right way.

This is the original mkahawa-srv.desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=0.0.5
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Icon[en_ZA]=gnome-ccbackground
Name[en_ZA]=Mkahawa Cyber Manager
Exec=/usr/bin/mkahawa -nossl
Name=Mkahawa Cyber Manager
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/mkahawa-srv-icon.png
Categories=Accessories;

The problem is that when I add it to the /usr/share/applications directory it does not show in the menus.

I have changed it to look like this, after I compared with mousepad.desktop and others which are located in the accessories section of the menus:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Icon[en_ZA]=gnome-ccbackground
Name[en_ZA]=Mkahawa Cyber Manager
Exec=mkahawa -nossl
Name=Mkahawa Cyber Manager
Icon=mkahawa-srv-icon.png
Categories=Accessories;Utilities;GTK;

However this leads to having it in the menu "Others" and not in the menu "Accessories". I also wonder why the dev of the program gave this file execution permissions... but this is another story.

And to end with this desktop file and the location of the entry, I wonder where it would really be more relevant... perhaps not in accessories anyway.

Help appreciated!
Thanks.

[djohnston]

Categories=Application;Utility;

You don't need anything else there. Also, you have two different icons specified. The [en_ZA] icon should be the same as the other one.

Icon[en_ZA]=mkahawa-srv-icon.png

I modified the original desktop file. The modified contents are:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=0.0.5
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Icon[en_ZA]=/usr/share/pixmaps/teacup_64.png
Name[en_ZA]=Mkahawa Cyber Manager
Exec=/usr/bin/mkahawa -nossl
Name=Mkahawa Cyber Manager
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/teacup_64.png
Categories=Application;Utility;

Just change the icon to suit. As far as categories, I would think it should go in the Internet section.



EDIT: If you want it in the Internet section, just use:

Categories=Network;

[melodie]

Hi johnston,

I had not even noticed the additional icon line...

Here is what I ended with:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Name=Mkahawa Cyber Manager
Name[en_ZA]=Mkahawa Cyber Manager
Name[fr_FR]=Cyber Manager Mkahawa
Exec=mkahawa -nossl
Name=Mkahawa Cyber Manager
Icon=mkahawa-srv-icon.png
Categories=GTK;Network;WebBrowser;

I used the same categories line as what I found in Midori, removed the additional icons line and the full path to the icon. Now this is what it looks like:


Your cup of coffee looks cute too.

What about a bento mini delivered with an Mkahawa server ready to go and another version with a client inside? /me thinking…

[djohnston]

What about a bento mini delivered with an Mkahawa server ready to go and another version with a client inside? /me thinking…

I would think internet cafes would be the target for that app. What about two versions?

[melodie]

I would think internet cafes would be the target for that app. What about two versions?

Yes I said two versions : one with the server and one with the client. If you have other ideas, please go ahead ?

[djohnston]

Okay, lemme rephrase. What I meant was that there's no use for the client by itself on one of your Bento2 respins. It would only be useful in an internet cafe that was running the server package.

So, yes, you'd want the server package on one respin, ready to install, and the client on another. If you have a way to install the client from a live CD, you can combine both apps on the same CD/DVD.

[melodie]

Making a new respin takes very little time, it is the steps before which took time, and preparing the settings. The ideal scheme would be to have repositories with the Ubuntu deb packages ready to use. (There is one, but once installed it does not work, just as the deb packages provided on the official mkahawa website don't work, only the SVN last revision does... probably with some bugs).

* I don't have time available to struggle with making packages and I don't even want to think about making a package request : for the time being the whole stuff works only when compiling from svn.

* I think regarding to the number of people looking for a free solution for internet cafes software management, it would be a nice gift to the Free software community for a low cost of time on my side.

* I think having two respins would make the installs easier. It may not even need to be burned to CD, but once on line that will not be my problem.

I will compile both programs in the same host, then copy the relevant files for the server to one build directory for the first respin, then the second set of files for the client in the same build for a second respin (and remove the files for the server at that moment).

From there if someone else wants to make one CD or DVD from the two, or deb packages... whatever will be fine for me.

This will have nothing to do with the work on the current versions for all purposes, which I will continue to work on.

[djohnston]

* I think having two respins would make the installs easier. It may not even need to be burned to CD, but once on line that will not be my problem.

After thinking about the application a little bit more, the server side will be the easy one. The client will be more complicated. Here's why. When using the client software in an internet cafe, the owner will not want the user to be able to do anything on the machine outside of running the client software to connect to the (server) host, then access the internet from a bridge to the server. In other words, the client computer should boot straight into the login manager, which will track the time used, fees to be charged, etc. The cafe owner will probably not want the client computers to be able to run anything other than the login manager, then the web browser from a server session.

Not having looked at any of it, I don't know if the user's session leaves an audit trail of web browser usage or not. One other thing to consider is whether you want a true "kiosk" envieronment on the client computers. In other words, will the machine be reset to a known state before the next person uses it?

* I think regarding to the number of people looking for a free solution for internet cafes software management, it would be a nice gift to the Free software community for a low cost of time on my side.

Very true.

[melodie]

Hi,

When mkahawa-client is started on the client machine it covers the screen and has three possibilities to be started (see sreenshot next). The session can be started either from within the server, or from within the client machine. There is a command line to start the client side at the start of the session, something such as:

Code: [Sélectionner]

mkahawa-client -host 127.0.0.1 -name bob -nossl -port 2999
Here is the mkahawa help:

$ mkahawa-client
Usage: mkahawa-client -host <server> -name <myname> [options]

<server>: the server's hostname or IP
<myname>: the name this client is going to be identified with

Options:
   -port <port>: Connect to the specified port (default: 2999).
   -nossl: do not use SSL to connect (default: use SSL).
   -certpass <password>: password used for the cerfificate (default: none).
                         Ignored if not using SSL (-nossl option enabled).
$

blocker screen:


During the session the user has just the small timer we can see on this screen:


There are more screen shots here:
http://www.mkahawa.net/screenshots.php

Your other questions are perfectly good, however I don't have the answer yet. I know there is a guest feature in Ubuntu where the user session is mounted on tmpfs, I don't know if there is any feature in Mkahawa to keep the connection logs.

[melodie]

PS: I finally thought I would make an archive with the client files. They are all enclosed in a file system tree and can be extracted directly from within /, and this will store them cleanly into the /usr/local directory in the relevant directories.

I'll add this archive to the /etc/skel in the ISO where the server is installed, with a readme file besides it containing install instructions.

[djohnston]

PS: I finally thought I would make an archive with the client files. They are all enclosed in a file system tree and can be extracted directly from within /, and this will store them cleanly into the /usr/local directory in the relevant directories.

I'll add this archive to the /etc/skel in the ISO where the server is installed, with a readme file besides it containing install instructions.

That's as good as an installer, in my opinion.