Andy's Aplaku Linux user group and learning Centre

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The editor with Ataa Mensah Israel , one of the local dignitaries at Israel Junction near the development

Present state of development

On land adjacent to Israel junction at Aplaku on the West side of Accra we are building a few retail units. In one these units the writer is helping to equip as a fully functional Internet Café, Library, and training centre.

The present state of development can be seen in the adjacent photograph, the Internet Cafe building has finished being built but needs tidying up and there are a couple of other issues such as the quality of the building .

Local builders and local building materials have been used and everything seems to be done using nails.There is a gap between the window frame and blockwork which will have to be filled with expanding foam, to stop the red soil dust which gets everywhere- I have visions of every computer tower getting choked quite quickly due to the dust. .

The electrical supply is single phase and " lights off " occurs sporadically at any time and for different time periods,including while editng this page.

This isn't great for a computer as all systems I have come across require a shutdown sequence of some sort; I haven't seen one yet that likes the electrical supply chopped while its in full flow. We have a stabilizer which helps level out the current, and then its a choice of UPS or a generator

Inside the Internet cafe, its getting there- at least the clients look busy admiring the sleek functionality of Zencafe .

Regarding the operating system for the computers several Linux Distros have been tried including Zencafe 2.0, Simply Mepis, and the Ubuntu family.

Zencafe 2.0 looked very promising having cafe con leche ( internet timer software) pre-installed, however some how I messed up netpkg and rather than dwelling on it moved to Zenwalk and installed the binaries for the updated version of cafe con leche called Mkahawa.

Some time was spent looking at Simply mepis and the Ubuntu varieties but things moved full circle when I realised they had released Zencafe 2.2 mid July 2010 which had Mkahawa pre-installed as one of the applications, thus saving time not having to install Mkahawa binaries.

After getting a good connection using Zains USB dongle modem of around 7.2 mb per sec this made up my mind that Zencafe Linux would be the confirmed choice for the internet cafe which will should have been called " Oburoni Internet cafe using Linux " but at present just has Tux ,Linux and Internet cafe( I hope I'm not breaching any copywrite)

Since trying out the new Zencafe 2.2 I have been quite taken with it , since it runs fast on Pentium III machines, is robust easy to use and just about everything works out of the box. The only package i really needed to install on the fresh install was a Java Runtime environment which was easy obtained using netpkg. To cut down on the downloads i also used the package database choose what I wanted saved to a stick put the apps on each computer desktop and then just used installed using installpkg.

Another thing I'm looking at is the desktop educational system called sugar which I have been playing about with, and would be very helpful to younger children. Long term if charity status could be achieved then with the help of funding ,and perhaps acquiring re-cycled computers for free from the UK then so much more could be done. Recently we have managed to install on a USB stick which might be more practical

There are a few chop bars in the area for tourists, but little in the way of facilities (especially regarding education), for locals on a low income, so the launch of the internet cafe is providing a useful service to the community. Long term i would like to get a Linux user group going and help to distribute Linux probably Zenwalk Linux through Ghana.

Also getting a couple of PC's connected using a USB modem dongle is Ok for a few computers but limited if you want around 7-10 units connected . I have visited the Zain office in Dansoman, Accra and a likely solution to run about ten laptops would be by using their router which they call an Xbox ( not to be confused with playstation xbox) which has a SIM card holder, allowing Internet through their cellular network. Computers attach to the router using standard ethernet ports