[Casper] Software Update - laptop labs, progress indicator

[Clinton Blackmore]

Greetings.

How do you handle software updates on laptop labs?  We have carts of  
laptops in our schools, and, if they are not being used by a student,  
they are charging in the cart.  That doesn't provide for a nice way to  
update them after hours without pulling each machine out of the cart,  
and yet, I don't really want to pop up a message to a student saying,  
"Your computer is going to reboot now.  Deal with it!"

Also, when you use the GUI tools to do software update, the machine  
logs out and you get a nice progress indicator showing that updates  
are installing.  Is there any way to do that from the command line?   
(Yes, I know one can install updates, and Casper handles it nicely,  
but can I get the progress bar?  We had some machines set to update,  
and then found they had kernel panicked.  We wondered if a user  
noticed the machine became sluggish and forced it off.)  More  
generally, how do you convey to users that updates are in progress?

Cheers,
Clinton Blackmore

This email has been scanned by Barracuda Network's Anti-Virus and Spam Firewall.