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.. IVLE - Informatics Virtual Learning Environment
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Copyright (C) 2007-2009 The University of Melbourne
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.. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
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(at your option) any later version.
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.. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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GNU General Public License for more details.
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.. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
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along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
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Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
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**************************
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Frequently Asked Questions
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**************************
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This is a list of Frequently Asked Questions for IVLE. It answers questions
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about common issues encountered when configuring or running the system.
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... change the Terms of Service notice?
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---------------------------------------
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You should customize the ToS notice at :file:`/var/lib/ivle/notices/tos.html`.
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... delete a user from IVLE?
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----------------------------
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This is usually a bad idea since it requires all the references to that user
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to be removed from IVLE. This may have unintended consequences particularly
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with groups or projects but might be required in installations where an
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existing login conflict with a new login (typically encountered when usernames
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The steps to completely remove a user would be:
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1. Disable the users account
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2. Unmount the users jailmount directory (typically
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:file:`/var/lib/ivle/jailmounts/LOGIN`)
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3. Backup the user's files (typically :file:`/var/lib/ivle/jails/LOGIN`) and
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remove this directory.
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4. Backup the user's repository (typically
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:file:`/var/lib/ivle/svn/repositories/users/LOGIN` on the subversion
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server) and remove this directory.
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5. Make a backup of the IVLE database (``sudo -u postgres pg_dump ivle >
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6. Either change the users login (``UPDATE login SET login='NEWLOGIN' WHERE
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login='LOGIN'``) or remove all references to this login in the database
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The following lines of SQL should remove all traces of a user ``LOGIN`` from
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DELETE FROM exercise_save USING login WHERE
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exercise_save.loginid = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM exercise_attempt USING login WHERE
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exercise_attempt.loginid = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM project_mark USING login WHERE marker = login.loginid AND
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login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM project_submission USING login WHERE
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submitter = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM project_extension USING login WHERE
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approver = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM assessed USING login WHERE
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assessed.loginid = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM enrolment USING login WHERE
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enrolment.loginid = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM group_member USING login WHERE
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group_member.loginid = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM group_invitation USING login WHERE
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(group_invitation.loginid = login.loginid OR
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inviter = login.loginid) AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM project_group USING login WHERE createdby = login.loginid AND
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login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM login WHERE login='LOGIN';
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If you do not want to lose group data, a better option may be to reassign the
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user ``LOGIN``'s groups to ``NEWLOGIN`` (one possible option would be to
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create and use a 'nobody' account)::
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DELETE FROM exercise_save USING login WHERE
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exercise_save.loginid = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM exercise_attempt USING login WHERE
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exercise_attempt.loginid = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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UPDATE project_mark SET marker = l2.loginid FROM login AS l1, login AS l2
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WHERE marker = l1.loginid AND l1.login = 'LOGIN' AND l2.login =
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DELETE FROM project_submission USING login WHERE
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submitter = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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UPDATE project_extension SET approver = l2.loginid FROM
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login AS l1, login AS l2 WHERE approver = l1.loginid AND
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l1.login = 'LOGIN' AND l2.login='NEWLOGIN';
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DELETE FROM assessed USING login WHERE
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assessed.loginid = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM enrolment USING login WHERE
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enrolment.loginid = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM group_member USING login WHERE
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group_member.loginid = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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DELETE FROM group_invitation USING login WHERE
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group_invitation.loginid = login.loginid AND login.login = 'LOGIN';
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UPDATE group_invitation SET inviter = l2.loginid FROM
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login AS l1, login AS l2 WHERE inviter = l1.loginid AND
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l1.login = 'LOGIN' AND l2.login='NEWLOGIN';
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UPDATE project_group SET createdby = l2.loginid FROM
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login AS l1, login AS l2 WHERE createdby = l1.loginid AND
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l1.login = 'LOGIN' AND l2.login = 'NEWLOGIN';
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DELETE FROM login WHERE login='LOGIN';
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... Apache not restart?
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-----------------------
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Make sure no console processes are lying around (e.g. sudo killall
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python), then restart with ``sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart``. If the issue
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persists, try stopping the server and starting it in two separate
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steps, so you see the errors reported by the start script.
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... IVLE dump me back to the login screen with no error when I try to login?
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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This is usually because IVLE can't save your session information. IVLE saves
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sessions to a sessions directory on disk. Unfortunately, this is not currently
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configurable in :file:`./setup.py` config. You need to edit the Apache config
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Look for ``PythonOption mod_python.file_session.database_directory``. Make
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sure it is set to the place you want. Then, you need to manually make sure
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that directory exists. If you have multiple slaves, this directory will
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need to be shared between them all.
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The default is :file:`/var/lib/ivle/sessions`.
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... ivle-buildjail fail with 'Error: Jail contains world writable path'
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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When running :program:`ivle-buildjail` you may occasionally see an error
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Error: Jail contains world writable path:
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'/var/lib/ivle/jails/__base_build__/tmp/.ICE-unix'.
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This is a security vulnerability as jail template contents are shared
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between users. Please either make this path world unwriteable or remove it
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This means that writable files exist in the Jail template. If left in the jail
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then users would be able to edit a file that is shared between all jail
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instances. The usual solution is just to remove these file from the jail build
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directory and try again.
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At present it is not possible to include world writable files outside a user's
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home directory so if this file is deliberately included you will need to
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ensure that it is not world writeable.
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... the console return 'Console Restart' messages
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-------------------------------------------------
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There are three cases where a console may be restarted:
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1. **Console Restart: The IVLE console has timed out due to inactivity**
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The Python console process is no longer running. This is most likey due to
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the console process being automatically terminated due to no messages
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being sent or received by the console in the previous 15 minutes.
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This message can also be triggered if the console is terminated for
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another reason (such as being sent :const:`SIGKILL` from the system
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command line or any other fatal signal).
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2. **Console Restart: CPU Time Limit Exceeded**
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To prevent exhaustion of local system resources, Python console processes
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are set with an CPU Time Limit of 25 seconds of user time (time executing
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on the CPU rather than real "clock-on-the-wall" time).
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This setting can be configured by changing the values associated with
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:const:`RLIMIT_CPU` in :file:`bin/trampoline/trampoline.c`.
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3. **Console Restart: Communication to console process lost**
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IVLE was unable to understand a response from the console process. This
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will only happen if the console sends a malformed response and quite
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4. **Console Restart: Communication to console process reset**
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IVLE's TCP connection to the console process was reset. May indicate