vamontchik
commented
3 years ago solution, for now:
- python (?) server on the machine, accessible via the closed network only
- server serves out a webpage when connecting to a specific address in the closed network, allows for an easy way to upload files via drag/drop or dialog option, not sure which yet
- server has limited access to machine, preferably only songs folder within stepmania
TODO:
- impl above ^^^
- look into limiting what a user can do when plugging something into the frontal ports - need to retain some capacity so people can save scores, but limit what a malicious actor can do
ianklatzco
There's a problem where most folks in the club can't perform simple tasks, like adding songs to the machine, due accessibility barriers when it comes to working with Ubuntu. The current setup allows for either:
1) connect to the closed network around the cab via user/pass, then ssh into the machine with a separate set of credentials. then, using cli, one could use
scpor any other flavor of the same type of program to send some files through the ssh connection to the machine, and also use cli to make sure all the files are in the correct location, correct names for the file, correct permissions, etc. normally, this doesn't have issues, but if something happens to the access point (? the hardware that sends out the waves via wifi i assume?), there's a pretty steep curve when it comes to knowing what to do to fix this (if it isn't immediately apparent, like having a wire not plugged in). 2) connect physically to the device via (primarily) XXX-to-USB connections, where some form of storage has to use an adapter or already has a protruding USB connection (usb 2.0 type A? need to verify), then either use (1) cli to copy files over OR (2) use gui to copy / paste the files over. (small note: there is no mouse connected to the cab, only keyboard, which makes use of the gui extremely limited).a pretty big problem with (2) is the variety of XXX-to-USB adapters there are out there, and how many of those ubuntu can recognize automatically. pending further testing, usb sticks with either some variation of FAT or NTFS filesystems seem to work, with some manual intervention: ubuntu won't automatically mount them, but will recognize them under the
disksutility, which gives the necessary info (what filesystem the usb stick uses, mostly) to mount the drive manually through themountcommand. however, having to use cli and especially knowledge about mounting, filesystems, and how ubuntu works with it all is extremely not accessible to most folks in the club.what's worse for (2) is for XXX-to-USB connections that ubuntu refuses to work with, for whatever reason. this happened today, where a small but portable ~500GB SATA 3 SSD was connected to the machine's frontal panel USB slot via a SATA-to-USB adapter. ubuntu recognized the device in the
disksutility, and recognized the ntfs filesystem used on it, but did not automatically mount the device and refused to manually mount the device becausentfs-3gblew up with some IO error. the person who used the adapter/storage device previously said they were able to plug it into their windows machine and windows was able to read and write to the device fine, pointing to something else on ubuntu or ntfs-3g rather than a hardware failure. once again, knowledge on types of USBs and adapters, filesystems, mounting, and especially debugging issues with the different drivers used to mount the different types of devices is extremely not accessible to most folks in the club.all of this eventually makes (2), somewhat counter-intuitively, a lot harder to work with than (1), which already takes some technical knowledge to perform. to ease accessibility options, something else needs to be done that most people can work with in the club.
here is a running, aggregate list of solutions proposed by a variety of people in the discord as well as a couple I threw in for thought: 1) swap to a windows installation --- the argument is that most folks are familiar with the windows gui and would be able to plug in most devices without any technical know-how to copy / paste some files from their portable storage to the cab. windows is wonderful (arguable) in the fact that it comes with a variety of both legacy and modern drivers that are able to handle most consumer connection types, baked into the OS out of the box. this also solves a previously unstated problem with nITG : current builds for those applications do not work with the current ubuntu setup, only on windows setup (pending further information?) 2) dual booting between windows / linux --- the argument is very similar to (1), but can also preserve ubuntu in cases where windows does not hold its weight (alleged performance issues, polling fixed at certain rates, etc.), though preserving ubuntu would not solve accessibility issues. 3) swap current ubuntu distro to "TJ's build" --- the argument here is that it was built specificaly for playing ITG on the machines and is configureable via GUI, which may make song uploading more accessible to most folks but this would not really solve some of the other technical barriers mentioned above when discussing the two current way to access the machine. 4) develop a website for uploading songs --- the argument here is that everyone knows how to use a web browser, so if ddrillini developed a web app that has some form of remote (WAN, not close by with a closed network) connection to the machine that can automate most of transfer of files, reloading the song, etc, most folks would simply need to be able to drag/drop onto a website to upload song folders from their computer to the machine. would definitely take a lot of initial setup / dev time to get this to work, though, probably more so than installing windows / different build / dual booting.
current things that would need to be moved over / compiled again / re-written to work on the new target platform (if necessary):
would love more information on what i missed above / opinions on what should be done with the cab !!!