Wow! It’s been a while since I last updated this blog… As everyone knows, I have been trying for some time to turn one of my computers into a webserver so that I could run Moodle – or a similar course management package – on it. I was endlessly frustrated by the absolute lack of results despite my biggest efforts, but things are moving forward now, so I’m in a better mood.
I recently bought iPartition, which is a neat little Mac programme that allows for non-destructive repartitioning of hard drives. I used it to partition my iBook’s hard drive, so that I could restore the OS X 10.4 install DVD on one partition and reboot from that one to install OS X on the other. (Then I wiped out the install DVD partition and expanded the other one to take the whole drive.) Since the Intel and PPC Mac use different partition schemes, I could not install OS X over FireWire from my Mini – or, at least, I didn’t know of any way to do so. With iPartition though, it was really easy. I’ve been partitioning everything happily ever since!!! 
One of the programme’s suggested use is to keep your system files and your personal files and data on separate partitions so that you can do a clean install of your OS without wiping all of your music, videos, documents and settings from your drive. It seems like a great idea. I’ll try that sometime soon. Another obvious use of the programme is that it will allow me to install and run Ubuntu natively rather than in a virtual machine. Whether or not I manage to get Moodle running under OS X, I’ll also need to get it running under Ubuntu so that I can have a truly free solution. Moodle did not work in a virtualized Ubuntu. I guess Parallels networking isn’t quite up to that task yet, although it might simply be my lack of Linux skills.
It seems that my RSS feed reading is not a complete waste of time after all. About two weeks ago, I discovered a cool tutorial for using Macs as servers on freemacblog.com. It starts with the very basics and is intended for the average Joe who doesn’t have a computer science degree. It shows you step-by-step everything you need to know. As of now, I can serve a webpage from my iBook to my Mini or vice versa, but I need to set up port forwarding on my router before I can share the websites on my computers with the rest of the world. Sadly, my router’s software seems to be Korean only, so I’ll probably need to ask a teacher at the school to help me with that. I’ll run a few tests using a direct connection (without the router), but I still need to figure out port forwarding to make course management software truly usable and useful in the settings I have in mind.
Anyways, reading a previous blog entry, I recalled that the latest official version of Moodle is supposed to work on PPC Macs with OS X 10.4, so now that my iBook has been updated, I’ll need to run more tests. I have looked for other course management packages, but I still feel like Moodle will be the best – if I can get it to work properly.
