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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "english".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Full_battery_stats_collector_is_now_available_in_Debian.html">Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         23rd March 2016
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an
  32 extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for
  33 later processing and graphing.  The original collector store the
  34 battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new
  35 collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design
  36 full level, last full level and current battery level.  This make it
  37 possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise
  38 the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p>
  39
  40 <p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt>
  41 in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable.  Get the new battery level graph
  42 and lifetime prediction by running:
  43
  44 <p><pre>
  45 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
  46 </pre></p>
  47
  48 <p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p>
  49
  50 <p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu
  51 entry yet):</p>
  52
  53 <p><pre>
  54 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
  55 </pre></p>
  56
  57 <p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least
  58 when there are few data points.  The graphs look a bit better with a
  59 few years of data.</p>
  60
  61 <p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats
  62 collector broke in Debian.  The scripts in
  63 <tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed.  I
  64 suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not
  65 know.  The issue is reported as
  66 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/818649">bug #818649</a> against
  67 pm-utils.  I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call
  68 the collector script every time the power connector is connected and
  69 disconnected.  With this fix in place it was finally time to make a
  70 new release of the package, and get it into Debian.</p>
  71
  72 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
  73 check out the
  74 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
  75 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
  76 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from
  77 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
  78 As always, patches are very welcome.</p>
  79
  80       </div>
  81       <div class="tags">
  82
  83
  84         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
  85
  86
  87       </div>
  88     </div>
  89     <div class="padding"></div>
  90
  91     <div class="entry">
  92       <div class="title">
  93         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/UsingQR____Electronic__paper_invoices_using_JSON_and_QR_codes.html">UsingQR - "Electronic" paper invoices using JSON and QR codes</a>
  94       </div>
  95       <div class="date">
  96         19th March 2016
  97       </div>
  98       <div class="body">
  99         <p>Back in 2013 I proposed
 100 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_Electronic__paper_invoices___using_vCard_in_a_QR_code.html">a
 101 way to make paper and PDF invoices easier to process electronically by
 102 adding a QR code with the key information about the invoice</a>.  I
 103 suggested using vCard field definition, to get some standard format
 104 for name and address, but any format would work.  I did not do
 105 anything about the proposal, but hoped someone one day would make
 106 something like it.  It would make it possible to efficiently send
 107 machine readable invoices directly between seller and buyer.</p>
 108
 109 <p>This was the background when I came across a proposal and
 110 specification from the web based accounting and invoicing supplier
 111 <a href="http://www.visma.com/">Visma</a> in Sweden called
 112 <a href="http://usingqr.com/">UsingQR</a>.  Their PDF invoices contain
 113 a QR code with the key information of the invoice in JSON format.
 114 This is the typical content of a QR code following the UsingQR
 115 specification (based on a real world example, some numbers replaced to
 116 get a more bogus entry).  I've reformatted the JSON to make it easier
 117 to read.  Normally this is all on one long line:</p>
 118
 119 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-19-qr-invoice.png" align="right"><pre>
 120 {
 121  "vh":500.00,
 122  "vm":0,
 123  "vl":0,
 124  "uqr":1,
 125  "tp":1,
 126  "nme":"Din Leverandør",
 127  "cc":"NO",
 128  "cid":"997912345 MVA",
 129  "iref":"12300001",
 130  "idt":"20151022",
 131  "ddt":"20151105",
 132  "due":2500.0000,
 133  "cur":"NOK",
 134  "pt":"BBAN",
 135  "acc":"17202612345",
 136  "bc":"BIENNOK1",
 137  "adr":"0313 OSLO"
 138 }
 139 </pre></p>
 140
 141 </p>The interpretation of the fields can be found in the
 142 <a href="http://usingqr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/UsingQR_specification1.pdf">format
 143 specification</a> (revision 2 from june 2014).  The format seem to
 144 have most of the information needed to handle accounting and payment
 145 of invoices, at least the fields I have needed so far here in
 146 Norway.</p>
 147
 148 <p>Unfortunately, the site and document do not mention anything about
 149 the patent, trademark and copyright status of the format and the
 150 specification.  Because of this, I asked the people behind it back in
 151 November to clarify.  Ann-Christine Savlid (ann-christine.savlid (at)
 152 visma.com) replied that Visma had not applied for patent or trademark
 153 protection for this format, and that there were no copyright based
 154 usage limitations for the format.  I urged her to make sure this was
 155 explicitly written on the web pages and in the specification, but
 156 unfortunately this has not happened yet.  So I guess if there is
 157 submarine patents, hidden trademarks or a will to sue for copyright
 158 infringements, those starting to use the UsingQR format might be at
 159 risk, but if this happen there is some legal defense in the fact that
 160 the people behind the format claimed it was safe to do so.  At least
 161 with patents, there is always
 162 <a href="http://www.paperspecs.com/paper-news/beware-the-qr-code-patent-trap/">a
 163 chance of getting sued...</a></p>
 164
 165 <p>I also asked if they planned to maintain the format in an
 166 independent standard organization to give others more confidence that
 167 they would participate in the standardization process on equal terms
 168 with Visma, but they had no immediate plans for this.  Their plan was
 169 to work with banks to try to get more users of the format, and
 170 evaluate the way forward if the format proved to be popular.  I hope
 171 they conclude that using an open standard organisation like
 172 <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> is the correct place to
 173 maintain such specification.</p>
 174
 175 <p><strong>Update 2016-03-20</strong>: Via Twitter I became aware of
 176 <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11319492">some comments
 177 about this blog post</a> that had several useful links and references to
 178 similar systems.  In the Czech republic, the Czech Banking Association
 179 standard #26, with short name SPAYD, uses QR codes with payment
 180 information.  More information is available from the Wikipedia page on
 181 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Payment_Descriptor">Short
 182 Payment Descriptor</a>.  And in Germany, there is a system named
 183 <a href="http://www.bezahlcode.de/">BezahlCode</a>,
 184 (<a href="http://www.bezahlcode.de/wp-content/uploads/BezahlCode_TechDok.pdf">specification
 185 v1.8 2013-12-05 available as PDF</a>), which uses QR codes with
 186 URL-like formatting using "bank:" as the URI schema/protocol to
 187 provide the payment information.  There is also the
 188 <a href="http://www.ferd-net.de/front_content.php?idcat=231">ZUGFeRD</a>
 189 file format that perhaps could be transfered using QR codes, but I am
 190 not sure if it is done already.  Last, in Bolivia there are reports
 191 that tax information since november 2014 need to be printed in QR
 192 format on invoices.  I have not been able to track down a
 193 specification for this format, because of my limited language skill
 194 sets.</p>
 195
 196       </div>
 197       <div class="tags">
 198
 199
 200         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
 201
 202
 203       </div>
 204     </div>
 205     <div class="padding"></div>
 206
 207     <div class="entry">
 208       <div class="title">
 209         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html">Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian</a>
 210       </div>
 211       <div class="date">
 212         15th March 2016
 213       </div>
 214       <div class="body">
 215         <p>Back in September, I blogged about
 216 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the
 217 system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and
 218 how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced).  I
 219 created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing,
 220 but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already
 221 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats
 222 package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see
 223 a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be
 224 fixed instead.  I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and
 225 hoped someone would step in and fix it.  But no-one did.</p>
 226
 227 <p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own
 228 hands.  The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of
 229 battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining
 230 battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally
 231 able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt>
 232 information provided by the Linux kernel.  If you install the
 233 battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a
 234 graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the
 235 status of the battery.  The source package build and work just fine in
 236 Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not
 237 tested).  The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p>
 238
 239 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-15-battery-stats-graph-example.png" width="70%" align="center"></p>
 240
 241 <p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the
 242 battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details
 243 about the battery.  The scripts are merged into the upstream
 244 battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work
 245 yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way.  Will have to test a
 246 bit more before I make a new release.</p>
 247
 248 <p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I
 249 suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it
 250 impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing
 251 and graphing.</p>
 252
 253 <p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop
 254 battery, check out the battery-stats package in
 255 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and
 256 on
 257 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
 258 I would love some help to improve the system further.</p>
 259
 260       </div>
 261       <div class="tags">
 262
 263
 264         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 265
 266
 267       </div>
 268     </div>
 269     <div class="padding"></div>
 270
 271     <div class="entry">
 272       <div class="title">
 273         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
 274       </div>
 275       <div class="date">
 276         19th February 2016
 277       </div>
 278       <div class="body">
 279         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
 280 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
 281 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
 282 the code in the package in question, preferably in
 283 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
 284 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
 285
 286 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
 287 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
 288 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
 289 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
 290 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
 291 out what was wrong with
 292 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
 293 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
 294 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
 295 semi-automatically.</p>
 296
 297 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
 298 file based on the code in the source package,
 299 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
 300 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
 301 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
 302 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
 303 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
 304 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
 305 option in
 306 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
 307 blog posts from 2014</a>.
 308
 309 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
 310
 311 <p><pre>
 312 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
 313 </pre></p>
 314
 315 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
 316 this might not be the best option.</p>
 317
 318 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
 319 this approach in
 320 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
 321 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
 322 dpkg-copyright' option:
 323
 324 <p><pre>
 325 cme update dpkg-copyright
 326 </pre></p>
 327
 328 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
 329 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
 330
 331 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
 332 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
 333 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
 334 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
 335 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
 336 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
 337 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
 338 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
 339 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
 340 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
 341
 342 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
 343 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
 344 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
 345 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
 346
 347 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
 348 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
 349 planet.debian.org.</p>
 350
 351 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 352 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 353 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 354
 355 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
 356 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
 357
 358 <p><pre>
 359 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
 360   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
 361 </pre></p>
 362
 363 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
 364 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
 365 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
 366 with my packages in the future.</p>
 367
 368 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended
 369 against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed
 370 command line.</p>
 371
 372       </div>
 373       <div class="tags">
 374
 375
 376         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 377
 378
 379       </div>
 380     </div>
 381     <div class="padding"></div>
 382
 383     <div class="entry">
 384       <div class="title">
 385         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html">Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support</a>
 386       </div>
 387       <div class="date">
 388          4th February 2016
 389       </div>
 390       <div class="body">
 391         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
 392 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
 393 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
 394 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
 395 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
 396 about. :)</p>
 397
 398 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
 399 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
 400 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
 401 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
 402 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
 403 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
 404
 405 <blockquote><pre>
 406 % apt install appstream
 407 [...]
 408 % apt update
 409 [...]
 410 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
 411   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
 412 firmware-qlogic
 413 %
 414 </pre></blockquote>
 415
 416 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
 417 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
 418 a way appstream can use.</p>
 419
 420 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
 421 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
 422 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
 423 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
 424 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
 425 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
 426
 427 <blockquote><pre>
 428 % apt install appstream
 429 [...]
 430 % apt update
 431 [...]
 432 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
 433   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
 434 bkchem
 435 phototonic
 436 inkscape
 437 shutter
 438 tetzle
 439 geeqie
 440 xia
 441 pinta
 442 gthumb
 443 karbon
 444 comix
 445 mirage
 446 viewnior
 447 postr
 448 ristretto
 449 kolourpaint4
 450 eog
 451 eom
 452 gimagereader
 453 midori
 454 %
 455 </pre></blockquote>
 456
 457 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
 458 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
 459
 460       </div>
 461       <div class="tags">
 462
 463
 464         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 465
 466
 467       </div>
 468     </div>
 469     <div class="padding"></div>
 470
 471     <div class="entry">
 472       <div class="title">
 473         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html">Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software</a>
 474       </div>
 475       <div class="date">
 476         24th January 2016
 477       </div>
 478       <div class="body">
 479         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
 480 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
 481 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
 482 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
 483 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
 484 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
 485 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
 486 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
 487 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
 488 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
 489 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
 490 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
 491 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
 492 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
 493 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
 494 entities.</p>
 495
 496 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
 497
 498 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
 499 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
 500 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
 501 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
 502 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
 503 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
 504 tool to do so is called
 505 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
 506 discovered it when I read
 507 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
 508 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
 509 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
 510 The python program was in Debian, but
 511 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
 512 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
 513 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
 514 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
 515 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
 516 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
 517 are now included
 518 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
 519
 520 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
 521 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
 522 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
 523 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
 524 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
 525 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
 526 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
 527 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
 528 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
 529 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
 530 about yourself with the services.</p>
 531
 532 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
 533 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
 534 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
 535 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
 536 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
 537 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
 538 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
 539 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
 540 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
 541 things.  A similar technique have been
 542 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
 543 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
 544 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
 545 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
 546 public.</p>
 547
 548 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
 549 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
 550 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
 551 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
 552
 553 <p>(I have uploaded
 554 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
 555 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
 556 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
 557
 558       </div>
 559       <div class="tags">
 560
 561
 562         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
 563
 564
 565       </div>
 566     </div>
 567     <div class="padding"></div>
 568
 569     <div class="entry">
 570       <div class="title">
 571         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html">Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe</a>
 572       </div>
 573       <div class="date">
 574         15th January 2016
 575       </div>
 576       <div class="body">
 577         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
 578 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
 579 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
 580 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
 581 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
 582 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
 583 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
 584 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
 585 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
 586 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
 587 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
 588 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
 589 was not the first to propose this, as the
 590 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
 591 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
 592 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
 593 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
 594
 595 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
 596 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
 597 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
 598 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
 599 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
 600
 601 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
 602 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
 603 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
 604 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
 605 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
 606 done in /etc/.</p>
 607
 608 <blockquote><pre>
 609 apt install apt-transport-tor
 610 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
 611 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
 612 </pre></blockquote>
 613
 614 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
 615 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
 616 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
 617 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
 618
 619 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
 620 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
 621 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
 622 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
 623 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
 624 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
 625
 626 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
 627 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
 628 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
 629 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
 630 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
 631
 632 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
 633 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
 634 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
 635 system.</p>
 636
 637       </div>
 638       <div class="tags">
 639
 640
 641         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
 642
 643
 644       </div>
 645     </div>
 646     <div class="padding"></div>
 647
 648     <div class="entry">
 649       <div class="title">
 650         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html">OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</a>
 651       </div>
 652       <div class="date">
 653         23rd December 2015
 654       </div>
 655       <div class="body">
 656         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
 657 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
 658 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
 659 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
 660 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
 661 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
 662
 663 <p>A few days I came across
 664 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
 665 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
 666 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
 667 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
 668 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
 669 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
 670 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
 671 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
 672 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
 673 discovered the developer
 674 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
 675 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
 676 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
 677 archive.</p>
 678
 679 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
 680 it into Debian, where it currently
 681 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
 682 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
 683
 684 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
 685 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
 686 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
 687 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
 688 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
 689 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
 690 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
 691 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
 692 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
 693 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
 694 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
 695 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
 696
 697 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
 698 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
 699 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
 700 package show up in unstable.</p>
 701
 702       </div>
 703       <div class="tags">
 704
 705
 706         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
 707
 708
 709       </div>
 710     </div>
 711     <div class="padding"></div>
 712
 713     <div class="entry">
 714       <div class="title">
 715         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</a>
 716       </div>
 717       <div class="date">
 718         20th December 2015
 719       </div>
 720       <div class="body">
 721         <p>Around three years ago, I created
 722 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
 723 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
 724 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
 725 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
 726 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
 727 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
 728 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
 729 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
 730 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
 731 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
 732 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
 733 with.</p>
 734
 735 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
 736 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
 737 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
 738 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
 739 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
 740 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
 741 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
 742 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
 743 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
 744 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
 745 Debian version of appstream.</p>
 746
 747 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
 748 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
 749 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
 750 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
 751 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
 752 how do add the required
 753 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
 754 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
 755 this content:</p>
 756
 757 <blockquote><pre>
 758 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
 759 &lt;component&gt;
 760   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
 761   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
 762   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
 763   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
 764   &lt;description&gt;
 765     &lt;p&gt;
 766       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
 767       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
 768       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
 769       launcher.
 770     &lt;/p&gt;
 771   &lt;/description&gt;
 772   &lt;provides&gt;
 773     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
 774   &lt;/provides&gt;
 775 &lt;/component&gt;
 776 </pre></blockquote>
 777
 778 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
 779 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
 780 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
 781 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
 782 0202.</p>
 783
 784 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
 785 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
 786 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
 787 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
 788 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
 789 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
 790 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
 791 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
 792
 793 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
 794 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
 795 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
 796 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
 797 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
 798
 799 <blockquote><pre>
 800 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
 801 </pre></blockquote>
 802
 803 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
 804 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
 805 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
 806 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
 807 question.</p>
 808
 809 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
 810 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
 811
 812 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
 813 try running this command on the command line:</p>
 814
 815 <blockquote><pre>
 816 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
 817 </pre></blockquote>
 818
 819 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
 820 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
 821 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
 822
 823       </div>
 824       <div class="tags">
 825
 826
 827         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 828
 829
 830       </div>
 831     </div>
 832     <div class="padding"></div>
 833
 834     <div class="entry">
 835       <div class="title">
 836         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html">The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust</a>
 837       </div>
 838       <div class="date">
 839         30th November 2015
 840       </div>
 841       <div class="body">
 842         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
 843 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
 844 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
 845 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
 846 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
 847
 848 <blockquote>
 849
 850 <p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/"><img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/supporter-badge.png" width="194" height="90" alt="Become a Software Freedom Conservancy Supporter!" align="right" border="0" /></a></p>
 851
 852 <blockquote>
 853 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
 854
 855 The first step is to choose a
 856 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
 857 code.<br/>
 858
 859 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
 860 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
 861
 862 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
 863 work<br/>
 864
 865 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
 866 </blockquote>
 867
 868 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
 869 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
 870 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
 871 0x57</a></small></p>
 872
 873 <p>As the Debian Website
 874 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
 875 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
 876 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
 877 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
 878 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
 879 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
 880 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
 881 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
 882 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
 883 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
 884 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
 885 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
 886 Freedom">FaiF</a>
 887 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
 888 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
 889 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
 890 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
 891 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
 892 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
 893 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
 894 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
 895 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
 896 In March the SFC supported a
 897 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
 898 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
 899 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
 900 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
 901 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
 902 conferences
 903 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
 904 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
 905 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
 906 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
 907 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
 908 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
 909 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
 910 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
 911 Software.</p>
 912
 913 <p>If you support Free Software,
 914 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
 915 what the SFC do, agree with their
 916 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
 917 principles</a>, are happy about their
 918 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
 919 work on a project that is an SFC
 920 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
 921 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
 922 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
 923 Allan Webber</a>,
 924 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
 925 Smith</a>,
 926 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
 927 Bacon</a>, myself and
 928 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
 929 becoming a
 930 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
 931 next week your donation will be
 932 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
 933 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
 934 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
 935 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
 936 social media accounts.</p>
 937
 938 </blockquote>
 939
 940 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
 941 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
 942 supporter too?</p>
 943
 944       </div>
 945       <div class="tags">
 946
 947
 948         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
 949
 950
 951       </div>
 952     </div>
 953     <div class="padding"></div>
 954
 955     <div class="entry">
 956       <div class="title">
 957         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
 958       </div>
 959       <div class="date">
 960         17th November 2015
 961       </div>
 962       <div class="body">
 963         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
 964 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
 965 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
 966 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
 967 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
 968 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
 969 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
 970 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
 971 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
 972 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
 973
 974 <pre>
 975 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
 976       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
 977 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
 978 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
 979 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
 980 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
 981 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
 982 </pre>
 983
 984 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
 985 my old key.</p>
 986
 987 <p>If you signed my old key
 988 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
 989 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
 990 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
 991 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
 992
 993       </div>
 994       <div class="tags">
 995
 996
 997         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
 998
 999
1000       </div>
1001     </div>
1002     <div class="padding"></div>
1003
1004     <div class="entry">
1005       <div class="title">
1006         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Pentagon_deciding_the_Norwegian_negotiating_position_on_Internet_governance_.html">Is Pentagon deciding the Norwegian negotiating position on Internet governance?</a>
1007       </div>
1008       <div class="date">
1009          3rd November 2015
1010       </div>
1011       <div class="body">
1012         <p>In Norway, all government offices are required by law to keep a
1013 list of every document or letter arriving and leaving their offices.
1014 Internal notes should also be documented.  The document list (called a mail
1015 journal - "postjournal" in Norwegian) is public information and thanks
1016 to the Norwegian Freedom of Information Act (Offentleglova) the mail
1017 journal is available for everyone.  Most offices even publish the mail
1018 journal on their web pages, as PDFs or tables in web pages.  The state-level offices even have a shared web based search service (called
1019 <a href="https://www.oep.no/">Offentlig Elektronisk Postjournal -
1020 OEP</a>) to make it possible to search the entries in the list.  Not
1021 all journal entries show up on OEP, and the search service is hard to
1022 use, but OEP does make it easier to find at least some interesting
1023 journal entries .</p>
1024
1025 <p>In 2012 I came across a document in the mail journal for the
1026 Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications on OEP that
1027 piqued my interest.  The title of the document was
1028 "<a href="https://www.oep.no/search/resultSingle.html?journalPostId=4192362">Internet
1029 Governance and how it affects national security</a>" (Norwegian:
1030 "Internet Governance og påvirkning på nasjonal sikkerhet").  The
1031 document date was 2012-05-22, and it was said to be sent from the
1032 "Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nations".  I asked for a
1033 copy, but my request was rejected with a reference to a legal clause said to authorize them to reject it
1034 (<a href="http://lovdata.no/lov/2006-05-19-16/§20">offentleglova § 20,
1035 letter c</a>) and an explanation that the document was exempt because
1036 of foreign policy interests as it contained information related to the
1037 Norwegian negotiating position, negotiating strategies or similar.  I
1038 was told the information in the document related to the ongoing
1039 negotiation in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).  The
1040 explanation made sense to me in early January 2013, as a ITU
1041 conference in Dubay discussing Internet Governance
1042 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Telecommunication_Union#World_Conference_on_International_Telecommunications_2012_.28WCIT-12.29">World
1043 Conference on International Telecommunications - WCIT-12</a>) had just
1044 ended,
1045 <a href="http://www.digi.no/kommentarer/2012/12/18/tvil-om-usas-rolle-pa-teletoppmote">reportedly
1046 in chaos</a> when USA walked out of the negotiations and 25 countries
1047 including Norway refused to sign the new treaty.  It seemed
1048 reasonable to believe talks were still going on a few weeks later.
1049 Norway was represented at the ITU meeting by two authorities, the
1050 <a href="http://www.nkom.no/">Norwegian Communications Authority</a>
1051 and the <a href="https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dep/sd/">Ministry of
1052 Transport and Communications</a>.  This might be the reason the letter
1053 was sent to the ministry.  As I was unable to find the document in the
1054 mail journal of any Norwegian UN mission, I asked the ministry who had
1055 sent the document to the ministry, and was told that it was the Deputy
1056 Permanent Representative with the Permanent Mission of Norway in
1057 Geneva.</p>
1058
1059 <p>Three years later, I was still curious about the content of that
1060 document, and again asked for a copy, believing the negotiation was
1061 over now.  This time
1062 <a href="https://mimesbronn.no/request/kopi_av_dokumenter_i_sak_2012914">I
1063 asked both the Ministry of Transport and Communications as the
1064 receiver</a> and
1065 <a href="https://mimesbronn.no/request/brev_om_internet_governance_og_p">asked
1066 the Permanent Mission of Norway in Geneva as the sender</a> for a
1067 copy, to see if they both agreed that it should be withheld from the
1068 public.  The ministry upheld its rejection quoting the same law
1069 reference as before, while the permanent mission rejected it quoting a
1070 different clause
1071 (<a href="http://lovdata.no/lov/2006-05-19-16/§20">offentleglova § 20
1072 letter b</a>), claiming that they were required to keep the
1073 content of the document from the public because it contained
1074 information given to Norway with the expressed or implied expectation
1075 that the information should not be made public.  I asked the permanent
1076 mission for an explanation, and was told that the document contained
1077 an account from a meeting held in the Pentagon for a limited group of NATO
1078 nations where the organiser of the meeting did not intend the content
1079 of the meeting to be publicly known.  They explained that giving me a
1080 copy might cause Norway to not get access to similar information in
1081 the future and thus hurt the future foreign interests of Norway.  They
1082 also explained that the Permanent Mission of Norway in Geneva was not
1083 the author of the document, they only got a copy of it, and because of
1084 this had not listed it in their mail journal.</p>
1085
1086 <p>Armed with this
1087 knowledge I asked the Ministry to reconsider and asked who was the
1088 author of the document, now realising that it was not same as the
1089 "sender" according to Ministry of Transport and Communications.  The
1090 ministry upheld its rejection but told me the name of the author of
1091 the document.  According to
1092 <a href="https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/unga69_rapport1/id2001204/">a
1093 government report</a> the author was with the Permanent Mission of
1094 Norway in New York a bit more than a year later (2014-09-22), so I
1095 guessed that might be the office responsible for writing and sending
1096 the report initially and
1097 <a href="https://www.mimesbronn.no/request/mote_2012_i_pentagon_om_itu">asked
1098 them for a copy</a> but I was obviously wrong as I was told that the
1099 document was unknown to them and that the author did not work there
1100 when the document was written.  Next, I asked the Permanent Mission of
1101 Norway in Geneva and the Foreign Ministry to reconsider and at least
1102 tell me who sent the document to Deputy Permanent Representative with
1103 the Permanent Mission of Norway in Geneva.  The Foreign Ministry also
1104 upheld its rejection, but told me that the person sending the document
1105 to Permanent Mission of Norway in Geneva was the defence attaché with
1106 the Norwegian Embassy in Washington.  I do not know if this is the
1107 same person as the author of the document.</p>
1108
1109 <p>If I understand the situation correctly, someone capable of
1110 inviting selected NATO nations to a meeting in Pentagon organised a
1111 meeting where someone representing the Norwegian defence attaché in
1112 Washington attended, and the account from this meeting is interpreted
1113 by the Ministry of Transport and Communications to expose Norways
1114 negotiating position, negotiating strategies and similar regarding the
1115 ITU negotiations on Internet Governance.  It is truly amazing what can
1116 be derived from mere meta-data.</p>
1117
1118 <p>I wonder which NATO countries besides Norway attended this meeting?
1119 And what exactly was said and done at the meeting?  Anyone know?</p>
1120
1121       </div>
1122       <div class="tags">
1123
1124
1125         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
1126
1127
1128       </div>
1129     </div>
1130     <div class="padding"></div>
1131
1132     <div class="entry">
1133       <div class="title">
1134         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_book___Fri_kultur__by__lessig__a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_translation_of__Free_Culture__from_2004.html">New book, "Fri kultur" by @lessig, a Norwegian Bokmål translation of "Free Culture" from 2004</a>
1135       </div>
1136       <div class="date">
1137         31st October 2015
1138       </div>
1139       <div class="body">
1140         <p>People keep asking me where to get the various forms of the book I
1141 published last week, the Norwegian Bokmål edition of Lawrence Lessigs
1142 book <a href="http://www.free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a>.  It was
1143 published on paper via lulu.com, and is also available in PDF, ePub
1144 and MOBI format.  I currently sell the paper edition for self cost
1145 from lulu.com, but might extend the distribution to book stores like
1146 Amazon and Barnes & Noble later.  This will double the price and force
1147 me to make a profit from selling the book.  Anyway, here are links to
1148 get the book in different formats:</p>
1149
1150 <ul>
1151
1152   <li><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22406445.html">Buy
1153     paper edition from lulu.com</a></li>
1154
1155   <li><a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf">Download
1156     PDF, size 7.9 MiB</a> (gratis/free)</li>
1157
1158   <li><a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub">Download
1159     ePub, size 11 MiB</a> (gratis/free)</li>
1160
1161   <li><a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/archive/freeculture.nb.mobi">Download
1162     MOBI, size 3.8 MiB</a> (gratis/free)</li>
1163
1164 </ul>
1165
1166 <p>Note that the MOBI version have problems with the table of content,
1167 at least with the viewers I have been able to test.  And the ePub file
1168 have several problems according to
1169 <a href="https://github.com/IDPF/epubcheck">epubcheck</a>, but seem
1170 to display fine in the viewers I have tested.  All the files needed to
1171 create the book in various forms are available from
1172 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">the
1173 github project page</a>.</p>
1174
1175 <p>The project got press coverage from the Norwegian IT news site
1176 digi.no.  Check out the article
1177 "<a href="http://www.digi.no/juss_og_samfunn/2015/10/29/vil-apne-politikernes-oyne-for-creative-commons">Vil
1178 åpne politikernes øyne for Creative Commons</a>".</li>
1179
1180 <p>I've <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">blogged
1181 about the project</a> as it moved along.  The blogs document the translation
1182 progress and insights I had along the way.</p>
1183
1184       </div>
1185       <div class="tags">
1186
1187
1188         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
1189
1190
1191       </div>
1192     </div>
1193     <div class="padding"></div>
1194
1195     <div class="entry">
1196       <div class="title">
1197         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_Free_Culture__by__lessig___The_background_story_for_Creative_Commons___new_edition_available.html">"Free Culture" by @lessig - The background story for Creative Commons - new edition available</a>
1198       </div>
1199       <div class="date">
1200         23rd October 2015
1201       </div>
1202       <div class="body">
1203         <p><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22402863.html">Click
1204 here to buy the book</a>.</p>
1205
1206 <p>In 2004, as the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons
1207 movement</a> gained momentum, its creator Lawrence Lessig wrote the
1208 book <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Culture_(book)">Free
1209 Culture</a> to explain the problems with increasing copyright
1210 regulation and suggest some solutions.  I read the book back then and
1211 was very moved by it.  Reading the book inspired me and changed the
1212 way I looked on copyright law, and I would love it if more people
1213 would read it too.</p>
1214
1215 <p>Because of this, I decided in the summer of 2012 to translate it to
1216 Norwegian Bokmål and publish it for those of my friends and family
1217 that prefer to read books in Norwegian.  I translated the book using
1218 docbook and a gettext PO file, and a byproduct of this process is a
1219 new edition of the English original.  I've been in touch with the
1220 author during by work, and he said it was fine with him if I also
1221 published an English version.  So I decided to do so.  Today, I made
1222 this edition
1223 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22402863.html">available
1224 for sale on Lulu.com</a>, for those interested in a paper book.  This
1225 is the cover:
1226
1227 <p align="center"><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22402863.html"><img align="center" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-10-23-free-culture-english-published-cover.png"/></a></p>
1228
1229 <p>The Norwegian Bokmål version will be available for purchase in a
1230 few days.  I also plan to publish a French version in a few weeks or
1231 months, depending on the amount of people with knowledge of French to
1232 join the translation project.  So far there is only one active
1233 person, but the French book is almost completely translated but
1234 need some proof reading.</p>
1235
1236 <p>The book is also available in PDF, ePub and MOBI formats from
1237 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">my
1238 github project page</a>.  Note the ePub and MOBI versions have some
1239 formatting problems I believe is due to bugs in the docbook tool
1240 dbtoepub (Debian BTS issues
1241 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=795842">#795842</a>
1242 and
1243 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=796871">#796871</a>),
1244 but I have not taken the time to investigate.  I recommend the PDF and
1245 ePub version for now, as they seem to show up fine in the viewers I
1246 have available.</p>
1247
1248 <p>After the translation to Norwegian Bokmål was complete, I was able
1249 to secure some sponsoring from
1250 <a href="http://www.nuugfoundation.no/">the NUUG Foundation</a> to
1251 print the book.  This is the reason their logo is located on the back
1252 cover. I am very grateful for their contribution, and will use it to
1253 give a copy of the Norwegian edition to members of the Norwegian
1254 Parliament and other decision makers here in Norway.</p>
1255
1256       </div>
1257       <div class="tags">
1258
1259
1260         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
1261
1262
1263       </div>
1264     </div>
1265     <div class="padding"></div>
1266
1267     <div class="entry">
1268       <div class="title">
1269         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lawrence_Lessig_interviewed_Edward_Snowden_a_year_ago.html">Lawrence Lessig interviewed Edward Snowden a year ago</a>
1270       </div>
1271       <div class="date">
1272         19th October 2015
1273       </div>
1274       <div class="body">
1275         <p>Last year, <a href="https://lessig2016.us/">US president candidate
1276 in the Democratic Party</a> Lawrence interviewed Edward Snowden.  The
1277 one hour interview was
1278 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_Sr96TFQQE">published by
1279 Harvard Law School 2014-10-23 on Youtube</a>, and the meeting took
1280 place 2014-10-20.</p>
1281
1282 <p>The questions are very good, and there is lots of useful
1283 information to be learned and very interesting issues to think about
1284 being raised.  Please check it out.</p>
1285
1286 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o_Sr96TFQQE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
1287
1288 <p>I find it especially interesting to hear again that Snowden did try
1289 to bring up his reservations through the official channels without any
1290 luck.  It is in sharp contrast to the answers made 2013-11-06 by the
1291 Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg to the Norwegian Parliament,
1292 <a href="https://tale.holderdeord.no/speeches/s131106/68">claiming
1293 Snowden is no Whistle-Blower</a> because he should have taken up his
1294 concerns internally and using official channels.  It make me sad
1295 that this is the political leadership we have here in Norway.</p>
1296
1297       </div>
1298       <div class="tags">
1299
1300
1301         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1302
1303
1304       </div>
1305     </div>
1306     <div class="padding"></div>
1307
1308     <div class="entry">
1309       <div class="title">
1310         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Story_of_Aaron_Swartz___Let_us_all_weep_.html">The Story of Aaron Swartz - Let us all weep!</a>
1311       </div>
1312       <div class="date">
1313          8th October 2015
1314       </div>
1315       <div class="body">
1316         <p>The movie "<a href="http://www.takepart.com/internets-own-boy">The
1317 Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz</a>" is both inspiring
1318 and depressing at the same time.  The work of Aaron Swartz has
1319 inspired me in my work, and I am grateful of all the improvements he
1320 was able to initiate or complete.  I wish I am able to do as much good
1321 in my life as he did in his.  Every minute of this 1:45 long movie is
1322 inspiring in documenting how much impact a single person can have on
1323 improving the society and this world.  And it is depressing in
1324 documenting how the law enforcement of USA (and other countries) is
1325 corrupted to a point where they can push a bright kid to his death for
1326 downloading too many scientific articles.  Aaron is dead.  Let us all
1327 weep.</p>
1328
1329 <p>The movie is also available on
1330 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXr-2hwTk58">Youtube</a>.  I
1331 wish there were Norwegian subtitles available, so I could show it to
1332 my parents.</p>
1333
1334       </div>
1335       <div class="tags">
1336
1337
1338         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
1339
1340
1341       </div>
1342     </div>
1343     <div class="padding"></div>
1344
1345     <div class="entry">
1346       <div class="title">
1347         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/French_Docbook_PDF_EPUB_MOBI_edition_of_the_Free_Culture_book.html">French Docbook/PDF/EPUB/MOBI edition of the Free Culture book</a>
1348       </div>
1349       <div class="date">
1350          1st October 2015
1351       </div>
1352       <div class="body">
1353         <p>As I wrap up the Norwegian version of
1354 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">Free
1355 Culture</a> book by Lawrence Lessig (still waiting for my final proof
1356 reading copy to arrive in the mail), my great
1357 <a href="http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/">dblatex</a> helper and
1358 developer of the dblatex docbook processor, Benoît Guillon, decided a
1359 to try to create a French version of the book.  He started with the
1360 French translation available from the
1361 <a href="http://www.wikilivres.ca/wiki/Culture_libre">Wikilivres wiki
1362 pages</a>, and wrote a program to convert it into a PO file, allowing
1363 the translation to be integrated into the po4a based framework I use
1364 to create the Norwegian translation from the English edition.  We meet
1365 on the <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23dblatex">#dblatex IRC
1366 channel</a> to discuss the work.  If you want to help create a French
1367 edition, check out
1368 <a href="https://github.com/marsgui/free-culture-lessig">his git
1369 repository</a> and join us on IRC.  If the French edition look good,
1370 we might publish it as a paper book on lulu.com.  A French version of
1371 the drawings and the cover need to be provided for this to happen.</p>
1372
1373       </div>
1374       <div class="tags">
1375
1376
1377         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
1378
1379
1380       </div>
1381     </div>
1382     <div class="padding"></div>
1383
1384     <div class="entry">
1385       <div class="title">
1386         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
1387       </div>
1388       <div class="date">
1389         24th September 2015
1390       </div>
1391       <div class="body">
1392         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
1393 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
1394 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
1395 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
1396 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
1397 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
1398 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
1399
1400 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
1401
1402 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
1403 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
1404 by someone else.  I found
1405 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
1406 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
1407 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
1408 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
1409 from him.  Via
1410 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
1411 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
1412 discovered
1413 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
1414 available in Debian.</p>
1415
1416 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
1417 battery stats ever since. Now my
1418 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
1419 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
1420 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
1421 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
1422
1423 <pre>
1424 #!/bin/sh
1425 # Inspired by
1426 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
1427 # See also
1428 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
1429 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
1430
1431 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
1432     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
1433
1434 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
1435     (
1436         printf "timestamp,"
1437         for f in $files; do
1438             printf "%s," $f
1439         done
1440         echo
1441     ) > "$logfile"
1442 fi
1443
1444 log_battery() {
1445     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
1446     # when several log processes run in parallel.
1447     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
1448         for f in $files; do \
1449             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
1450         done)
1451     echo "$msg"
1452 }
1453
1454 cd /sys/class/power_supply
1455
1456 for bat in BAT*; do
1457     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
1458 done
1459 </pre>
1460
1461 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
1462 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
1463 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
1464 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
1465 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
1466 The code for the Debian package
1467 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
1468 available on github</a>.</p>
1469
1470 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
1471
1472 <pre>
1473 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
1474 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
1475 [...]
1476 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
1477 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
1478 </pre>
1479
1480 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
1481 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
1482 battery.</p>
1483
1484 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
1485 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
1486 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
1487 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
1488 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
1489 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
1490 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
1491 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
1492 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
1493 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
1494 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
1495 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
1496 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
1497 Linux too.</p>
1498
1499 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
1500 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
1501 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
1502 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
1503 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
1504 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
1505 load).</p>
1506
1507 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
1508 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
1509 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
1510 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
1511 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
1512 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
1513 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
1514 those.</p>
1515
1516 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
1517 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
1518 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
1519 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
1520 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
1521 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
1522 specific.</p>
1523
1524       </div>
1525       <div class="tags">
1526
1527
1528         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1529
1530
1531       </div>
1532     </div>
1533     <div class="padding"></div>
1534
1535     <div class="entry">
1536       <div class="title">
1537         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Book_cover_for_the_Free_Culture_book_finally_done.html">Book cover for the Free Culture book finally done</a>
1538       </div>
1539       <div class="date">
1540          3rd September 2015
1541       </div>
1542       <div class="body">
1543         <p>Creating a good looking book cover proved harder than I expected.
1544 I wanted to create a cover looking similar to the original cover of
1545 the
1546 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">Free
1547 Culture</a> book we are translating to Norwegian, and I wanted it in
1548 vector format for high resolution printing.  But my inkscape knowledge
1549 were not nearly good enough to pull that off.
1550
1551 <p>But thanks to the great inkscape community, I was able to wrap up
1552 the cover yesterday evening.  I asked on the
1553 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23inkscape">#inkscape IRC channel</a>
1554 on Freenode for help and clues, and Marc Jeanmougin (Mc-) volunteered
1555 to try to recreate it based on the PDF of the cover from the HTML
1556 version.  Not only did he create a
1557 <a href="https://marc.jeanmougin.fr/share/copy1.svg ">SVG document with
1558 the original and his vector version side by side</a>, he even provided
1559 an <a href="https://marc.jeanmougin.fr/share/out-1.ogv">instruction
1560 video</a> explaining how he did it</a>.  But the instruction video is
1561 not easy to follow for an untrained inkscape user. The video is a
1562 recording on how he did it, and he is obviously very experienced as
1563 the menu selections are very quick and he mentioned on IRC that he did
1564 use some keyboard shortcuts that can't be seen on the video, but it
1565 give a good idea about the inkscape operations to use to create the
1566 stripes with the embossed copyright sign in the center.</p>
1567
1568 <p>I took his SVG file, copied the vector image and re-sized it to fit
1569 on the cover I was drawing.  I am happy with the end result, and the
1570 current english version look like this:</p>
1571
1572 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-03-free-culture-cover.png" width="70%" align="center"/>
1573
1574 <p>I am not quite sure about the text on the back, but guess it will
1575 do.  I picked three quotes from the official site for the book, and
1576 hope it will work to trigger the interest of potential readers.  The
1577 Norwegian cover will look the same, but with the texts and bar code
1578 replaced with the Norwegian version.</p>
1579
1580 <p>The book is very close to being ready for publication, and I expect
1581 to upload the final draft to Lulu in the next few days and order a
1582 final proof reading copy to verify that everything look like it should
1583 before allowing everyone to order their own copy of Free Culture, in
1584 English or Norwegian Bokmål.  I'm waiting to give the the productive
1585 proof readers a chance to complete their work.</p>
1586
1587       </div>
1588       <div class="tags">
1589
1590
1591         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
1592
1593
1594       </div>
1595     </div>
1596     <div class="padding"></div>
1597
1598     <div class="entry">
1599       <div class="title">
1600         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/In_my_hand__a_pocket_book_edition_of_the_Norwegian_Free_Culture_book_.html">In my hand, a pocket book edition of the Norwegian Free Culture book!</a>
1601       </div>
1602       <div class="date">
1603         19th August 2015
1604       </div>
1605       <div class="body">
1606         <p>Today, finally, my first printed draft edition of the Norwegian
1607 translation of Free Culture I have been working on for the last few
1608 years arrived in the mail.  I had to fake a cover to get the interior
1609 printed, and the exterior of the book look awful, but that is
1610 irrelevant at this point.  I asked for a printed pocket book version
1611 to get an idea about the font sizes and paper format as well as how
1612 good the figures and images look in print, but also to test what the
1613 pocket book version would look like.  After receiving the 500 page
1614 pocket book, it became obvious to me that that pocket book size is too
1615 small for this book.  I believe the book is too thick, and several
1616 tables and figures do not look good in the size they get with that
1617 small page sizes.  I believe I will go with the 5.5x8.5 inch size
1618 instead.  A surprise discovery from the paper version was how bad the
1619 URLs look in print.  They are very hard to read in the colophon page.
1620 The URLs are red in the PDF, but light gray on paper.  I need to
1621 change the color of links somehow to look better.  But there is a
1622 printed book in my hand, and it feels great. :)</p>
1623
1624 <p>Now I only need to fix the cover, wrap up the postscript with the
1625 store behind the book, and collect the last corrections from the proof
1626 readers before the book is ready for proper printing.  Cover artists
1627 willing to work for free and create a Creative Commons licensed vector
1628 file looking similar to the original is most welcome, as my skills as
1629 a graphics designer are mostly missing.</p>
1630
1631       </div>
1632       <div class="tags">
1633
1634
1635         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
1636
1637
1638       </div>
1639     </div>
1640     <div class="padding"></div>
1641
1642     <div class="entry">
1643       <div class="title">
1644         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_paper_version_of_the_Norwegian_Free_Culture_book_heading_my_way.html">First paper version of the Norwegian Free Culture book heading my way</a>
1645       </div>
1646       <div class="date">
1647          9th August 2015
1648       </div>
1649       <div class="body">
1650         <p>Typesetting a book is harder than I hoped.  As the translation is
1651 mostly done, and a volunteer proof reader was going to check the text
1652 on paper, it was time this summer to focus on formatting my translated
1653 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> based version of the
1654 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> book by Lawrence
1655 Lessig.  I've been trying to get both docboox-xsl+fop and dblatex to
1656 give me a good looking PDF, but in the end I went with dblatex, because
1657 its Debian maintainer and upstream developer were responsive and very
1658 helpful in solving my formatting challenges.</p>
1659
1660 <p>Last night, I finally managed to create a PDF that no longer made
1661 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/">Lulu.com</a> complain after uploading,
1662 and I ordered a text version of the book on paper.  It is lacking a
1663 proper book cover and is not tagged with the correct ISBN number, but
1664 should give me an idea what the finished book will look like.</p>
1665
1666 <p>Instead of using Lulu, I did consider printing the book using
1667 <a href="http://www.createspace.com/">CreateSpace</a>, but ended up
1668 using Lulu because it had smaller book size options (CreateSpace seem
1669 to lack pocket book with extended distribution).  I looked for a
1670 similar service in Norway, but have not seen anything so far.  Please
1671 let me know if I am missing out on something here.</p>
1672
1673 <p>But I still struggle to decide the book size.  Should I go for
1674 pocket book (4.25x6.875 inches / 10.8x17.5 cm) with 556 pages, Digest
1675 (5.5x8.5 inches / 14x21.6 cm) with 323 pages or US Trade (6x8 inches /
1676 15.3x22.9 cm) with 280 pages?  Fewer pager give a cheaper book, and a
1677 smaller book is easier to carry around.  The test book I ordered was
1678 pocket book sized, to give me an idea how well that fit in my hand,
1679 but I suspect I will end up using a digest sized book in the end to
1680 bring the prize down further.</p>
1681
1682 <p>My biggest challenge at the moment is making nice cover art.  My
1683 inkscape skills are not yet up to the task of replicating the original
1684 cover in SVG format.  I also need to figure out what to write about
1685 the book on the back (will most likely use the same text as the
1686 description on web based book stores).  I would love help with this,
1687 if you are willing to license the art source and final version using
1688 the same CC license as the book.  My artistic skills are not really up
1689 to the task.</p>
1690
1691 <p>I plan to publish the book in both English and Norwegian and on
1692 paper, in PDF form as well as EPUB and MOBI format.  The current
1693 status can as usual be found on
1694 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>
1695 in the archive/ directory.  So far I have spent all time on making the
1696 PDF version look good.  Someone should probably do the same with the
1697 dbtoepub generated e-book.  Help is definitely needed here, as I
1698 expect to run out of steem before I find time to improve the epub
1699 formatting.</p>
1700
1701 <p>Please let me know via github if you find typos in the book or
1702 discover translations that should be improved.  The final proof
1703 reading is being done right now, and I expect to publish the finished
1704 result in a few months.</p>
1705
1706       </div>
1707       <div class="tags">
1708
1709
1710         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
1711
1712
1713       </div>
1714     </div>
1715     <div class="padding"></div>
1716
1717     <div class="entry">
1718       <div class="title">
1719         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Typesetting_DocBook_footnotes_as_endnotes_with_dblatex.html">Typesetting DocBook footnotes as endnotes with dblatex</a>
1720       </div>
1721       <div class="date">
1722         16th July 2015
1723       </div>
1724       <div class="body">
1725         <p>I'm still working on the Norwegian version of the
1726 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture book by Lawrence
1727 Lessig</a>, and is now working on the final typesetting and layout.
1728 One of the features I want to get the structure similar to the
1729 original book is to typeset the footnotes as endnotes in the notes
1730 chapter.  Based on the
1731 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/685063">feedback from the Debian
1732 maintainer and the dblatex developer</a>, I came up with this recipe I
1733 would like to share with you.  The proposal was to create a new LaTeX
1734 class file and add the LaTeX code there, but this is not always
1735 practical, when I want to be able to replace the class using a make
1736 file variable.  So my proposal misuses the latex.begindocument XSL
1737 parameter value, to get a small fragment into the correct location in
1738 the generated LaTeX File.</p>
1739
1740 <p>First, decide where in the DocBook document to place the endnotes,
1741 and add this text there:</p>
1742
1743 <pre>
1744 &lt;?latex \theendnotes ?&gt;
1745 </pre>
1746
1747 <p>Next, create a xsl stylesheet file dblatex-endnotes.xsl to add the
1748 code needed to add the endnote instructions in the preamble of the
1749 generated LaTeX document, with content like this:</p>
1750
1751 <pre>
1752 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
1753 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
1754   &lt;xsl:param name="latex.begindocument"&gt;
1755     &lt;xsl:text&gt;
1756 \usepackage{endnotes}
1757 \let\footnote=\endnote
1758 \def\enoteheading{\mbox{}\par\vskip-\baselineskip }
1759 \begin{document}
1760     &lt;/xsl:text&gt;
1761   &lt;/xsl:param&gt;
1762 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
1763 </pre>
1764
1765 <p>Finally, load this xsl file when running dblatex, for example like
1766 this:</p>
1767
1768 <pre>
1769 dblatex --xsl-user=dblatex-endnotes.xsl freeculture.nb.xml
1770 </pre>
1771
1772 <p>The end result can be seen on github, where
1773 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">my
1774 book project</a> is located.</p>
1775
1776       </div>
1777       <div class="tags">
1778
1779
1780         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
1781
1782
1783       </div>
1784     </div>
1785     <div class="padding"></div>
1786
1787     <div class="entry">
1788       <div class="title">
1789         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MPEG_LA_on__Internet_Broadcast_AVC_Video__licensing_and_non_private_use.html">MPEG LA on "Internet Broadcast AVC Video" licensing and non-private use</a>
1790       </div>
1791       <div class="date">
1792          7th July 2015
1793       </div>
1794       <div class="body">
1795         <p>After asking the Norwegian Broadcasting Company (NRK)
1796 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hva_gj_r_at_NRK_kan_distribuere_H_264_video_uten_patentavtale_med_MPEG_LA_.html">why
1797 they can broadcast and stream H.264 video without an agreement with
1798 the MPEG LA</a>, I was wiser, but still confused.  So I asked MPEG LA
1799 if their understanding matched that of NRK.  As far as I can tell, it
1800 does not.</p>
1801
1802 <p>I started by asking for more information about the various
1803 licensing classes and what exactly is covered by the "Internet
1804 Broadcast AVC Video" class that NRK pointed me at to explain why NRK
1805 did not need a license for streaming H.264 video:
1806
1807 <p><blockquote>
1808
1809 <p>According to
1810 <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/Lists/MPEG%20LA%20News%20List/Attachments/226/n-10-02-02.pdf">a
1811 MPEG LA press release dated 2010-02-02</a>, there is no charge when
1812 using MPEG AVC/H.264 according to the terms of "Internet Broadcast AVC
1813 Video".  I am trying to understand exactly what the terms of "Internet
1814 Broadcast AVC Video" is, and wondered if you could help me.  What
1815 exactly is covered by these terms, and what is not?</p>
1816
1817 <p>The only source of more information I have been able to find is a
1818 PDF named
1819 <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/avc/Documents/avcweb.pdf">AVC
1820 Patent Portfolio License Briefing</a>, which states this about the
1821 fees:</p>
1822
1823 <ul>
1824  <li>Where End User pays for AVC Video
1825   <ul>
1826    <li>Subscription (not limited by title) – 100,000 or fewer
1827      subscribers/yr = no royalty; &gt; 100,000 to 250,000 subscribers/yr =
1828      $25,000; &gt;250,000 to 500,000 subscribers/yr = $50,000; &gt;500,000 to
1829      1M subscribers/yr = $75,000; &gt;1M subscribers/yr = $100,000</li>
1830
1831    <li>Title-by-Title - 12 minutes or less = no royalty; &gt;12 minutes in
1832      length = lower of (a) 2% or (b) $0.02 per title</li>
1833   </ul></li>
1834
1835  <li>Where remuneration is from other sources
1836   <ul>
1837    <li>Free Television - (a) one-time $2,500 per transmission encoder or
1838      (b) annual fee starting at $2,500 for &gt; 100,000 HH rising to
1839      maximum $10,000 for &gt;1,000,000 HH</li>
1840
1841    <li>Internet Broadcast AVC Video (not title-by-title, not subscription)
1842      – no royalty for life of the AVC Patent Portfolio License</li>
1843   </ul></li>
1844 </ul>
1845
1846 <p>Am I correct in assuming that the four categories listed is the
1847 categories used when selecting licensing terms, and that "Internet
1848 Broadcast AVC Video" is the category for things that do not fall into
1849 one of the other three categories?  Can you point me to a good source
1850 explaining what is ment by "title-by-title" and "Free Television" in
1851 the license terms for AVC/H.264?</p>
1852
1853 <p>Will a web service providing H.264 encoded video content in a
1854 "video on demand" fashing similar to Youtube and Vimeo, where no
1855 subscription is required and no payment is required from end users to
1856 get access to the videos, fall under the terms of the "Internet
1857 Broadcast AVC Video", ie no royalty for life of the AVC Patent
1858 Portfolio license?  Does it matter if some users are subscribed to get
1859 access to personalized services?</p>
1860
1861 <p>Note, this request and all answers will be published on the
1862 Internet.</p>
1863 </blockquote></p>
1864
1865 <p>The answer came quickly from Benjamin J. Myers, Licensing Associate
1866 with the MPEG LA:</p>
1867
1868 <p><blockquote>
1869 <p>Thank you for your message and for your interest in MPEG LA.  We
1870 appreciate hearing from you and I will be happy to assist you.</p>
1871
1872 <p>As you are aware, MPEG LA offers our AVC Patent Portfolio License
1873 which provides coverage under patents that are essential for use of
1874 the AVC/H.264 Standard (MPEG-4 Part 10).  Specifically, coverage is
1875 provided for end products and video content that make use of AVC/H.264
1876 technology.  Accordingly, the party offering such end products and
1877 video to End Users concludes the AVC License and is responsible for
1878 paying the applicable royalties.</p>
1879
1880 <p>Regarding Internet Broadcast AVC Video, the AVC License generally
1881 defines such content to be video that is distributed to End Users over
1882 the Internet free-of-charge.  Therefore, if a party offers a service
1883 which allows users to upload AVC/H.264 video to its website, and such
1884 AVC Video is delivered to End Users for free, then such video would
1885 receive coverage under the sublicense for Internet Broadcast AVC
1886 Video, which is not subject to any royalties for the life of the AVC
1887 License.  This would also apply in the scenario where a user creates a
1888 free online account in order to receive a customized offering of free
1889 AVC Video content.  In other words, as long as the End User is given
1890 access to or views AVC Video content at no cost to the End User, then
1891 no royalties would be payable under our AVC License.</p>
1892
1893 <p>On the other hand, if End Users pay for access to AVC Video for a
1894 specific period of time (e.g., one month, one year, etc.), then such
1895 video would constitute Subscription AVC Video.  In cases where AVC
1896 Video is delivered to End Users on a pay-per-view basis, then such
1897 content would constitute Title-by-Title AVC Video.  If a party offers
1898 Subscription or Title-by-Title AVC Video to End Users, then they would
1899 be responsible for paying the applicable royalties you noted below.</p>
1900
1901 <p>Finally, in the case where AVC Video is distributed for free
1902 through an "over-the-air, satellite and/or cable transmission", then
1903 such content would constitute Free Television AVC Video and would be
1904 subject to the applicable royalties.</p>
1905
1906 <p>For your reference, I have attached
1907 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-07-07-mpegla.pdf">a
1908 .pdf copy of the AVC License</a>. You will find the relevant
1909 sublicense information regarding AVC Video in Sections 2.2 through
1910 2.5, and the corresponding royalties in Section 3.1.2 through 3.1.4.
1911 You will also find the definitions of Title-by-Title AVC Video,
1912 Subscription AVC Video, Free Television AVC Video, and Internet
1913 Broadcast AVC Video in Section 1 of the License.  Please note that the
1914 electronic copy is provided for informational purposes only and cannot
1915 be used for execution.</p>
1916
1917 <p>I hope the above information is helpful.  If you have additional
1918 questions or need further assistance with the AVC License, please feel
1919 free to contact me directly.</p>
1920 </blockquote></p>
1921
1922 <p>Having a fresh copy of the license text was useful, and knowing
1923 that the definition of Title-by-Title required payment per title made
1924 me aware that my earlier understanding of that phrase had been wrong.
1925 But I still had a few questions:</p>
1926
1927 <p><blockquote>
1928 <p>I have a small followup question.  Would it be possible for me to get
1929 a license with MPEG LA even if there are no royalties to be paid?  The
1930 reason I ask, is that some video related products have a copyright
1931 clause limiting their use without a license with MPEG LA.  The clauses
1932 typically look similar to this:
1933
1934 <p><blockquote>
1935   This product is licensed under the AVC patent portfolio license for
1936   the personal and non-commercial use of a consumer to (a) encode
1937   video in compliance with the AVC standard ("AVC video") and/or (b)
1938   decode AVC video that was encoded by a consumer engaged in a
1939   personal and non-commercial activity and/or AVC video that was
1940   obtained from a video provider licensed to provide AVC video. No
1941   license is granted or shall be implied for any other use. additional
1942   information may be obtained from MPEG LA L.L.C.
1943 </blockquote></p>
1944
1945 <p>It is unclear to me if this clause mean that I need to enter into
1946 an agreement with MPEG LA to use the product in question, even if
1947 there are no royalties to be paid to MPEG LA.  I suspect it will
1948 differ depending on the jurisdiction, and mine is Norway.  What is
1949 MPEG LAs view on this?</p>
1950 </blockquote></p>
1951
1952 <p>According to the answer, MPEG LA believe those using such tools for
1953 non-personal or commercial use need a license with them:</p>
1954
1955 <p><blockquote>
1956
1957 <p>With regard to the Notice to Customers, I would like to begin by
1958 clarifying that the Notice from Section 7.1 of the AVC License
1959 reads:</p>
1960
1961 <p>THIS PRODUCT IS LICENSED UNDER THE AVC PATENT PORTFOLIO LICENSE FOR
1962 THE PERSONAL USE OF A CONSUMER OR OTHER USES IN WHICH IT DOES NOT
1963 RECEIVE REMUNERATION TO (i) ENCODE VIDEO IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE AVC
1964 STANDARD ("AVC VIDEO") AND/OR (ii) DECODE AVC VIDEO THAT WAS ENCODED
1965 BY A CONSUMER ENGAGED IN A PERSONAL ACTIVITY AND/OR WAS OBTAINED FROM
1966 A VIDEO PROVIDER LICENSED TO PROVIDE AVC VIDEO. NO LICENSE IS GRANTED
1967 OR SHALL BE IMPLIED FOR ANY OTHER USE. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION MAY BE
1968 OBTAINED FROM MPEG LA, L.L.C. SEE HTTP://WWW.MPEGLA.COM</p>
1969
1970 <p>The Notice to Customers is intended to inform End Users of the
1971 personal usage rights (for example, to watch video content) included
1972 with the product they purchased, and to encourage any party using the
1973 product for commercial purposes to contact MPEG LA in order to become
1974 licensed for such use (for example, when they use an AVC Product to
1975 deliver Title-by-Title, Subscription, Free Television or Internet
1976 Broadcast AVC Video to End Users, or to re-Sell a third party's AVC
1977 Product as their own branded AVC Product).</p>
1978
1979 <p>Therefore, if a party is to be licensed for its use of an AVC
1980 Product to Sell AVC Video on a Title-by-Title, Subscription, Free
1981 Television or Internet Broadcast basis, that party would need to
1982 conclude the AVC License, even in the case where no royalties were
1983 payable under the License.  On the other hand, if that party (either a
1984 Consumer or business customer) simply uses an AVC Product for their
1985 own internal purposes and not for the commercial purposes referenced
1986 above, then such use would be included in the royalty paid for the AVC
1987 Products by the licensed supplier.</p>
1988
1989 <p>Finally, I note that our AVC License provides worldwide coverage in
1990 countries that have AVC Patent Portfolio Patents, including
1991 Norway.</p>
1992
1993 <p>I hope this clarification is helpful.  If I may be of any further
1994 assistance, just let me know.</p>
1995 </blockquote></p>
1996
1997 <p>The mentioning of Norwegian patents made me a bit confused, so I
1998 asked for more information:</p>
1999
2000 <p><blockquote>
2001
2002 <p>But one minor question at the end.  If I understand you correctly,
2003 you state in the quote above that there are patents in the AVC Patent
2004 Portfolio that are valid in Norway.  This make me believe I read the
2005 list available from &lt;URL:
2006 <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/PatentList.aspx">http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/PatentList.aspx</a>
2007 &gt; incorrectly, as I believed the "NO" prefix in front of patents
2008 were Norwegian patents, and the only one I could find under Mitsubishi
2009 Electric Corporation expired in 2012.  Which patents are you referring
2010 to that are relevant for Norway?</p>
2011
2012 </blockquote></p>
2013
2014 <p>Again, the quick answer explained how to read the list of patents
2015 in that list:</p>
2016
2017 <p><blockquote>
2018
2019 <p>Your understanding is correct that the last AVC Patent Portfolio
2020 Patent in Norway expired on 21 October 2012.  Therefore, where AVC
2021 Video is both made and Sold in Norway after that date, then no
2022 royalties would be payable for such AVC Video under the AVC License.
2023 With that said, our AVC License provides historic coverage for AVC
2024 Products and AVC Video that may have been manufactured or Sold before
2025 the last Norwegian AVC patent expired.  I would also like to clarify
2026 that coverage is provided for the country of manufacture and the
2027 country of Sale that has active AVC Patent Portfolio Patents.</p>
2028
2029 <p>Therefore, if a party offers AVC Products or AVC Video for Sale in
2030 a country with active AVC Patent Portfolio Patents (for example,
2031 Sweden, Denmark, Finland, etc.), then that party would still need
2032 coverage under the AVC License even if such products or video are
2033 initially made in a country without active AVC Patent Portfolio
2034 Patents (for example, Norway).  Similarly, a party would need to
2035 conclude the AVC License if they make AVC Products or AVC Video in a
2036 country with active AVC Patent Portfolio Patents, but eventually Sell
2037 such AVC Products or AVC Video in a country without active AVC Patent
2038 Portfolio Patents.</p>
2039 </blockquote></p>
2040
2041 <p>As far as I understand it, MPEG LA believe anyone using Adobe
2042 Premiere and other video related software with a H.264 distribution
2043 license need a license agreement with MPEG LA to use such tools for
2044 anything non-private or commercial, while it is OK to set up a
2045 Youtube-like service as long as no-one pays to get access to the
2046 content.  I still have no clear idea how this applies to Norway, where
2047 none of the patents MPEG LA is licensing are valid.  Will the
2048 copyright terms take precedence or can those terms be ignored because
2049 the patents are not valid in Norway?</p>
2050
2051       </div>
2052       <div class="tags">
2053
2054
2055         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
2056
2057
2058       </div>
2059     </div>
2060     <div class="padding"></div>
2061
2062     <div class="entry">
2063       <div class="title">
2064         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html">New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback</a>
2065       </div>
2066       <div class="date">
2067          5th July 2015
2068       </div>
2069       <div class="body">
2070         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
2071 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
2072 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
2073 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
2074 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
2075 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
2076 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
2077 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
2078 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
2079 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
2080 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
2081
2082 <p>One tip I got was to use the
2083 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
2084 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
2085 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
2086 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
2087 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
2088 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
2089
2090 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
2091 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
2092 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
2093 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
2094 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
2095 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
2096 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
2097 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
2098 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
2099 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
2100 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
2101 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
2102 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
2103 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
2104 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
2105
2106 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
2107 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
2108 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
2109 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
2110
2111 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
2112 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
2113
2114 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
2115 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
2116 different
2117 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
2118 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
2119
2120       </div>
2121       <div class="tags">
2122
2123
2124         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2125
2126
2127       </div>
2128     </div>
2129     <div class="padding"></div>
2130
2131     <div class="entry">
2132       <div class="title">
2133         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html">Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years</a>
2134       </div>
2135       <div class="date">
2136          3rd July 2015
2137       </div>
2138       <div class="body">
2139         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
2140 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
2141 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
2142 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
2143 flickering.</p>
2144
2145 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
2146 still as
2147 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
2148 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
2149 good help from
2150 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
2151 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
2152 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
2153 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
2154 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
2155 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
2156 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
2157 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
2158 deteriorated since X41.</p>
2159
2160 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
2161 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
2162 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
2163 have suggestions.</p>
2164
2165 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
2166 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
2167 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
2168
2169       </div>
2170       <div class="tags">
2171
2172
2173         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2174
2175
2176       </div>
2177     </div>
2178     <div class="padding"></div>
2179
2180     <div class="entry">
2181       <div class="title">
2182         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MakerCon_Nordic_videos_now_available_on_Frikanalen.html">MakerCon Nordic videos now available on Frikanalen</a>
2183       </div>
2184       <div class="date">
2185          2nd July 2015
2186       </div>
2187       <div class="body">
2188         <p>Last oktober I was involved on behalf of
2189 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a> with recording the talks at
2190 <a href="http://www.makercon.no/">MakerCon Nordic</a>, a conference for
2191 the Maker movement.  Since then it has been the plan to publish the
2192 recordings on <a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a>, which
2193 finally happened the last few days.  A few talks are missing because
2194 the speakers asked the organizers to not publish them, but most of the
2195 talks are available.  The talks are being broadcasted on RiksTV
2196 channel 50 and using multicast on Uninett, as well as being available
2197 from the Frikanalen web site.  The unedited recordings are
2198 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/MakerConNordic/">available on
2199 Youtube too</a>.</p>
2200
2201 <p>This is the list of talks available at the moment.  Visit the
2202 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.no/video/?q=makercon">Frikanalen video
2203 pages</a> to view them.</p>
2204
2205 <ul>
2206
2207   <li>Evolutionary algorithms as a design tool - from art
2208       to robotics (Kyrre Glette)</li>
2209
2210   <li>Make and break (Hans Gerhard Meier)</li>
2211
2212   <li>Making a one year school course for young makers
2213       (Olav Helland)</li>
2214
2215   <li>Innovation Inspiration - IPR Databases as a Source of
2216       Inspiration (Hege Langlo)</li>
2217
2218   <li>Making a toy for makers (Erik Torstensson)</li>
2219
2220   <li>How to make 3D printer electronics (Elias Bakken)</li>
2221
2222   <li>Hovering Clouds: Looking at online tool offerings for Product
2223       Design and 3D Printing (William Kempton)</li>
2224
2225   <li>Travelling maker stories (Øyvind Nydal Dahl)</li>
2226
2227   <li>Making the first Maker Faire in Sweden (Nils Olander)</li>
2228
2229   <li>Breaking the mold: Printing 1000’s of parts (Espen Sivertsen)</li>
2230
2231   <li>Ultimaker — and open source 3D printing (Erik de Bruijn)</li>
2232
2233   <li>Autodesk’s 3D Printing Platform: Sparking innovation (Hilde
2234       Sevens)</li>
2235
2236   <li>How Making is Changing the World – and How You Can Too!
2237       (Jennifer Turliuk)</li>
2238
2239   <li>Open-Source Adventuring: OpenROV, OpenExplorer and the Future of
2240       Connected Exploration (David Lang)</li>
2241
2242   <li>Making in Norway (Haakon Karlsen Jr., Graham Hayward and Jens
2243       Dyvik)</li>
2244
2245   <li>The Impact of the Maker Movement (Mike Senese)</li>
2246
2247 </ul>
2248
2249 <p>Part of the reason this took so long was that the scripts NUUG had
2250 to prepare a recording for publication were five years old and no
2251 longer worked with the current video processing tools (command line
2252 argument changes).  In addition, we needed better audio normalization,
2253 which sent me on a detour to
2254 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Measuring_and_adjusting_the_loudness_of_a_TV_channel_using_bs1770gain.html">package
2255 bs1770gain for Debian</a>.  Now this is in place and it became a lot
2256 easier to publish NUUG videos on Frikanalen.</p>
2257
2258       </div>
2259       <div class="tags">
2260
2261
2262         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
2263
2264
2265       </div>
2266     </div>
2267     <div class="padding"></div>
2268
2269     <div class="entry">
2270       <div class="title">
2271         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Graphing_the_Norwegian_company_ownership_structure.html">Graphing the Norwegian company ownership structure</a>
2272       </div>
2273       <div class="date">
2274         15th June 2015
2275       </div>
2276       <div class="body">
2277         <p>It is a bit work to figure out the ownership structure of companies
2278 in Norway.  The information is publicly available, but one need to
2279 recursively look up ownership for all owners to figure out the complete
2280 ownership graph of a given set of companies.  To save me the work in
2281 the future, I wrote a script to do this automatically, outputting the
2282 ownership structure using the Graphviz/dotty format.  The data source
2283 is web scraping from <a href="http://www.proff.no/">Proff</a>, because
2284 I failed to find a useful source directly from the official keepers of
2285 the ownership data, <a href="http://www.brreg.no/">Brønnøysundsregistrene</a>.</p>
2286
2287 <p>To get an ownership graph for a set of companies, fetch
2288 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/brreg-norway-ownership-graph">the code from git</a> and run it using the organisation number.  I'm
2289 using the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet as an example here, as its
2290 ownership structure is very simple:</p>
2291
2292 <pre>
2293 % time ./bin/eierskap-dotty 958033540 > dagbladet.dot
2294
2295 real    0m2.841s
2296 user    0m0.184s
2297 sys     0m0.036s
2298 %
2299 </pre>
2300
2301 <p>The script accept several organisation numbers on the command line,
2302 allowing a cluster of companies to be graphed in the same image.  The
2303 resulting dot file for the example above look like this.  The edges
2304 are labeled with the ownership percentage, and the nodes uses the
2305 organisation number as their name and the name as the label:</p>
2306
2307 <pre>
2308 digraph ownership {
2309 rankdir = LR;
2310 "Aller Holding A/s" -> "910119877" [label="100%"]
2311 "910119877" -> "998689015" [label="100%"]
2312 "998689015" -> "958033540" [label="99%"]
2313 "974530600" -> "958033540" [label="1%"]
2314 "958033540" [label="AS DAGBLADET"]
2315 "998689015" [label="Berner Media Holding AS"]
2316 "974530600" [label="Dagbladets Stiftelse"]
2317 "910119877" [label="Aller Media AS"]
2318 }
2319 </pre>
2320
2321 <p>To view the ownership graph, run "<tt>dotty dagbladet.dot</tt>" or
2322 convert it to a PNG using "<tt>dot -T png dagbladet.dot >
2323 dagbladet.png</tt>".  The result can be seen below:</p>
2324
2325 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-06-15-ownership-graphs-norway-dagbladet.png" width="80%">
2326
2327 <p>Note that I suspect the "Aller Holding A/S" entry to be incorrect
2328 data in the official ownership register, as that name is not
2329 registered in the official company register for Norway.  The ownership
2330 register is sensitive to typos and there seem to be no strict checking
2331 of the ownership links.</p>
2332
2333 <p>Let me know if you improve the script or find better data sources.
2334 The code is licensed according to GPL 2 or newer.</p>
2335
2336 <p>Update 2015-06-15: Since the initial post I've been told that
2337 "<a href="http://www.proff.dk/firma/carl-allers-etablissement-aktieselskab/københavn-v/hovedkontorer/13624518-3/">Aller
2338 Holding A/S</a>" is a Danish company, which explain why it did not
2339 have a Norwegian organisation number.  I've also been told that there
2340 is a <a href="http://www.brreg.no/automatiske/webservices/">web
2341 services API available</a> from Brønnøysundsregistrene, for those
2342 willing to accept the terms or pay the price.</p>
2343
2344       </div>
2345       <div class="tags">
2346
2347
2348         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn</a>.
2349
2350
2351       </div>
2352     </div>
2353     <div class="padding"></div>
2354
2355     <div class="entry">
2356       <div class="title">
2357         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Measuring_and_adjusting_the_loudness_of_a_TV_channel_using_bs1770gain.html">Measuring and adjusting the loudness of a TV channel using bs1770gain</a>
2358       </div>
2359       <div class="date">
2360         11th June 2015
2361       </div>
2362       <div class="body">
2363         <p>Television loudness is the source of frustration for viewers
2364 everywhere.  Some channels are very load, others are less loud, and
2365 ads tend to shout very high to get the attention of the viewers, and
2366 the viewers do not like this.  This fact is well known to the TV
2367 channels.  See for example the BBC white paper
2368 "<a href="http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp-pdf-files/WHP202.pdf">Terminology
2369 for loudness and level dBTP, LU, and all that</a>" from 2011 for a
2370 summary of the problem domain.  To better address the need for even
2371 loadness, the TV channels got together several years ago to agree on a
2372 new way to measure loudness in digital files as one step in
2373 standardizing loudness.  From this came the ITU-R standard BS.1770,
2374 "<a href="http://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-BS.1770/en">Algorithms to
2375 measure audio programme loudness and true-peak audio level</a>".</p>
2376
2377 <p>The ITU-R BS.1770 specification describe an algorithm to measure
2378 loadness in LUFS (Loudness Units, referenced to Full Scale). But
2379 having a way to measure is not enough.  To get the same loudness
2380 across TV channels, one also need to decide which value to standardize
2381 on.  For European TV channels, this was done in the EBU Recommondaton
2382 R128, "<a href="https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/r/r128.pdf">Loudness
2383 normalisation and permitted maximum level of audio signals</a>", which
2384 specifies a recommended level of -23 LUFS.  In Norway, I have been
2385 told that NRK, TV2, MTG and SBS have decided among themselves to
2386 follow the R128 recommondation for playout from 2016-03-01.</p>
2387
2388 <p>There are free software available to measure and adjust the loudness
2389 level using the LUFS.  In Debian, I am aware of a library named
2390 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libebur128">libebur128</a>
2391 able to measure the loudness and since yesterday morning a new binary
2392 named <a href="http://bs1770gain.sourceforge.net">bs1770gain</a>
2393 capable of both measuring and adjusting was uploaded and is waiting
2394 for NEW processing.  I plan to maintain the latter in Debian under the
2395 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?email=pkg-multimedia-maintainers%40lists.alioth.debian.org">Debian
2396 multimedia</a> umbrella.</p>
2397
2398 <p>The free software based TV channel I am involved in,
2399 <a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a>, plan to follow the
2400 R128 recommondation ourself as soon as we can adjust the software to
2401 do so, and the bs1770gain tool seem like a good fit for that part of
2402 the puzzle to measure loudness on new video uploaded to Frikanalen.
2403 Personally, I plan to use bs1770gain to adjust the loudness of videos
2404 I upload to Frikanalen on behalf of <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
2405 NUUG member organisation</a>.  The program seem to be able to measure
2406 the LUFS value of any media file handled by ffmpeg, but I've only
2407 successfully adjusted the LUFS value of WAV files.  I suspect it
2408 should be able to adjust it for all the formats handled by ffmpeg.</p>
2409
2410       </div>
2411       <div class="tags">
2412
2413
2414         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
2415
2416
2417       </div>
2418     </div>
2419     <div class="padding"></div>
2420
2421     <div class="entry">
2422       <div class="title">
2423         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_citizens_now_required_by_law_to_give_their_fingerprint_to_the_police.html">Norwegian citizens now required by law to give their fingerprint to the police</a>
2424       </div>
2425       <div class="date">
2426         10th May 2015
2427       </div>
2428       <div class="body">
2429         <p>5 days ago, the Norwegian Parliament decided, unanimously, that all
2430 citizens of Norway, no matter if they are suspected of something
2431 criminal or not, are
2432 <a href="https://www.holderdeord.no/votes/1430838871e">required to
2433 give fingerprints to the police</a> (vote details from Holder de
2434 ord).  The law make it sound like it will be optional, but in a few
2435 years there will be no option any more.  The ID will be required to
2436 vote, to get a bank account, a bank card, to change address on the
2437 post office, to receive an electronic ID or to get a drivers license
2438 and many other tasks required to function in Norway.  The banks plan
2439 to stop providing their own ID on the bank cards when this new
2440 national ID is introduced, and the national road authorities plan to
2441 change the drivers license to no longer be usable as identity cards.
2442 In effect, to function as a citizen in Norway a national ID card will
2443 be required, and to get it one need to provide the fingerprints to
2444 the police.</p>
2445
2446 <p>In addition to handing the fingerprint to the police (which
2447 promised to not make a copy of the fingerprint image at that point in
2448 time, but say nothing about doing it later), a picture of the
2449 fingerprint will be stored on the RFID chip, along with a picture of
2450 the face and other information about the person.  Some of the
2451 information will be encrypted, but the encryption will be the same
2452 system as currently used in the passports.  The codes to decrypt will
2453 be available to a lot of government offices and their suppliers around
2454 the globe, but for those that do not know anyone in those circles it
2455 is good to know that
2456 <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2006/nov/17/news.homeaffairs">the
2457 encryption is already broken</a>.  And they
2458 <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/article/2215057/wireless/bad-guys-could-read-rfid-passports-at-217-feet--maybe-a-lot-more.html">can
2459 be read from 70 meters away</a>.  This can be mitigated a bit by
2460 keeping it in a Faraday cage (metal box or metal wire container), but
2461 one will be required to take it out of there often enough to expose
2462 ones private and personal information to a lot of people that have no
2463 business getting access to that information.</p>
2464
2465 <p>The new Norwegian national IDs are a vehicle for identity theft,
2466 and I feel sorry for us all having politicians accepting such invasion
2467 of privacy without any objections.  So are the Norwegian passports,
2468 but it has been possible to function in Norway without those so far.
2469 That option is going away with the passing of the new law.  In this, I
2470 envy the Germans, because for them it is optional how much biometric
2471 information is stored in their national ID.</p>
2472
2473 <p>And if forced collection of fingerprints was not bad enough, the
2474 information collected in the national ID card register can be handed
2475 over to foreign intelligence services and police authorities, "when
2476 extradition is not considered disproportionate".</p>
2477
2478 <p>Update 2015-05-12: For those unable to believe that the Parliament
2479 really could make such decision, I wrote
2480 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Blir_det_virkelig_krav_om_fingeravtrykk_i_nasjonale_ID_kort_.html">a
2481 summary of the sources I have</a> for concluding the way I do
2482 (Norwegian Only, as the sources are all in Norwegian).</p>
2483
2484       </div>
2485       <div class="tags">
2486
2487
2488         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2489
2490
2491       </div>
2492     </div>
2493     <div class="padding"></div>
2494
2495     <div class="entry">
2496       <div class="title">
2497         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_would_it_cost_to_store_all_phone_calls_in_Norway_.html">What would it cost to store all phone calls in Norway?</a>
2498       </div>
2499       <div class="date">
2500          1st May 2015
2501       </div>
2502       <div class="body">
2503         <p>Many years ago, a friend of mine calculated how much it would cost
2504 to store the sound of all phone calls in Norway, and came up with the
2505 cost of around 20 million NOK (2.4 mill EUR) for all the calls in a
2506 year.  I got curious and wondered what the same calculation would look
2507 like today.  To do so one need an idea of how much data storage is
2508 needed for each minute of sound, how many minutes all the calls in
2509 Norway sums up to, and the cost of data storage.</p>
2510
2511 <p>The 2005 numbers are from
2512 <a href="http://www.digi.no/analyser/2005/10/04/vi-prater-stadig-mindre-i-roret">digi.no</a>,
2513 the 2012 numbers are from
2514 <a href="http://www.nkom.no/aktuelt/nyheter/fortsatt-vekst-i-det-norske-ekommarkedet">a
2515 NKOM report</a>, and I got the 2013 numbers after asking NKOM via
2516 email.  I was told the numbers for 2014 will be presented May 20th,
2517 and decided not to wait for those, as I doubt they will be very
2518 different from the numbers from 2013.</p>
2519
2520 <p>The amount of data storage per minute sound depend on the wanted
2521 quality, and for phone calls it is generally believed that 8 Kbit/s is
2522 enough.  See for example a
2523 <a href="http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/voice/voice-quality/7934-bwidth-consume.html#topic1">summary
2524 on voice quality from Cisco</a> for some alternatives.  8 Kbit/s is 60
2525 Kbytes/min, and this can be multiplied with the number of call minutes
2526 to get the storage requirements.</p>
2527
2528 <p>Storage prices varies a lot, depending on speed, backup strategies,
2529 availability requirements etc.  But a simple way to calculate can be
2530 to use the price of a TiB-disk (around 1000 NOK / 120 EUR) and double
2531 it to take space, power and redundancy into account.  It could be much
2532 higher with high speed and good redundancy requirements.</p>
2533
2534 <p>But back to the question, What would it cost to store all phone
2535 calls in Norway?  Not much.  Here is a small table showing the
2536 estimated cost, which is within the budget constraint of most medium
2537 and large organisations:</p>
2538
2539 <table border="1">
2540 <tr><th>Year</th><th>Call minutes</th><th>Size</th><th>Price in NOK / EUR</th></tr>
2541 <tr><td>2005</td><td align="right">24 000 000 000</td><td align="right">1.3 PiB</td><td align="right">3 mill / 358 000</td></tr>
2542 <tr><td>2012</td><td align="right">18 000 000 000</td><td align="right">1.0 PiB</td><td align="right">2.2 mill / 262 000</td></tr>
2543 <tr><td>2013</td><td align="right">17 000 000 000</td><td align="right">950 TiB</td><td align="right">2.1 mill / 250 000</td></tr>
2544 </table>
2545
2546 <p>This is the cost of buying the storage.  Maintenance need to be
2547 taken into account too, but calculating that is left as an exercise
2548 for the reader.  But it is obvious to me from those numbers that
2549 recording the sound of all phone calls in Norway is not going to be
2550 stopped because it is too expensive.  I wonder if someone already is
2551 collecting the data?</p>
2552
2553       </div>
2554       <div class="tags">
2555
2556
2557         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2558
2559
2560       </div>
2561     </div>
2562     <div class="padding"></div>
2563
2564     <div class="entry">
2565       <div class="title">
2566         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_beta_release.html">First Jessie based Debian Edu beta release</a>
2567       </div>
2568       <div class="date">
2569         26th April 2015
2570       </div>
2571       <div class="body">
2572         <p>I am happy to report that the Debian Edu team sent out
2573 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2015/04/msg00000.html">this
2574 announcement today</a>:</p>
2575
2576 <pre>
2577 the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is pleased to announce the first
2578 *beta* release of Debian Edu "Jessie" 8.0+edu0~b1, which for the first
2579 time is composed entirely of packages from the current Debian stable
2580 release, Debian 8 "Jessie".
2581
2582 (As most reading this will know, Debian "Jessie" hasn't actually been
2583 released by now. The release is still in progress but should finish
2584 later today ;)
2585
2586 We expect to make a final release of Debian Edu "Jessie" in the coming
2587 weeks, timed with the first point release of Debian Jessie. Upgrades
2588 from this beta release of Debian Edu Jessie to the final release will
2589 be possible and encouraged!
2590
2591 Please report feedback to debian-edu@lists.debian.org and/or submit
2592 bugs: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs
2593
2594 Debian Edu - sometimes also known as "Skolelinux" - is a complete
2595 operating system for schools, universities and other
2596 organisations. Through its pre- prepared installation profiles
2597 administrators can install servers, workstations and laptops which
2598 will work in harmony on the school network.  With Debian Edu, the
2599 teachers themselves or their technical support staff can roll out a
2600 complete multi-user, multi-machine study environment within hours or
2601 days.
2602
2603 Debian Edu is already in use at several hundred schools all over the
2604 world, particularly in Germany, Spain and Norway. Installations come
2605 with hundreds of applications pre-installed, plus the whole Debian
2606 archive of thousands of compatible packages within easy reach.
2607
2608 For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and
2609 installation instructions are available, including detailed
2610 instructions in the manual explaining the first steps, such as setting
2611 up a network or adding users.  Please note that the password for the
2612 user your prompted for during installation must have a length of at
2613 least 5 characters!
2614
2615 == Where to download ==
2616
2617 A multi-architecture CD / usbstick image (649 MiB) for network booting
2618 can be downloaded at the following locations:
2619
2620     http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso
2621     rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso .
2622
2623 The SHA1SUM of this image is: 54a524d16246cddd8d2cfd6ea52f2dd78c47ee0a
2624
2625 Alternatively an extended DVD / usbstick image (4.9 GiB) is also
2626 available, with more software included (saving additional download
2627 time):
2628
2629     http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso
2630     rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso
2631
2632 The SHA1SUM of this image is: fb1f1504a490c077a48653898f9d6a461cb3c636
2633
2634 Sources are available from the Debian archive, see
2635 http://ftp.debian.org/debian-cd/8.0.0/source/ for some download
2636 options.
2637
2638 == Debian Edu Jessie manual in seven languages ==
2639
2640 Please see https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/ for
2641 the English version of the Debian Edu jessie manual.
2642
2643 This manual has been fully translated to German, French, Italian,
2644 Danish, Dutch and Norwegian Bokmål. A partly translated version exists
2645 for Spanish.  See http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/ for
2646 online version of the translated manual.
2647
2648 More information about Debian 8 "Jessie" itself is provided in the
2649 release notes and the installation manual:
2650 - http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes
2651 - http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual
2652
2653
2654 == Errata / known problems ==
2655
2656     It takes up to 15 minutes for a changed hostname to be updated via
2657     DHCP (#780461).
2658
2659     The hostname script fails to update LTSP server hostname (#783087).
2660
2661 Workaround: run update-hostname-from-ip on the client to update the
2662 hostname immediately.
2663
2664 Check https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie for a possibly
2665 more current and complete list.
2666
2667 == Some more details about Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~b1 Codename Jessie released 2015-04-25 ==
2668
2669 === Software updates ===
2670
2671 Everything which is new in Debian 8 Jessie, e.g.:
2672
2673  * Linux kernel 3.16.7-ctk9; for the i386 architecture, support for
2674    i486 processors has been dropped; oldest supported ones: i586 (like
2675    Intel Pentium and AMD K5).
2676
2677  * Desktop environments KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.11.13, GNOME 3.14,
2678    Xfce 4.12, LXDE 0.5.6
2679    * new optional desktop environment: MATE 1.8
2680    * KDE Plasma Workspaces is installed by default; to choose one of
2681      the others see the manual.
2682  * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 41
2683  * LibreOffice 4.3.3
2684  * GOsa 2.7.4
2685  * LTSP 5.5.4
2686  * CUPS print system 1.7.5
2687  * new boot framework: systemd
2688  * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.12
2689  * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
2690  * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
2691  * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.1
2692  * golearn 0.9
2693  * tuxpaint 0.9.22
2694  * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
2695  * Debian Jessie includes about 43000 packages available for installation.
2696  * More information about Debian 8 Jessie is provided in its release
2697    notes and the installation manual, see the link above.
2698
2699 === Installation changes ===
2700
2701     Installations done via PXE now also install firmware automatically
2702     for the hardware present.
2703
2704 === Fixed bugs ===
2705
2706 A number of bugs have been fixed in this release; the most noticeable
2707 from a user perspective:
2708
2709  * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
2710    DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
2711    information is corrected (710362)
2712
2713  * shutdown-at-night now shuts the system down if gdm3 is used (775608).
2714
2715 === Sugar desktop removed ===
2716
2717 As the Sugar desktop was removed from Debian Jessie, it is also not
2718 available in Debian Edu jessie.
2719
2720
2721 == About Debian Edu / Skolelinux ==
2722
2723 Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based on
2724 Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
2725 configured school network. Directly after installation a school server
2726 running all services needed for a school network is set up just
2727 waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
2728 Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
2729 initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
2730 machines can be installed via the network. The provided school server
2731 provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
2732 centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
2733 services.  The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
2734 packages and more are available from the Debian archive, and schools
2735 can choose between KDE, GNOME, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
2736 environment.
2737
2738 == About Debian ==
2739
2740 The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
2741 free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
2742 the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of
2743 volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
2744 maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a
2745 huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal
2746 operating system.
2747
2748 == Thanks ==
2749
2750 Thanks to everyone making Debian and Debian Edu / Skolelinux happen!
2751 You rock.
2752 </pre>
2753
2754       </div>
2755       <div class="tags">
2756
2757
2758         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2759
2760
2761       </div>
2762     </div>
2763     <div class="padding"></div>
2764
2765     <div class="entry">
2766       <div class="title">
2767         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Shirish_Agarwal.html">Debian Edu interview: Shirish Agarwal</a>
2768       </div>
2769       <div class="date">
2770         15th April 2015
2771       </div>
2772       <div class="body">
2773         <p>It was a surprise to me to learn that project to create a complete
2774 computer system for schools I've involved in,
2775 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>, was
2776 being used in India.  But apparently it is, and I managed to get an
2777 interview with one of the friends of the project there, Shirish
2778 Agarwal.</p>
2779
2780 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
2781
2782 <p>My name is Shirish Agarwal. Based out of the educational and
2783 historical city of Pune, from the western state of Maharashtra, India.
2784 My bread comes from giving training, giving policy tips,
2785 installations on free software to mom and pop shops in different
2786 fields from Desktop publishing to retail shops as well as work with
2787 few software start-ups as well.</p>
2788
2789 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
2790 project?</strong></p>
2791
2792 <p>It started innocently enough. I have been using Debian for a few
2793 years and in one local minidebconf / debutsav I was asked if there was
2794 anything for schools or education. I had worked / played with free
2795 educational softwares such as Gcompris and Stellarium for my many
2796 nieces and nephews so researched and found Debian Edu or Skolelinux as
2797 it was known then.  Since then I have started using the various
2798 education meta-packages provided by the project.</p>
2799
2800 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
2801 Edu?</strong></p>
2802
2803 <p>It's closest I have seen where a package full of educational
2804 software are packed, which are free and open (both literally and
2805 figuratively).  Even if I take the simplest software which is
2806 gcompris, the number of activities therein are amazing. Another one of
2807 the softwares that I have liked for a long time is stellarium. Even
2808 pysycache is cool except for couple of issues I encountered
2809 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/781841">#781841</a> and
2810 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/781842">#781842</a>.</p>
2811
2812 <p>I prefer software installed on the system over web based solutions,
2813 as a web site can disappear any time but the software on disk has the
2814 possibility of a larger life span.  Of course with both it's more a
2815 question if it has enough users who make it fun or sustainable or both
2816 for the developer per-se.</p>
2817
2818 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
2819 Edu?</strong></p>
2820
2821 <p>I do see that the Debian Edu team seems to be short-handed and I
2822 think more efforts should be made to make it popular and ask and take
2823 help from people and the larger community wherever possible.</p>
2824
2825 <p>I don't see any disadvantage to use Skolelinux apart from the fact
2826 that most apps. are generic which is good or bad how you see it.
2827 However, saying that I do acknowledge the fact that the canvas is
2828 pretty big and there are lot of interesting ideas that could be done
2829 but for reasons not known not done or if done I don't know about them.
2830 Let me share some of the ideas (these are more upstream based but
2831 still) I have had for a long time :</p>
2832
2833 <p>1. Classical maths question of two trains in opposing directions
2834 each running @x kmph/mph at y distance, when they will meet and how
2835 far would each travel and similar questions like these.
2836
2837 <p>The computer is a fantastic system where questions like these can
2838 be drawn, animated and the methodology and answers teased out in
2839 interactive manner. While sites such as the
2840 <a href="http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.two.trains.html">Ask
2841 Dr. Math FAQ on The Two Trains problem</a> (as an example or point of
2842 inspiration) can be used there is lot more that can be done.  I dunno
2843 if there is a free software which does something like this.  The idea
2844 being a blend of objects + animation + interaction which does
2845 this. The whole interaction could be gamified with points or sounds or
2846 colourful celebration whenever the user gets even part of the question
2847 or/and methodology right. That would help reinforce good behaviour.
2848 This understanding could be used to share/showcase everything from how
2849 the first wheel came to be, to evolution to how astronomy started,
2850 psychics and everything in-between.</p>
2851
2852 <p>One specific idea in the train part was having the Linux mascot on
2853 one train and the BSD or GNU mascot on the other train and they
2854 meeting somewhere in-between. Characters from blender movies could
2855 also be used.</p>
2856
2857 <p>2. Loads of crossword-puzzles with reference to subjects: We have
2858 enormous data sets in Wikipedia and Wikitionary.  I don't think it
2859 should be a big job to design crossword puzzles. Using categories and
2860 sub-categories it should be doable to have Q&A single word answers
2861 from the existing data-sets. What would make it easy or hard could be
2862 the length of the word + existence of many or few vowels depending on
2863 the user's input.</p>
2864
2865 <p>3. Jigsaw puzzles - We already have a great software called
2866 palapeli with number of slicers making it pretty interesting. What
2867 needs to be done is to download large number of public domain and
2868 copyleft images, tease and use IPTC tags to categorise them into
2869 nature, history etc.  and let it loose. This could turn to be really
2870 huge collection of images. One source could be taken from
2871 commons.wikimedia.org, others could be huge collection of royalty-free
2872 stock photos. Potential is immense.</p>
2873
2874 <p>Apart from this, free software suffers in two directions, we lag
2875 both in development (of using new features per-se) and maintenance a
2876 lot.  This is more so in educational software as these applications
2877 need to be timely and the opportunity cost of missing deadlines is
2878 immense. If we are able to solve issues of funding for development and
2879 maintenance of such software I don't see any big difficulties. I know
2880 of few start-ups in and around India who would love to develop and
2881 maintain such software if funding issues could be solved.</p>
2882
2883 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
2884
2885 <p>That would be huge list. Some of the softwares are obviously apt,
2886 aptitude, debdelta, leafpad, the shell of course (zsh nowadays),
2887 quassel for IRC. In games I use shisen-sho while card-games are evenly
2888 between kpat and Aiselriot.  In desktops it's a tie between
2889 gnome-flashback and mate.</p>
2890
2891 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2892 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
2893
2894 <p>I think it should first start with using specific FOSS apps. in
2895 whatever environment they are. If it's MS-Windows or Mac so be it.
2896 Once they are habitual with the apps. and there is buy-in from the
2897 school management then it could be installed anywhere. Most of the
2898 people now understand the concept of a repository because of the
2899 various online stores so it isn't hard to convince on that front.</p>
2900
2901 <p>What is harder is having enough people with technical skills and
2902 passion to service them. If you get buy-in from one or two teachers
2903 then ideas like above could also be asked to be done as a project as
2904 well.</p>
2905
2906 <p>I think where we fall short more than anything is in marketing. For
2907 instance, Debian has this whole range of fonts in its archive but
2908 there isn't even a page where all those different fonts in the La
2909 Ipsum format could be tried out for newcomers.</p>
2910
2911 <p>One of the issues faced constantly in installations is with updates
2912 and upgrades.  People have this myth that each update and upgrade
2913 means the user interface will / has to change. I have seen this
2914 innumerable times.  That perhaps is one of the reasons which browsers
2915 like Iceweasel / Firefox change user interfaces so much, not because
2916 it might be needed or be functional but because people believe that
2917 changed user interfaces are better. This, can easily be pointed with
2918 the user interfaces changed with almost every MS-Windows and Mac OS
2919 releases.</p>
2920
2921 <p>The problems with Debian Edu for deployment are many. The biggest
2922 is the huge gap between what is taught in schools and what Debian Edu
2923 is aimed at.
2924
2925 <p>Me and my friends did teach on week-ends in a government school for
2926 around 2 years, and
2927 <a href="https://flossexperiences.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/sharings/">gathered
2928 some experience</a> there.  Some of the things we learnt/discovered
2929 there was :</p>
2930
2931 <ol>
2932
2933   <li>Most of the teachers are very territorial about their subjects
2934    and they do not want you to teach anything out of the
2935    portion/syllabus given.</li>
2936
2937   <li>They want any activity on the system in accordance to whatever
2938    is in the syllabus.</li>
2939
2940   <li>There are huge barriers both with the English language and at
2941    times with objects or whatever. An example, let's say in gcompris
2942    you have objects falling down and you have to name them and let's
2943    say the falling object is a hat or a fedora hat, this would not be
2944    as recognizable as say a
2945    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puneri_Pagadi">Puneri
2946    Pagdi</a> so there is need to inject local objects, words wherever
2947    possible. Especially for word-games there are so many hindi words
2948    which have become part of english vocabulary (for instance in
2949    parley), those could be made into a hinglish collection or
2950    something but that is something for upstream to do.</li>
2951
2952 </ol>
2953
2954       </div>
2955       <div class="tags">
2956
2957
2958         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
2959
2960
2961       </div>
2962     </div>
2963     <div class="padding"></div>
2964
2965     <div class="entry">
2966       <div class="title">
2967         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/I_m_going_to_the_Open_Source_Developers__Conference_Nordic_2015_.html">I'm going to the Open Source Developers' Conference Nordic 2015!</a>
2968       </div>
2969       <div class="date">
2970          7th April 2015
2971       </div>
2972       <div class="body">
2973         <p>I am happy to let you all know that I'm going to the <a
2974 href="http://act.osdc.no/osdc2015no/">Open Source Developers'
2975 Conference Nordic 2015</a>!</p>
2976
2977 <p>It take place Friday 8th to Sunday 10th of May in Oslo next to
2978 where I work, and I finally got around to submitting
2979 <a href="http://act.osdc.no/osdc2015no/talk/6192">a talk proposal for
2980 it</a> (dead link for most people until the talk is accepted).  As
2981 part of my involvement with the
2982 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group member
2983 association</a> I have been slightly involved in the planning of this
2984 conference for a while now, with a focus on organising a Civic Hacking
2985 Hackathon with our friends
2986 over at <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> and
2987 <a href="http://www.holderdeord.no/">Holder de ord</a>.  This part is
2988 named the 'My Society' track in the program.  There is still space for
2989 more talks and participants.  I hope to see you there.</p>
2990
2991 <p>Check out <a href="http://act.osdc.no/osdc2015no/talks">the talks
2992 submitted and accepted so far</a>.</p>
2993
2994       </div>
2995       <div class="tags">
2996
2997
2998         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn</a>.
2999
3000
3001       </div>
3002     </div>
3003     <div class="padding"></div>
3004
3005     <div class="entry">
3006       <div class="title">
3007         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Proof_reading_the_Norwegian_translation_of_Free_Culture_by_Lessig.html">Proof reading the Norwegian translation of Free Culture by Lessig</a>
3008       </div>
3009       <div class="date">
3010          4th April 2015
3011       </div>
3012       <div class="body">
3013         <p>During eastern I had some time to continue working on the Norwegian
3014 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book
3015 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
3016 At the moment I am proof reading the finished text, looking for typos,
3017 inconsistent wordings and sentences that do not flow as they should.
3018 I'm more than two thirds done with the text, and welcome others to
3019 check the text up to chapter 13.  The current status is available on the
3020 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>
3021 project pages.  You can also check out the
3022 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>,
3023 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
3024 and HTML version available in the
3025 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/tree/master/archive">archive
3026 directory</a>.</p>
3027
3028 <p>Please report typos, bugs and improvements to the github project if
3029 you find any.</p>
3030
3031       </div>
3032       <div class="tags">
3033
3034
3035         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
3036
3037
3038       </div>
3039     </div>
3040     <div class="padding"></div>
3041
3042     <div class="entry">
3043       <div class="title">
3044         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikanalen__Norwegian_TV_channel_for_technical_topics.html">Frikanalen, Norwegian TV channel for technical topics</a>
3045       </div>
3046       <div class="date">
3047          9th March 2015
3048       </div>
3049       <div class="body">
3050         <p>The <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a>,
3051 where I am a member, and where people interested in free software,
3052 open standards and UNIX like operating systems like Linux and the BSDs
3053 come together, record our monthly technical presentations on video.
3054 The purpose is to document the talks and spread them to a wider
3055 audience.  For this, the the Norwegian nationwide open channel
3056 <a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> is a useful venue.
3057 Since a few days ago, when I figured out the
3058 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.no/api/">REST API</a> to program the
3059 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/guide/">channel time schedule</a>,
3060 the channel has been filled with NUUG talks, related recordings and
3061 some Creative Commons licensed TED talks (from archive.org).  I fill
3062 all "leftover bits" on the channel with content from NUUG, which at
3063 the moment is almost 17 of 24 hours every day.</p>
3064
3065 <p>The list of NUUG videos
3066 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/organization/82">uploaded so far</a>
3067 include things like a
3068 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/video/625090">one hour talk by John
3069 Perry Barlow when he visited Oslo</a>, a presentation of
3070 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/video/624275">Haiku, the BeOS
3071 re-implementation</a>, the
3072 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/video/624493">history of FiksGataMi,
3073 the Norwegian version of FixMyStreet</a>, the good old
3074 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/video/623566">Warriors of the net
3075 video</A> and many others.</p>
3076
3077 <p>We have a large backlog of NUUG talks not yet uploaded to
3078 Frikanalen, and plan to upload every useful bit to the channel to
3079 spread the word there.  I also hope to find useful recordings from the
3080 Chaos Computer Club and Debian conferences and spread them on the
3081 channel as well.  But this require locating the videos and their meta
3082 information (title, description, license, etc), and preparing the
3083 recordings for broadcast, and I have not yet had the spare time to
3084 focus on this.  Perhaps you want to help.  Please join us on IRC,
3085 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23nuug">#nuug on irc.freenode.net</a>
3086 if you want to help make this happen.</p>
3087
3088 <p>But as I said, already the channel is already almost exclusively
3089 filled with technical topics, and if you want to learn something new
3090 today, check out the <a href="http://www.frikanalen.tv/se">Ogg Theora
3091 web stream</a> or use one of the other ways to get access to the
3092 channel.  Unfortunately the Ogg Theora recoding for distribution still
3093 do not properly sync the video and sound.  It is generated by recoding
3094 a internal MPEG transport stream with MPEG4 coded video (ie H.264) to
3095 Ogg Theora / Vorbis, and we have not been able to find a way that
3096 produces acceptable quality.  Help needed, please get in touch if you
3097 know how to fix it using free software.</p>
3098
3099       </div>
3100       <div class="tags">
3101
3102
3103         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3104
3105
3106       </div>
3107     </div>
3108     <div class="padding"></div>
3109
3110     <div class="entry">
3111       <div class="title">
3112         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Citizenfour_documentary_on_the_Snowden_confirmations_to_Norway.html">The Citizenfour documentary on the Snowden confirmations to Norway</a>
3113       </div>
3114       <div class="date">
3115         28th February 2015
3116       </div>
3117       <div class="body">
3118         <p>Today I was happy to learn that the documentary
3119 <a href="https://citizenfourfilm.com/">Citizenfour</a> by
3120 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Poitras">Laura Poitras</a>
3121 finally will show up in Norway.  According to the magazine
3122 <a href="http://montages.no/">Montages</a>, a deal has finally been
3123 made for
3124 <a href="http://montages.no/nyheter/snowden-dokumentaren-citizenfour-far-norsk-kinodistribusjon/">Cinema
3125 distribution in Norway</a> and the movie will have its premiere soon.
3126 This is great news.  As part of my involvement with
3127 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the Norwegian Unix User Group</a>, me and
3128 a friend have
3129 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Dokumentar_om_Snowdenbekreftelsene_til_Norge_.shtml">tried
3130 to get the movie to Norway</a> ourselves, but obviously
3131 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Dokumentar_om_Snowdenbekreftelsene_endelig_til_Norge_.shtml">we
3132 were too late</a> and Tor Fosse beat us to it.  I am happy he did, as
3133 the movie will make its way to the public and we do not have to make
3134 it happen ourselves.
3135 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiGwAvd5mvM">The trailer</a>
3136 can be seen on youtube, if you are curious what kind of film this
3137 is.</p>
3138
3139 <p>The whistle blower Edward Snowden really deserve political asylum
3140 here in Norway, but I am afraid he would not be safe.</p>
3141
3142       </div>
3143       <div class="tags">
3144
3145
3146         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
3147
3148
3149       </div>
3150     </div>
3151     <div class="padding"></div>
3152
3153     <div class="entry">
3154       <div class="title">
3155         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Norwegian_open_channel_Frikanalen___24x7_on_the_Internet.html">The Norwegian open channel Frikanalen - 24x7 on the Internet</a>
3156       </div>
3157       <div class="date">
3158         25th February 2015
3159       </div>
3160       <div class="body">
3161         <p>The Norwegian nationwide open channel
3162 <a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> is still going
3163 strong.  It allow everyone to send the video they want on national
3164 television.  It is a TV station administrated completely using a web
3165 browser, running only <ahref="https://github.com/Frikanalen">Free
3166 Software</a>, providing <ahref="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/api">a REST
3167 api</a> for administrators and members, and with distribution on the
3168 national DVB-T distribution network RiksTV.  But only between 12:00
3169 and 17:30 Norwegian time.  This has finally changed, after many years
3170 with limited distribution.  A few weeks ago, we set up a Ogg Theora
3171 stream via icecast to allow everyone with Internet access to check out
3172 the channel the rest of the day.  This is presented on
3173 <a href="http://www.frikanalen.tv/se">the Frikanalen web site now</a>.  And
3174 since a few days ago, the channel is also available
3175 via <a href="https://www.uninett.no/iptv-tilgang">multicast on
3176 UNINETT</a>, available for those using IPTV TVs and set-top boxes in
3177 the Norwegian National Research and Education network.</p>
3178
3179 <p>If you want to see what is on the channel, point your media player
3180 to one of these sources.  The first should work with most players and
3181 browsers, while as far as I know, the multicast UDP stream only work
3182 with VLC.</p>
3183
3184 <ul>
3185   <li><a href="http://video.nuug.no/frikanalen.ogv">http://video.nuug.no/frikanalen.ogv</a></li>
3186   <li>udp://@224.17.43.129:1234</li>
3187 </ul>
3188
3189 <p>The Ogg Theora / icecast stream is not working well, as the video
3190 and audio is slightly out of sync.  We have not been able to figure
3191 out how to fix it.  It is generated by recoding a internal MPEG
3192 transport stream with MPEG4 coded video (ie H.264) to Ogg Theora /
3193 Vorbis, and the result is less then stellar.  If you have ideas how to
3194 fix it, please let us know on frikanalen (at) nuug.no.  We currently
3195 use this with ffmpeg2theora 0.29:</p>
3196
3197 <blockquote><pre>
3198 ./ffmpeg2theora.linux &lt;OBE_gemini_URL.ts&gt; -F 25 -x 720 -y 405 \
3199  --deinterlace --inputfps 25 -c 1 -H 48000 --keyint 8 --buf-delay 100 \
3200  --nosync -V 700 -o - | oggfwd video.nuug.no 8000 &lt;pw&gt; /frikanalen.ogv
3201 </pre></blockquote>
3202
3203 <p>If you get the multicast UDP stream working, please let me know, as
3204 I am curious how far the multicast stream reach.  It do not make it to
3205 my home network, nor any other commercially available network in
3206 Norway that I am aware of.</p>
3207
3208       </div>
3209       <div class="tags">
3210
3211
3212         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3213
3214
3215       </div>
3216     </div>
3217     <div class="padding"></div>
3218
3219     <div class="entry">
3220       <div class="title">
3221         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Nude_body_scanner_now_present_on_Norwegian_airport.html">Nude body scanner now present on Norwegian airport</a>
3222       </div>
3223       <div class="date">
3224         10th February 2015
3225       </div>
3226       <div class="body">
3227         <p>Aftenposten, one of the largest newspapers in Norway, today report
3228 that
3229 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/reise/Slik-skannes-kroppen-din-i-fremtidens-sikkerhetskontroll-490666_1.snd">three
3230 of the nude body scanners now is put to use at Gardermoen</a>, the
3231 main airport in Norway.  This way the travelers can have their body
3232 photographed without cloths when visiting Norway.  Of course this
3233 horrible news is presented with a positive spin, stating that "now
3234 travelers can move past the security check point faster and more
3235 efficiently", but fail to mention that the machines in question take
3236 pictures of their nude bodies and store them internally in the
3237 computer, while only presenting sketch figure of the body to the
3238 public.  The article is written in a way that leave the impression
3239 that the new machines do not take these nude pictures and only create
3240 the sketch figures.  In reality the same nude pictures are still
3241 taken, but not presented to everyone.  They are still available for
3242 the owners of the system and the people doing maintenance of the
3243 scanners, as long as they are taken and stored.</p>
3244
3245 <p>Wikipedia have a more on
3246 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_body_scanner">Full body
3247 scanners</a>, including example images and a summary of the
3248 controversy about these scanners.</p>
3249
3250 <p>Personally I will decline to use these machines, as I believe strip
3251 searches of my body is a very intrusive attack on my privacy, and not
3252 something everyone should have to accept to travel.</p>
3253
3254       </div>
3255       <div class="tags">
3256
3257
3258         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
3259
3260
3261       </div>
3262     </div>
3263     <div class="padding"></div>
3264
3265     <div class="entry">
3266       <div class="title">
3267         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Nagios_module_to_check_if_the_Frikanalen_video_stream_is_working.html">Nagios module to check if the Frikanalen video stream is working</a>
3268       </div>
3269       <div class="date">
3270          8th February 2015
3271       </div>
3272       <div class="body">
3273         <p>When running a TV station with both broadcast and web stream
3274 distribution, it is useful to know that the stream is working.  As I
3275 am involved in the Norwegian open channel
3276 <a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> as part of my
3277 activity in the <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG member
3278 organisation</a>, I wrote a script to use mplayer to connect to a
3279 video stream, pick two images 35 seconds apart and compare them.  If
3280 the images are missing or identical, something is probably wrong with
3281 the stream and an alarm should be triggered.  The script is written as
3282 a Nagios plugin, allowing us to use Nagios to run the check regularly
3283 and sound the alarm when something is wrong.  It is able to detect
3284 both a hanging and a broken video stream.</p>
3285
3286 <p>I just uploaded the code for the script into the
3287 <a href="https://github.com/Frikanalen/frikanalen/blob/master/nagios-plugin/check_video_stream_images">Frikanalen
3288 git repository</a> on github.  If you run a TV station with web
3289 streaming, perhaps you can find it useful too.</p>
3290
3291 <p>Last year, the Frikanalen public TV station transformed into using
3292 only Linux based free software to administrate, schedule and
3293 distribute the TV content.  The
3294 <a href="https://github.com/Frikanalen">source code for the entire TV
3295 station</a> is available from the Github project page.  Everyone can
3296 use it to send their content on national TV, and we provide both a web
3297 GUI and <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/api/">a web API</a> to
3298 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/login/?next=/members/video/">add</a>
3299 and <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/members/plan/">schedule
3300 content</a>.  And thanks to last weeks developer gathering and
3301 following activity, we now have the schedule
3302 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/xmltv/2015/01/01">available as
3303 XMLTV</a> too.  Still a lot of work left to do, especially with the
3304 process to add videos and with the scheduling, so your contribution is
3305 most welcome.  Perhaps you want to set up your own TV station?</p>
3306
3307 <p>Update 2015-02-25: Got a tip from Uninett about their
3308 <a href="https://scm.uninett.no/maalepaaler/qstream/">qstream
3309 monitoring system</a>, which gather connection time, jitter, packet
3310 loss and burst bandwidth usage.  It look useful to check if UDP
3311 streams are working as they should.</p>
3312
3313       </div>
3314       <div class="tags">
3315
3316
3317         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3318
3319
3320       </div>
3321     </div>
3322     <div class="padding"></div>
3323
3324     <div class="entry">
3325       <div class="title">
3326         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_Bokm_l_subtitles_for_the_FSF_video_User_Liberation.html">Norwegian Bokmål subtitles for the FSF video User Liberation</a>
3327       </div>
3328       <div class="date">
3329         12th January 2015
3330       </div>
3331       <div class="body">
3332         <p>A few days ago, the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/">Free Software
3333 Foundation</a> announced a new video
3334 <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/user-liberation-watch-and-share-our-new-video">explaining
3335 Free software</a> in simple terms.  The video named User Liberation is
3336 3 minutes long, and I recommend showing it to everyone you know as a
3337 way to explain what Free Software is all about.  Unfortunately several
3338 of the people I know do not understand English and Spanish, so it did
3339 not make sense to show it to them.</p>
3340
3341 <p>But today I was told that
3342 <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/user-liberation-watch-and-share-our-new-video">English
3343 subtitles were available</a> and set out to provide Norwegian Bokmål
3344 subtitles based on these.  The result has been sent to FSF and made
3345 available in
3346 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/fsf-video-user-liberation-subtitles">a
3347 git repository</a> provided by Github.  Please let me know if you find
3348 errors or have improvements to the subtitles.</p>
3349
3350 <p>Update 2015-02-03: Since I publised this post, FSF created a
3351 Libreplanet
3352 <a href="http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:FSF/User_Liberation_Video_Translation">project
3353 to track subtitles</A> for the video.</p>
3354
3355       </div>
3356       <div class="tags">
3357
3358
3359         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3360
3361
3362       </div>
3363     </div>
3364     <div class="padding"></div>
3365
3366     <div class="entry">
3367       <div class="title">
3368         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Updated_version_of_the_Norwegian_web_service_FiksGataMi.html">Updated version of the Norwegian web service FiksGataMi</a>
3369       </div>
3370       <div class="date">
3371         30th December 2014
3372       </div>
3373       <div class="body">
3374         <p>I am very happy that we in the
3375 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User group (NUUG)</a>,
3376 spearheaded by Marius Halden from NUUG and Matthew Somerville from
3377 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a>, finally managed to
3378 upgrade the code base for the Norwegian version of
3379 <a href="http://fixmystreet.org/">FixMyStreet</a>.  This
3380 was the first major update since 2011. The refurbished
3381 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is already live, and
3382 seem to hold up the pressure.  The
3383 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Pressemelding__FiksGataMi_i_oppdatert_og_mobilvennlig_klesdrakt.shtml">press
3384 release and announcement</a> went out this morning.</p>
3385
3386 <p>FixMyStreet is a web platform for allowing the citizens to easily
3387 report problems with public infrastructure to the responsible
3388 authorities.  Think of it as a shared mail client with map support,
3389 allowing everyone to see what already was reported and comment on the
3390 reports in public.</p>
3391
3392       </div>
3393       <div class="tags">
3394
3395
3396         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
3397
3398
3399       </div>
3400     </div>
3401     <div class="padding"></div>
3402
3403     <div class="entry">
3404       <div class="title">
3405         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Of_course_USA_loses_in_cyber_war___NSA_and_friends_made_sure_it_would_happen.html">Of course USA loses in cyber war - NSA and friends made sure it would happen</a>
3406       </div>
3407       <div class="date">
3408         19th December 2014
3409       </div>
3410       <div class="body">
3411         <p>So, Sony caved in
3412 (<a href="https://twitter.com/RobLowe/status/545338568512917504">according
3413 to Rob Lowe</a>) and demonstrated that America lost its first cyberwar
3414 (<a href="https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status/545339074975109122">according
3415 to Newt Gingrich</a>).  It should not surprise anyone, after the
3416 whistle blower Edward Snowden documented that the government of USA
3417 and their allies for many years have done their best to make sure the
3418 technology used by its citizens is filled with security holes allowing
3419 the secret services to spy on its own population.  No one in their
3420 right minds could believe that the ability to snoop on the people all
3421 over the globe could only be used by the personnel authorized to do so
3422 by the president of the United States of America.  If the capabilities
3423 are there, they will be used by friend and foe alike, and now they are
3424 being used to bring Sony on its knees.</p>
3425
3426 <p>I doubt it will a lesson learned, and expect USA to lose its next
3427 cyber war too, given how eager the western intelligence communities
3428 (and probably the non-western too, but it is less in the news) seem to
3429 be to continue its current dragnet surveillance practice.</p>
3430
3431 <p>There is a reason why China and others are trying to move away from
3432 Windows to Linux and other alternatives, and it is not to avoid
3433 sending its hard earned dollars to Cayman Islands (or whatever
3434 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_haven">tax haven</a>
3435 Microsoft is using these days to collect the majority of its
3436 income. :)</p>
3437
3438       </div>
3439       <div class="tags">
3440
3441
3442         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
3443
3444
3445       </div>
3446     </div>
3447     <div class="padding"></div>
3448
3449     <div class="entry">
3450       <div class="title">
3451         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
3452       </div>
3453       <div class="date">
3454         22nd November 2014
3455       </div>
3456       <div class="body">
3457         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
3458 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
3459 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
3460 courtesy of
3461 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
3462 Schubert</a> and
3463 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
3464 McVittie</a>.
3465
3466 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
3467 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
3468 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
3469 you upgrade:</p>
3470
3471 <p><blockquote><pre>
3472 Package: systemd-sysv
3473 Pin: release o=Debian
3474 Pin-Priority: -1
3475 </pre></blockquote><p>
3476
3477 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
3478 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
3479 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
3480 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
3481 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
3482
3483 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
3484 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
3485 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
3486 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
3487 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
3488 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
3489
3490 <p><blockquote><pre>
3491 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
3492 </pre></blockquote><p>
3493
3494 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
3495
3496 <p><blockquote><pre>
3497 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
3498 </pre></blockquote><p>
3499
3500 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
3501 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
3502
3503 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
3504 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
3505 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
3506 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
3507 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
3508 Jessie is released.</p>
3509
3510 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
3511 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
3512 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
3513 line.</p>
3514
3515       </div>
3516       <div class="tags">
3517
3518
3519         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3520
3521
3522       </div>
3523     </div>
3524     <div class="padding"></div>
3525
3526     <div class="entry">
3527       <div class="title">
3528         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
3529       </div>
3530       <div class="date">
3531         10th November 2014
3532       </div>
3533       <div class="body">
3534         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
3535 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
3536 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
3537
3538 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
3539 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
3540 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
3541 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
3542 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
3543 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
3544 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
3545 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
3546 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
3547 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
3548 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
3549 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
3550 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
3551 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
3552 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
3553
3554 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
3555 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
3556 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
3557 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
3558 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
3559 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
3560 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
3561 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
3562 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
3563 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
3564 were fairly easy, and
3565 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
3566 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
3567 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
3568 useful approach.</p>
3569
3570 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
3571 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
3572 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
3573 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
3574 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
3575 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
3576 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
3577 this:</p>
3578
3579 <p><blockquote><pre>
3580 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
3581   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
3582 </pre></blockquote></p>
3583
3584 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
3585 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
3586
3587 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
3588 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
3589 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
3590 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
3591 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
3592 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
3593 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
3594 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
3595 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
3596 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
3597 system.</p>
3598
3599 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
3600 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
3601 SMTorP. :)</p>
3602
3603       </div>
3604       <div class="tags">
3605
3606
3607         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
3608
3609
3610       </div>
3611     </div>
3612     <div class="padding"></div>
3613
3614     <div class="entry">
3615       <div class="title">
3616         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_released__alpha0_.html">First Jessie based Debian Edu released (alpha0)</a>
3617       </div>
3618       <div class="date">
3619         27th October 2014
3620       </div>
3621       <div class="body">
3622         <p>I am happy to report that I on behalf of the Debian Edu team just
3623 sent out
3624 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2014/10/msg00000.html">this
3625 announcement</a>:</p>
3626
3627 <pre>
3628 The Debian Edu Team is pleased to announce the release of Debian Edu
3629 Jessie 8.0+edu0~alpha0
3630
3631 Debian Edu is a complete operating system for schools. Through its
3632 various installation profiles you can install servers, workstations
3633 and laptops which will work together on the school network. With
3634 Debian Edu, the teachers themselves or their technical support can
3635 roll out a complete multi-user multi-machine study environment within
3636 hours or a few days. Debian Edu comes with hundreds of applications
3637 pre-installed, but you can always add more packages from Debian.
3638
3639 For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and
3640 installation instructions are available, including detailed
3641 instructions in the manual[1] explaining the first steps, such as
3642 setting up a network or adding users. Please note that the password
3643 for the user your prompted for during installation must have a length
3644 of at least 5 characters!
3645
3646  [1] &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie</a> &gt;
3647
3648 Would you like to give your school's computer a longer life? Are you
3649 tired of sneaker administration, running from computer to computer
3650 reinstalling the operating system? Would you like to administrate all
3651 the computers in your school using only a couple of hours every week?
3652 Check out Debian Edu Jessie!
3653
3654 Skolelinux is used by at least two hundred schools all over the world,
3655 mostly in Germany and Norway.
3656
3657 About Debian Edu and Skolelinux
3658 ===============================
3659
3660 Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux[2], is a Linux distribution based
3661 on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
3662 configured school network. Immediately after installation a school
3663 server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
3664 waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
3665 Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
3666 initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
3667 machines can be installed via the network.  The provided school server
3668 provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
3669 centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
3670 services.  The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
3671 packages[3] and more are available from the Debian archive, and
3672 schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
3673 environment.
3674
3675  [2] &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">http://www.skolelinux.org/</a> &gt;
3676  [3] &lt;URL: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html</a> &gt;
3677
3678 Full release notes and manual
3679 =============================
3680
3681 Below the download URLs there is a list of some of the new features
3682 and bugfixes of Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie. The full
3683 list is part of the manual. (See the feature list in the manual[4] for
3684 the English version.) For some languages manual translations are
3685 available, see the manual translation overview[5].
3686
3687  [4] &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features</a> &gt;
3688  [5] &lt;URL: <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/</a> &gt;
3689
3690 Where to get it
3691 ---------------
3692
3693 To download the multiarch netinstall CD release (624 MiB) you can use
3694
3695  * <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso</a>
3696  * <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso</a>
3697  * rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso .
3698
3699 The SHA1SUM of this image is: 361188818e036ce67280a572f757de82ebfeb095
3700
3701 New features for Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie released 2014-10-27
3702 ===============================================================================
3703
3704
3705 Installation changes
3706 --------------------
3707
3708  * PXE installation now installs firmware automatically for the hardware present.
3709
3710 Software updates
3711 ----------------
3712
3713 Everything which is new in Debian Jessie 8.0, eg:
3714
3715  * Linux kernel 3.16.x
3716  * Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.11.12, GNOME 3.14, Xfce 4.10,
3717    LXDE 0.5.6 and MATE 1.8 (KDE "Plasma" is installed by default; to
3718    choose one of the others see manual.)
3719  * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 38
3720  * !LibreOffice 4.3.3
3721  * GOsa 2.7.4
3722  * LTSP 5.5.4
3723  * CUPS print system 1.7.5
3724  * new boot framework: systemd
3725  * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.07
3726  * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
3727  * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
3728  * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.0
3729  * golearn 0.9
3730  * tuxpaint 0.9.22
3731  * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
3732  * Debian Jessie includes about 42000 packages available for
3733    installation.
3734  * More information about Debian Jessie 8.0 is provided in the release
3735    notes[6] and the installation manual[7].
3736
3737  [6] &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes">http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes</a> &gt;
3738  [7] &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual">http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual</a> &gt;
3739
3740 Fixed bugs
3741 ----------
3742
3743  * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
3744    DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
3745    information is corrected (Debian bug #710362)
3746  * and many others.
3747
3748 Documentation and translation updates
3749 -------------------------------------
3750
3751  * The Debian Edu Jessie Manual is fully translated to German, French,
3752    Italian, Danish and Dutch. Partly translated versions exist for
3753    Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.
3754
3755 Other changes
3756 -------------
3757
3758  * Due to new Squid settings, powering off or rebooting the main
3759    server takes more time.
3760  * To manage printers localhost:631 has to be used, currently www:631
3761    doesn't work.
3762
3763 Regressions / known problems
3764 ----------------------------
3765
3766  * Installing LTSP chroot fails with a bug related to eatmydata about
3767    exim4-config failing to run its postinst (see Debian bug #765694
3768    and Debian bug #762103).
3769  * Munin collection is not properly configured on clients (Debian bug
3770    #764594).  The fix is available in a newer version of munin-node.
3771  * PXE setup for Main Server and Thin Client Server setup does not
3772    work when installing on a machine without direct Internet access.
3773    Will be fixed when Debian bug #766960 is fixed in Jessie.
3774
3775 See the status page[8] for the complete list.
3776
3777  [8] &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie</a> &gt;
3778
3779 How to report bugs
3780 ------------------
3781
3782 &lt;URL: <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a> &gt;
3783
3784 About Debian
3785 ============
3786
3787 The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
3788 free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
3789 the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of
3790 volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
3791 maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a
3792 huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal
3793 operating system.
3794
3795 Contact Information
3796 For further information, please visit the Debian web pages[9] or send
3797 mail to press@debian.org.
3798
3799  [9] &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.debian.org/">http://www.debian.org/</a> &gt;
3800 </pre>
3801
3802       </div>
3803       <div class="tags">
3804
3805
3806         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3807
3808
3809       </div>
3810     </div>
3811     <div class="padding"></div>
3812
3813     <div class="entry">
3814       <div class="title">
3815         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/I_spent_last_weekend_recording_MakerCon_Nordic.html">I spent last weekend recording MakerCon Nordic</a>
3816       </div>
3817       <div class="date">
3818         23rd October 2014
3819       </div>
3820       <div class="body">
3821         <p>I spent last weekend at <a href="http://www.makercon.no/">Makercon
3822 Nordic</a>, a great conference and workshop for makers in Norway and
3823 the surrounding countries.  I had volunteered on behalf of the
3824 Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG) to video record the talks, and we
3825 had a great and exhausting time recording the entire day, two days in
3826 a row.  There were only two of us, Hans-Petter and me, and we used the
3827 regular video equipment for NUUG, with a
3828 <a href="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/">dvswitch</a>, a
3829 camera and a VGA to DV convert box, and mixed video and slides
3830 live.</p>
3831
3832 <p>Hans-Petter did the post-processing, consisting of uploading the
3833 around 180 GiB of raw video to Youtube, and the result is
3834 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/MakerConNordic/">now becoming
3835 public</a> on the MakerConNordic account.  The videos have the license
3836 NUUG always use on our recordings, which is
3837 <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/no/">Creative
3838 Commons Navngivelse-Del på samme vilkår 3.0 Norge</a>.  Many great
3839 talks available.  Check it out! :)</p>
3840
3841       </div>
3842       <div class="tags">
3843
3844
3845         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3846
3847
3848       </div>
3849     </div>
3850     <div class="padding"></div>
3851
3852     <div class="entry">
3853       <div class="title">
3854         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</a>
3855       </div>
3856       <div class="date">
3857         22nd October 2014
3858       </div>
3859       <div class="body">
3860         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
3861 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
3862 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
3863 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
3864 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
3865 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
3866 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
3867 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
3868 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
3869 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
3870 lists I recently took over:</p>
3871
3872 <p><blockquote><pre>
3873 % time listadmin xiph
3874 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
3875 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
3876
3877 real    0m1.709s
3878 user    0m0.232s
3879 sys     0m0.012s
3880 %
3881 </pre></blockquote></p>
3882
3883 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
3884 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
3885 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
3886 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
3887 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
3888 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
3889 program.</p>
3890
3891 <p>If you install
3892 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
3893 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
3894 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
3895
3896 <p><blockquote><pre>
3897 username username@example.org
3898 spamlevel 23
3899 default discard
3900 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
3901
3902 password secret
3903 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
3904 mailman-list@lists.example.com
3905
3906 password hidden
3907 other-list@otherserver.example.org
3908 </pre></blockquote></p>
3909
3910 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
3911 learn the details.</p>
3912
3913 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
3914 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
3915 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
3916 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
3917
3918 <p><blockquote><pre>
3919 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
3920 </pre></blockquote></p>
3921
3922 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
3923 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
3924 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
3925 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
3926 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
3927 email.</p>
3928
3929 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
3930 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
3931 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
3932 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
3933 software.</p>
3934
3935 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3936 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3937 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3938
3939 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
3940 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
3941 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
3942 sure why.</p>
3943
3944       </div>
3945       <div class="tags">
3946
3947
3948         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
3949
3950
3951       </div>
3952     </div>
3953     <div class="padding"></div>
3954
3955     <div class="entry">
3956       <div class="title">
3957         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
3958       </div>
3959       <div class="date">
3960         17th October 2014
3961       </div>
3962       <div class="body">
3963         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
3964 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
3965 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
3966 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
3967 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
3968 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
3969 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
3970
3971 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
3972 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
3973 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
3974 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
3975 of this story.)</p>
3976
3977 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
3978 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
3979 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
3980 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
3981 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
3982 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
3983 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
3984 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
3985 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
3986 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
3987
3988 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
3989 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
3990 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
3991 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
3992
3993 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
3994 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
3995
3996 <p><blockquote><pre>
3997 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
3998 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
3999 </pre></blockquote></p>
4000
4001 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
4002 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
4003 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
4004 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
4005 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
4006 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
4007 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
4008 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
4009
4010 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
4011 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
4012
4013 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
4014 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
4015 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
4016 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
4017 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
4018
4019 <p><blockquote><pre>
4020 Task: isenkram-packages
4021 Section: hardware
4022 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
4023  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
4024  proposed.
4025 Test-new-install: show show
4026 Relevance: 8
4027 Packages: for-current-hardware
4028
4029 Task: isenkram-firmware
4030 Section: hardware
4031 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
4032  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
4033  packages are proposed.
4034 Test-new-install: mark show
4035 Relevance: 8
4036 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
4037 </pre></blockquote></p>
4038
4039 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
4040 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
4041 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
4042 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
4043 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
4044
4045 <p><blockquote><pre>
4046 #!/bin/sh
4047 #
4048 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
4049 export PATH
4050 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
4051 </pre></blockquote></p>
4052
4053 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
4054 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
4055
4056 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
4057 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
4058 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
4059 install.</p>
4060
4061 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
4062 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
4063 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
4064
4065       </div>
4066       <div class="tags">
4067
4068
4069         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
4070
4071
4072       </div>
4073     </div>
4074     <div class="padding"></div>
4075
4076     <div class="entry">
4077       <div class="title">
4078         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
4079       </div>
4080       <div class="date">
4081          4th October 2014
4082       </div>
4083       <div class="body">
4084         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
4085 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
4086 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
4087 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
4088
4089 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
4090
4091 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
4092 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
4093 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
4094
4095       </div>
4096       <div class="tags">
4097
4098
4099         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4100
4101
4102       </div>
4103     </div>
4104     <div class="padding"></div>
4105
4106     <div class="entry">
4107       <div class="title">
4108         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
4109       </div>
4110       <div class="date">
4111          4th October 2014
4112       </div>
4113       <div class="body">
4114         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
4115 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
4116 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
4117 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
4118 Dibb.</p>
4119
4120 <p>I just wrapped up
4121 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
4122 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
4123 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
4124 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
4125 0.17.</p>
4126
4127 <ul>
4128
4129  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
4130  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
4131    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
4132  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
4133  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
4134  <li>Fix include orders</li>
4135  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
4136  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
4137  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
4138    the palette size is the same.</li>
4139  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
4140  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
4141  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
4142  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
4143    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
4144
4145 </ul>
4146
4147 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
4148 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
4149 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
4150
4151       </div>
4152       <div class="tags">
4153
4154
4155         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
4156
4157
4158       </div>
4159     </div>
4160     <div class="padding"></div>
4161
4162     <div class="entry">
4163       <div class="title">
4164         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html">How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</a>
4165       </div>
4166       <div class="date">
4167         26th September 2014
4168       </div>
4169       <div class="body">
4170         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
4171 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
4172 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
4173 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
4174 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
4175 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
4176 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
4177 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
4178 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
4179 future.  The
4180 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
4181 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
4182 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
4183 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
4184 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
4185
4186 <p>First, download the test ISO via
4187 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
4188 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
4189 or rsync (use
4190 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
4191 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
4192 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
4193 install with some tweaking.</p>
4194
4195 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
4196 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
4197
4198 <p><blockquote><pre>
4199 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
4200 </pre></blockquote></p>
4201
4202 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
4203 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
4204 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
4205 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
4206
4207 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
4208 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
4209 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
4210 your need.</p>
4211
4212 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
4213 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
4214 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
4215 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
4216 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
4217 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
4218 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
4219 days.</p>
4220
4221 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
4222 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
4223 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
4224 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
4225 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
4226 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
4227 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
4228 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
4229 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
4230
4231 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
4232 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
4233 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
4234
4235       </div>
4236       <div class="tags">
4237
4238
4239         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4240
4241
4242       </div>
4243     </div>
4244     <div class="padding"></div>
4245
4246     <div class="entry">
4247       <div class="title">
4248         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html">Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool</a>
4249       </div>
4250       <div class="date">
4251         25th September 2014
4252       </div>
4253       <div class="body">
4254         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
4255 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
4256 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
4257 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
4258 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
4259 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
4260 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
4261 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
4262 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
4263 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
4264 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
4265 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
4266 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
4267
4268 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
4269 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
4270 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
4271 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
4272 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
4273 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
4274 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
4275 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
4276 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
4277 list</a>. :)</p>
4278
4279       </div>
4280       <div class="tags">
4281
4282
4283         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
4284
4285
4286       </div>
4287     </div>
4288     <div class="padding"></div>
4289
4290     <div class="entry">
4291       <div class="title">
4292         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</a>
4293       </div>
4294       <div class="date">
4295         16th September 2014
4296       </div>
4297       <div class="body">
4298         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
4299 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
4300 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
4301 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
4302 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
4303 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
4304 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
4305 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
4306 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
4307 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
4308 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
4309 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
4310 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
4311 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
4312
4313 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
4314 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
4315 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
4316 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
4317 depend on the small and clever package
4318 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
4319 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
4320 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
4321 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
4322 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
4323 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
4324 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
4325 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
4326 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
4327 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
4328 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
4329
4330 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
4331 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
4332 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
4333 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
4334 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
4335 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
4336 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
4337 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
4338 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
4339 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
4340 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
4341 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
4342 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
4343 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
4344 dialog.</p>
4345
4346 <p><table>
4347
4348 <tr>
4349 <th>Machine/setup</th>
4350 <th>Original tasksel</th>
4351 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
4352 <th>Reduction</th>
4353 </tr>
4354
4355 <tr>
4356 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
4357 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
4358 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
4359 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
4360 </tr>
4361
4362 <tr>
4363 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
4364 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
4365 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
4366 <td>23 min 40%</td>
4367 </tr>
4368
4369 <tr>
4370 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
4371 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
4372 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
4373 <td>11 min 50%</td>
4374 </tr>
4375
4376 <tr>
4377 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
4378 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
4379 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
4380 <td>2 min 33%</td>
4381 </tr>
4382
4383 <tr>
4384 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
4385 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
4386 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
4387 <td>4 min 21%</td>
4388 </tr>
4389
4390 </table></p>
4391
4392 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
4393 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
4394 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
4395 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
4396 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
4397 installed.</p>
4398
4399 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
4400 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
4401 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
4402 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
4403 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
4404 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
4405 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
4406 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
4407 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
4408 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
4409 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
4410 for the entire installation.</p>
4411
4412 <p>I've implemented this in the
4413 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
4414 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
4415 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
4416 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
4417 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
4418
4419 <p><blockquote><pre>
4420 #!/bin/sh
4421 set -e
4422 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
4423 info() {
4424     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
4425 }
4426 error() {
4427     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
4428 }
4429 override_install() {
4430     apt-install eatmydata || true
4431     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
4432         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
4433             file=/usr/bin/$bin
4434             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
4435             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
4436                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
4437                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
4438                     > /target$file.edu
4439                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
4440                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
4441                     --rename --quiet --add $file
4442                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
4443             else
4444                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
4445             fi
4446         done
4447     else
4448         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
4449     fi
4450 }
4451
4452 override_install
4453 </pre></blockquote></p>
4454
4455 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
4456 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
4457
4458 <p><blockquote><pre>
4459 #! /bin/sh -e
4460 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
4461 error() {
4462     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
4463 }
4464 remove_install_override() {
4465     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
4466         file=/usr/bin/$bin
4467         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
4468             rm /target$file
4469             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
4470                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
4471             rm /target$file.edu
4472         else
4473             error "Missing divert for $file."
4474         fi
4475     done
4476     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
4477 }
4478
4479 remove_install_override
4480 </pre></blockquote></p>
4481
4482 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
4483 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
4484 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
4485
4486 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
4487 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
4488 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
4489 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
4490 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
4491 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
4492 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
4493 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
4494 everyone.</p>
4495
4496 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
4497 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
4498 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
4499 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
4500
4501 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
4502 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
4503 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
4504 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
4505 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
4506
4507 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
4508 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
4509 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
4510 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
4511 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
4512
4513       </div>
4514       <div class="tags">
4515
4516
4517         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4518
4519
4520       </div>
4521     </div>
4522     <div class="padding"></div>
4523
4524     <div class="entry">
4525       <div class="title">
4526         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_bye_subkeys_pgp_net__welcome_pool_sks_keyservers_net.html">Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net</a>
4527       </div>
4528       <div class="date">
4529         10th September 2014
4530       </div>
4531       <div class="body">
4532         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
4533 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
4534 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
4535 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
4536 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
4537 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
4538 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
4539 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
4540 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
4541 those problems are gone now.</p>
4542
4543 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
4544 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
4545 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
4546 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
4547 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
4548
4549 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
4550 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
4551 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
4552
4553 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
4554 line:</p>
4555
4556 <p><blockquote><pre>
4557 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
4558 </pre></blockquote></p>
4559
4560 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
4561 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
4562 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
4563 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
4564
4565 <p><blockquote><pre>
4566 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
4567 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
4568 %
4569 </pre></blockquote></p>
4570
4571 <p>Now if only
4572 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
4573 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
4574 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
4575 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
4576 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
4577 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
4578 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
4579 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
4580 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
4581
4582       </div>
4583       <div class="tags">
4584
4585
4586         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4587
4588
4589       </div>
4590     </div>
4591     <div class="padding"></div>
4592
4593     <div class="entry">
4594       <div class="title">
4595         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Do_you_need_an_agreement_with_MPEG_LA_to_publish_and_broadcast_H_264_video_in_Norway_.html">Do you need an agreement with MPEG-LA to publish and broadcast H.264 video in Norway?</a>
4596       </div>
4597       <div class="date">
4598         25th August 2014
4599       </div>
4600       <div class="body">
4601         <p>Two years later, I am still not sure if it is legal here in Norway
4602 to use or publish a video in H.264 or MPEG4 format edited by the
4603 commercially licensed video editors, without limiting the use to
4604 create "personal" or "non-commercial" videos or get a license
4605 agreement with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com">MPEG LA</a>.  If one
4606 want to publish and broadcast video in a non-personal or commercial
4607 setting, it might be that those tools can not be used, or that video
4608 format can not be used, without breaking their copyright license.  I
4609 am not sure.
4610 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Trenger_en_avtale_med_MPEG_LA_for___publisere_og_kringkaste_H_264_video_.html">Back
4611 then</a>, I found that the copyright license terms for Adobe Premiere
4612 and Apple Final Cut Pro both specified that one could not use the
4613 program to produce anything else without a patent license from MPEG
4614 LA.  The issue is not limited to those two products, though.  Other
4615 much used products like those from Avid and Sorenson Media have terms
4616 of use are similar to those from Adobe and Apple.  The complicating
4617 factor making me unsure if those terms have effect in Norway or not is
4618 that the patents in question are not valid in Norway, but copyright
4619 licenses are.</p>
4620
4621 <p>These are the terms for Avid Artist Suite, according to their
4622 <a href="http://www.avid.com/US/about-avid/legal-notices/legal-enduserlicense2">published
4623 end user</a>
4624 <a href="http://www.avid.com/static/resources/common/documents/corporate/LICENSE.pdf">license
4625 text</a> (converted to lower case text for easier reading):</p>
4626
4627 <p><blockquote>
4628 <p>18.2. MPEG-4. MPEG-4 technology may be included with the
4629 software. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice: </p>
4630
4631 <p>This product is licensed under the MPEG-4 visual patent portfolio
4632 license for the personal and non-commercial use of a consumer for (i)
4633 encoding video in compliance with the MPEG-4 visual standard (“MPEG-4
4634 video”) and/or (ii) decoding MPEG-4 video that was encoded by a
4635 consumer engaged in a personal and non-commercial activity and/or was
4636 obtained from a video provider licensed by MPEG LA to provide MPEG-4
4637 video.  No license is granted or shall be implied for any other
4638 use. Additional information including that relating to promotional,
4639 internal and commercial uses and licensing may be obtained from MPEG
4640 LA, LLC.  See http://www.mpegla.com. This product is licensed under
4641 the MPEG-4 systems patent portfolio license for encoding in compliance
4642 with the MPEG-4 systems standard, except that an additional license
4643 and payment of royalties are necessary for encoding in connection with
4644 (i) data stored or replicated in physical media which is paid for on a
4645 title by title basis and/or (ii) data which is paid for on a title by
4646 title basis and is transmitted to an end user for permanent storage
4647 and/or use, such additional license may be obtained from MPEG LA,
4648 LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com for additional details.</p>
4649
4650 <p>18.3. H.264/AVC. H.264/AVC technology may be included with the
4651 software.  MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:</p>
4652
4653 <p>This product is licensed under the AVC patent portfolio license for
4654 the personal use of a consumer or other uses in which it does not
4655 receive remuneration to (i) encode video in compliance with the AVC
4656 standard (“AVC video”) and/or (ii) decode AVC video that was encoded
4657 by a consumer engaged in a personal activity and/or was obtained from
4658 a video provider licensed to provide AVC video. No license is granted
4659 or shall be implied for any other use. Additional information may be
4660 obtained from MPEG LA, L.L.C. See http://www.mpegla.com.</p>
4661 </blockquote></p>
4662
4663 <p>Note the requirement that the videos created can only be used for
4664 personal or non-commercial purposes.</p>
4665
4666 <p>The Sorenson Media software have
4667 <a href="http://www.sorensonmedia.com/terms/">similar terms</a>:</p>
4668
4669 <p><blockquote>
4670
4671 <p>With respect to a license from Sorenson pertaining to MPEG-4 Video
4672 Decoders and/or Encoders: Any such product is licensed under the
4673 MPEG-4 visual patent portfolio license for the personal and
4674 non-commercial use of a consumer for (i) encoding video in compliance
4675 with the MPEG-4 visual standard (“MPEG-4 video”) and/or (ii) decoding
4676 MPEG-4 video that was encoded by a consumer engaged in a personal and
4677 non-commercial activity and/or was obtained from a video provider
4678 licensed by MPEG LA to provide MPEG-4 video. No license is granted or
4679 shall be implied for any other use. Additional information including
4680 that relating to promotional, internal and commercial uses and
4681 licensing may be obtained from MPEG LA, LLC. See
4682 http://www.mpegla.com.</p>
4683
4684 <p>With respect to a license from Sorenson pertaining to MPEG-4
4685 Consumer Recorded Data Encoder, MPEG-4 Systems Internet Data Encoder,
4686 MPEG-4 Mobile Data Encoder, and/or MPEG-4 Unique Use Encoder: Any such
4687 product is licensed under the MPEG-4 systems patent portfolio license
4688 for encoding in compliance with the MPEG-4 systems standard, except
4689 that an additional license and payment of royalties are necessary for
4690 encoding in connection with (i) data stored or replicated in physical
4691 media which is paid for on a title by title basis and/or (ii) data
4692 which is paid for on a title by title basis and is transmitted to an
4693 end user for permanent storage and/or use. Such additional license may
4694 be obtained from MPEG LA, LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com for
4695 additional details.</p>
4696
4697 </blockquote></p>
4698
4699 <p>Some free software like
4700 <a href="https://handbrake.fr/">Handbrake</A> and
4701 <a href="http://ffmpeg.org/">FFMPEG</a> uses GPL/LGPL licenses and do
4702 not have any such terms included, so for those, there is no
4703 requirement to limit the use to personal and non-commercial.</p>
4704
4705       </div>
4706       <div class="tags">
4707
4708
4709         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4710
4711
4712       </div>
4713     </div>
4714     <div class="padding"></div>
4715
4716     <div class="entry">
4717       <div class="title">
4718         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Bernd_Zeitzen.html">Debian Edu interview: Bernd Zeitzen</a>
4719       </div>
4720       <div class="date">
4721         31st July 2014
4722       </div>
4723       <div class="body">
4724         <p>The complete and free “out of the box” software solution for
4725 schools, <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
4726 Skolelinux</a>, is used quite a lot in Germany, and one of the people
4727 involved is Bernd Zeitzen, who show up on the project mailing lists
4728 from time to time with interesting questions and tips on how to adjust
4729 the setup.  I managed to interview him this summer.</p>
4730
4731 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
4732
4733 <p>My name is Bernd Zeitzen and I'm married with Hedda, a self
4734 employed physiotherapist.  My former profession is tool maker, but I
4735 haven't worked for 30 years in this job.  30 years ago I started to
4736 support my wife and become her officeworker and a few years later the
4737 administrator for a small computer network, today based on Ubuntu
4738 Server (Samba, OpenVPN). For her daily work she has to use Windows
4739 Desktops because the software she needs to organize her business only
4740 works with Windows . :-(</p>
4741
4742 <p>In 1988 we started with one PC and DOS, then I learned to use
4743 Windows 98, 2000, XP, …, 8, Ubuntu, MacOSX.  Today we are running a
4744 Linux server with 6 Windows clients and 10 persons (teacher of
4745 children with special needs, speech therapist, occupational therapist,
4746 psychologist and officeworkers) using our Samba shares via OpenVPN to
4747 work with the documentations of our patients.</p>
4748
4749 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
4750 project?</strong></p>
4751
4752 <p>Two years ago a friend of mine asked me, if I want to get a job in
4753 his school (<a href="http://www.gymnasium-harsewinkel.de/">Gymnasium
4754 Harsewinkel</a>).  They started with Skolelinux / Debian Edu and they
4755 were looking for people to give support to the teachers using the
4756 software and the network and teaching the pupils increasing their
4757 computer skills in optional lessons.  I'm spending 4-6 hours a week
4758 with this job.</p>
4759
4760 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
4761 Edu?</strong></p>
4762
4763 <p>The independence.</p>
4764
4765 <p>First: Every person is allowed to use, share and develop the
4766 software. Even if you are poor, you are allowed to use the software
4767 included in Skolelinux/Debian Edu and all the other Free Software.</p>
4768
4769 <p>Second: The software runs on old machines and this gives us the
4770 possibility to recycle computers, weeded out from offices.  The
4771 servers and desktops are running for more than two years and they are
4772 working reliable. </p>
4773
4774 <p>We have two servers (one tjener and one terminal server), 45
4775 workstations in three classrooms and seven laptops as a mobile
4776 solution for all classrooms.  These machines are all booting from the
4777 terminal server.  In the moment we are installing 30 laptops as mobile
4778 workstations.  Then the pupils have the possibility to work with these
4779 machines in their classrooms.  Internet access is realized by a WLAN
4780 router, connected to the schools network. This is all done without a
4781 dedicated system administrator or a computer science teacher.</p>
4782
4783 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
4784 Edu?</strong></p>
4785
4786 <p>Teachers and pupils are Windows users.  &lt;Irony on&gt; And Linux
4787 isn't cool. It's software for freaks using the command line. &lt;Irony
4788 off&gt; They don't realize the stability of the system. </p>
4789
4790 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
4791
4792 <p>Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Ubuntu Server 12.04 (Samba,
4793 Apache, MySQL, Joomla!, … and Skolelinux / Debian Edu)</p>
4794
4795 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4796 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
4797
4798 <p>In Germany we have the situation: every school is free to decide
4799 which software they want to use. This decision is influenced by
4800 teachers who learned to use Windows and MS Office. They buy a PC with
4801 Windows preinstalled and an additional testing version of MS
4802 Office. They don't know about the possibility to use Free Software
4803 instead.  Another problem are the publisher of school books.  They
4804 develop their software, added to the school books, for Windows.</p>
4805
4806       </div>
4807       <div class="tags">
4808
4809
4810         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
4811
4812
4813       </div>
4814     </div>
4815     <div class="padding"></div>
4816
4817     <div class="entry">
4818       <div class="title">
4819         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/98_6_percent_done_with_the_Norwegian_draft_translation_of_Free_Culture.html">98.6 percent done with the Norwegian draft translation of Free Culture</a>
4820       </div>
4821       <div class="date">
4822         23rd July 2014
4823       </div>
4824       <div class="body">
4825         <p>This summer I finally had time to continue working on the Norwegian
4826 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book
4827 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig,
4828 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with todays copyright
4829 law.  Yesterday, I finally completed translated the book text.  There
4830 are still some foot/end notes left to translate, the colophon page
4831 need to be rewritten, and a few words and phrases still need to be
4832 translated, but the Norwegian text is ready for the first proof
4833 reading. :) More spell checking is needed, and several illustrations
4834 need to be cleaned up.  The work stopped up because I had to give
4835 priority to other projects the last year, and the progress graph of
4836 the translation show this very well:</p>
4837
4838 <p><img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png"></p>
4839
4840 <p>If you want to read the result, check out the
4841 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>
4842 project pages and the
4843 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>,
4844 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
4845 and HTML version available in the
4846 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/tree/master/archive">archive
4847 directory</a>.</p>
4848
4849 <p>Please report typos, bugs and improvements to the github project if
4850 you find any.</p>
4851
4852       </div>
4853       <div class="tags">
4854
4855
4856         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
4857
4858
4859       </div>
4860     </div>
4861     <div class="padding"></div>
4862
4863     <div class="entry">
4864       <div class="title">
4865         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
4866       </div>
4867       <div class="date">
4868         17th June 2014
4869       </div>
4870       <div class="body">
4871         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
4872 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
4873 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
4874 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
4875 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
4876
4877 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
4878 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
4879 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
4880 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
4881 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
4882 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
4883 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
4884 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
4885 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
4886 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
4887 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
4888 goals.</p>
4889
4890 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
4891 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
4892 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
4893 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
4894 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
4895 chapters together into one large web page (aka
4896 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
4897 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
4898 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
4899 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
4900 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
4901 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
4902 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
4903 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
4904 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
4905 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
4906 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
4907 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
4908 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
4909 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
4910 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
4911 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
4912 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
4913 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
4914
4915 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
4916 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
4917 track the English original.  For this we use the
4918 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
4919 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
4920 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
4921 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
4922 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
4923 files), which the translations update with the native language
4924 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
4925 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
4926 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
4927 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
4928 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
4929 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
4930 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
4931 of the documentation.</p>
4932
4933 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
4934 recommend using
4935 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
4936 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
4937 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
4938 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
4939 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
4940 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
4941 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
4942 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
4943
4944 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
4945 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
4946 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
4947 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
4948 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
4949 translated images by storing translated versions in
4950 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
4951 package maintainers know more.</p>
4952
4953 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
4954 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
4955 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
4956 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
4957 PDF version</a> or the
4958 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
4959 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
4960 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
4961
4962 <p>To learn more, check out
4963 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
4964 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
4965 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
4966 manual on the wiki</a> and
4967 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
4968 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
4969
4970       </div>
4971       <div class="tags">
4972
4973
4974         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4975
4976
4977       </div>
4978     </div>
4979     <div class="padding"></div>
4980
4981     <div class="entry">
4982       <div class="title">
4983         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_software_car_computer_solution_.html">Free software car computer solution?</a>
4984       </div>
4985       <div class="date">
4986         29th May 2014
4987       </div>
4988       <div class="body">
4989         <p>Dear lazyweb.  I'm planning to set up a small Raspberry Pi computer
4990 in my car, connected to
4991 <a href="http://www.dx.com/p/400a-4-0-tft-lcd-digital-monitor-for-vehicle-parking-reverse-camera-1440x272-12v-dc-57776">a
4992 small screen</a> next to the rear mirror.  I plan to hook it up with a
4993 GPS and a USB wifi card too.  The idea is to get my own
4994 "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carputer">Carputer</a>".  But I
4995 wonder if someone already created a good free software solution for
4996 such car computer.</p>
4997
4998 <p>This is my current wish list for such system:</p>
4999
5000 <ul>
5001
5002  <li>Work on Raspberry Pi.</li>
5003
5004  <li>Show current speed limit based on location, and warn if going too
5005    fast (for example using color codes yellow and red on the screen,
5006    or make a sound).  This could be done either using either data from
5007    <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">Openstreetmap</a> or OCR
5008    info gathered from a dashboard camera.</li>
5009
5010  <li>Track automatic toll road passes and their cost, show total spent
5011    and make it possible to calculate toll costs for planned
5012    route.</li>
5013
5014  <li>Collect GPX tracks for use with OpenStreetMap.</li>
5015
5016  <li>Automatically detect and use any wireless connection to connect
5017    to home server.  Try IP over DNS
5018    (<a href="http://dev.kryo.se/iodine/">iodine</a>) or ICMP
5019    (<a href="http://code.gerade.org/hans/">Hans</a>) if direct
5020    connection do not work.</li>
5021
5022  <li>Set up mesh network to talk to other cars with the same system,
5023    or some standard car mesh protocol.</li>
5024
5025  <li>Warn when approaching speed cameras and speed camera ranges
5026    (speed calculated between two cameras).</li>
5027
5028  <li>Suport dashboard/front facing camera to discover speed limits and
5029    run OCR to track registration number of passing cars.</li>
5030
5031 </ul>
5032
5033 <p>If you know of any free software car computer system supporting
5034 some or all of these features, please let me know.</p>
5035
5036       </div>
5037       <div class="tags">
5038
5039
5040         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5041
5042
5043       </div>
5044     </div>
5045     <div class="padding"></div>
5046
5047     <div class="entry">
5048       <div class="title">
5049         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Half_the_Coverity_issues_in_Gnash_fixed_in_the_next_release.html">Half the Coverity issues in Gnash fixed in the next release</a>
5050       </div>
5051       <div class="date">
5052         29th April 2014
5053       </div>
5054       <div class="body">
5055         <p>I've been following <a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">the Gnash
5056 project</a> for quite a while now.  It is a free software
5057 implementation of Adobe Flash, both a standalone player and a browser
5058 plugin.  Gnash implement support for the AVM1 format (and not the
5059 newer AVM2 format - see
5060 <a href="http://lightspark.github.io/">Lightspark</a> for that one),
5061 allowing several flash based sites to work.  Thanks to the friendly
5062 developers at Youtube, it also work with Youtube videos, because the
5063 Javascript code at Youtube detect Gnash and serve a AVM1 player to
5064 those users. :) Would be great if someone found time to implement AVM2
5065 support, but it has not happened yet.  If you install both Lightspark
5066 and Gnash, Lightspark will invoke Gnash if it find a AVM1 flash file,
5067 so you can get both handled as free software.  Unfortunately,
5068 Lightspark so far only implement a small subset of AVM2, and many
5069 sites do not work yet.</p>
5070
5071 <p>A few months ago, I started looking at
5072 <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/">Coverity</a>, the static source
5073 checker used to find heaps and heaps of bugs in free software (thanks
5074 to the donation of a scanning service to free software projects by the
5075 company developing this non-free code checker), and Gnash was one of
5076 the projects I decided to check out.  Coverity is able to find lock
5077 errors, memory errors, dead code and more.  A few days ago they even
5078 extended it to also be able to find the heartbleed bug in OpenSSL.
5079 There are heaps of checks being done on the instrumented code, and the
5080 amount of bogus warnings is quite low compared to the other static
5081 code checkers I have tested over the years.</p>
5082
5083 <p>Since a few weeks ago, I've been working with the other Gnash
5084 developers squashing bugs discovered by Coverity.  I was quite happy
5085 today when I checked the current status and saw that of the 777 issues
5086 detected so far, 374 are marked as fixed.  This make me confident that
5087 the next Gnash release will be more stable and more dependable than
5088 the previous one.  Most of the reported issues were and are in the
5089 test suite, but it also found a few in the rest of the code.</p>
5090
5091 <p>If you want to help out, you find us on
5092 <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnash-dev">the
5093 gnash-dev mailing list</a> and on
5094 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#gnash">the #gnash channel on
5095 irc.freenode.net IRC server</a>.</p>
5096
5097       </div>
5098       <div class="tags">
5099
5100
5101         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5102
5103
5104       </div>
5105     </div>
5106     <div class="padding"></div>
5107
5108     <div class="entry">
5109       <div class="title">
5110         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
5111       </div>
5112       <div class="date">
5113         23rd April 2014
5114       </div>
5115       <div class="body">
5116         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
5117 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
5118 So I implemented one, using
5119 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
5120 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
5121 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
5122 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
5123 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
5124 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
5125
5126 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
5127 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
5128 packages to install.  The first part is in
5129 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
5130 this:</p>
5131
5132 <p><blockquote><pre>
5133 Task: isenkram
5134 Section: hardware
5135 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
5136  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
5137  proposed.
5138 Test-new-install: mark show
5139 Relevance: 8
5140 Packages: for-current-hardware
5141 </pre></blockquote></p>
5142
5143 <p>The second part is in
5144 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
5145 this:</p>
5146
5147 <p><blockquote><pre>
5148 #!/bin/sh
5149 #
5150 (
5151     isenkram-lookup
5152     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
5153 ) | sort -u
5154 </pre></blockquote></p>
5155
5156 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
5157 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
5158 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
5159 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
5160 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
5161 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
5162
5163 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
5164 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
5165 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
5166 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
5167 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
5168 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
5169 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
5170 the python-apt code (bug
5171 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
5172 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
5173 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
5174 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
5175 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
5176 unstable today.</p>
5177
5178 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
5179 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
5180 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
5181 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
5182 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
5183 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
5184 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
5185 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
5186 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
5187
5188 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
5189 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
5190 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
5191 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
5192 package.  See also
5193 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
5194 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
5195 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
5196 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
5197
5198       </div>
5199       <div class="tags">
5200
5201
5202         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
5203
5204
5205       </div>
5206     </div>
5207     <div class="padding"></div>
5208
5209     <div class="entry">
5210       <div class="title">
5211         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
5212       </div>
5213       <div class="date">
5214         15th April 2014
5215       </div>
5216       <div class="body">
5217         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
5218 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
5219 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
5220 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
5221 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
5222 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
5223
5224 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
5225 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
5226 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
5227 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
5228 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
5229 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
5230 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
5231
5232 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
5233 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
5234 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
5235 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
5236 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
5237 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
5238 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
5239 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
5240 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
5241 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
5242 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
5243 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
5244
5245 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
5246 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
5247 become root:</p>
5248
5249 <p><pre>
5250 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
5251   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
5252   u-boot-tools
5253 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
5254   freedom-maker
5255 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
5256 </pre></p>
5257
5258 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
5259 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
5260 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
5261 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
5262 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
5263 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
5264 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
5265 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
5266
5267 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
5268 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
5269 the preseed values:</p>
5270
5271 <p><pre>
5272 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
5273 </pre></p>
5274
5275 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
5276 it still work.</p>
5277
5278 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
5279 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
5280 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
5281 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
5282 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
5283 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
5284 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
5285
5286 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
5287 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
5288 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
5289 irc.debian.org)</a> and
5290 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
5291 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
5292
5293       </div>
5294       <div class="tags">
5295
5296
5297         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5298
5299
5300       </div>
5301     </div>
5302     <div class="padding"></div>
5303
5304     <div class="entry">
5305       <div class="title">
5306         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
5307       </div>
5308       <div class="date">
5309          9th April 2014
5310       </div>
5311       <div class="body">
5312         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
5313 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
5314 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
5315 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
5316 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
5317 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
5318 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
5319 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
5320 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
5321 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
5322 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
5323 have looked at a system called
5324 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
5325 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
5326
5327 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
5328 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
5329 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
5330 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
5331 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
5332 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
5333 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
5334 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
5335 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
5336 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
5337 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
5338 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
5339 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
5340
5341 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
5342 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
5343 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
5344 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
5345 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
5346 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
5347 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
5348 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
5349 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
5350 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
5351 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
5352 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
5353 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
5354 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
5355 account.</p>
5356
5357 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
5358 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
5359 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
5360 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
5361 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
5362 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
5363 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
5364
5365 <p><blockquote><pre>
5366 [s3c]
5367 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
5368 backend-login: API-login
5369 backend-password: API-password
5370 fs-passphrase: local-password
5371 </pre></blockquote></p>
5372
5373 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
5374 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
5375 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
5376 details and password to create it:</p>
5377
5378 <p><blockquote><pre>
5379 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
5380 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
5381   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
5382 Enter backend login:
5383 Enter backend password:
5384 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
5385 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
5386 Enter encryption password:
5387 Confirm encryption password:
5388 Generating random encryption key...
5389 Creating metadata tables...
5390 Dumping metadata...
5391 ..objects..
5392 ..blocks..
5393 ..inodes..
5394 ..inode_blocks..
5395 ..symlink_targets..
5396 ..names..
5397 ..contents..
5398 ..ext_attributes..
5399 Compressing and uploading metadata...
5400 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
5401 # </pre></blockquote></p>
5402
5403 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
5404
5405 <p><blockquote><pre>
5406 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
5407   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
5408 Using 4 upload threads.
5409 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
5410 Reading metadata...
5411 ..objects..
5412 ..blocks..
5413 ..inodes..
5414 ..inode_blocks..
5415 ..symlink_targets..
5416 ..names..
5417 ..contents..
5418 ..ext_attributes..
5419 Mounting filesystem...
5420 # df -h /s3ql
5421 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
5422 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
5423 #
5424 </pre></blockquote></p>
5425
5426 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
5427 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
5428 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
5429 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
5430 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
5431 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
5432
5433 <p><blockquote><pre>
5434 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
5435 #
5436 </pre></blockquote></p>
5437
5438 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
5439 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
5440 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
5441 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
5442 file system:</p>
5443
5444 <p><blockquote><pre>
5445 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
5446 Using cached metadata.
5447 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
5448 Checking DB integrity...
5449 Creating temporary extra indices...
5450 Checking lost+found...
5451 Checking cached objects...
5452 Checking names (refcounts)...
5453 Checking contents (names)...
5454 Checking contents (inodes)...
5455 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
5456 Checking objects (reference counts)...
5457 Checking objects (backend)...
5458 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
5459 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
5460 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
5461 Checking objects (sizes)...
5462 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
5463 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
5464 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
5465 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
5466 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
5467 Checking inodes (sizes)...
5468 Checking extended attributes (names)...
5469 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
5470 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
5471 Checking directory reachability...
5472 Checking unix conventions...
5473 Checking referential integrity...
5474 Dropping temporary indices...
5475 Backing up old metadata...
5476 Dumping metadata...
5477 ..objects..
5478 ..blocks..
5479 ..inodes..
5480 ..inode_blocks..
5481 ..symlink_targets..
5482 ..names..
5483 ..contents..
5484 ..ext_attributes..
5485 Compressing and uploading metadata...
5486 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
5487 #
5488 </pre></blockquote></p>
5489
5490 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
5491 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
5492 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
5493 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
5494 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
5495 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
5496 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
5497 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
5498 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
5499 working set.</p>
5500
5501 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
5502 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
5503 busy:</p>
5504
5505 <p><blockquote><pre>
5506 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
5507   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
5508 Using 8 upload threads.
5509 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
5510 #
5511 </pre></blockquote></p>
5512
5513 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
5514 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
5515 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
5516 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
5517 s3qlctrl:
5518
5519 <p><blockquote><pre>
5520 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
5521 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
5522 #
5523 </pre></blockquote></p>
5524
5525 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
5526 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
5527 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
5528 a report:</p>
5529
5530 <p><blockquote><pre>
5531 # s3qlstat /s3ql
5532 Directory entries:    9141
5533 Inodes:               9143
5534 Data blocks:          8851
5535 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
5536 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
5537 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
5538 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
5539 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
5540 #
5541 </pre></blockquote></p>
5542
5543 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
5544 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
5545 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
5546 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
5547 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
5548 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
5549 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
5550 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
5551 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
5552 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
5553 best.</p>
5554
5555 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
5556 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
5557 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
5558 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
5559 poster is titled
5560 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
5561 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
5562 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
5563 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
5564 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
5565
5566 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
5567 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
5568 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
5569 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
5570 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
5571 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
5572 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
5573 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
5574
5575 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
5576 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
5577 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
5578 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
5579 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
5580 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
5581 only read from it.</p>
5582
5583 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
5584 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
5585 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5586
5587       </div>
5588       <div class="tags">
5589
5590
5591         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
5592
5593
5594       </div>
5595     </div>
5596     <div class="padding"></div>
5597
5598     <div class="entry">
5599       <div class="title">
5600         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ReactOS_Windows_clone___nice_free_software.html">ReactOS Windows clone - nice free software</a>
5601       </div>
5602       <div class="date">
5603          1st April 2014
5604       </div>
5605       <div class="body">
5606         <p>Microsoft have announced that Windows XP reaches its end of life
5607 2014-04-08, in 7 days.  But there are heaps of machines still running
5608 Windows XP, and depending on Windows XP to run their applications, and
5609 upgrading will be expensive, both when it comes to money and when it
5610 comes to the amount of effort needed to migrate from Windows XP to a
5611 new operating system.  Some obvious options (buy new a Windows
5612 machine, buy a MacOSX machine, install Linux on the existing machine)
5613 are already well known and covered elsewhere.  Most of them involve
5614 leaving the user applications installed on Windows XP behind and
5615 trying out replacements or updated versions. In this blog post I want
5616 to mention one strange bird that allow people to keep the hardware and
5617 the existing Windows XP applications and run them on a free software
5618 operating system that is Windows XP compatible.</p>
5619
5620 <p><a href="http://www.reactos.org/">ReactOS</a> is a free software
5621 operating system (GNU GPL licensed) working on providing a operating
5622 system that is binary compatible with Windows, able to run windows
5623 programs directly and to use Windows drivers for hardware directly.
5624 The project goal is for Windows user to keep their existing machines,
5625 drivers and software, and gain the advantages from user a operating
5626 system without usage limitations caused by non-free licensing.  It is
5627 a Windows clone running directly on the hardware, so quite different
5628 from the approach taken by <a href="http://www.winehq.org/">the Wine
5629 project</a>, which make it possible to run Windows binaries on
5630 Linux.</p>
5631
5632 <p>The ReactOS project share code with the Wine project, so most
5633 shared libraries available on Windows are already implemented already.
5634 There is also a software manager like the one we are used to on Linux,
5635 allowing the user to install free software applications with a simple
5636 click directly from the Internet.  Check out the
5637 <a href="http://www.reactos.org/screenshots">screen shots on the
5638 project web site</a> for an idea what it look like (it looks just like
5639 Windows before metro).</p>
5640
5641 <p>I do not use ReactOS myself, preferring Linux and Unix like
5642 operating systems.  I've tested it, and it work fine in a virt-manager
5643 virtual machine.  The browser, minesweeper, notepad etc is working
5644 fine as far as I can tell.  Unfortunately, my main test application
5645 is the software included on a CD with the Lego Mindstorms NXT, which
5646 seem to install just fine from CD but fail to leave any binaries on
5647 the disk after the installation.  So no luck with that test software.
5648 No idea why, but hope someone else figure out and fix the problem.
5649 I've tried the ReactOS Live ISO on a physical machine, and it seemed
5650 to work just fine.  If you like Windows and want to keep running your
5651 old Windows binaries, check it out by
5652 <a href="http://www.reactos.org/download">downloading</a> the
5653 installation CD, the live CD or the preinstalled virtual machine
5654 image.</p>
5655
5656       </div>
5657       <div class="tags">
5658
5659
5660         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos</a>.
5661
5662
5663       </div>
5664     </div>
5665     <div class="padding"></div>
5666
5667     <div class="entry">
5668       <div class="title">
5669         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Roger_Marsal.html">Debian Edu interview: Roger Marsal</a>
5670       </div>
5671       <div class="date">
5672         30th March 2014
5673       </div>
5674       <div class="body">
5675         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
5676 keep gaining new users.  Some weeks ago, a person showed up on IRC,
5677 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-edu">#debian-edu</a>, with a
5678 wish to contribute, and I managed to get a interview with this great
5679 contributor Roger Marsal to learn more about his background.</p>
5680
5681 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
5682
5683 <p>My name is Roger Marsal, I'm 27 years old (1986 generation) and I
5684 live in Barcelona, Spain. I've got a strong business background and I
5685 work as a patrimony manager and as a real estate agent.  Additionally,
5686 I've co-founded a British based tech company that is nowadays on the
5687 last development phase of a new social networking concept.</p>
5688
5689 <p>I'm a Linux enthusiast that started its journey with Ubuntu four years
5690 ago and have recently switched to Debian seeking rock solid stability
5691 and as a necessary step to gain expertise.</p>
5692
5693 <p>In a nutshell, I spend my days working and learning as much as I
5694 can to face both my job, entrepreneur project and feed my Linux
5695 hunger.</p>
5696
5697 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
5698 project?</strong></p>
5699
5700 <p>I discovered the <a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">LTSP</a> advantages
5701 with "Ubuntu 12.04 alternate install" and after a year of use I
5702 started looking for an alternative.  Even though I highly value and
5703 respect the Ubuntu project, I thought it was necessary for me to
5704 change to a more robust and stable alternative.  As far as I was using
5705 Debian on my personal laptop I thought it would be fine to install
5706 Debian and configure an LTSP server myself.  Surprised, I discovered
5707 that the Debian project also supported a kind of Edubuntu equivalent,
5708 and after having some pain I obtained a Debian Edu network up and
5709 running.  I just loved it.</p>
5710
5711 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
5712 Edu?</strong></p>
5713
5714 <p>I found a main advantage in that, once you know "the tips and
5715 tricks", a new installation just works out of the box. It's the most
5716 complete alternative I've found to create an LTSP network. All the
5717 other distributions seems to be made of plastic, Debian Edu seems to
5718 be made of steel.</p>
5719
5720 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
5721 Edu?</strong></p>
5722
5723 <p>I found two main disadvantages.</p>
5724
5725 <p>I'm not an expert but I've got notions and I had to spent a considerable
5726 amount of time trying to bring up a standard network topology. I'm quite
5727 stubborn and I just worked until I did but I'm sure many people with few
5728 resources (not big schools, but academies for example) would have switched
5729 or dropped.</p>
5730
5731 <p>It's amazing how such a complex system like Debian Edu has achieved
5732 this out-of-the-box state. Even though tweaking without breaking gets
5733 more difficult, as more factors have to be considered. This can
5734 discourage many people too.</p>
5735
5736 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
5737
5738 <p>I use Debian, Firefox, Okular, Inkscape, LibreOffice and
5739 Virtualbox.</p>
5740
5741
5742 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
5743 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
5744
5745 <p>I don't think there is a need for a particular strategy. The free
5746 attribute in both "freedom" and "no price" meanings is what will
5747 really bring free software to schools. In my experience I can think of
5748 the <a href="http://www.r-project.org/">"R" statistical language</a>; a
5749 few years a ago was an extremely nerd tool for university people.
5750 Today it's being increasingly used to teach statistics at many
5751 different level of studies.  I believe free and open software will
5752 increasingly gain popularity, but I'm sure schools will be one of the
5753 first scenarios where this will happen.</p>
5754
5755       </div>
5756       <div class="tags">
5757
5758
5759         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
5760
5761
5762       </div>
5763     </div>
5764     <div class="padding"></div>
5765
5766     <div class="entry">
5767       <div class="title">
5768         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Public_Trusted_Timestamping_services_for_everyone.html">Public Trusted Timestamping services for everyone</a>
5769       </div>
5770       <div class="date">
5771         25th March 2014
5772       </div>
5773       <div class="body">
5774         <p>Did you ever need to store logs or other files in a way that would
5775 allow it to be used as evidence in court, and needed a way to
5776 demonstrate without reasonable doubt that the file had not been
5777 changed since it was created?  Or, did you ever need to document that
5778 a given document was received at some point in time, like some
5779 archived document or the answer to an exam, and not changed after it
5780 was received?  The problem in these settings is to remove the need to
5781 trust yourself and your computers, while still being able to prove
5782 that a file is the same as it was at some given time in the past.</p>
5783
5784 <p>A solution to these problems is to have a trusted third party
5785 "stamp" the document and verify that at some given time the document
5786 looked a given way.  Such
5787 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notarius">notarius</a> service
5788 have been around for thousands of years, and its digital equivalent is
5789 called a
5790 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping">trusted
5791 timestamping service</a>.  <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">The Internet
5792 Engineering Task Force</a> standardised how such service could work a
5793 few years ago as <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3161">RFC
5794 3161</a>.  The mechanism is simple.  Create a hash of the file in
5795 question, send it to a trusted third party which add a time stamp to
5796 the hash and sign the result with its private key, and send back the
5797 signed hash + timestamp.  Both email, FTP and HTTP can be used to
5798 request such signature, depending on what is provided by the service
5799 used. Anyone with the document and the signature can then verify that
5800 the document matches the signature by creating their own hash and
5801 checking the signature using the trusted third party public key.
5802 There are several commercial services around providing such
5803 timestamping.  A quick search for
5804 "<a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=rfc+3161+service">rfc 3161
5805 service</a>" pointed me to at least
5806 <a href="https://www.digistamp.com/technical/how-a-digital-time-stamp-works/">DigiStamp</a>,
5807 <a href="http://www.quovadisglobal.co.uk/CertificateServices/SigningServices/TimeStamp.aspx">Quo
5808 Vadis</a>,
5809 <a href="https://www.globalsign.com/timestamp-service/">Global Sign</a>
5810 and <a href="http://www.globaltrustfinder.com/TSADefault.aspx">Global
5811 Trust Finder</a>.  The system work as long as the private key of the
5812 trusted third party is not compromised.</p>
5813
5814 <p>But as far as I can tell, there are very few public trusted
5815 timestamp services available for everyone.  I've been looking for one
5816 for a while now. But yesterday I found one over at
5817 <a href="https://www.pki.dfn.de/zeitstempeldienst/">Deutches
5818 Forschungsnetz</a> mentioned in
5819 <a href="http://www.d-mueller.de/blog/dealing-with-trusted-timestamps-in-php-rfc-3161/">a
5820 blog by David Müller</a>.  I then found
5821 <a href="http://www.rz.uni-greifswald.de/support/dfn-pki-zertifikate/zeitstempeldienst.html">a
5822 good recipe on how to use the service</a> over at the University of
5823 Greifswald.</p>
5824
5825 <p><a href="http://www.openssl.org/">The OpenSSL library</a> contain
5826 both server and tools to use and set up your own signing service.  See
5827 the ts(1SSL), tsget(1SSL) manual pages for more details.  The
5828 following shell script demonstrate how to extract a signed timestamp
5829 for any file on the disk in a Debian environment:</p>
5830
5831 <p><blockquote><pre>
5832 #!/bin/sh
5833 set -e
5834 url="http://zeitstempel.dfn.de"
5835 caurl="https://pki.pca.dfn.de/global-services-ca/pub/cacert/chain.txt"
5836 reqfile=$(mktemp -t tmp.XXXXXXXXXX.tsq)
5837 resfile=$(mktemp -t tmp.XXXXXXXXXX.tsr)
5838 cafile=chain.txt
5839 if [ ! -f $cafile ] ; then
5840     wget -O $cafile "$caurl"
5841 fi
5842 openssl ts -query -data "$1" -cert | tee "$reqfile" \
5843     | /usr/lib/ssl/misc/tsget -h "$url" -o "$resfile"
5844 openssl ts -reply -in "$resfile" -text 1>&2
5845 openssl ts -verify -data "$1" -in "$resfile" -CAfile "$cafile" 1>&2
5846 base64 < "$resfile"
5847 rm "$reqfile" "$resfile"
5848 </pre></blockquote></p>
5849
5850 <p>The argument to the script is the file to timestamp, and the output
5851 is a base64 encoded version of the signature to STDOUT and details
5852 about the signature to STDERR.  Note that due to
5853 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=742553">a bug
5854 in the tsget script</a>, you might need to modify the included script
5855 and remove the last line.  Or just write your own HTTP uploader using
5856 curl. :) Now you too can prove and verify that files have not been
5857 changed.</p>
5858
5859 <p>But the Internet need more public trusted timestamp services.
5860 Perhaps something for <a href="http://www.uninett.no/">Uninett</a> or
5861 my work place the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a>
5862 to set up?</p>
5863
5864       </div>
5865       <div class="tags">
5866
5867
5868         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
5869
5870
5871       </div>
5872     </div>
5873     <div class="padding"></div>
5874
5875     <div class="entry">
5876       <div class="title">
5877         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Video_DVD_reader_library___python_dvdvideo___nice_free_software.html">Video DVD reader library / python-dvdvideo - nice free software</a>
5878       </div>
5879       <div class="date">
5880         21st March 2014
5881       </div>
5882       <div class="body">
5883         <p>Keeping your DVD collection safe from scratches and curious
5884 children fingers while still having it available when you want to see a
5885 movie is not straight forward.  My preferred method at the moment is
5886 to store a full copy of the ISO on a hard drive, and use VLC, Popcorn
5887 Hour or other useful players to view the resulting file.  This way the
5888 subtitles and bonus material are still available and using the ISO is
5889 just like inserting the original DVD record in the DVD player.</p>
5890
5891 <p>Earlier I used dd for taking security copies, but it do not handle
5892 DVDs giving read errors (which are quite a few of them).  I've also
5893 tried using
5894 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html">dvdbackup
5895 and genisoimage</a>, but these days I use the marvellous python library
5896 and program
5897 <a href="http://bblank.thinkmo.de/blog/new-software-python-dvdvideo">python-dvdvideo</a>
5898 written by Bastian Blank.  It is
5899 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/python-dvdvideo.html">in Debian
5900 already</a> and the binary package name is python3-dvdvideo. Instead
5901 of trying to read every block from the DVD, it parses the file
5902 structure and figure out which block on the DVD is actually in used,
5903 and only read those blocks from the DVD.  This work surprisingly well,
5904 and I have been able to almost backup my entire DVD collection using
5905 this method.</p>
5906
5907 <p>So far, python-dvdvideo have failed on between 10 and
5908 20 DVDs, which is a small fraction of my collection.  The most common
5909 problem is
5910 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=720831">DVDs
5911 using UTF-16 instead of UTF-8 characters</a>, which according to
5912 Bastian is against the DVD specification (and seem to cause some
5913 players to fail too).  A rarer problem is what seem to be inconsistent
5914 DVD structures, as the python library
5915 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=723079">claim
5916 there is a overlap between objects</a>.  An equally rare problem claim
5917 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=741878">some
5918 value is out of range</a>.  No idea what is going on there.  I wish I
5919 knew enough about the DVD format to fix these, to ensure my movie
5920 collection will stay with me in the future.</p>
5921
5922 <p>So, if you need to keep your DVDs safe, back them up using
5923 python-dvdvideo. :)</p>
5924
5925       </div>
5926       <div class="tags">
5927
5928
5929         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
5930
5931
5932       </div>
5933     </div>
5934     <div class="padding"></div>
5935
5936     <div class="entry">
5937       <div class="title">
5938         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
5939       </div>
5940       <div class="date">
5941         14th March 2014
5942       </div>
5943       <div class="body">
5944         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
5945 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
5946 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
5947 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
5948 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
5949 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
5950 release (0.2).</p>
5951
5952 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
5953 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
5954 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
5955 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
5956 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
5957 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
5958 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
5959 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
5960 and build using
5961 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
5962 with a user with sudo access to become root:
5963
5964 <pre>
5965 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
5966   freedom-maker
5967 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
5968   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
5969   u-boot-tools
5970 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
5971 </pre>
5972
5973 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
5974 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
5975 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
5976 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
5977 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
5978 kpartx call.</p>
5979
5980 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
5981 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
5982 the preseed values:</p>
5983
5984 <pre>
5985 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
5986 </pre>
5987
5988 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
5989 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
5990 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
5991 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
5992 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
5993 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
5994
5995 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
5996 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
5997 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
5998 irc.debian.org)</a> and
5999 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
6000 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
6001
6002       </div>
6003       <div class="tags">
6004
6005
6006         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
6007
6008
6009       </div>
6010     </div>
6011     <div class="padding"></div>
6012
6013     <div class="entry">
6014       <div class="title">
6015         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_add_extra_storage_servers_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html">How to add extra storage servers in Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
6016       </div>
6017       <div class="date">
6018         12th March 2014
6019       </div>
6020       <div class="body">
6021         <p>On larger sites, it is useful to use a dedicated storage server for
6022 storing user home directories and data.  The design for handling this
6023 in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>, is
6024 to update the automount rules in LDAP and let the automount daemon on
6025 the clients take care of the rest.  I was reminded about the need to
6026 document this better when one of the customers of
6027 <a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a>, where I am
6028 on the board of directors, asked about how to do this.  The steps to
6029 get this working are the following:</p>
6030
6031 <p><ol>
6032
6033 <li>Add new storage server in DNS.  I use nas-server.intern as the
6034 example host here.</li>
6035
6036 <li>Add automoun LDAP information about this server in LDAP, to allow
6037 all clients to automatically mount it on reqeust.</li>
6038
6039 <li>Add the relevant entries in tjener.intern:/etc/fstab, because
6040 tjener.intern do not use automount to avoid mounting loops.</li>
6041
6042 </ol></p>
6043
6044 <p>DNS entries are added in GOsa², and not described here.  Follow the
6045 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/GettingStarted">instructions
6046 in the manual</a> (Machine Management with GOsa² in section Getting
6047 started).</p>
6048
6049 <p>Ensure that the NFS export points on the server are exported to the
6050 relevant subnets or machines:</p>
6051
6052 <p><blockquote><pre>
6053 root@tjener:~# showmount -e nas-server
6054 Export list for nas-server:
6055 /storage         10.0.0.0/8
6056 root@tjener:~#
6057 </pre></blockquote></p>
6058
6059 <p>Here everything on the backbone network is granted access to the
6060 /storage export.  With NFSv3 it is slightly better to limit it to
6061 netgroup membership or single IP addresses to have some limits on the
6062 NFS access.</p>
6063
6064 <p>The next step is to update LDAP.  This can not be done using GOsa²,
6065 because it lack a module for automount.  Instead, use ldapvi and add
6066 the required LDAP objects using an editor.</p>
6067
6068 <p><blockquote><pre>
6069 ldapvi --ldap-conf -ZD '(cn=admin)' -b ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6070 </pre></blockquote></p>
6071
6072 <p>When the editor show up, add the following LDAP objects at the
6073 bottom of the document.  The "/&" part in the last LDAP object is a
6074 wild card matching everything the nas-server exports, removing the
6075 need to list individual mount points in LDAP.</p>
6076
6077 <p><blockquote><pre>
6078 add cn=nas-server,ou=auto.skole,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6079 objectClass: automount
6080 cn: nas-server
6081 automountInformation: -fstype=autofs --timeout=60 ldap:ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6082
6083 add ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6084 objectClass: top
6085 objectClass: automountMap
6086 ou: auto.nas-server
6087
6088 add cn=/,ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6089 objectClass: automount
6090 cn: /
6091 automountInformation: -fstype=nfs,tcp,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,rw,intr,hard,nodev,nosuid,noatime nas-server.intern:/&
6092 </pre></blockquote></p>
6093
6094 <p>The last step to remember is to mount the relevant mount points in
6095 tjener.intern by adding them to /etc/fstab, creating the mount
6096 directories using mkdir and running "mount -a" to mount them.</p>
6097
6098 <p>When this is done, your users should be able to access the files on
6099 the storage server directly by just visiting the
6100 /tjener/nas-server/storage/ directory using any application on any
6101 workstation, LTSP client or LTSP server.</p>
6102
6103       </div>
6104       <div class="tags">
6105
6106
6107         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>.
6108
6109
6110       </div>
6111     </div>
6112     <div class="padding"></div>
6113
6114     <div class="entry">
6115       <div class="title">
6116         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
6117       </div>
6118       <div class="date">
6119         22nd February 2014
6120       </div>
6121       <div class="body">
6122         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
6123 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
6124 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
6125 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
6126 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
6127 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
6128 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
6129 proper home since then.</p>
6130
6131 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
6132 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
6133 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
6134 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
6135 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
6136
6137 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
6138 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
6139 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
6140 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
6141 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
6142 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
6143 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
6144 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
6145 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
6146
6147       </div>
6148       <div class="tags">
6149
6150
6151         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6152
6153
6154       </div>
6155     </div>
6156     <div class="padding"></div>
6157
6158     <div class="entry">
6159       <div class="title">
6160         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
6161       </div>
6162       <div class="date">
6163          3rd February 2014
6164       </div>
6165       <div class="body">
6166         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
6167 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
6168 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
6169 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
6170 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
6171 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
6172 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
6173 <a href="http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz">http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz</a>,
6174 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
6175
6176 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
6177 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
6178 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
6179 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
6180 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
6181 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
6182
6183 <p><blockquote><pre>
6184 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
6185 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
6186 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
6187 dhclient /dev/eth0
6188 </pre></blockquote></p>
6189
6190 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
6191 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
6192 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
6193
6194 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
6195 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
6196 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
6197 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
6198 side.</p>
6199
6200 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
6201 stuff:</p>
6202
6203 <p><blockquote><pre>
6204 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
6205 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
6206 EOF
6207 apt-get update
6208 apt-get dist-upgrade
6209 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
6210     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
6211 update-alternatives --config runsystem
6212 </pre></blockquote></p>
6213
6214 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
6215 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
6216 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
6217 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
6218 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
6219 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
6220 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
6221 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
6222 ssh instead.
6223
6224 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
6225 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
6226 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
6227 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
6228 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
6229 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
6230
6231 <p><blockquote><pre>
6232 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
6233 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
6234 EOF
6235 </pre></blockquote></p>
6236
6237 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
6238 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
6239 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
6240 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
6241
6242 <p><blockquote><pre>
6243 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
6244 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
6245 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
6246 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
6247 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
6248 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
6249 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
6250 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
6251 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
6252 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
6253 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
6254 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
6255 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
6256 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
6257 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
6258 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
6259 #
6260 </pre></blockquote></p>
6261
6262 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
6263 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
6264 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
6265 command line stuff.<p>
6266
6267       </div>
6268       <div class="tags">
6269
6270
6271         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6272
6273
6274       </div>
6275     </div>
6276     <div class="padding"></div>
6277
6278     <div class="entry">
6279       <div class="title">
6280         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_fist_full_of_non_anonymous_Bitcoins.html">A fist full of non-anonymous Bitcoins</a>
6281       </div>
6282       <div class="date">
6283         29th January 2014
6284       </div>
6285       <div class="body">
6286         <p>Bitcoin is a incredible use of peer to peer communication and
6287 encryption, allowing direct and immediate money transfer without any
6288 central control.  It is sometimes claimed to be ideal for illegal
6289 activity, which I believe is quite a long way from the truth.  At least
6290 I would not conduct illegal money transfers using a system where the
6291 details of every transaction are kept forever.  This point is
6292 investigated in
6293 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login">USENIX ;login:</a>
6294 from December 2013, in the article
6295 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/system/files/login/articles/03_meiklejohn-online.pdf">A
6296 Fistful of Bitcoins - Characterizing Payments Among Men with No
6297 Names</a>" by Sarah Meiklejohn, Marjori Pomarole,Grant Jordan, Kirill
6298 Levchenko, Damon McCoy, Geoffrey M. Voelker, and Stefan Savage.  They
6299 analyse the transaction log in the Bitcoin system, using it to find
6300 addresses belong to individuals and organisations and follow the flow
6301 of money from both Bitcoin theft and trades on Silk Road to where the
6302 money end up.  This is how they wrap up their article:</p>
6303
6304 <p><blockquote>
6305 <p>"To demonstrate the usefulness of this type of analysis, we turned
6306 our attention to criminal activity. In the Bitcoin economy, criminal
6307 activity can appear in a number of forms, such as dealing drugs on
6308 Silk Road or simply stealing someone else’s bitcoins. We followed the
6309 flow of bitcoins out of Silk Road (in particular, from one notorious
6310 address) and from a number of highly publicized thefts to see whether
6311 we could track the bitcoins to known services. Although some of the
6312 thieves attempted to use sophisticated mixing techniques (or possibly
6313 mix services) to obscure the flow of bitcoins, for the most part
6314 tracking the bitcoins was quite straightforward, and we ultimately saw
6315 large quantities of bitcoins flow to a variety of exchanges directly
6316 from the point of theft (or the withdrawal from Silk Road).</p>
6317
6318 <p>As acknowledged above, following stolen bitcoins to the point at
6319 which they are deposited into an exchange does not in itself identify
6320 the thief; however, it does enable further de-anonymization in the
6321 case in which certain agencies can determine (through, for example,
6322 subpoena power) the real-world owner of the account into which the
6323 stolen bitcoins were deposited.  Because such exchanges seem to serve
6324 as chokepoints into and out of the Bitcoin economy (i.e., there are
6325 few alternative ways to cash out), we conclude that using Bitcoin for
6326 money laundering or other illicit purposes does not (at least at
6327 present) seem to be particularly attractive."</p>
6328 </blockquote><p>
6329
6330 <p>These researches are not the first to analyse the Bitcoin
6331 transaction log.  The 2011 paper
6332 "<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.4524">An Analysis of Anonymity in
6333 the Bitcoin System</A>" by Fergal Reid and Martin Harrigan is
6334 summarized like this:</p>
6335
6336 <p><blockquote>
6337 "Anonymity in Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic currency system, is a
6338 complicated issue. Within the system, users are identified by
6339 public-keys only. An attacker wishing to de-anonymize its users will
6340 attempt to construct the one-to-many mapping between users and
6341 public-keys and associate information external to the system with the
6342 users. Bitcoin tries to prevent this attack by storing the mapping of
6343 a user to his or her public-keys on that user's node only and by
6344 allowing each user to generate as many public-keys as required. In
6345 this chapter we consider the topological structure of two networks
6346 derived from Bitcoin's public transaction history. We show that the
6347 two networks have a non-trivial topological structure, provide
6348 complementary views of the Bitcoin system and have implications for
6349 anonymity. We combine these structures with external information and
6350 techniques such as context discovery and flow analysis to investigate
6351 an alleged theft of Bitcoins, which, at the time of the theft, had a
6352 market value of approximately half a million U.S. dollars."
6353 </blockquote></p>
6354
6355 <p>I hope these references can help kill the urban myth that Bitcoin
6356 is anonymous.  It isn't really a good fit for illegal activites.  Use
6357 cash if you need to stay anonymous, at least until regular DNA
6358 sampling of notes and coins become the norm. :)</p>
6359
6360 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
6361 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
6362 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6363
6364       </div>
6365       <div class="tags">
6366
6367
6368         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix</a>.
6369
6370
6371       </div>
6372     </div>
6373     <div class="padding"></div>
6374
6375     <div class="entry">
6376       <div class="title">
6377         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
6378       </div>
6379       <div class="date">
6380         14th January 2014
6381       </div>
6382       <div class="body">
6383         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
6384 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
6385 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
6386 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
6387 the source.  The company behind it provide
6388 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
6389 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
6390 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
6391 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
6392 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
6393 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
6394 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
6395 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
6396 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
6397 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
6398 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
6399 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
6400 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
6401 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
6402 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
6403 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
6404 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
6405 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
6406 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
6407
6408 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
6409
6410 <ul>
6411
6412   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
6413   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
6414   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
6415
6416 </ul>
6417
6418 <p>You can
6419 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
6420 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
6421 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
6422 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
6423 include a test suite check.</p>
6424
6425       </div>
6426       <div class="tags">
6427
6428
6429         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6430
6431
6432       </div>
6433     </div>
6434     <div class="padding"></div>
6435
6436     <div class="entry">
6437       <div class="title">
6438         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Dominik_George.html">Debian Edu interview: Dominik George</a>
6439       </div>
6440       <div class="date">
6441         25th December 2013
6442       </div>
6443       <div class="body">
6444         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
6445 project</a> consist of both newcomers and old timers, and this time I
6446 was able to get an interview with a newcomer in the project who showed
6447 up on the IRC channel a few weeks ago to let us know about his
6448 successful installation of Debian Edu Wheezy in his School.  Say hello
6449 to <a href="https://www.ohloh.net/accounts/Natureshadow">Dominik
6450 George</a>.</p>
6451
6452 <!-- http://www.dominik-george.de/images/foto.jpg -->
6453
6454 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
6455
6456 <p>I am a 23 year-old student from Germany who has spent half of his
6457 life with open source. In "real life", I am, as already mentioned, a
6458 student in the fields of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering,
6459 Information Technologies and Anglistics. Due to my (only partially
6460 voluntary) huge engagement in the open source world, these things are
6461 a bit vacant right now however.</p>
6462
6463 <p>I also have been working as a project teacher at a Gymasnium
6464 (public school) for various years now. I took up that work some time
6465 around 2005 when still attending that school myself and have continued
6466 it until today. I also had been running the (kind of very advanced)
6467 network of that school together with a team of very interested and
6468 talented students in the age of 11 to 15 years, who took the chance to
6469 learn a lot about open source and networking before I left the school
6470 to help building another school's informational education concept from
6471 scratch.</p>
6472
6473 <p>That said, one might see me as a kind of "glue" between school kids
6474 and the elderly of teachers as well as between the open source
6475 ecosystem and the (even more complex) educational ecosystem.</p>
6476
6477 <p>When I am not busy with open source or education, I like Geocaching
6478 and cycling.</p>
6479
6480 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
6481 project?</strong></p>
6482
6483 <p>I think that happened some time around 2009 when I first attended
6484 <a href="http://www.froscon.org">FrOSCon</a> and visited the project
6485 booth. I think I wasn't too interested back then because I used to
6486 have an attitude of disliking software that does too much stuff on its
6487 own. Maybe I was too inexperienced to realise the upsides of an
6488 "out-of-the-box" solution ;).</p>
6489
6490 <p>The first time I actively talked to Skolelinux people was at
6491 <a href="http://www.openrheinruhr.de">OpenRheinRuhr</a> 2011 when the
6492 BiscuIT project, a home-grewn software used by my school for various
6493 really cool things from timetables and class contact lists to lunch
6494 ordering, student ID card printing and project elections first got to
6495 a stage where it could have been published. I asked the Skolelinux
6496 guys running the booth if the project were interested in it and gave a
6497 small demonstration, but there wasn't any real feedback and the guys
6498 seemed rather uninterested.</p>
6499
6500 <p>After I left the school where I developed the software, it got
6501 mostly lost, but I am now reimplementing it for my new school. I have
6502 reusability and compatibility in mind, and I hop there will be a new
6503 basis for contributing it to the Skolelinux project ;)!</p>
6504
6505 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
6506 Edu?</strong></p>
6507
6508 <p>The most important advantage seems to be that it "just
6509 works". After overcoming some minor (but still very annoying) glitches
6510 in the installer, I got a fully functional, working school network,
6511 without the month-long hassle I experienced when setting all that up
6512 from scratch in earlier years. And above that, it rocked - I didn't
6513 have any real hardware at hand, because the school was just founded
6514 and has no money whatsoever, so I installed a combined server (main
6515 server, terminal services and workstation) in a VM on my personal
6516 notebook, bridging the LTSP network interface to the ethernet port,
6517 and then PXE-booted the Windows notebooks that were lying around from
6518 it. I could use 8 clients without any performance issues, by using a
6519 tiny little VM on a tiny little notebook. I think that's enough to say
6520 that it rocks!</p>
6521
6522 <p>Secondly, there are marketing reasons. Life's bad, and so no
6523 politician will ever permit a setup described as "Debian, an universal
6524 operating system, with some really cool educational tools" while they
6525 will be jsut fine with "Skolelinux, a single-purpose solution for your
6526 school network", even if both turn out to be the very same thing (yes,
6527 this is unfair towards the Skolelinux project, and must not be taken
6528 too seriously - you get the idea, anyway).</p>
6529
6530 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
6531 Edu?</strong></p>
6532
6533 <p>I have not been involved with Skolelinux long enough to really
6534 answer this question in a fair way. Thus, please allow me to put it in
6535 other words: "What do you expect from Skolelinux to keep liking it?" I
6536 can list a few points about that:</p>
6537
6538 <ul>
6539
6540  <li>always strive to get all things integrated into Debian upstream
6541  <li>be open to discussion about changes and the like, even with newcomers
6542  <li>be helpful at being helpful ;)
6543
6544 </ul>
6545
6546 <p>I'm really sorry I cannot say much more about that :(!</p>
6547
6548 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
6549
6550 <p>First of all, all software I use is free and open. I have abandoned
6551 all non-free software (except for firmware on my darned phone) this
6552 year.</p>
6553
6554 <p>I run Debian GNU/Linux on all PC systems I use. On that, I mostly
6555 run text tools. I use
6556 <a href="https://www.mirbsd.org/mksh.htm">mksh</a> as shell,
6557 <a href="https://www.mirbsd.org/jupp.htm">jupp</a> as very advanced
6558 text editor (I even got the developer to help me write a script/macro
6559 based full-featured student management software with the two),
6560 <a href="http://mcabber.com/">mcabber</a> for XMPP and
6561 <a href="http://www.irssi.org/">irssi</a> for IRC. For that overly
6562 coloured world called the WWW, I use
6563 <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/">Iceweasel
6564 (Firefox)</a>. Oh, and <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</a> for
6565 e-mail.</p>
6566
6567 <p>However, while I am personally aware of the fact that text tools
6568 are more efficient and powerful than anything else, I also use (or at
6569 least operate) some tools that are suitable to bring open source to
6570 kids. One of these things is <a href="http://jappix.org/">Jappix</a>,
6571 which I already introduced to some kids even before they got aware of
6572 Facebook, making them see for themselves that they do not need
6573 Facebook now ;).</p>
6574
6575 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
6576 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
6577
6578 <p>Well, that's a two-sided thing. One side is what I believe, and one
6579 side is what I have experienced.</p>
6580
6581 <p>I believe that the right strategy is showing them the benefits. But
6582 that won't work out as long as the acceptance of free alternatives
6583 grows globally. What I mean is that if all the kids are almost forced
6584 to use Windows, Facebook, Skype, you name it at home, they will not
6585 see why they would want to use alternatives at school. I have seen
6586 students take seat in front of a fully-functional, modern Debian
6587 desktop that could do anything their Windows at home could do, and
6588 they jsut refused to use it because "Linux sucks". It is something
6589 that makes the council of our city spend around 600000 € to buy
6590 software - not including hardware, mind you - for operating school
6591 networks, and for installing a system that, as has been proved, does
6592 not work. For those of you readers who are good at maths, have you
6593 already found out how many lives could have been saved with that money
6594 if we had instead used it to bring education to parts of the world
6595 that need it? I have, and found it to be nothing less dramatic than
6596 plain criminal.</p>
6597
6598 <p>That said, the only feasible way appears to be the bottom up
6599 method. We have to bring free software to kids and parents. I have
6600 founded an association named
6601 <a href="https://www.teckids.org">Teckids</a> here in Germany that does
6602 just that. We organise several events for kids and adolescents in the
6603 area of free and open source software, for example the
6604 <a href="http://kids.froscon.org">FrogLabs</a>, which share staff with
6605 Teckids and are the youth programme of
6606 <a href="http://www.froscon.org">the Free and Open Source Software
6607 Conference (FrOSCon)</a>. We do a lot more than most other conferences
6608 - this year, we first offered the FrogLabs as a holiday camp for kids
6609 aged 10 to 16. It was a huge success, with approx. 30 kids taking part
6610 and learning with and about free software through a whole weekend. All
6611 of us had a lot of fun, and the results were really exciting.</p>
6612
6613 <p>Apart from that, we are preparing a campaign that is supposed to bring
6614 the message of free alternatives to stuff kids use every day to them and
6615 their parents, e.g. the use of Jabber / Jappix instead of Facebook and
6616 Skype. To make that possible, we are planning to get together a team of
6617 clever kids who understand very well what their peers need and can bring
6618 it across to them. So we will have a peer-driven network of adolescents
6619 who teach each other and collect feedback from the community of minors.
6620 We then take that feedback and our own experience to work closely with
6621 open source projects, such as Skolelinux or Jappix, at improving their
6622 software in a way that makes it more and more attractive for the target
6623 group. At least I hope that we will have good cooperation with
6624 Skolelinux in the future ;)!</p>
6625
6626 <p>So in conclusion, what I believe is that, if it weren't for the world
6627 being so bad, it should be very clear to the political decision makers
6628 that the only way to go nowadays is free software for various reasons,
6629 but I have learnt that the only way that seems to work is bottom up.</p>
6630
6631 <!--
6632
6633 >  * Who should be interviewed with this questions in the future?
6634
6635 That's probably the hardest question of them all, as I do not know the
6636 community. However, I would be willing to do the following:
6637
6638  <li>Run an interview with a German headteacher who is very open to
6639    free software, and also prefers it, but cannot really use it because
6640    of the decision makers above;
6641  <li>Run interviews with some kids, both with and without previous
6642    knowledge about free software
6643
6644 If that is wanted, just let me know ;).
6645
6646 -->
6647
6648       </div>
6649       <div class="tags">
6650
6651
6652         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
6653
6654
6655       </div>
6656     </div>
6657     <div class="padding"></div>
6658
6659     <div class="entry">
6660       <div class="title">
6661         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Klaus_Knopper.html">Debian Edu interview: Klaus Knopper</a>
6662       </div>
6663       <div class="date">
6664          6th December 2013
6665       </div>
6666       <div class="body">
6667         <p>It has been a while since I managed to publish the last interview,
6668 but the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
6669 Skolelinux</a> community is still going strong, and yesterday we even
6670 had a new school administrator show up on
6671 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-edu">#debian-edu</a> to share
6672 his success story with installing Debian Edu at their school.  This
6673 time I have been able to get some helpful comments from the creator of
6674 Knoppix, Klaus Knopper, who was involved in a Skolelinux project in
6675 Germany a few years ago.</p>
6676
6677 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
6678
6679 <p>I am Klaus Knopper.  I have a master degree in electrical
6680 engineering, and is currently professor in information management at
6681 the university of applied sciences Kaiserslautern / Germany and
6682 freelance Open Source software developer and consultant.</p>
6683
6684 <p>All of this is pretty much of the work I spend my days with. Apart
6685 from teaching, I'm also conducting some more or less experimental
6686 projects like the <a href="http://www.knoppix.org">Knoppix GNU/Linux live
6687 system</a> (Debian-based like Skolelinux),
6688 <a href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-adriane/index-en.html">ADRIANE</a>
6689 (a blind-friendly talking desktop system) and
6690 <a href="http://www.knopper.net/linbo/index-en.html">LINBO</a>
6691 (Linux-based network boot console, a fast remote install and repair
6692 system supporting various operating systems).</p>
6693
6694 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
6695 project?</strong></p>
6696
6697 <p>The credit for this have to go to Kurt Gramlich, who is the German
6698 coordinator for Skolelinux.  We were looking for an all-in-one open
6699 source community-supported distribution for schools, and Kurt
6700 introduced us to Skolelinux for this purpose.</p>
6701
6702 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
6703 Edu?</strong></p>
6704
6705 <ul>
6706   <li>Quick installation,</li>
6707   <li>works (almost) out of the box,</li>
6708   <li>contains many useful software packages for teaching and learning,</li>
6709   <li>is a purely community-based distro and not controlled by a
6710     single company,</li>
6711   <li>has a large number of supporters and teachers who share their
6712     experience and problem solutions.</li>
6713 </ul>
6714
6715 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
6716 Edu?</strong></p>
6717
6718 <ul>
6719   <li>Skolelinux is - as we had to learn - not easily upgradable to
6720   the next version.  Opposed to its genuine Debian base, upgrading to
6721   a new version means a full new installation from scratch to get it
6722   working again reliably.
6723
6724   <li>Skolelinux is based on Debian/stable, and therefore always a
6725   little outdated in terms of program versions compared to Edubuntu or
6726   similar educational Linux distros, which rather use Debian/testing
6727   as their base.
6728
6729   <li>Skolelinux has some very self-opinionated and stubborn default
6730   configuration which in my opinion adds unnecessary complexity and is
6731   not always suitable for a schools needs, the preset network
6732   configuration is actually a core definition feature of Skolelinux
6733   and not easy to change, so schools sometimes have to change their
6734   network configuration to make it "Skolelinux-compatible".
6735
6736   <li>Some proposed extensions, which were made available as
6737   contribution, like secure examination mode and lecture material
6738   distribution and collection, were not accepted into the mainline
6739   Skolelinux development and are now not easy to maintain in the
6740   future because of Skolelinux somewhat undeterministic update
6741   schemes.</li>
6742
6743   <li>Skolelinux has only a very tiny number of base developers
6744   compared to Debian.</li>
6745
6746 </ul>
6747
6748 <p>For these reasons and experience from our project, I would now
6749 rather consider using plain Debian for schools next time, until
6750 Skolelinux is more closely integrated into Debian and becomes
6751 upgradeable without reinstallation.</p>
6752
6753 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
6754
6755 <p>GNU/Linux with LXDE desktop, bash for interactive dialog and
6756 programming, texlive for documentation and correspondence,
6757 occasionally LibreOffice for document format conversion. Various
6758 programming languages for teaching.</p>
6759
6760 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
6761 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
6762
6763 <p>Strong arguments are</p>
6764
6765 <ul>
6766
6767   <li>Knowledge is free, and so should be methods and tools for
6768     teaching and learning.</li>
6769
6770   <li>Students can learn with and use the same software at school, at
6771     home, and at their working place without running into license or
6772     conversion problems.</li>
6773
6774   <li>Closed source or proprietary software hides knowledge rather
6775     than exposing it, and proprietary software vendors try to bind
6776     customers to certain products.  But teachers need to teach
6777     science, not products.</li>
6778
6779   <li>If you have everything you for daily work as open source, what
6780     would you need proprietary software for?</li>
6781
6782 </ul>
6783
6784       </div>
6785       <div class="tags">
6786
6787
6788         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
6789
6790
6791       </div>
6792     </div>
6793     <div class="padding"></div>
6794
6795     <div class="entry">
6796       <div class="title">
6797         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnadsnett_for_alle__a_wireless_community_network_in_Oslo__take_shape.html">Dugnadsnett for alle, a wireless community network in Oslo, take shape</a>
6798       </div>
6799       <div class="date">
6800         30th November 2013
6801       </div>
6802       <div class="body">
6803         <p>If you want the ability to electronically communicate directly with
6804 your neighbors and friends using a network controlled by your peers in
6805 stead of centrally controlled by a few corporations, or would like to
6806 experiment with interesting network technology, the
6807 <a href="http://www.dugnadsnett.no/">Dugnasnett for alle i Oslo</a>
6808 might be project for you.  39 mesh nodes are currently being planned,
6809 in the freshly started initiative from NUUG and Hackeriet to create a
6810 wireless community network.  The work is inspired by
6811 <a href="http://freifunk.net/">Freifunk</a>,
6812 <a href="http://www.awmn.net/">Athens Wireless Metropolitan
6813 Network</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roofnet">Roofnet</a>
6814 and other successful mesh networks around the globe.  Two days ago we
6815 held a workshop to try to get people started on setting up their own
6816 mesh node, and there we decided to create a new mailing list
6817 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/dugnadsnett">dugnadsnett
6818 (at) nuug.no</a> and IRC channel
6819 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#dugnadsnett.no">#dugnadsnett.no</a> to
6820 coordinate the work.  See also the NUUG blog post
6821 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/E_postliste_og_IRC_kanal_for_Dugnadsnett_for_alle_i_Oslo.shtml">announcing
6822 the mailing list and IRC channel</a>.</p>
6823
6824       </div>
6825       <div class="tags">
6826
6827
6828         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6829
6830
6831       </div>
6832     </div>
6833     <div class="padding"></div>
6834
6835     <div class="entry">
6836       <div class="title">
6837         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
6838       </div>
6839       <div class="date">
6840         24th November 2013
6841       </div>
6842       <div class="body">
6843         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
6844 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
6845 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
6846 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
6847 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
6848 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
6849 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
6850 is working on.  I checked the
6851 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
6852 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
6853 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
6854 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
6855 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
6856 These are the release notes:</p>
6857
6858 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
6859
6860 <ul>
6861
6862   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
6863    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
6864    up.</li>
6865
6866   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
6867
6868   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
6869    Matthias Klose.</li>
6870
6871   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
6872    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
6873
6874   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
6875    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
6876    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
6877
6878 </ul>
6879
6880 <p>You can
6881 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
6882 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
6883 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
6884 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
6885 include a testsuite check.</p>
6886
6887       </div>
6888       <div class="tags">
6889
6890
6891         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6892
6893
6894       </div>
6895     </div>
6896     <div class="padding"></div>
6897
6898     <div class="entry">
6899       <div class="title">
6900         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/All_drones_should_be_radio_marked_with_what_they_do_and_who_they_belong_to.html">All drones should be radio marked with what they do and who they belong to</a>
6901       </div>
6902       <div class="date">
6903         21st November 2013
6904       </div>
6905       <div class="body">
6906         <p>Drones, flying robots, are getting more and more popular.  The most
6907 know ones are the killer drones used by some government to murder
6908 people they do not like without giving them the chance of a fair
6909 trial, but the technology have many good uses too, from mapping and
6910 forest maintenance to photography and search and rescue.  I am sure it
6911 is just a question of time before "bad drones" are in the hands of
6912 private enterprises and not only state criminals but petty criminals
6913 too.  The drone technology is very useful and very dangerous.  To have
6914 some control over the use of drones, I agree with Daniel Suarez in his
6915 TED talk
6916 "<a href="https://archive.org/details/DanielSuarez_2013G">The kill
6917 decision shouldn't belong to a robot</a>", where he suggested this
6918 little gem to keep the good while limiting the bad use of drones:</p>
6919
6920 <blockquote>
6921
6922 <p>Each robot and drone should have a cryptographically signed
6923 I.D. burned in at the factory that can be used to track its movement
6924 through public spaces. We have license plates on cars, tail numbers on
6925 aircraft. This is no different. And every citizen should be able to
6926 download an app that shows the population of drones and autonomous
6927 vehicles moving through public spaces around them, both right now and
6928 historically. And civic leaders should deploy sensors and civic drones
6929 to detect rogue drones, and instead of sending killer drones of their
6930 own up to shoot them down, they should notify humans to their
6931 presence. And in certain very high-security areas, perhaps civic
6932 drones would snare them and drag them off to a bomb disposal facility.</p>
6933
6934 <p>But notice, this is more an immune system than a weapons system. It
6935 would allow us to avail ourselves of the use of autonomous vehicles
6936 and drones while still preserving our open, civil society.</p>
6937
6938 </blockquote>
6939
6940 <p>The key is that <em>every citizen</em> should be able to read the
6941 radio beacons sent from the drones in the area, to be able to check
6942 both the government and others use of drones.  For such control to be
6943 effective, everyone must be able to do it.  What should such beacon
6944 contain?  At least formal owner, purpose, contact information and GPS
6945 location.  Probably also the origin and target position of the current
6946 flight.  And perhaps some registration number to be able to look up
6947 the drone in a central database tracking their movement.  Robots
6948 should not have privacy.  It is people who need privacy.</p>
6949
6950       </div>
6951       <div class="tags">
6952
6953
6954         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
6955
6956
6957       </div>
6958     </div>
6959     <div class="padding"></div>
6960
6961     <div class="entry">
6962       <div class="title">
6963         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_wireless_community_network_in_Oslo_.html">Lets make a wireless community network in Oslo!</a>
6964       </div>
6965       <div class="date">
6966         13th November 2013
6967       </div>
6968       <div class="body">
6969         <p>Today NUUG and Hackeriet announced
6970 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Bli_med___bygge_dugnadsnett_for_alle_i_Oslo.shtml">our
6971 plans to join forces and create a wireless community network in
6972 Oslo</a>.  The workshop to help people get started will take place
6973 Thursday 2013-11-28, but we already are collecting the geolocation of
6974 people joining forces to make this happen.  We have
6975 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node/blob/master/oslo-nodes.geojson">9
6976 locations plotted on the map</a>, but we will need more before we have
6977 a connected mesh spread across Oslo.  If this sound interesting to
6978 you, please join us at the workshop.  If you are too impatient to wait
6979 15 days, please join us on the IRC channel
6980 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23nuug">#nuug on irc.freenode.net</a>
6981 right away. :)</p>
6982
6983       </div>
6984       <div class="tags">
6985
6986
6987         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6988
6989
6990       </div>
6991     </div>
6992     <div class="padding"></div>
6993
6994     <div class="entry">
6995       <div class="title">
6996         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Running_TP_Link_MR3040_as_a_batman_adv_mesh_node_using_openwrt.html">Running TP-Link MR3040 as a batman-adv mesh node using openwrt</a>
6997       </div>
6998       <div class="date">
6999         10th November 2013
7000       </div>
7001       <div class="body">
7002         <p>Continuing my research into mesh networking, I was recommended to
7003 use TP-Link 3040 and 3600 access points as mesh nodes, and the pair I
7004 bought arrived on Friday.  Here are my notes on how to set up the
7005 MR3040 as a mesh node using
7006 <a href="http://www.openwrt.org/">OpenWrt</a>.</p>
7007
7008 <p>I started by following the instructions on the OpenWRT wiki for
7009 <a href="http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-mr3040">TL-MR3040</a>,
7010 and downloaded
7011 <a href="http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-mr3040-v2-squashfs-factory.bin">the
7012 recommended firmware image</a>
7013 (openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-mr3040-v2-squashfs-factory.bin) and
7014 uploaded it into the original web interface.  The flashing went fine,
7015 and the machine was available via telnet on the ethernet port.  After
7016 logging in and setting the root password, ssh was available and I
7017 could start to set it up as a batman-adv mesh node.</p>
7018
7019 <p>I started off by reading the instructions from
7020 <a href="http://wirelessafrica.meraka.org.za/wiki/index.php?title=Antoine's_Research">Wireless
7021 Africa</a>, which had quite a lot of useful information, but
7022 eventually I followed the recipe from the Open Mesh wiki for
7023 <a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki/Batman-adv-openwrt-config">using
7024 batman-adv on OpenWrt</a>.  A small snag was the fact that the
7025 <tt>opkg install kmod-batman-adv</tt> command did not work as it
7026 should.  The batman-adv kernel module would fail to load because its
7027 dependency crc16 was not already loaded.  I
7028 <a href="https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/14452">reported the bug</a> to
7029 the openwrt project and hope it will be fixed soon.  But the problem
7030 only seem to affect initial testing of batman-adv, as configuration
7031 seem to work when booting from scratch.</p>
7032
7033 <p>The setup is done using files in /etc/config/.  I did not bridge
7034 the Ethernet and mesh interfaces this time, to be able to hook up the
7035 box on my local network and log into it for configuration updates.
7036 The following files were changed and look like this after modifying
7037 them:</p>
7038
7039 <p><tt>/etc/config/network</tt></p>
7040
7041 <pre>
7042
7043 config interface 'loopback'
7044         option ifname 'lo'
7045         option proto 'static'
7046         option ipaddr '127.0.0.1'
7047         option netmask '255.0.0.0'
7048
7049 config globals 'globals'
7050         option ula_prefix 'fdbf:4c12:3fed::/48'
7051
7052 config interface 'lan'
7053         option ifname 'eth0'
7054         option type 'bridge'
7055         option proto 'dhcp'
7056         option ipaddr '192.168.1.1'
7057         option netmask '255.255.255.0'
7058         option hostname 'tl-mr3040'
7059         option ip6assign '60'
7060
7061 config interface 'mesh'
7062         option ifname 'adhoc0'
7063         option mtu '1528'
7064         option proto 'batadv'
7065         option mesh 'bat0'
7066 </pre>
7067
7068 <p><tt>/etc/config/wireless</tt></p>
7069 <pre>
7070
7071 config wifi-device 'radio0'
7072         option type 'mac80211'
7073         option channel '11'
7074         option hwmode '11ng'
7075         option path 'platform/ar933x_wmac'
7076         option htmode 'HT20'
7077         list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-20'
7078         list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-40'
7079         list ht_capab 'RX-STBC1'
7080         list ht_capab 'DSSS_CCK-40'
7081         option disabled '0'
7082
7083 config wifi-iface 'wmesh'
7084         option device 'radio0'
7085         option ifname 'adhoc0'
7086         option network 'mesh'
7087         option encryption 'none'
7088         option mode 'adhoc'
7089         option bssid '02:BA:00:00:00:01'
7090         option ssid 'meshfx@hackeriet'
7091 </pre>
7092 <p><tt>/etc/config/batman-adv</tt></p>
7093 <pre>
7094
7095 config 'mesh' 'bat0'
7096         option interfaces 'adhoc0'
7097         option 'aggregated_ogms'
7098         option 'ap_isolation'
7099         option 'bonding'
7100         option 'fragmentation'
7101         option 'gw_bandwidth'
7102         option 'gw_mode'
7103         option 'gw_sel_class'
7104         option 'log_level'
7105         option 'orig_interval'
7106         option 'vis_mode'
7107         option 'bridge_loop_avoidance'
7108         option 'distributed_arp_table'
7109         option 'network_coding'
7110         option 'hop_penalty'
7111
7112 # yet another batX instance
7113 # config 'mesh' 'bat5'
7114 #       option 'interfaces' 'second_mesh'
7115 </pre>
7116
7117 <p>The mesh node is now operational.  I have yet to test its range,
7118 but I hope it is good.  I have not yet tested the TP-Link 3600 box
7119 still wrapped up in plastic.</p>
7120
7121       </div>
7122       <div class="tags">
7123
7124
7125         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7126
7127
7128       </div>
7129     </div>
7130     <div class="padding"></div>
7131
7132     <div class="entry">
7133       <div class="title">
7134         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
7135       </div>
7136       <div class="date">
7137          2nd November 2013
7138       </div>
7139       <div class="body">
7140         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
7141 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
7142 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
7143 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
7144 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
7145
7146 <p><pre>
7147 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
7148 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
7149 # Provides:          rsyslog
7150 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
7151 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
7152 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
7153 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
7154 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
7155 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
7156 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
7157 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
7158 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
7159 ### END INIT INFO
7160 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
7161 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
7162 </pre></p>
7163
7164 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
7165 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
7166 info/comments.</p>
7167
7168 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
7169 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
7170
7171 <p><pre>
7172 #!/bin/sh
7173
7174 # Define LSB log_* functions.
7175 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
7176 # and status_of_proc is working.
7177 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
7178
7179 #
7180 # Function that starts the daemon/service
7181
7182 #
7183 do_start()
7184 {
7185         # Return
7186         #   0 if daemon has been started
7187         #   1 if daemon was already running
7188         #   2 if daemon could not be started
7189         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
7190                 || return 1
7191         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
7192                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
7193                 || return 2
7194         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
7195         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
7196         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
7197 }
7198
7199 #
7200 # Function that stops the daemon/service
7201 #
7202 do_stop()
7203 {
7204         # Return
7205         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
7206         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
7207         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
7208         #   other if a failure occurred
7209         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
7210         RETVAL="$?"
7211         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
7212         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
7213         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
7214         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
7215         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
7216         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
7217         # sleep for some time.
7218         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
7219         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
7220         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
7221         rm -f $PIDFILE
7222         return "$RETVAL"
7223 }
7224
7225 #
7226 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
7227 #
7228 do_reload() {
7229         #
7230         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
7231         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
7232         # then implement that here.
7233         #
7234         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
7235         return 0
7236 }
7237
7238 SCRIPTNAME=$1
7239 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
7240 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
7241 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
7242     script="$1"
7243     shift
7244     . $script
7245 else
7246     exit 0
7247 fi
7248
7249 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
7250 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
7251
7252 # Exit if the package is not installed
7253 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
7254
7255 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
7256 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
7257
7258 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
7259 . /lib/init/vars.sh
7260
7261 case "$1" in
7262   start)
7263         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
7264         do_start
7265         case "$?" in
7266                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
7267                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
7268         esac
7269         ;;
7270   stop)
7271         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
7272         do_stop
7273         case "$?" in
7274                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
7275                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
7276         esac
7277         ;;
7278   status)
7279         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
7280         ;;
7281   #reload|force-reload)
7282         #
7283         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
7284         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
7285         #
7286         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
7287         #do_reload
7288         #log_end_msg $?
7289         #;;
7290   restart|force-reload)
7291         #
7292         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
7293         # 'force-reload' alias
7294         #
7295         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
7296         do_stop
7297         case "$?" in
7298           0|1)
7299                 do_start
7300                 case "$?" in
7301                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
7302                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
7303                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
7304                 esac
7305                 ;;
7306           *)
7307                 # Failed to stop
7308                 log_end_msg 1
7309                 ;;
7310         esac
7311         ;;
7312   *)
7313         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
7314         exit 3
7315         ;;
7316 esac
7317
7318 :
7319 </pre></p>
7320
7321 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
7322 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
7323 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
7324 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
7325
7326 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
7327 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
7328 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
7329 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
7330 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
7331
7332       </div>
7333       <div class="tags">
7334
7335
7336         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7337
7338
7339       </div>
7340     </div>
7341     <div class="padding"></div>
7342
7343     <div class="entry">
7344       <div class="title">
7345         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
7346       </div>
7347       <div class="date">
7348          1st November 2013
7349       </div>
7350       <div class="body">
7351         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
7352 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
7353 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
7354 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
7355 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
7356 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
7357 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
7358 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
7359 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
7360 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
7361 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
7362 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
7363
7364 <p>The source is now available from
7365 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p>
7366
7367       </div>
7368       <div class="tags">
7369
7370
7371         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7372
7373
7374       </div>
7375     </div>
7376     <div class="padding"></div>
7377
7378     <div class="entry">
7379       <div class="title">
7380         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
7381       </div>
7382       <div class="date">
7383         27th October 2013
7384       </div>
7385       <div class="body">
7386         <p>The
7387 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
7388 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
7389 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
7390 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
7391 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
7392 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
7393 of a plan to simplify the build system for
7394 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
7395 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
7396 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
7397 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
7398 Raspberry Pi.</p>
7399
7400 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
7401 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
7402 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
7403 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
7404 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
7405 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
7406 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
7407 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
7408 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
7409 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
7410 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
7411 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
7412 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
7413 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
7414 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
7415 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
7416 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
7417 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
7418 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
7419 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
7420 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
7421 available from
7422 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
7423 upstream project page</a>.</p>
7424
7425 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
7426 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
7427 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
7428 list:</p>
7429
7430 <p><pre>
7431 #!/bin/sh
7432 set -e # Exit on first error
7433 rootdir="$1"
7434 cd "$rootdir"
7435 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
7436 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
7437 EOF
7438 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
7439 # install a kernel somewhere too.
7440 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
7441     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
7442 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
7443 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
7444 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
7445 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
7446 </pre></p>
7447
7448 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
7449 to build the image:</p>
7450
7451 <pre>
7452 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
7453     --variant minbase \
7454     --arch armel \
7455     --distribution jessie \
7456     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
7457     --image test.img \
7458     --size 600M \
7459     --bootsize 64M \
7460     --boottype vfat \
7461     --log-level debug \
7462     --verbose \
7463     --no-kernel \
7464     --no-extlinux \
7465     --root-password raspberry \
7466     --hostname raspberrypi \
7467     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
7468     --customize `pwd`/customize \
7469     --package netbase \
7470     --package git-core \
7471     --package binutils \
7472     --package ca-certificates \
7473     --package wget \
7474     --package kmod
7475 </pre></p>
7476
7477 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
7478 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
7479 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
7480 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
7481 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
7482 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
7483 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
7484
7485 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
7486 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
7487 build dependency list.</p>
7488
7489 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
7490 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
7491 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
7492 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
7493
7494       </div>
7495       <div class="tags">
7496
7497
7498         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
7499
7500
7501       </div>
7502     </div>
7503     <div class="padding"></div>
7504
7505     <div class="entry">
7506       <div class="title">
7507         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">A Raspberry Pi based batman-adv Mesh network node</a>
7508       </div>
7509       <div class="date">
7510         21st October 2013
7511       </div>
7512       <div class="body">
7513         <p>The last few days I have been experimenting with
7514 <a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki">the
7515 batman-adv mesh technology</a>.  I want to gain some experience to see
7516 if it will fit <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the
7517 Freedombox project</a>, and together with my neighbors try to build a
7518 mesh network around the park where I live.  Batman-adv is a layer 2
7519 mesh system ("ethernet" in other words), where the mesh network appear
7520 as if all the mesh clients are connected to the same switch.</p>
7521
7522 <p>My hardware of choice was the Linksys WRT54GL routers I had lying
7523 around, but I've been unable to get them working with batman-adv.  So
7524 instead, I started playing with a
7525 <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/">Raspberry Pi</a>, and tried to
7526 get it working as a mesh node.  My idea is to use it to create a mesh
7527 node which function as a switch port, where everything connected to
7528 the Raspberry Pi ethernet plug is connected (bridged) to the mesh
7529 network.  This allow me to hook a wifi base station like the Linksys
7530 WRT54GL to the mesh by plugging it into a Raspberry Pi, and allow
7531 non-mesh clients to hook up to the mesh.  This in turn is useful for
7532 Android phones using <a href="http://servalproject.org/">the Serval
7533 Project</a> voip client, allowing every one around the playground to
7534 phone and message each other for free.  The reason is that Android
7535 phones do not see ad-hoc wifi networks (they are filtered away from
7536 the GUI view), and can not join the mesh without being rooted.  But if
7537 they are connected using a normal wifi base station, they can talk to
7538 every client on the local network.</p>
7539
7540 <p>To get this working, I've created a debian package
7541 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node">meshfx-node</a>
7542 and a script
7543 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node/blob/master/build-rpi-mesh-node">build-rpi-mesh-node</a>
7544 to create the Raspberry Pi boot image.  I'm using Debian Jessie (and
7545 not Raspbian), to get more control over the packages available.
7546 Unfortunately a huge binary blob need to be inserted into the boot
7547 image to get it booting, but I'll ignore that for now.  Also, as
7548 Debian lack support for the CPU features available in the Raspberry
7549 Pi, the system do not use the hardware floating point unit.  I hope
7550 the routing performance isn't affected by the lack of hardware FPU
7551 support.</p>
7552
7553 <p>To create an image, run the following with a sudo enabled user
7554 after inserting the target SD card into the build machine:</p>
7555
7556 <p><pre>
7557 % wget -O build-rpi-mesh-node \
7558     https://raw.github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node/master/build-rpi-mesh-node
7559 % sudo bash -x ./build-rpi-mesh-node > build.log 2>&1
7560 % dd if=/root/rpi/rpi_basic_jessie_$(date +%Y%m%d).img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M
7561 %
7562 </pre></p>
7563
7564 <p>Booting with the resulting SD card on a Raspberry PI with a USB
7565 wifi card inserted should give you a mesh node.  At least it does for
7566 me with a the wifi card I am using. The default mesh settings are the
7567 ones used by the Oslo mesh project at Hackeriet, as I mentioned in
7568 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html">an
7569 earlier blog post about this mesh testing</a>.</p>
7570
7571 <p>The mesh node was not horribly expensive either.  I bought
7572 everything over the counter in shops nearby.  If I had ordered online
7573 from the lowest bidder, the price should be significantly lower:</p>
7574
7575 <p><table>
7576
7577 <tr><th>Supplier</th><th>Model</th><th>NOK</th></tr>
7578 <tr><td>Teknikkmagasinet</td><td>Raspberry Pi model B</td><td>349.90</td></tr>
7579 <tr><td>Teknikkmagasinet</td><td>Raspberry Pi type B case</td><td>99.90</td></tr>
7580 <tr><td>Lefdal</td><td>Jensen Air:Link 25150</td><td>295.-</td></tr>
7581 <tr><td>Clas Ohlson</td><td>Kingston 16 GB SD card</td><td>199.-</td></tr>
7582 <tr><td>Total cost</td><td></td><td>943.80</td></tr>
7583
7584 </table></p>
7585
7586 <p>Now my mesh network at home consist of one laptop in the basement
7587 connected to my production network, one Raspberry Pi node on the 1th
7588 floor that can be seen by my neighbor across the park, and one
7589 play-node I use to develop the image building script.  And some times
7590 I hook up my work horse laptop to the mesh to test it.  I look forward
7591 to figuring out what kind of latency the batman-adv setup will give,
7592 and how much packet loss we will experience around the park. :)</p>
7593
7594       </div>
7595       <div class="tags">
7596
7597
7598         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7599
7600
7601       </div>
7602     </div>
7603     <div class="padding"></div>
7604
7605     <div class="entry">
7606       <div class="title">
7607         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot_moved_to_github.html">Perl library to control the Spykee robot moved to github</a>
7608       </div>
7609       <div class="date">
7610         19th October 2013
7611       </div>
7612       <div class="body">
7613         <p>Back in 2010, I created a Perl library to talk to
7614 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spykee">the Spykee robot</a>
7615 (with two belts, wifi, USB and Linux) and made it available from my
7616 web page.  Today I concluded that it should move to a site that is
7617 easier to use to cooperate with others, and moved it to github.  If
7618 you got a Spykee robot, you might want to check out
7619 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/libspykee-perl">the
7620 libspykee-perl github repository</a>.</p>
7621
7622       </div>
7623       <div class="tags">
7624
7625
7626         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
7627
7628
7629       </div>
7630     </div>
7631     <div class="padding"></div>
7632
7633     <div class="entry">
7634       <div class="title">
7635         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
7636       </div>
7637       <div class="date">
7638         15th October 2013
7639       </div>
7640       <div class="body">
7641         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
7642 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
7643 these. :)</p>
7644
7645 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
7646 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
7647 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
7648 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
7649 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
7650 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
7651 hope you will to. :)</p>
7652
7653 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
7654 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
7655 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
7656 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
7657 donated.  Are you next?</p>
7658
7659 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
7660 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
7661 statement under the heading
7662 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
7663 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
7664 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
7665 too.</p>
7666
7667       </div>
7668       <div class="tags">
7669
7670
7671         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
7672
7673
7674       </div>
7675     </div>
7676     <div class="padding"></div>
7677
7678     <div class="entry">
7679       <div class="title">
7680         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html">Oslo community mesh network - with NUUG and Hackeriet at Hausmania</a>
7681       </div>
7682       <div class="date">
7683         11th October 2013
7684       </div>
7685       <div class="body">
7686         <p>Wireless mesh networks are self organising and self healing
7687 networks that can be used to connect computers across small and large
7688 areas, depending on the radio technology used.  Normal wifi equipment
7689 can be used to create home made radio networks, and there are several
7690 successful examples like
7691 <a href="http://www.freifunk.net/">Freifunk</a> and
7692 <a href="http://www.awmn.net/">Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network</a>
7693 (see
7694 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wireless_community_networks_by_region#Greece">wikipedia
7695 for a large list</a>) around the globe.  To give you an idea how it
7696 work, check out the nice overview of the Kiel Freifunk community which
7697 can be seen from their
7698 <a href="http://freifunk.in-kiel.de/ffmap/nodes.html">dynamically
7699 updated node graph and map</a>, where one can see how the mesh nodes
7700 automatically handle routing and recover from nodes disappearing.
7701 There is also a small community mesh network group in Oslo, Norway,
7702 and that is the main topic of this blog post.</p>
7703
7704 <p>I've wanted to check out mesh networks for a while now, and hoped
7705 to do it as part of my involvement with the <a
7706 href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG member organisation</a> community, and
7707 my recent involvement in
7708 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the Freedombox project</a>
7709 finally lead me to give mesh networks some priority, as I suspect a
7710 Freedombox should use mesh networks to connect neighbours and family
7711 when possible, given that most communication between people are
7712 between those nearby (as shown for example by research on Facebook
7713 communication patterns).  It also allow people to communicate without
7714 any central hub to tap into for those that want to listen in on the
7715 private communication of citizens, which have become more and more
7716 important over the years.</p>
7717
7718 <p>So far I have only been able to find one group of people in Oslo
7719 working on community mesh networks, over at the hack space
7720 <a href="http://hackeriet.no/">Hackeriet</a> at Husmania.  They seem to
7721 have started with some Freifunk based effort using OLSR, called
7722 <a href="http://oslo.freifunk.net/index.php?title=Main_Page">the Oslo
7723 Freifunk project</a>, but that effort is now dead and the people
7724 behind it have moved on to a batman-adv based system called
7725 <a href="http://meshfx.org/trac">meshfx</a>.  Unfortunately the wiki
7726 site for the Oslo Freifunk project is no longer possible to update to
7727 reflect this fact, so the old project page can't be updated to point to
7728 the new project.  A while back, the people at Hackeriet invited people
7729 from the Freifunk community to Oslo to talk about mesh networks.  I
7730 came across this video where Hans Jørgen Lysglimt interview the
7731 speakers about this talk (from
7732 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Kd7CLkhSY">youtube</a>):</p>
7733
7734 <p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N2Kd7CLkhSY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
7735
7736 <p>I mentioned OLSR and batman-adv, which are mesh routing protocols.
7737 There are heaps of different protocols, and I am still struggling to
7738 figure out which one would be "best" for some definitions of best, but
7739 given that the community mesh group in Oslo is so small, I believe it
7740 is best to hook up with the existing one instead of trying to create a
7741 completely different setup, and thus I have decided to focus on
7742 batman-adv for now.  It sure help me to  know that the very cool
7743 <a href="http://www.servalproject.org/">Serval project in Australia</a>
7744 is using batman-adv as their meshing technology when it create a self
7745 organizing and self healing telephony system for disaster areas and
7746 less industrialized communities.  Check out this cool video presenting
7747 that project (from
7748 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30qNfzJCQOA">youtube</a>):</p>
7749
7750 <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/30qNfzJCQOA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
7751
7752 <p>According to the wikipedia page on
7753 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_network">Wireless
7754 mesh network</a> there are around 70 competing schemes for routing
7755 packets across mesh networks, and OLSR, B.A.T.M.A.N. and
7756 B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced are protocols used by several free software
7757 based community mesh networks.</p>
7758
7759 <p>The batman-adv protocol is a bit special, as it provide layer 2
7760 (as in ethernet ) routing, allowing ipv4 and ipv6 to work on the same
7761 network.  One way to think about it is that it provide a mesh based
7762 vlan you can bridge to or handle like any other vlan connected to your
7763 computer.  The required drivers are already in the Linux kernel at
7764 least since Debian Wheezy, and it is fairly easy to set up.  A
7765 <a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki/Quick-start-guide">good
7766 introduction</a> is available from the Open Mesh project.  These are
7767 the key settings needed to join the Oslo meshfx network:</p>
7768
7769 <p><table>
7770 <tr><th>Setting</th><th>Value</th></tr>
7771 <tr><td>Protocol / kernel module</td><td>batman-adv</td></tr>
7772 <tr><td>ESSID</td><td>meshfx@hackeriet</td></tr>
7773 <td>Channel / Frequency</td><td>11 / 2462</td></tr>
7774 <td>Cell ID</td><td>02:BA:00:00:00:01</td>
7775 </table></p>
7776
7777 <p>The reason for setting ad-hoc wifi Cell ID is to work around bugs
7778 in firmware used in wifi card and wifi drivers.  (See a nice post from
7779 VillageTelco about
7780 "<a href="http://tiebing.blogspot.no/2009/12/ad-hoc-cell-splitting-re-post-original.html">Information
7781 about cell-id splitting, stuck beacons, and failed IBSS merges!</a>
7782 for details.)  When these settings are activated and you have some
7783 other mesh node nearby, your computer will be connected to the mesh
7784 network and can communicate with any mesh node that is connected to
7785 any of the nodes in your network of nodes. :)</p>
7786
7787 <p>My initial plan was to reuse my old Linksys WRT54GL as a mesh node,
7788 but that seem to be very hard, as I have not been able to locate a
7789 firmware supporting batman-adv.  If anyone know how to use that old
7790 wifi access point with batman-adv these days, please let me know.</p>
7791
7792 <p>If you find this project interesting and want to join, please join
7793 us on IRC, either channel
7794 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#oslohackerspace">#oslohackerspace</a>
7795 or <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#nuug">#nuug</a> on
7796 irc.freenode.net.</p>
7797
7798 <p>While investigating mesh networks in Oslo, I came across an old
7799 research paper from the university of Stavanger and Telenor Research
7800 and Innovation called
7801 <a href="http://folk.uio.no/paalee/publications/netrel-egeland-iswcs-2008.pdf">The
7802 reliability of wireless backhaul mesh networks</a> and elsewhere
7803 learned that Telenor have been experimenting with mesh networks at
7804 Grünerløkka in Oslo.  So mesh networks are also interesting for
7805 commercial companies, even though Telenor discovered that it was hard
7806 to figure out a good business plan for mesh networking and as far as I
7807 know have closed down the experiment.  Perhaps Telenor or others would
7808 be interested in a cooperation?</p>
7809
7810 <p><strong>Update 2013-10-12</strong>: I was just
7811 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2013-October/005900.html">told
7812 by the Serval project developers</a> that they no longer use
7813 batman-adv (but are compatible with it), but their own crypto based
7814 mesh system.</p>
7815
7816       </div>
7817       <div class="tags">
7818
7819
7820         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7821
7822
7823       </div>
7824     </div>
7825     <div class="padding"></div>
7826
7827     <div class="entry">
7828       <div class="title">
7829         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_7_1_install_and_overview_video_from_Marcelo_Salvador.html">Skolelinux / Debian Edu 7.1 install and overview video from Marcelo Salvador</a>
7830       </div>
7831       <div class="date">
7832          8th October 2013
7833       </div>
7834       <div class="body">
7835         <p>The other day I was pleased and surprised to discover that Marcelo
7836 Salvador had published a
7837 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-GgpdqgLFc">video on
7838 Youtube</a> showing how to install the standalone Debian Edu /
7839 Skolelinux profile.  This is the profile intended for use at home or
7840 on laptops that should not be integrated into the provided network
7841 services (no central home directory, no Kerberos / LDAP directory etc,
7842 in other word a single user machine).  The result is 11 minutes long,
7843 and show some user applications (seem to be rather randomly picked).
7844 Missed a few of my favorites like celestia, planets and chromium
7845 showing the <a href="http://www.zygotebody.com/">Zygote Body 3D model
7846 of the human body</a>, but I guess he did not know about those or find
7847 other programs more interesting. :) And the video do not show the
7848 advantages I believe is one of the most valuable featuers in Debian
7849 Edu, its central school server making it possible to run hundreds of
7850 computers without hard drives by installing one central
7851 <a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">LTSP server</a>.</p>
7852
7853 <p>Anyway, check out the video, embedded below and linked to above:</p>
7854
7855 <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/w-GgpdqgLFc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
7856
7857 <p>Are there other nice videos demonstrating Skolelinux?  Please let
7858 me know. :)</p>
7859
7860       </div>
7861       <div class="tags">
7862
7863
7864         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
7865
7866
7867       </div>
7868     </div>
7869     <div class="padding"></div>
7870
7871     <div class="entry">
7872       <div class="title">
7873         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Finally__Debian_Edu_Wheezy_is_released_today_.html">Finally, Debian Edu Wheezy is released today!</a>
7874       </div>
7875       <div class="date">
7876         29th September 2013
7877       </div>
7878       <div class="body">
7879         <p>A few hours ago, the announcement for the first stable release of
7880 Debian Edu Wheezy went out from the Debian publicity team.  The
7881 complete announcement text can be found at
7882 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130928">the Debian News
7883 section</a>, translated to several languages.  Please check it out.</p>
7884
7885 <p>There is one minor known problem that we will fix very soon.  One
7886 can not install a amd64 Thin Client Server using PXE, as the /var/
7887 partition is too small.  A workaround is to extend the partition (use
7888 lvresize + resize2fs in tty 2 while installing).</p>
7889
7890       </div>
7891       <div class="tags">
7892
7893
7894         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7895
7896
7897       </div>
7898     </div>
7899     <div class="padding"></div>
7900
7901     <div class="entry">
7902       <div class="title">
7903         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
7904       </div>
7905       <div class="date">
7906         27th September 2013
7907       </div>
7908       <div class="body">
7909         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
7910 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
7911 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
7912 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
7913
7914 <ul>
7915
7916 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
7917 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
7918
7919 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
7920 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
7921
7922 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
7923 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
7924 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
7925 (Youtube)</li>
7926
7927 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
7928 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
7929
7930 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
7931 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
7932
7933 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
7934 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
7935 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
7936
7937 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
7938 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
7939 (Youtube)</li>
7940
7941 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
7942 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
7943
7944 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
7945 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
7946
7947 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
7948 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
7949 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
7950
7951 </ul>
7952
7953 <p>A larger list is available from
7954 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
7955 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
7956
7957 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
7958 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
7959 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
7960 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
7961 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
7962 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
7963 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
7964 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
7965 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
7966 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
7967 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
7968
7969       </div>
7970       <div class="tags">
7971
7972
7973         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
7974
7975
7976       </div>
7977     </div>
7978     <div class="padding"></div>
7979
7980     <div class="entry">
7981       <div class="title">
7982         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_and_probably_last_beta_release_of_Debian_Edu_Wheezy.html">Third and probably last beta release of Debian Edu Wheezy</a>
7983       </div>
7984       <div class="date">
7985         16th September 2013
7986       </div>
7987       <div class="body">
7988         <p>The third wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
7989 today.  This is the release announcement from Holger Levsen:</p>
7990
7991 <blockquote>
7992 <p>Hi,</p>
7993
7994 <p>it is my pleasure to announce the third beta release (beta 2 for
7995 short) of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
7996 Skolelinux</a> based on Debian Wheezy!</p>
7997
7998 <p>Please test these images extensivly, if no new problems are found
7999 we plan to do this final Debian Edu Wheezy release this coming
8000 weekend.  We are not aware of any major problems or blockers in beta2,
8001 if you find something, please notify us immediately!</p>
8002
8003 <p>(More about the remaining steps for the Edu Wheezy release in
8004 another mail to the edu list tonight or tomorrow...)</p>
8005
8006 <p>Noteworthy changes and software updates for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b2
8007 compared to beta1:</p>
8008
8009 <ul>
8010
8011 <li>The KDE proxy setup has been adjusted to use the provided wpad.dat. This
8012 also gets Chromium to use this proxy.</li>
8013 <li>Install kdepim-groupware with KDE desktops to make sure korganizer
8014 understand ical/dav sources.</li>
8015 <li>Increased default maximum size of /var/spool/squid and /skole/backup on the
8016 main server.</li>
8017 <li>A source DVD image containing all source packages is now available as well.</li>
8018 <li>Updates for chromium (29.0.1547.57-1~deb7u1), imagemagick
8019 (6.7.7.10-5+deb7u2), php5 (5.4.4-14+deb7u4), libmodplug
8020 (0.8.8.4-3+deb7u1+git20130828), tiff (4.0.2-6+deb7u2), linux-image
8021 (3.2.0-4-486_3.2.46-1+deb7u1).</li>
8022
8023 </ul>
8024
8025 <p>Where to get it:</p>
8026
8027 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
8028
8029 <ul>
8030 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso</a></li>
8031 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso</a></li>
8032 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso .</li>
8033 </ul>
8034
8035 <p>The SHA1SUM of this image is:  3a1c89f4666df80eebcd46c5bf5fedb866f9472f</p>
8036
8037 <p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use
8038 <ul>
8039 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso</a></li>
8040 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso</a></li>
8041 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso .</li>
8042 </ul>
8043
8044 <p>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 702d1718548f401c74bfa6df9f032cc3ee16597e</p>
8045
8046 <p>The Source DVD image has the filename
8047 debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-source-DVD.iso and the SHA1SUM
8048 089eed8b3f962db47aae1f6a9685e9bb2fa30ca5 and is available the same way
8049 as the other isos.</p>
8050
8051 <p>How to report bugs</p>
8052
8053 <p>For information how to report bugs please see
8054 <br><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
8055
8056
8057 <p>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</p>
8058
8059 <p>Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based
8060 on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
8061 configured school network. Immediately after installation a school
8062 server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
8063 waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
8064 Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
8065 initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
8066 machines can be installed via the network. The provided school server
8067 provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
8068 centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
8069 services.  The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
8070 packages and more are available from the Debian archive, and schools
8071 can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
8072
8073 <p>This is the seventh test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
8074 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
8075 Squeeze release.</p>
8076
8077 <p>Notes for upgrades from Alpha Prereleases</p>
8078
8079 <p>Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the
8080 versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta
8081 release. Both alpha and beta0 based installations should reinstall or
8082 deal with gosa.conf manually; there are two options: (1) Keep
8083 gosa.conf and edit this file as outlined on the mailing list. (2)
8084 Accept the new version of gosa.conf and replace both contained admin
8085 password placeholders with the password hashes found in the old one
8086 (backup copy!). In both cases all users need to change their password
8087 to make sure a password is set for CIFS access to their home
8088 directory.</p>
8089
8090
8091 <p>cheers,
8092 <br>        Holger</p>
8093 </blockquote>
8094
8095       </div>
8096       <div class="tags">
8097
8098
8099         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8100
8101
8102       </div>
8103     </div>
8104     <div class="padding"></div>
8105
8106     <div class="entry">
8107       <div class="title">
8108         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
8109       </div>
8110       <div class="date">
8111         10th September 2013
8112       </div>
8113       <div class="body">
8114         <p>I was introduced to the
8115 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
8116 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
8117 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
8118 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
8119 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
8120 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
8121 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
8122 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
8123
8124 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
8125 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
8126 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
8127 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
8128 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
8129
8130 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
8131 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
8132 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
8133 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
8134 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
8135 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
8136 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
8137 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
8138 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
8139 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
8140 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
8141 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
8142 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
8143 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
8144 missing in Debian).</p>
8145
8146 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
8147 scripts
8148 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
8149 and a administrative web interface
8150 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
8151 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
8152 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
8153 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
8154 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
8155 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
8156 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
8157 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
8158 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
8159 this is really working yet, see
8160 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
8161 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
8162 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
8163 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
8164 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
8165 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
8166 with lots of half baked features.</p>
8167
8168 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
8169 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
8170 at.</p>
8171
8172 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
8173
8174 <ol>
8175
8176 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
8177 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
8178 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
8179 to the Debian installer:<p>
8180 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
8181
8182 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
8183 install on.</li>
8184
8185 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
8186 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
8187
8188 </ol>
8189
8190 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
8191
8192 <ol>
8193
8194 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
8195 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
8196 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
8197 <pre>
8198 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
8199 </pre></li>
8200 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
8201 <pre>
8202 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
8203    apt-key add -
8204 apt-get update
8205 apt-get install freedombox-setup
8206 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
8207 </pre></li>
8208 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
8209
8210 </ol>
8211
8212 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
8213 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
8214 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
8215 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
8216 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
8217
8218 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
8219 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
8220 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
8221 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
8222
8223 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
8224 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
8225 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
8226 irc.debian.org and the
8227 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
8228 mailing list</a>.</p>
8229
8230 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
8231 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
8232 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
8233 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
8234 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
8235 default password is 'secret'.</p>
8236
8237       </div>
8238       <div class="tags">
8239
8240
8241         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
8242
8243
8244       </div>
8245     </div>
8246     <div class="padding"></div>
8247
8248     <div class="entry">
8249       <div class="title">
8250         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_release__beta_1__of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Second beta release (beta 1) of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
8251       </div>
8252       <div class="date">
8253         22nd August 2013
8254       </div>
8255       <div class="body">
8256         <p>The second wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
8257 today, slightly delayed because of some bugs in the initial Windows
8258 integration fixes .  This is the release announcement:</p>
8259
8260 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b1 released 2013-08-22</strong></p>
8261
8262 <p>These are the release notes for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
8263 7.1+edu0~b1, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
8264
8265 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
8266
8267 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
8268 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
8269 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
8270 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
8271 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
8272 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
8273 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
8274 the main server from CD or USB stick all other machines can be
8275 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
8276 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
8277 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
8278 desktop contains
8279 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
8280 than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
8281 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
8282 and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
8283
8284 <p>This is the sixth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically this
8285 is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the Squeeze
8286 release.</p>
8287
8288 <p>ALERT: Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the
8289 versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta
8290 release. Both alpha and beta0 based installations should reinstall or
8291 deal with gosa.conf manually; there are two options: (1) Keep
8292 gosa.conf and edit this file as outlined
8293 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/08/msg00127.html">on
8294 the mailing list</a>. (2) Accept the new version of gosa.conf and
8295 replace both contained admin password placeholders with the password
8296 hashes found in the old one (backup copy!). In both cases every user
8297 need to change their their password to make sure a password is set for
8298 CIFS access to their home directory.</p>
8299
8300 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
8301
8302 <ul>
8303
8304 <li>Added ssh askpass packages to default installation, to ensure ssh
8305     work also without a attached tty.</li>
8306 <li>Add the command-not-found package to the default installation to
8307     make it easier to figure out where to find missing command line
8308     tools. Please note, that the command 'update-command-not-found'
8309     has to be run as root to actually make it useful (internet access
8310     required).</li>
8311
8312 </ul>
8313
8314 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
8315
8316 <ul>
8317
8318 <li>Adjusted the USB stick ISO image build to include every tool
8319 needed for desktop=xfce installations.</li>
8320 <li>Adjust thin-client-server task to work when installing from USB
8321 stick ISO image.</li>
8322 <li>Made new grub artwork (changed png from indexed to RGB format).</li>
8323 <li>Minor cleanup in the CUPS setup.</li>
8324 <li>Make sure that bootstrapping of the Samba domain really happens
8325     during installation of the main server and adjust SID handling to
8326     cope with this.</li>
8327 <li>Make Samba passwords changeable (again) via GOsa².</li>
8328 <li>Fix generation of LM and NT password hashes via GOsa² to avoid
8329     empty password hashes.</li>
8330 <li>Adapted Samba machine domain joining to latest change in the
8331     smbldap-tools Perl package, fixing bugs blocking Windows machines
8332     from joining the Samba domain.</li>
8333
8334 </ul>
8335
8336 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
8337
8338 <ul>
8339
8340 <li>KDE fails to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to
8341     not use the http proxy as it should.</li>
8342 <li>Chromium also fails to use the proxy when using the KDE desktop
8343     (using the KDE configuration).</li>
8344
8345 </ul>
8346
8347 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
8348
8349 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
8350
8351 <ul>
8352
8353 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso</a></li>
8354
8355 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso</a></li>
8356
8357 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso .</li>
8358
8359 </ul>
8360
8361 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 1e357f80b55e703523f2254adde6d78b
8362 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 7157f9be5fd27c7694d713c6ecfed61c3edda3b2</p>
8363
8364 <p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p>
8365
8366 <ul>
8367
8368 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso</a></li>
8369 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso</a></li>
8370 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso .</li>
8371
8372 </ul>
8373
8374 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 7a8408ead59cf7e3cef25afb6e91590b
8375 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: f1817c031f02790d5edb3bfa0dcf8451088ad119</p>
8376
8377
8378 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
8379
8380 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a>
8381
8382       </div>
8383       <div class="tags">
8384
8385
8386         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8387
8388
8389       </div>
8390     </div>
8391     <div class="padding"></div>
8392
8393     <div class="entry">
8394       <div class="title">
8395         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
8396       </div>
8397       <div class="date">
8398         18th August 2013
8399       </div>
8400       <div class="body">
8401         <p>Earlier, I reported about
8402 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
8403 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
8404 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
8405 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
8406 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
8407 currently on the disk.</p>
8408
8409 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
8410 <a href="https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3472&DwnldID=18363&ProductFamily=Solid-State+Drives+and+Caching&ProductLine=Intel%c2%ae+High+Performance+Solid-State+Drive&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+SSD+520+Series+(180GB%2c+2.5in+SATA+6Gb%2fs%2c+25nm%2c+MLC)&lang=eng">issdfut_2.0.4.iso</a>
8411 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
8412 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
8413 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
8414 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
8415 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
8416 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
8417 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
8418 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
8419 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
8420 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
8421 the broken disks.</p>
8422
8423       </div>
8424       <div class="tags">
8425
8426
8427         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8428
8429
8430       </div>
8431     </div>
8432     <div class="padding"></div>
8433
8434     <div class="entry">
8435       <div class="title">
8436         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/90_percent_done_with_the_Norwegian_draft_translation_of_Free_Culture.html">90 percent done with the Norwegian draft translation of Free Culture</a>
8437       </div>
8438       <div class="date">
8439          2nd August 2013
8440       </div>
8441       <div class="body">
8442         <p>It has been a while since my last update.  Since last summer, I
8443 have worked on a Norwegian
8444 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book
8445 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig,
8446 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with the copyright
8447 law.  Yesterday, I finally broken the 90% mark, when counting the
8448 number of strings to translate.  Due to real life constraints, I have
8449 not had time to work on it since March, but when the summer broke out,
8450 I found time to work on it again.  Still lots of work left, but the
8451 first draft is nearing completion.  I created a graph to show the
8452 progress of the translation:</p>
8453
8454 <p><img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png"></p>
8455
8456 <p>When the first draft is done, the translated text need to be
8457 proof read, and the remaining formatting problems with images and SVG
8458 drawings need to be fixed.  There are probably also some index entries
8459 missing that need to be added.  This can be done by comparing the
8460 index entries listed in the SiSU version of the book, or comparing the
8461 English docbook version with the paper version.  Last, the colophon
8462 page with ISBN numbers etc need to be wrapped up before the release is
8463 done.  I should also figure out how to get correct Norwegian sorting
8464 of the index pages.  All docbook tools I have tried so far (xmlto,
8465 docbook-xsl, dblatex) get the order of symbols and the special
8466 Norwegian letters ÆØÅ wrong.</p>
8467
8468 <p>There is still need for translators and people with docbook
8469 knowledge, to be able to get a good looking book (I still struggle
8470 with dblatex, xmlto and docbook-xsl) as well as to do the draft
8471 translation and proof reading.  And I would like the figures to be
8472 redrawn as SVGs to make it easy to translate them.  Any SVG master
8473 around?  There are also some legal terms that are unfamiliar to me.
8474 If you want to help, please get in touch with me, and check out the
8475 project files currently available from
8476 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
8477
8478 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
8479 the updated
8480 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
8481 and
8482 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
8483 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
8484 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
8485 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
8486
8487       </div>
8488       <div class="tags">
8489
8490
8491         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
8492
8493
8494       </div>
8495     </div>
8496     <div class="padding"></div>
8497
8498     <div class="entry">
8499       <div class="title">
8500         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_beta_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">First beta release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
8501       </div>
8502       <div class="date">
8503         27th July 2013
8504       </div>
8505       <div class="body">
8506         <p>The first wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
8507 today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
8508
8509 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b0 released
8510 2013-07-27</strong></p>
8511
8512 <p>These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
8513 7.1+edu0~b0, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
8514
8515 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
8516
8517 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
8518 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
8519 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
8520 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
8521 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
8522 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
8523 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
8524 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
8525 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
8526 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
8527 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
8528 desktop contains
8529 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
8530 than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
8531 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
8532 and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
8533
8534 <p>This is the fifth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
8535 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
8536 Squeeze release.</p>
8537
8538 <p>ALERT: Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the
8539 versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta
8540 release.</p>
8541
8542 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
8543
8544 <ul>
8545
8546 <li>Switched roaming workstation profiles from wicd to network-manager
8547    for network configuration, as wicd didn't work any more.</li>
8548 <li>Changed version numbers of patched gosa and libpam-mklocaluser
8549    packages to make sure our locally patched versions will be replaced
8550    by the official packages when they are released from Debian. Those
8551    installing alpha version need to reinstall or manually downgrade gosa
8552    and libpam-mklocaluser.</li>
8553 <li>Added bluetooth tools to the default desktop (bluedevil, blueman).</li>
8554 <li>Added tools for sharing the desktop on KDE (krdc, krfb).</li>
8555 <li>Added valgrind to the default installation for easier debugging of
8556    crash bugs.</li>
8557
8558 </ul>
8559
8560 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
8561
8562 <ul>
8563
8564 <li>Fixed artwork package to work with gnome, no longer break
8565    desktop=gnome installations.</li>
8566 <li>Adjusted installer to now work when forced to use a proxy with the
8567    netinst CD.</li>
8568 <li>Fixed code detecting and setting/loading hardware specific
8569    setup/firmware to work more robust out of the box.</li>
8570 <li>Adjusted Kerberos setup to detect realm and server settings at
8571    install time instead of dynamically at run time. This avoid a crash
8572    with krb5-auth-dialog on diskless workstations without a DNS name.</li>
8573 <li>Worked around misfeature in network-manager not calling the dhclient
8574    exit hooks, causing automatic proxy configuration and automatic host
8575    name setting at run time to work again.</li>
8576 <li>Fixed feature setting the default Iceweasel start page from URL
8577    fetched from LDAP, to allow schools to set the global default by
8578    updating the dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no LDAP object.</li>
8579 <li>Changed default host name on all networked machines to be unique
8580    (generated from MAC or reverse DNS) after boot.</li>
8581 <li>Adjusted partition sizes to make sure they are big enough.</li>
8582
8583 </ul>
8584
8585 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
8586
8587 <ul>
8588
8589 <li>Grub is missing the new artwork.</li>
8590 <li>KDE fail to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to
8591     not use the http proxy as it should.</li>
8592 <li>Chromium also fail to use the proxy.</li>
8593
8594 </ul>
8595
8596 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
8597
8598 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
8599
8600 <ul>
8601
8602 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso</a></li>
8603
8604 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso</a></li>
8605
8606 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso .</li>
8607
8608 </ul>
8609
8610 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 55d5de9765b6dccd5d9ec33cf1a07109
8611 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 996a1d9517740e4d627d100de2d12b23dd545a3f</p>
8612
8613 <p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p>
8614
8615 <ul>
8616
8617 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso</a></li>
8618 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso</a></li>
8619 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso .</li>
8620
8621 </ul>
8622
8623 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: d8f0818c51a78d357de794066f289f69
8624 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 49185ca354e8d0543240423746924f76a6cee733</p>
8625
8626
8627 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
8628
8629 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a>
8630
8631       </div>
8632       <div class="tags">
8633
8634
8635         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8636
8637
8638       </div>
8639     </div>
8640     <div class="padding"></div>
8641
8642     <div class="entry">
8643       <div class="title">
8644         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk</a>
8645       </div>
8646       <div class="date">
8647         17th July 2013
8648       </div>
8649       <div class="body">
8650         <p>Today I switched to
8651 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
8652 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
8653 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
8654 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180
8655 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
8656 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
8657 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
8658 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
8659 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
8660 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
8661 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
8662 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
8663 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
8664 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
8665 station from now on.</p>
8666
8667 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
8668 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
8669 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
8670 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
8671 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
8672 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
8673 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
8674 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
8675 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
8676 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
8677 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
8678 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
8679
8680 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
8681 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
8682 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
8683 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
8684 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
8685 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
8686 parameters are tuned:</p>
8687
8688 <ul>
8689
8690 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
8691     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
8692
8693 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
8694     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
8695     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
8696
8697 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
8698     systems.</li>
8699
8700 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
8701     /etc/fstab.</li>
8702
8703 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
8704
8705 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
8706     cron.daily).</li>
8707
8708 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
8709     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
8710
8711 </ul>
8712
8713 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
8714 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
8715 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
8716 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
8717 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
8718 from getting the data on the disk (see
8719 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
8720 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
8721 right thing to do.</p>
8722
8723 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
8724 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
8725 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
8726
8727 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
8728 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
8729 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
8730 instead of during my work.</p>
8731
8732 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
8733 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
8734
8735 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
8736 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
8737 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
8738
8739 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
8740 there.</p>
8741
8742 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
8743 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
8744 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
8745 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
8746 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
8747 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
8748 back.</p>
8749
8750       </div>
8751       <div class="tags">
8752
8753
8754         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8755
8756
8757       </div>
8758     </div>
8759     <div class="padding"></div>
8760
8761     <div class="entry">
8762       <div class="title">
8763         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
8764       </div>
8765       <div class="date">
8766         10th July 2013
8767       </div>
8768       <div class="body">
8769         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
8770 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
8771 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
8772 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
8773 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
8774 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
8775 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
8776 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
8777
8778 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
8779 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
8780 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
8781 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
8782 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
8783 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
8784 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
8785 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
8786 lock up when I download a new
8787 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
8788 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
8789 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
8790
8791 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
8792 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
8793 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
8794 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
8795 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
8796 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
8797
8798 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
8799 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
8800 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
8801 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
8802 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
8803 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
8804
8805 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
8806 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
8807 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
8808 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
8809 exist).</p>
8810
8811       </div>
8812       <div class="tags">
8813
8814
8815         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8816
8817
8818       </div>
8819     </div>
8820     <div class="padding"></div>
8821
8822     <div class="entry">
8823       <div class="title">
8824         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
8825       </div>
8826       <div class="date">
8827          9th July 2013
8828       </div>
8829       <div class="body">
8830         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
8831 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
8832 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
8833 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
8834 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
8835 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
8836 Bitraf</a>.</p>
8837
8838 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
8839 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
8840 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
8841 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
8842 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
8843
8844       </div>
8845       <div class="tags">
8846
8847
8848         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8849
8850
8851       </div>
8852     </div>
8853     <div class="padding"></div>
8854
8855     <div class="entry">
8856       <div class="title">
8857         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a>
8858       </div>
8859       <div class="date">
8860          5th July 2013
8861       </div>
8862       <div class="body">
8863         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
8864 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
8865 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
8866 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
8867 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
8868 ended up picking a
8869 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
8870 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
8871 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
8872 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
8873 on that below.</p>
8874
8875 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
8876 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
8877 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
8878 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
8879 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
8880 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
8881 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
8882 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
8883 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
8884
8885 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
8886 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
8887 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
8888 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
8889 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
8890 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
8891 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
8892
8893 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
8894 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
8895
8896 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
8897 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
8898 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
8899 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
8900 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
8901 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
8902 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
8903 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
8904 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
8905 kernel developers as
8906 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
8907 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
8908 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
8909 Lenovo forums, both for
8910 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
8911 2012-11-10</a> and for
8912 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147">X230
8913 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
8914 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
8915 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
8916 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
8917 There is even a
8918 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
8919 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
8920 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
8921
8922 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
8923 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
8924 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
8925 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
8926 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
8927 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
8928 fixed. :)</p>
8929
8930       </div>
8931       <div class="tags">
8932
8933
8934         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8935
8936
8937       </div>
8938     </div>
8939     <div class="padding"></div>
8940
8941     <div class="entry">
8942       <div class="title">
8943         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</a>
8944       </div>
8945       <div class="date">
8946          4th July 2013
8947       </div>
8948       <div class="body">
8949         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
8950 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
8951 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
8952 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
8953 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
8954 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
8955 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
8956 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
8957 with an expencive door stop.</p>
8958
8959 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
8960 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
8961 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
8962 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
8963 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
8964 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
8965 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
8966
8967 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
8968 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
8969 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
8970 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
8971 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
8972 new laptop now. :)</p>
8973
8974 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
8975
8976       </div>
8977       <div class="tags">
8978
8979
8980         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8981
8982
8983       </div>
8984     </div>
8985     <div class="padding"></div>
8986
8987     <div class="entry">
8988       <div class="title">
8989         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Fourth alpha release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
8990       </div>
8991       <div class="date">
8992          3rd July 2013
8993       </div>
8994       <div class="body">
8995         <p>The fourth wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
8996 today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
8997
8998 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~alpha3 released
8999 2013-07-03</strong></p>
9000
9001 <p>These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
9002 7.1+edu0~alpha3, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
9003
9004 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
9005
9006 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
9007 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
9008 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
9009 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
9010 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
9011 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
9012 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
9013 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
9014 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
9015 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
9016 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
9017 desktop contains
9018 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
9019 than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
9020 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
9021 and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
9022
9023 <p>This is the fourth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
9024 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
9025 Squeeze release.</p>
9026
9027 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
9028 <ul>
9029   <li>Dropped ispell dictionaries from our default installation.</li>
9030   <li>Dropped menu-xdg from the KDE desktop option, to drop the Debian
9031     submenu.  It was not included with Gnome, LXDE or Xfce, so this
9032     brings KDE in line with the others.</li>
9033   <li>Dropped xdrawchem, xjig and xsok from our default installation as
9034     they don't have a desktop menu entry and thus won't show up in the
9035     menu now that menu-xdg was removed.</li>
9036   <li>Removed the killer system to kill left behind processes on
9037     multi-user machines, as it was no longer able to understand when a
9038     X display was in use and killed the processes of the active users
9039     too.</li>
9040   <li>Dropped the golearn (from goplay) package as the debtags in wheezy
9041     are too few to make the package useful.</li>
9042 </ul>
9043 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
9044 <ul>
9045   <li>Updated artwork matching http://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Joy
9046   <li>Multi-arch i386/amd64 USB stick ISO available.</li>
9047   <li>Got rid of ispell/wordlist related debconf questions that showed
9048     up for some language options.</li>
9049   <li>Switched to using http.debian.net as APT source by default.</li>
9050   <li>Fixed proxy configuration on Main Server installations.</li>
9051   <li>Changed LTSP setup to ask dpkg to use force-unsafe-io the same way
9052     d-i is doing it.</li>
9053   <li>Made sure root and user passwords were not left behind in the
9054     debconf database after installation on Main Server installations.</li>
9055   <li>Made Roaming Workstation dynamic setup more robust and added draft
9056     script setup-ad-client to hook a Roaming Workstation up to a
9057     Active Directory server instead of a Debian Edu Main Server.</li>
9058   <li>Update system to install needed firmware packages during
9059     installation, to work properly in Wheezy.</li>
9060   <li>Update system to handle hardware quirks (debian-edu-hwsetup).</li>
9061   <li>Corrected PXE installation setup to properly pass selected desktop
9062     and keymap settings to PXE installation clients.</li>
9063   <li>LTSP diskless workstations use sshfs by default, allowing them to
9064     work without adding them to DNS and NIS netgroups for NFS access.</li>
9065 </ul>
9066 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
9067 <ul>
9068   <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
9069     available yet (698840).</li>
9070   <li>Artwork not enabled for all desktops.</li>
9071 </ul>
9072 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
9073
9074 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
9075 <ul>
9076   <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso</a></li>
9077   <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso</a></li>
9078   <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso .</li>
9079 </ul>
9080
9081 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 2b161a99d2a848c376d8d04e3854e30c
9082 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 498922e9c508c0a7ee9dbe1dfe5bf830d779c3c8</p>
9083
9084 <p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p>
9085 <ul>
9086   <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso</a></li>
9087   <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso</a></li>
9088   <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso .</li>
9089 </ul>
9090
9091 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 25e808e403a4c15dbef1d13c37d572ac
9092 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 15ecfc93eb6b4f453b7eb0bc04b6a279262d9721</p>
9093
9094 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
9095
9096 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
9097
9098       </div>
9099       <div class="tags">
9100
9101
9102         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9103
9104
9105       </div>
9106     </div>
9107     <div class="padding"></div>
9108
9109     <div class="entry">
9110       <div class="title">
9111         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html">Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</a>
9112       </div>
9113       <div class="date">
9114         25th June 2013
9115       </div>
9116       <div class="body">
9117         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
9118 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
9119 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
9120 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
9121 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
9122 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
9123 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
9124 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
9125 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
9126 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
9127 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
9128
9129 <p><pre>
9130 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
9131 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
9132 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
9133 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
9134 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
9135 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
9136 firmware-ipw2x00
9137 firmware-ipw2x00
9138 Preconfiguring packages ...
9139 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
9140 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
9141 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
9142 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
9143 #
9144 </pre></p>
9145
9146 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
9147 printed instead:</p>
9148
9149 <p><pre>
9150 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
9151 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
9152 #
9153 </pre></p>
9154
9155 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
9156 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
9157
9158 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
9159 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
9160 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
9161 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
9162 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
9163 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
9164 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
9165 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
9166 machine.</p>
9167
9168 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
9169 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
9170 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
9171 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
9172 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
9173 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
9174
9175       </div>
9176       <div class="tags">
9177
9178
9179         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
9180
9181
9182       </div>
9183     </div>
9184     <div class="padding"></div>
9185
9186     <div class="entry">
9187       <div class="title">
9188         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_value_of_a_good_distro_wide_test_suite___.html">The value of a good distro wide test suite...</a>
9189       </div>
9190       <div class="date">
9191         22nd June 2013
9192       </div>
9193       <div class="body">
9194         <p>In the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
9195 Skolelinux</a> project, we include a post-installation test suite,
9196 which check that services are running, working, and return the
9197 expected results.  It runs automatically just after the first boot on
9198 test installations (using test ISOs), but not on production
9199 installations (using non-test ISOs).  It test that the LDAP service is
9200 operating, Kerberos is responding, DNS is replying, file systems are
9201 online resizable, etc, etc.  And it check that the PXE service is
9202 configured, which is the topic of this post.</p>
9203
9204 <p>The last week I've fixed the DVD and USB stick ISOs for our Debian
9205 Edu Wheezy release.  These ISOs are supposed to be able to install a
9206 complete system without any Internet connection, but for that to
9207 happen all the needed packages need to be on them.  Thanks to our test
9208 suite, I discovered that we had forgotten to adjust our PXE setup to
9209 cope with the new names and paths used by the netboot d-i packages.
9210 When Internet connectivity was available, the installer fall back to
9211 using wget to fetch d-i boot images, but when offline it require
9212 working packages to get it working.  And the packages changed name
9213 from debian-installer-6.0-netboot-$arch to
9214 debian-installer-7.0-netboot-$arch, we no longer pulled in the
9215 packages during installation.  Without our test suite, I suspect we
9216 would never have discovered this before release.  Now it is fixed
9217 right after we got the ISOs operational.</p>
9218
9219 <p>Another by-product of the test suite is that we can ask system
9220 administrators with problems getting Debian Edu to work, to run the
9221 test suite using <tt>/usr/sbin/debian-edu-test-install</tt> and see if
9222 any errors are detected.  This usually pinpoint the subsystem causing
9223 the problem.</p>
9224
9225 <p>If you want to help us help kids learn how to share and create,
9226 please join us on
9227 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
9228 irc.debian.org</a> and the
9229 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">debian-edu@</a> mailing
9230 list.</p>
9231
9232       </div>
9233       <div class="tags">
9234
9235
9236         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9237
9238
9239       </div>
9240     </div>
9241     <div class="padding"></div>
9242
9243     <div class="entry">
9244       <div class="title">
9245         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html">Debian Edu interview: Victor Nițu</a>
9246       </div>
9247       <div class="date">
9248         17th June 2013
9249       </div>
9250       <div class="body">
9251         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
9252 Skolelinux</a> distribution have users and contributors all around the
9253 globe.  And a while back, an enterprising young man showed up on
9254 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">our IRC channel
9255 #debian-edu</a> and started asking questions about how Debian Edu
9256 worked.  We answered as good as we could, and even convinced him to
9257 help us with translations.  And today I managed to get an interview
9258 with him, to learn more about him.</p>
9259
9260 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
9261
9262 <p>I'm a 25 year old free software enthusiast, living in Romania,
9263 which is also my country of origin. Back in 2009, at a New Year's Eve
9264 party, I had a very nice <strike>beer</strike> discussion with a
9265 friend, when we realized we have no organised Debian community in our
9266 country. A few days later, we put together the infrastructure for such
9267 community and even gathered a nice Debian-ish crowd. Since then, I
9268 began my quest as a free software hacker and activist and I am
9269 constantly trying to cover as much ground as possible on that
9270 field.</p>
9271
9272 <p>A few years ago I founded a small web development company, which
9273 provided me the flexible schedule I needed so much for my
9274 activities. For the last 13 months, I have been the Technical Director
9275 of <a href="http://ceata.org/">Fundația Ceata</a>, which is a free
9276 software activist organisation endorsed by the FSF and the FSFE, and
9277 the only one we have in our country.</p>
9278
9279 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
9280 project?</strong></p>
9281
9282 <p>The idea of participating in the Debian Edu project was a surprise
9283 even to me, since I never used it before I began getting involved in
9284 it. This year I had a great opportunity to deliver a talk on
9285 educational software, and I knew immediately where to look. It was a
9286 love at first sight, since I was previously involved with some of the
9287 technologies the project incorporates, and I rapidly found a lot of
9288 ways to contribute.</p>
9289
9290 <p>My first contributions consisted in translating the installer and
9291 configuration dialogs, then I found some bugs to squash (I still
9292 haven't fixed them yet though), and I even got my eyes on some other
9293 areas where I can prove myself helpful. Since the appetite for free
9294 software in my country is pretty low, I'll be happy to be the first
9295 one around here advocating for the project's adoption in educational
9296 environments, and maybe even get my hands dirty in creating a flavour
9297 for our own needs. I am not used to make very advanced plannings, so
9298 from now on, time will tell what I'll be doing next, but I think I
9299 have a pretty consistent starting point.</p>
9300
9301 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
9302 Edu?</strong></p>
9303
9304 <p>Not a long time ago, I was in the position of configuring and
9305 maintaining a LDAP server on some Debian derivative, and I must say it
9306 took me a while. A long time ago, I was maintaining a bigger
9307 Samba-powered infrastructure, and I must say I spent quite a lot of
9308 time on it. I have similar stories about many of the services included
9309 with Skolelinux, and the main advantage I see about it is the
9310 out-of-the box availability of them, making it quite competitive when
9311 it comes to managing a school's network, for example.</p>
9312
9313 <p>Of course, there is more to say about Skolelinux than the
9314 availability of the software included, its flexibility in various
9315 scenarios is something I can't wait to experiment "into the wild" (I
9316 only played with virtual machines so far). And I am sure there is a
9317 lot more I haven't discovered yet about it, being so new within the
9318 project.</p>
9319
9320 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
9321 Edu?</strong></p>
9322
9323 <p>As usual, when it comes to Debian Blends, I see as the biggest
9324 disadvantage the lack of a numerous team dedicated to the
9325 project. Every day I see the same names in the changelogs, and I have
9326 a constantly fear of the bus factor in this story.  I'd like to see
9327 Debian Edu advertised more as an entry point into the Debian
9328 ecosystem, especially amongst newcomers and students. IMHO there are a
9329 lot low-hanging fruits in terms of bug squashing, and enough
9330 opportunities to get the feeling of the Debian Project's dynamics. Not
9331 to mention it's a very fun blend to work on!</p>
9332
9333 <p>Derived from the previous statement, is the delay in catching up
9334 with the main Debian release and documentation. This is common though
9335 to all blends and derivatives, but it's an issue we can all work
9336 on.</p>
9337
9338 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
9339
9340 <p>I can hardly imagine myself spending a day without Vim, since my
9341 daily routine covers writing code and hacking configuration files. I
9342 am a fan of the Awesome window manager (but I also like the
9343 Enlightenment project a lot!),
9344 <a href="http://www.claws-mail.org/‎">Claws Mail</a> due to its ease of
9345 use and very configurable behaviour. Recently I fell in love with
9346 <a href="https://launchpad.net/redshift">Redshift</a>, which helps me
9347 get through the night without headaches. Of course, there is much more
9348 stuff in this bag, but I'll need a blog on my own for doing this!</p>
9349
9350 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
9351 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
9352
9353 <p>Well, on this field, I cannot do much more than experiment right
9354 now. So, being far from having a recipe for success, I can only assume
9355 that:</p>
9356
9357 <ul>
9358
9359 <li>schools would like to get rid of proprietary software</li>
9360
9361 <li>students will love the openness of the system, and will want to
9362     experiment with it - maybe we need to harvest the native curiosity
9363     of teenagers more?</li>
9364
9365 <li>there is no "right one" when it comes to strategies, but it would
9366     be useful to have some success stories published somewhere, so
9367     other can get some inspiration from them (I know I'd promote
9368     them!)</li>
9369
9370 <li>more active promotion - talks, conferences, even small school
9371     lectures can do magical things if they encounter at least one
9372     person interested. Who knows who that person might be? ;-)</li>
9373
9374 </ul>
9375
9376 <p>I also see some problems in getting Skolelinux into schools; for
9377 example, in our country we have a great deal of corruption issues, so
9378 it might be hard(er) to fight against proprietary solutions. Also,
9379 people who relied on commercial software for all their lives, would be
9380 very hard to convert against their will.</p>
9381
9382       </div>
9383       <div class="tags">
9384
9385
9386         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
9387
9388
9389       </div>
9390     </div>
9391     <div class="padding"></div>
9392
9393     <div class="entry">
9394       <div class="title">
9395         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jonathan_Carter.html">Debian Edu interview: Jonathan Carter</a>
9396       </div>
9397       <div class="date">
9398         12th June 2013
9399       </div>
9400       <div class="body">
9401         <p>There is a certain cross-over between the
9402 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
9403 project</a> and <a href="http://www.edubuntu.org/">the Edubuntu
9404 project</a>, and for example the LTSP packages in Debian are a joint
9405 effort between the projects.  One person with a foot in both camps is
9406 Jonathan Carter, which I am now happy to present to you.</p>
9407
9408 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
9409
9410 <p>I'm a South-African free software geek who lives in Cape Town. My
9411 days vary quite a bit since I'm involved in too many things. As I'm
9412 getting older I'm learning how to focus a bit more :)</p>
9413
9414 <p>I'm also an Edubuntu contributor and I love when there are
9415 opportunities for the Edubuntu and Debian Edu projects to benefit from
9416 each other.</p>
9417
9418 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
9419 project?</strong></p>
9420
9421 <p>I've been somewhat familiar with the project before, but I think my
9422 first direct exposure to the project was when I met Petter
9423 [Reinholdtsen] and Knut [Yrvin] at the Edubuntu summit in 2005 in
9424 London. They provided great feedback that helped the bootstrapping of
9425 Edubuntu. Back then Edubuntu (and even Ubuntu) was still very new and
9426 it was great getting input from people who have been around longer. I
9427 was also still very excitable and said yes to everything and to this
9428 day I have a big todo list backlog that I'm catching up with. I think
9429 over the years the relationship between Edubuntu and Debian-Edu has
9430 been gradually improving, although I think there's a lot that we could
9431 still improve on in terms of working together on packages. I'm sure
9432 we'll get there one day.</p>
9433
9434 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
9435 Edu?</strong></p>
9436
9437 <p>Debian itself already has so many advantages. I could go on about
9438 it for pages, but in essence I love that it's a very honest project
9439 that puts its users first with no hidden agendas and also produces
9440 very high quality work.</p>
9441
9442 <p>I think the advantage of Debian Edu is that it makes many common
9443 set-up tasks simpler so that administrators can get up and running
9444 with a lot less effort and frustration. At the same time I think it
9445 helps to standardise installations in schools so that it's easier for
9446 community members and commercial suppliers to support.</p>
9447
9448 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
9449 Edu?</strong></p>
9450
9451 <p>I had to re-type this one a few times because I'm trying to
9452 separate "disadvantages" from "areas that need improvement" (which is
9453 what I originally rambled on about)</p>
9454
9455 <p>The biggest disadvantage I can think of is lack of manpower. The
9456 project could do so much more if there were more good contributors. I
9457 think some of the problems are external too. Free software and free
9458 content in education is a no-brainer but it takes some time to catch
9459 on. When you've been working with the same proprietary eco-system for
9460 years and have gotten used to it, it can be hard to adjust to some
9461 concepts in the free software world. It would be nice if there were
9462 more Debian Edu consultants across the world. I'd love to be one
9463 myself but I'm already so over-committed that it's just not possible
9464 currently.</p>
9465
9466 <p>I think the best short-term solution to that large-scale problem is
9467 for schools to be pro-active and share their experiences and grow
9468 their skills in-house. I'm often saddened to see how much money
9469 educational institutions spend on 3rd party solutions that they don't
9470 have access to after the service has ended and they could've gotten so
9471 much more value otherwise by being more self-sustainable and
9472 autonomous.</p>
9473
9474 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
9475
9476 <p>My main laptop dual-boots between Debian and Windows 7. I was
9477 Windows free for years but started dual-booting again last year for
9478 some games which help me focus and relax (Starcraft II in
9479 particular). Gaming support on Linux is improving in leaps and bounds
9480 so I suppose I'll soon be able to regain that disk space :)</p>
9481
9482 <p>Besides that I rely on Icedove, Chromium, Terminator, Byobu, irssi,
9483 git, Tomboy, KVM, VLC and LibreOffice. Recently I've been torn on
9484 which desktop environment I like and I'm taking some refuge in Xfce
9485 while I figure that out. I like tools that keep things simple. I enjoy
9486 Python and shell scripting. I went to an Arduino workshop recently and
9487 it was awesome seeing how easy and simple the IDE software was to get
9488 up and running in Debian compared to the users running Windows and OS
9489 X.</p>
9490
9491 <p>I also use mc which some people frown upon slightly. I got used to
9492 using Norton Commander in the early 90's and it stuck (I think the
9493 people who sneer at it is just jealous that they don't know how to use
9494 it :p)
9495
9496 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
9497 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
9498
9499 <p>I think trying to force it is unproductive. I also think that in
9500 many cases it's appropriate for schools to use non-free systems and I
9501 don't think that there's any particular moral or ethical problem with
9502 that.</p>
9503
9504 <p>I do think though that free software can already solve so so many
9505 problems in educational institutions and it's just a shame not taking
9506 advantage of that.</p>
9507
9508 <p>I also think that some curricula need serious review. For example,
9509 some areas of the world rely heavily on very specific versions of MS
9510 Office, teaching students to parrot menu items instead of learning the
9511 general concepts. I think that's very unproductive because firstly, MS
9512 Office's interface changes drastically every few years and on top of
9513 that it also locks in a generation to a product that might not be the
9514 best solution for them.</p>
9515
9516 <p>To answer your question, I believe that the right strategy is to
9517 educate and inform, giving someone the information they require to
9518 make a decision that would work for them.</p>
9519
9520       </div>
9521       <div class="tags">
9522
9523
9524         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
9525
9526
9527       </div>
9528     </div>
9529     <div class="padding"></div>
9530
9531     <div class="entry">
9532       <div class="title">
9533         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</a>
9534       </div>
9535       <div class="date">
9536         11th June 2013
9537       </div>
9538       <div class="body">
9539         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
9540 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
9541 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
9542 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
9543 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
9544 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
9545 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
9546 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
9547 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
9548 i915 driver used by the
9549 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
9550 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
9551
9552 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
9553 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
9554 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
9555 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
9556 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
9557
9558 <pre>
9559 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
9560 update-initramfs -u -k all
9561 </pre>
9562
9563 <p>Since March 2012 there is
9564 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
9565 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
9566 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
9567 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
9568 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
9569 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
9570 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
9571 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
9572 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
9573 number.</p>
9574
9575 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
9576 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
9577
9578 <p><pre>
9579 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
9580     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
9581     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
9582  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
9583  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
9584     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
9585  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
9586     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
9587  Latency: 0
9588  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
9589  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
9590  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
9591  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
9592  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
9593  Capabilities: <access denied>
9594  Kernel driver in use: i915
9595 </pre></p>
9596
9597 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
9598
9599 <p><pre>
9600 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
9601        ...
9602         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
9603         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
9604        ...
9605 }
9606 </pre></p>
9607
9608 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
9609 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
9610 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
9611 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
9612 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
9613 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
9614 yet shown up in
9615 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
9616 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
9617 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
9618 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
9619 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
9620 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
9621
9622 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
9623 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
9624 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
9625 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
9626 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
9627 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
9628 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
9629 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
9630 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
9631 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
9632 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
9633 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
9634
9635 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
9636 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
9637 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
9638 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
9639 backlight.</p>
9640
9641       </div>
9642       <div class="tags">
9643
9644
9645         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9646
9647
9648       </div>
9649     </div>
9650     <div class="padding"></div>
9651
9652     <div class="entry">
9653       <div class="title">
9654         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Third alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
9655       </div>
9656       <div class="date">
9657         10th June 2013
9658       </div>
9659       <div class="body">
9660         <p>The third wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
9661 today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
9662
9663 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha2 released
9664 2013-06-10</strong></p>
9665
9666 <p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
9667 alpha2, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
9668
9669 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
9670
9671 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
9672 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
9673 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
9674 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
9675 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
9676 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
9677 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
9678 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
9679 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
9680 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
9681 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
9682 desktop contains
9683 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
9684 than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
9685 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
9686 and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
9687
9688 <p>This is the third test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
9689 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
9690 Squeeze release.</p>
9691
9692 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
9693
9694 <ul>
9695
9696 <li>Iceweasel was updated from 10 to 17. (DSA 2699-1)
9697 <li>Updated libxv (DSA-2674), libxvmc (DSA-2675), libxfixes (DSA-2676), libxrender (DSA-2677), mesa (DSA-2678), xserver-xorg-video-openchrome (DSA-2679), libxt (DSA-2680), libxcursor (DSA-2681), libxext (DSA-2682), libxi (DSA-2683), libxrandr (DSA-2684), libxp (DSA-2685), libxcb (DSA-2686), libfs (DSA-2687), libxres (DSA-2688), libxtst (DSA-2689), libxxf86dga (DSA-2690), libxinerama (DSA-2691), libxxf86vm (DSA-2692), libx11 (DSA-2693), chromium-browser (DSA-2695), gnutls26 (DSA-2697), wireshark (DSA-2700), krb5 (DSA-2701), telepathy-gabble (DSA-2702) and subversion (DSA-2703).
9698 <li>Switched xrdp on thin client servers to use tightvncserver instead of xvnc4.
9699 <li>Now install software oscilloscope xoscope by default.
9700 <li>Now install music tools gtick, lingot and pianobooster by default.
9701
9702 </ul>
9703
9704 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
9705
9706 <ul>
9707
9708 <li>The subnet-change script is now able to change all files needing a change on the main-server when changing the IP network used.
9709 <li>Updated translation of the installation.
9710 <li>New Romanian translation.
9711 <li>Fix security problem causing root and first user password to no longer show up in /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat.
9712 <li>Fix roaming workstation setup (Closed in libpam-mklocaluser/0.8, libpam-mklocaluser/0.8~deb7u1: #706753: libpam-mklocaluser: Fail to create local user during first login).
9713 <li>Made roaming workstation setup more robust in non-Debian Edu environments.
9714 <li>New script debian-edu-bless to transform a Debian installation to a Debian Edu profile.
9715 <li>Adjust Iceweasel setup to improve performance when $HOME is on NFS.
9716 <li>More testsuite tests.
9717 <li>Make automatic proxy configuration more robust.
9718 <li>Adjust GOsa² GUI configuration.
9719
9720 <li>Update thin client and diskless workstation setup to work with
9721 LTSP in Wheezy.</li>
9722
9723 <li>Diskless workstations now run out of the box -- no need to set
9724 them up with GOsa².</li>
9725
9726 <li>Update IMAP server setup. </li>
9727
9728 <li>Fix login into Skolelinux Backup Tool (Closed in
9729 slbackup-php/0.4.4-1: #700257: slbackup-php: Fails to submit correctly
9730 entered password). </li>
9731
9732 </ul>
9733
9734 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
9735
9736 <ul>
9737
9738 <li>DVD binary and source images are not yet ready.</li>
9739
9740 <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
9741 available yet (Open in gosa/2.7.4-4: #698840: gosa-plugin-ldapmanager:
9742 missing import feature).</li>
9743
9744 <li>Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others). </li>
9745
9746 <li>KDE Debian submenu lacks icons (Closed: #502192: menu-xdg: invents
9747 own icon names instead of using existing). This will remain
9748 unfixed.</li>
9749
9750 </ul>
9751
9752 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
9753
9754 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
9755
9756 <ul>
9757
9758 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso</a></li>
9759
9760 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso</a></li>
9761
9762 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso .</li>
9763
9764 </ul>
9765
9766 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 27bbcace407743382f3c42c08dbe8178
9767 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: e35f7d7908566cd3075375b3721fa10ee420d419</p>
9768
9769 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
9770
9771 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a>
9772
9773       </div>
9774       <div class="tags">
9775
9776
9777         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9778
9779
9780       </div>
9781     </div>
9782     <div class="padding"></div>
9783
9784     <div class="entry">
9785       <div class="title">
9786         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_there_a_PHP_expert_in_the_building___Debian_Edu_need_help_.html">Is there a PHP expert in the building?  Debian Edu need help!</a>
9787       </div>
9788       <div class="date">
9789          5th June 2013
9790       </div>
9791       <div class="body">
9792         <p>Here is a call for help from the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project.
9793 We have two problems blocking the release of the Wheezy version we
9794 hope to get released soon.  The two problems require some with PHP
9795 skills, and we seem to lack anyone with both time and PHP skills in
9796 the project:
9797
9798 <ol>
9799
9800 <li>It is impossible to log into the slbackup web interface
9801   (slbackup-php) using the root user and password.  This is
9802   <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/700257">BTS report #700257</a>.
9803   This used to work, but stopped working some time since Squeeze.
9804   Perhaps some obsolete PHP feature was used?</li>
9805
9806 <li>It is not possible to "mass import" user lists in Gosa, neither
9807   using ldif nor using CSV files.  The feature was disabled after a
9808   major rewrite of Gosa, and need to be ported to the new system.
9809   This is <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698840">BTS report
9810   #698840</a>.</li>
9811
9812 </ol>
9813
9814 <p>If you can help us, please join us on IRC
9815 (<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
9816 irc.debian.org</a>) and provide patches via the BTS.</p>
9817
9818       </div>
9819       <div class="tags">
9820
9821
9822         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9823
9824
9825       </div>
9826     </div>
9827     <div class="padding"></div>
9828
9829     <div class="entry">
9830       <div class="title">
9831         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html">Debian Edu interview: Cédric Boutillier</a>
9832       </div>
9833       <div class="date">
9834          4th June 2013
9835       </div>
9836       <div class="body">
9837         <p>It has been a while since my last English
9838 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
9839 interview last November.  But the developers and translators are still
9840 pulling along to get the Wheezy based release out the door, and this
9841 time I managed to get an interview from one of the French translators
9842 in the project, Cédric Boutillier.</p>
9843
9844 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
9845
9846 <p>I am 34 year old. I live near Paris, France. I am an assistant
9847 professor in probability theory. I spend my daytime teaching
9848 mathematics at the university and doing fundamental research in
9849 probability in connexion with combinatorics and statistical physics.</p>
9850
9851 <p>I have been involved in the Debian project for a couple of years
9852 and became Debian Developer a few months ago. I am working on Ruby
9853 packaging, publicity and translation.</p>
9854
9855 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
9856 project?</strong></p>
9857
9858 <p>I came to the Debian Edu project after a call for translation of
9859 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Manuals">the
9860 Debian Edu manual</a> for the release of Debian Edu Squeeze. Since
9861 then, I have been working on updating the French translation of the
9862 manual.
9863
9864 <p>I had the opportunity to make an installation of Debian Edu in a
9865 virtual machine when I was preparing localised version of some screen
9866 shots for the manual. I was amazed to see it worked out of the box and
9867 how comprehensive the list of software installed by default was.</p>
9868
9869 <p>What amazed me was the complete network infrastructure directly
9870 ready to use, which can and the nice administration interface provided
9871 by <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa²</a>.  What pleased
9872 me also was the fact that among the software installed by default,
9873 there were many "traditional" educative software to learn languages,
9874 to count, to program... but also software to develop creativity and
9875 artistic skills with music (<a href="http://ardour.org/">Ardour</a>,
9876 <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a>) and
9877 movies/animation (I was especially thinking of
9878 <a href="http://linuxstopmotion.sourceforge.net/">Stopmotion</a>).</p>
9879
9880 <p>I am following the development of Debian Edu and am hanging out on
9881 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu</a>.
9882 Unfortunately, I don't much time to get more involved in this
9883 beautiful project.</p>
9884
9885 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
9886 Edu?</strong></p>
9887
9888 <p>For me, the main advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu are its
9889 community of experts and its precise documentation, as well as the
9890 fact that it provides a solution ready to use.</p>
9891
9892 <p>I would add also the fact that it is based on the rock solid Debian
9893 distribution, which ensures stability and provides a huge collection
9894 of educational free software.</p>
9895
9896 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
9897 Edu?</strong></p>
9898
9899 <p>Maybe the lack of manpower to do lobbying on the
9900 project. Sometimes, people who need to take decisions concerning IT do
9901 not have all the elements to evaluate properly free software
9902 solutions. The fact that support by a company may be difficult to find
9903 is probably a problem if the school does not have IT personnel.</p>
9904
9905 <p>One can find support from a company by looking at
9906 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Help/ProfessionalHelp">the
9907 wiki dokumentation</a>, where some countries already have a number of
9908 companies providing support for Debian Edu, like Germany or
9909 Norway. This list is easy to find readily from the manual. However,
9910 for other countries, like France, the list is empty. I guess that
9911 consultants proposing support for Debian would be able to provide some
9912 support for Debian Edu as well.</p>
9913
9914 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
9915
9916 <p>I am using the KDE Plasma Desktop. But the pieces of software I use
9917 most runs in a terminal: Mutt and OfflineIMAP for emails, latex for
9918 scientific documents, mpd for music. VIM is my editor of choice.  I am
9919 also using the mathematical software
9920 <a href="http://www.scilab.org/en/scilab/about‎">Scilab</a> and
9921 <a href="http://www.sagemath.org/index.html‎">Sage</a> (built from
9922 source as not completely packaged for Debian, yet).
9923
9924 <p><strong>Do you have any suggestions for teachers interested in
9925 using the free software in Debian to teach mathematics and
9926 statistics?</strong></p>
9927
9928 <p>I do not have any "nice" recommendations for statistics. At our
9929 university, we use both <a href="http://www.r-project.org/‎">R</a> and
9930 Scilab to teach statistics and probabilistic simulations. For
9931 geometry, there are nice programs:</p>
9932
9933 <ul>
9934
9935 <li><a href="http://www.drgeo.eu/">drgeo</a> and
9936 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/kig‎">kig</a> to do
9937 constructions in planar geometry
9938
9939 <li><a href="http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/software/download/kali.html">kali</a>
9940 to discover symmetry groups (the so-called wallpapers and frieze
9941 groups), although the interface looks a bit old.</li>
9942
9943 </ul>
9944
9945 <p>I like also
9946 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/cantor">cantor</a>, which
9947 provides a uniform interface to SciLab, Sage,
9948 <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Octave‎">Octave</a>, etc...</p>
9949
9950 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
9951 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
9952
9953 <p>My suggestions would be to</p>
9954
9955 <ul>
9956
9957 <li>advertise the reduction of costs when free software is used.</li>
9958
9959 <li>communicate about the quality of free software projects, using
9960     well known examples like Firefox, ThunderBird and
9961     OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice.</li>
9962
9963 <li>advertise the living and strong community around the project.</li>
9964
9965 <li>show that it is not more difficult to use than any other
9966     system.</li>
9967
9968 </ul>
9969
9970       </div>
9971       <div class="tags">
9972
9973
9974         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
9975
9976
9977       </div>
9978     </div>
9979     <div class="padding"></div>
9980
9981     <div class="entry">
9982       <div class="title">
9983         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">Educational applications included in Debian Edu / Skolelinux (the screenshot collection :-)</a>
9984       </div>
9985       <div class="date">
9986          1st June 2013
9987       </div>
9988       <div class="body">
9989         <p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
9990 Skolelinux</a>, there are quite a lot of educational software.
9991 Created to help teachers teach, and pupils learn.  We have tried to
9992 tag them all using debtags use::learning and role::program, and using
9993 the debtags I was happy to be able to create a collage of the
9994 educational software packages installed by default, sorted by the
9995 debtag field.  Here it is.  Click on a image to learn more about the
9996 program.</p>
9997
9998 <!-- for f in $(debtags tagcat|grep field::|awk '{print $2}'); do   echo; echo "<p><strong>$f</strong></p>"; echo "<p>";   (     for p in $(debtags search --names "use::learning && interface::x11 && role::program && $f"); do img="<img src='http://screenshots.debian.net/thumbnail/$p' alt='$p'>"; if dpkg -s $p > /dev/null 2>&1; then           echo "<a href='http://packages.qa.debian.org/$p'>$img</a>"; fi;     done;   ) | LANG=C sort; echo "</p>"; done -->
9999
10000 <p><strong>field::arts</strong></p>
10001 <p>
10002 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=audacity'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/audacity.png' alt='audacity'></a>
10003 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=childsplay'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png' alt='childsplay'></a>
10004 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=denemo'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/denemo.png' alt='denemo'></a>
10005 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=freebirth'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/freebirth.png' alt='freebirth'></a>
10006 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
10007 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gimp'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gimp.png' alt='gimp'></a>
10008 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=hydrogen'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/hydrogen.png' alt='hydrogen'></a>
10009 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=lilypond'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/lilypond.png' alt='lilypond'></a>
10010 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=lmms'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/lmms.png' alt='lmms'></a>
10011 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=rosegarden'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/rosegarden.png' alt='rosegarden'></a>
10012 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=scribus'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scribus.png' alt='scribus'></a>
10013 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=solfege'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/solfege.png' alt='solfege'></a>
10014 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=stopmotion'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/stopmotion.png' alt='stopmotion'></a>
10015 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=tuxpaint'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/tuxpaint.png' alt='tuxpaint'></a>
10016 </p>
10017
10018 <p><strong>field::astronomy</strong></p>
10019 <p>
10020 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=celestia-gnome'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/celestia-gnome.png' alt='celestia-gnome'></a>
10021 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gpredict'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gpredict.png' alt='gpredict'></a>
10022 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kstars'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kstars.png' alt='kstars'></a>
10023 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=planets'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/planets.png' alt='planets'></a>
10024 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=stellarium'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/stellarium.png' alt='stellarium'></a>
10025 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xplanet'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xplanet.png' alt='xplanet'></a>
10026 </p>
10027
10028 <p><strong>field::biology:structural</strong></p>
10029 <p>
10030 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=pymol'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/pymol.png' alt='pymol'></a>
10031 </p>
10032
10033 <p><strong>field::chemistry</strong></p>
10034 <p>
10035 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=atomix'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/atomix.png' alt='atomix'></a>
10036 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=chemtool'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/chemtool.png' alt='chemtool'></a>
10037 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=easychem'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/easychem.png' alt='easychem'></a>
10038 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gchempaint'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gchempaint.png' alt='gchempaint'></a>
10039 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gdis'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gdis.png' alt='gdis'></a>
10040 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=ghemical'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/ghemical.png' alt='ghemical'></a>
10041 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gperiodic'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gperiodic.png' alt='gperiodic'></a>
10042 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kalzium'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kalzium.png' alt='kalzium'></a>
10043 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=pymol'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/pymol.png' alt='pymol'></a>
10044 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=viewmol'>[viewmol]</a>
10045 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xdrawchem'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xdrawchem.png' alt='xdrawchem'></a>
10046 </p>
10047
10048 <p><strong>field::electronics</strong></p>
10049 <p>
10050 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
10051 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gpsim'>[gpsim]</a>
10052 </p>
10053
10054 <p><strong>field::geography</strong></p>
10055 <p>
10056 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kgeography'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kgeography.png' alt='kgeography'></a>
10057 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=marble'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/marble.png' alt='marble'></a>
10058 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xplanet'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xplanet.png' alt='xplanet'></a>
10059 </p>
10060
10061 <p><strong>field::linguistics</strong></p>
10062 <p>
10063 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
10064 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kanagram'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kanagram.png' alt='kanagram'></a>
10065 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=khangman'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/khangman.png' alt='khangman'></a>
10066 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=klettres'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/klettres.png' alt='klettres'></a>
10067 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=parley'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/parley.png' alt='parley'></a>
10068 </p>
10069
10070 <p><strong>field::mathematics</strong></p>
10071 <p>
10072 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=childsplay'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png' alt='childsplay'></a>
10073 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=drgeo'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/drgeo.png' alt='drgeo'></a>
10074 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
10075 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=geogebra'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/geogebra.png' alt='geogebra'></a>
10076 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=geomview'>[geomview]</a>
10077 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=grace'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/grace.png' alt='grace'></a>
10078 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=graphmonkey'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/graphmonkey.png' alt='graphmonkey'></a>
10079 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=graphthing'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/graphthing.png' alt='graphthing'></a>
10080 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kalgebra'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kalgebra.png' alt='kalgebra'></a>
10081 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kbruch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kbruch.png' alt='kbruch'></a>
10082 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kig'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kig.png' alt='kig'></a>
10083 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kmplot'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kmplot.png' alt='kmplot'></a>
10084 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=mathwar'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/mathwar.png' alt='mathwar'></a>
10085 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=rocs'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/rocs.png' alt='rocs'></a>
10086 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=scratch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scratch.png' alt='scratch'></a>
10087 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=tuxmath'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/tuxmath.png' alt='tuxmath'></a>
10088 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xabacus'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xabacus.png' alt='xabacus'></a>
10089 </p>
10090
10091 <p><strong>field::physics</strong></p>
10092 <p>
10093 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
10094 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=step'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/step.png' alt='step'></a>
10095 </p>
10096
10097 <p><strong>field::TODO</strong></p>
10098 <p>
10099 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=blinken'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/blinken.png' alt='blinken'></a>
10100 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=cgoban'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/cgoban.png' alt='cgoban'></a>
10101 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=childsplay'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png' alt='childsplay'></a>
10102 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
10103 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gnuchess'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gnuchess.png' alt='gnuchess'></a>
10104 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gnugo'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gnugo.png' alt='gnugo'></a>
10105 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gtans'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gtans.png' alt='gtans'></a>
10106 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=ktouch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/ktouch.png' alt='ktouch'></a>
10107 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=librecad'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/librecad.png' alt='librecad'></a>
10108 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=scratch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scratch.png' alt='scratch'></a>
10109 </p>
10110
10111 <p>In total, 61 applications.  3 of them lacked screen shots on
10112 <a href="http://screenshot.debian.net">screenshot.debian.net</a>.  If
10113 you know of some packages we should install by default, please let us
10114 know on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">IRC, #debian-edu
10115 on irc.debian.org</a>, or our
10116 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">mailing list
10117 debian-edu@</a>.</p>
10118
10119       </div>
10120       <div class="tags">
10121
10122
10123         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10124
10125
10126       </div>
10127     </div>
10128     <div class="padding"></div>
10129
10130     <div class="entry">
10131       <div class="title">
10132         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html">How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</a>
10133       </div>
10134       <div class="date">
10135         27th May 2013
10136       </div>
10137       <div class="body">
10138         <p>Two days ago, I asked
10139 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">how
10140 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
10141 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
10142 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
10143 and Windows 8.</p>
10144
10145 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
10146 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
10147 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
10148 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
10149 enough to tell.</p>
10150
10151 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
10152 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
10153 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
10154 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
10155 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
10156 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
10157 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
10158 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
10159 to follow.</p>
10160
10161 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
10162 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
10163 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
10164 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
10165 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
10166 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
10167 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
10168 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
10169
10170 <p>I've updated the
10171 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
10172 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
10173 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
10174 machine.</p>
10175
10176 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
10177 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
10178
10179       </div>
10180       <div class="tags">
10181
10182
10183         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10184
10185
10186       </div>
10187     </div>
10188     <div class="padding"></div>
10189
10190     <div class="entry">
10191       <div class="title">
10192         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</a>
10193       </div>
10194       <div class="date">
10195         25th May 2013
10196       </div>
10197       <div class="body">
10198         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
10199 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
10200 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
10201 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
10202 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
10203 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
10204
10205 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
10206 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
10207 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
10208 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
10209 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
10210 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
10211 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
10212 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
10213 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
10214 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
10215
10216 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
10217 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
10218 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
10219 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
10220 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
10221 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
10222
10223 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
10224 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
10225 on new Laptops?</p>
10226
10227       </div>
10228       <div class="tags">
10229
10230
10231         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10232
10233
10234       </div>
10235     </div>
10236     <div class="padding"></div>
10237
10238     <div class="entry">
10239       <div class="title">
10240         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html">How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</a>
10241       </div>
10242       <div class="date">
10243         17th May 2013
10244       </div>
10245       <div class="body">
10246         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
10247 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
10248 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
10249 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
10250 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
10251 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
10252 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
10253 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
10254 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
10255 donate some money</a>.
10256
10257 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
10258 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
10259 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
10260 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
10261 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
10262
10263 <p>The script,
10264 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/branches/wheezy/debian-edu-config/share/debian-edu-config/tools/debian-edu-bless?view=markup">debian-edu-bless<a/>
10265 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
10266 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
10267 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
10268
10269 <ol>
10270
10271 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
10272 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
10273 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
10274     our configuration.</li>
10275 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
10276     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
10277     according to the profile specified in the config above,
10278     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
10279 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
10280     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
10281 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
10282
10283 </ol>
10284
10285 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
10286 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
10287 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
10288 the needed packages.</p>
10289
10290 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
10291 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
10292 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
10293 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
10294 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
10295 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
10296
10297 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
10298 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
10299 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
10300
10301 <p><pre>
10302 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
10303 DESKTOP="lxde"
10304 </pre></p>
10305
10306 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
10307 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
10308 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
10309 boot.</p>
10310
10311       </div>
10312       <div class="tags">
10313
10314
10315         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10316
10317
10318       </div>
10319     </div>
10320     <div class="padding"></div>
10321
10322     <div class="entry">
10323       <div class="title">
10324         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Second alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
10325       </div>
10326       <div class="date">
10327         14th May 2013
10328       </div>
10329       <div class="body">
10330         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
10331 project</a> is making great progress and made its second Wheezy based
10332 release today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
10333
10334 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha1 released
10335 2013-05-14</strong></p>
10336
10337 <p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
10338 alpha1, based on <a href="http://www.debian.org">Debian</a> with
10339 codename "Wheezy".</p>
10340
10341 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
10342
10343 <p>Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based
10344 on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
10345 configured school network. Immediatly after installation a school
10346 server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
10347 waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
10348 Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
10349 initial installation of the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all
10350 other machines can be installed via the network.</p>
10351
10352 <p>This is the first test release based on Wheezy (which currently is
10353 not released yet). Basically this is an updated and slightly improved
10354 version compared to the Squeeze release.</p>
10355
10356 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
10357 <ul>
10358   <li>Install freemind (0.9.0) by default, and stop installing vym by
10359     default.</li>
10360   <li>Install chromium (26.0.1410.43) by default.</li>
10361   <li>Install goplay (0.5-1.1) to make golearn available by default.</li>
10362   <li>Updated support for Japanese input methods, now based on
10363     ibus-anthy.</li>
10364 </ul>
10365
10366 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
10367 <ul>
10368
10369   <li>Switched default file system from ext3 to ext4 for speed and
10370     reliability improvements.</li>
10371   <li>Got rid of unwanted winbind daemon and PAM setup activated because
10372     of <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/706434">706434</a>.</li>
10373   <li>Extended and improved the testsuite tests to detect more possible
10374     problems.</li>
10375   <li>Corrected proxy handling to not set http_proxy to a bogus
10376     direct:// URL.</li>
10377   <li>Corrected proxy setup for diskless workstations.</li>
10378   <li>Corrected PXE setup to use our updated udebs during installation.</li>
10379   <li>Made installation handling of low entropy level more robust.</li>
10380   <li>Create larger partitions for Roaming workstations and Thin client
10381     servers, to make room for all the software installed.</li>
10382   <li>Fix bug in Roaming workstation PAM setup, making it impossible to
10383     log in (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/706753">706753</a>).</li>
10384 </ul>
10385
10386 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
10387 <ul>
10388
10389   <li>IP resolution for the local hostname give useless IPv6 address
10390     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/705900">705900</a>).  Only install
10391     libnss-myhostname on roaming workstations until it is fixed.</li>
10392   <li>DVD images are not yet ready.</li>
10393   <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
10394     available yet (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698840">698840</a>).</li>
10395   <li>Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others).</li>
10396   <li>KDE Debian submenu lacks icons.</li>
10397   <li>LXDE menu lacks entry for changing GOsa password
10398     (website). Installing gosa-desktop will be an option.</li>
10399   <li>Backup configuration via web interface is impossible due to
10400     password submission problem
10401     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/700257">700257</a>).</li>
10402
10403 </ul>
10404
10405 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
10406
10407 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
10408 <ul>
10409
10410   <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso</a></li>
10411   <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso</a></li>
10412   <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso</li>
10413
10414 </ul>
10415
10416 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 685ed76c1aa8e44b12d3fde21faf450b</p>
10417
10418 <p>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 6c874de157024da13e115bab29c068080a11ec4c</p>
10419
10420 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
10421
10422 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
10423
10424       </div>
10425       <div class="tags">
10426
10427
10428         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10429
10430
10431       </div>
10432     </div>
10433     <div class="padding"></div>
10434
10435     <div class="entry">
10436       <div class="title">
10437         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
10438       </div>
10439       <div class="date">
10440         11th May 2013
10441       </div>
10442       <div class="body">
10443         <P>In January,
10444 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
10445 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
10446 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
10447 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
10448 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
10449 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
10450 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
10451 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
10452 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
10453 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
10454 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
10455 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
10456
10457 <p><table>
10458 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/brickos">brickos</a></td><td>alternative OS for LEGO Mindstorms RCX. Supports development in C/C++</td></tr>
10459 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
10460 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libnxt">libnxt</a></td><td>utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NX</td></tr>
10461 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
10462 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
10463 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
10464 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt">python-nxt</a></td><td>python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot</td></tr>
10465 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt-filer">python-nxt-filer</a></td><td>simple GUI to manage files on a LEGO Mindstorms NXT</td></tr>
10466 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/scratch">scratch</a></td><td>easy to use programming environment for ages 8 and up</td></tr>
10467 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
10468 </table></p>
10469
10470 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
10471 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
10472 available in experimental.</p>
10473
10474 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
10475 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
10476 for LEGO designers.</p>
10477
10478       </div>
10479       <div class="tags">
10480
10481
10482         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
10483
10484
10485       </div>
10486     </div>
10487     <div class="padding"></div>
10488
10489     <div class="entry">
10490       <div class="title">
10491         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html">Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy</a>
10492       </div>
10493       <div class="date">
10494          5th May 2013
10495       </div>
10496       <div class="body">
10497         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
10498 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
10499 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
10500 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
10501 soon.</p>
10502
10503 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
10504 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
10505 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
10506 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
10507 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
10508 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
10509 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
10510 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
10511 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
10512 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
10513 Edu.</a>
10514
10515 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
10516 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
10517 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
10518 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
10519 follow.<p>
10520
10521       </div>
10522       <div class="tags">
10523
10524
10525         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10526
10527
10528       </div>
10529     </div>
10530     <div class="padding"></div>
10531
10532     <div class="entry">
10533       <div class="title">
10534         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">First alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
10535       </div>
10536       <div class="date">
10537         26th April 2013
10538       </div>
10539       <div class="body">
10540         <p>The Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is still going strong and made
10541 its first Wheezy based release today.  This is the release
10542 announcement:</p>
10543
10544 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu ~7.0.0 alpha0 released
10545 2013-04-26</strong></p>
10546
10547 <p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux ~7.0.0
10548 edu alpha0, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
10549
10550 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
10551
10552 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
10553 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
10554 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
10555 network. Immediatly after installation a school server running all
10556 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
10557 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
10558 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
10559 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
10560 installed via the network.</p>
10561
10562 <p>This is the first test release based on Wheezy (which currently is
10563 not released yet). Basically this is an updated and slightly improved
10564 version compared to the Squeeze release.</p>
10565
10566 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
10567
10568 <ul>
10569 <li>Everything which is new in Debian Wheezy, eg:
10570   <ul>
10571      <li>Linux kernel 3.2.x</li>
10572      <li>Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.8.4, GNOME 3.4, and LXDE 4
10573          (KDE is installed by default; to choose GNOME or LXDE: see
10574          manual.)</li>
10575      <li>Web browser Iceweasel 10 ESR</li>
10576      <li>LibreOffice 3.5.4</li>
10577      <li>LTSP 5.4.2</li>
10578      <li>GOsa 2.7.4</li>
10579      <li>CUPS print system 1.5.3</li>
10580      <li>Educational toolbox GCompris 12.01</li>
10581      <li>Music creator Rosegarden 12.04</li>
10582      <li>Image editor Gimp 2.8.2</li>
10583      <li>Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.1</li>
10584      <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.11.3</li>
10585      <li>Scratch visual programming environment 1.4.0.6</li>
10586      <li>New version of debian-installer from Debian Wheezy, see
10587          <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/installmanual">installation
10588          manual</a> for more details.</li>
10589      <li>Debian Wheezy includes about 37000 packages available for
10590          installation.</li>
10591      <li>More information about Debian Wheezy 7.0 is provided in the
10592          <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/releasenotes">release notes</a> and the <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/installmanual">installation manual</a>.</li>
10593   </ul></li>
10594 </ul>
10595
10596 <p><strong>Documentation</strong></p>
10597 <ul>
10598 <li>The (<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy">English</a>) Debian Edu Wheezy Manual is fully translated to
10599     German, French, Italian and Danish. Partly translated versions exist
10600     for Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.</li>
10601 </ul>
10602
10603 <p><Strong>LDAP related changes</strong></p>
10604 <ul>
10605 <li>Slight changes to some objects and acls to have more types to
10606     choose from when adding systems in GOsa. Now systems can be of type
10607     server, workstation, printer, terminal or netdevice.</li>
10608 </ul>
10609
10610 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
10611 <ul>
10612 <li>LTSP clients start as diskless workstation / thin client can be
10613     configured via command line argument -- or individually adding an
10614     entry in lts.conf or LDAP.<li>
10615 <li>GOsa gui: Now some options that seemed to be available, but are non
10616     functional, are greyed out (or are not clickable). Some tabs are
10617     completely hidden to the end user, others even to the GOsa admin.</li>
10618 </ul>
10619
10620 <p><strong>Regressions</strong></p>
10621 <ul>
10622 <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv) available
10623     yet.</li>
10624 </ul>
10625
10626 <p><strong>No updated artwork</strong></p>
10627
10628 <ul>
10629 <li>Updated artwork which is visible during installation, in the login
10630     screen and as desktop wallpaper is still missing or the same as we
10631     had for our Squeeze based release.</li>
10632 </ul>
10633
10634 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
10635
10636 To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use
10637 <ul>
10638 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</a></li>
10639 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</a></li>
10640 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</li>
10641 </ul>
10642
10643 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: c5e773ddafdaa4f48c409c682f598b6c</p>
10644
10645 <p>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 25934fabb9b7d20235499a0a51f08ce6c54215f2</p>
10646
10647 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
10648
10649 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
10650
10651       </div>
10652       <div class="tags">
10653
10654
10655         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10656
10657
10658       </div>
10659     </div>
10660     <div class="padding"></div>
10661
10662     <div class="entry">
10663       <div class="title">
10664         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_developer_gathering_in_2013_take_place_in_Trondheim.html">First Debian Edu / Skolelinux developer gathering in 2013 take place in Trondheim</a>
10665       </div>
10666       <div class="date">
10667         16th April 2013
10668       </div>
10669       <div class="body">
10670         <p>This years first <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux /
10671 Debian Edu</a> developer gathering take place the coming weekend in Trondheim.
10672 Details about the gathering can be found
10673 <a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2013-04-19-21-Trondheim">on
10674 the FRiSK wiki</a>.  The dates are 19-21th of April 2013, and online
10675 participation for those unable to make it in person is very welcome,
10676 and I plan to participate online myself as I could not leave Oslo this
10677 weekend.</p>
10678
10679 <p>The focus of the gathering is to work on the web pages and project
10680 infrastructure, and to continue the work on the Wheezy based Debian
10681 Edu release.</p>
10682
10683 <p>See you on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">IRC, #debian-edu on irc.debian.org,</a> then?</p>
10684
10685       </div>
10686       <div class="tags">
10687
10688
10689         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10690
10691
10692       </div>
10693     </div>
10694     <div class="padding"></div>
10695
10696     <div class="entry">
10697       <div class="title">
10698         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
10699       </div>
10700       <div class="date">
10701          3rd April 2013
10702       </div>
10703       <div class="body">
10704         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
10705 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
10706 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
10707 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
10708
10709 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
10710 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
10711 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
10712 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
10713 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
10714 BTS. :)</p>
10715
10716       </div>
10717       <div class="tags">
10718
10719
10720         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
10721
10722
10723       </div>
10724     </div>
10725     <div class="padding"></div>
10726
10727     <div class="entry">
10728       <div class="title">
10729         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Change_the_font__save_the_world__and_save_some_money_in_the_process_.html">Change the font, save the world (and save some money in the process)</a>
10730       </div>
10731       <div class="date">
10732         26th March 2013
10733       </div>
10734       <div class="body">
10735         <p>Would you like to help the environment and save money at the same
10736 time, without much sacrifice?  A small step could be to change the
10737 font you use when printing.</p>
10738
10739 <p>Three years ago,
10740 <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2010/04/last-year-printer-comparison-website/">Ars
10741 Technica</a> reported how the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
10742 changed their default front from
10743 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arial">Arial</a> to
10744 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_Gothic">Century
10745 Gothic</a> to save money.  The Century Gothic font uses 30% less toner
10746 than Arial to print the same text.  In other word, you could cut your
10747 toner costs by 30% (or actually, increase your toner supply life time
10748 by more than 30%), by simply changing the default font used in your
10749 prints.</p>
10750
10751 <p>But it is not quite obvious how much one will save by switching.
10752 The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay said it used $100,000 per year
10753 on ink and toner cartridges, according to
10754 <a href="http://www.twincities.com/ci_14833097">a report from
10755 TwinCities.com</a>, and expected to save between $5,000 and $10,000
10756 per year by asking staff and students to use a different font.  Not
10757 all PDFs and documents are created internally, and those from external
10758 sources will most likely still use a different font.  Also, the
10759 Century Gothic font is slightly wider than Arial, and thus might use
10760 more sheets of paper to print the same text, so the total saving
10761 depend on the documents printed.</p>
10762
10763 <p>But it is definitely something to consider, if you want to reduce
10764 the amount of trash, decrease the amount of toner used in the world,
10765 and save some money in the process.</p>
10766
10767 <p>Update 2013-04-10: If you want to know how much ink/toner could be
10768 saved when switching between fonts, Inkfarm got a
10769 <a href="http://www.inkfarm.com/What-the-Font">service to calculate the
10770 difference between font pairs</a>.  They also
10771 <a href="http://www.inkfarm.com/Recommended-Ink-Saving-Fonts---">recommend
10772 which fonts to use</a> to save ink.  Check it out. :) While updating
10773 this blog post, I also came across a blog post from InkCloners,
10774 <a href="http://inkcloners.com/blog/ink-cartridges/change-fonts-to-save-ink-costs/">listing
10775 the fonts they recommend</a>, with Centory Gothic at the top.</p>
10776
10777       </div>
10778       <div class="tags">
10779
10780
10781         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10782
10783
10784       </div>
10785     </div>
10786     <div class="padding"></div>
10787
10788     <div class="entry">
10789       <div class="title">
10790         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Typesetting_a_short_story_using_docbook_for_PDF__HTML_and_EPUB.html">Typesetting a short story using docbook for PDF, HTML and EPUB</a>
10791       </div>
10792       <div class="date">
10793         24th March 2013
10794       </div>
10795       <div class="body">
10796         <p>A few days ago, during a discussion in
10797 <a href="http://www.efn.no/">EFN</a> about interesting books to read
10798 about copyright and the data retention directive, a suggestion to read
10799 the 1968 short story Kodémus by
10800 <a href="http://web2.gyldendal.no/toraage/">Tore Åge Bringsværd</a>
10801 came up.  The text was only available in old paper books, and thus not
10802 easily available for current and future generations.  Some of the
10803 people participating in the discussion contacted the author, and
10804 reported back 2013-03-19 that the author was OK with releasing the
10805 short story using a <a href="http://www.creativecommons.org/">Creative
10806 Commons</a> license.  The text was quickly scanned and OCR-ed, and we
10807 were ready to start on the editing and typesetting.</p>
10808
10809 <p>As I already had some experience formatting text in my project to
10810 provide a Norwegian version of the Free Culture book by Lawrence
10811 Lessig, I chipped in and set up a
10812 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">DocBook</a> processing framework to
10813 generate PDF, HTML and EPUB version of the short story.  The tools to
10814 transform DocBook to different formats are already in my Linux
10815 distribution of choice, <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>, so
10816 all I had to do was to use the
10817 <a href="http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/">dblatex</a>,
10818 <a href="http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/epub/README">dbtoepub</a>
10819 and <a href="https://fedorahosted.org/xmlto/">xmlto</a> tools to do the
10820 conversion.  After a few days, we decided to replace dblatex with
10821 xsltproc/fop (aka
10822 <a href="http://wiki.docbook.org/DocBookXslStylesheets">docbook-xsl</a>),
10823 to get the copyright information to show up in the PDF and to get a
10824 nicer &lt;variablelist&gt; typesetting, but that is just a minor
10825 technical detail.</p>
10826
10827 <p>There were a few challenges, of course.  We want to typeset the
10828 short story to look like the original, and that require fairly good
10829 control over the layout.  The original short story have three
10830 parts/scenes separated by a single horizontally centred star (*), and
10831 the paragraphs do not contain only flowing text, but dialogs and text
10832 that started on a new line in the middle of the paragraph.</p>
10833
10834 <p>I initially solved the first challenge by using a paragraph with a
10835 single star in it, ie &lt;para&gt;*&lt;/para&gt;, but it made sure a
10836 placeholder indicated where the scene shifted.  This did not look too
10837 good without the centring.  The next approach was to create a new
10838 preprocessor directive &lt;?newscene?&gt;, mapping to "&lt;hr/&gt;"
10839 for HTML and "&lt;fo:block text-align="center"&gt;&lt;fo:leader
10840 leader-pattern="rule" rule-thickness="0.5pt"/&gt;&lt;/fo:block&gt;"
10841 for FO/PDF output (did not try to implement this in dblatex, as we had
10842 switched at this time).  The HTML XSL file looked like this:</p>
10843
10844 <p><blockquote><pre>
10845 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
10846 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
10847   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('newscene')"&gt;
10848     &lt;hr/&gt;
10849   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
10850 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
10851 </pre></blockquote></p>
10852
10853 <p>And the FO/PDF XSL file looked like this:</p>
10854
10855 <p><blockquote><pre>
10856 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
10857 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
10858   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('newscene')"&gt;
10859     &lt;fo:block text-align="center"&gt;
10860       &lt;fo:leader leader-pattern="rule" rule-thickness="0.5pt"/&gt;
10861     &lt;/fo:block&gt;
10862   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
10863 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
10864 </pre></blockquote></p>
10865
10866 <p>Finally, I came across the &lt;bridgehead&gt; tag, which seem to be
10867 a good fit for the task at hand, and I replaced &lt;?newscene?&gt;
10868 with &lt;bridgehead&gt;*&lt;/bridgehead&gt;.  It isn't centred, but we
10869 can fix it with some XSL rule if the current visual layout isn't
10870 enough.</p>
10871
10872 <p>I did not find a good DocBook compliant way to solve the
10873 linebreak/paragraph challenge, so I ended up creating a new processor
10874 directive &lt;?linebreak?&gt;, mapping to &lt;br/&gt; in HTML, and
10875 &lt;fo:block/&gt; in FO/PDF.  I suspect there are better ways to do
10876 this, and welcome ideas and patches on github.  The HTML XSL file now
10877 look like this:</p>
10878
10879 <p><blockquote><pre>
10880 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
10881 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
10882   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('linebreak)"&gt;
10883     &lt;br/&gt;
10884   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
10885 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
10886 </pre></blockquote></p>
10887
10888 <p>And the FO/PDF XSL file looked like this:</p>
10889
10890 <p><blockquote><pre>
10891 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
10892 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'
10893   xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"&gt;
10894   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('linebreak)"&gt;
10895     &lt;fo:block/&gt;
10896   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
10897 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
10898 </pre></blockquote></p>
10899
10900 <p>One unsolved challenge is our wish to expose different ISBN numbers
10901 per publication format, while keeping all of them in some conditional
10902 structure in the DocBook source.  No idea how to do this, so we ended
10903 up listing all the ISBN numbers next to their format in the colophon
10904 page.</p>
10905
10906 <p>If you want to check out the finished result, check out the
10907 <a href="https://github.com/sickel/kodemus">source repository at
10908 github</a>
10909 (<a href="https://github.com/EFN/kodemus">future/new/official
10910 repository</a>).  We expect it to be ready and announced in a few
10911 days.</p>
10912
10913       </div>
10914       <div class="tags">
10915
10916
10917         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
10918
10919
10920       </div>
10921     </div>
10922     <div class="padding"></div>
10923
10924     <div class="entry">
10925       <div class="title">
10926         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_6_got_a_video_review_from_Pcwizz.html">Skolelinux 6 got a video review from Pcwizz</a>
10927       </div>
10928       <div class="date">
10929         17th March 2013
10930       </div>
10931       <div class="body">
10932         <p>Via
10933 <a href="https://twitter.com/pcwizz/status/313044373262716930">twitter</a>
10934 I just discovered that <a href="http://pcwizz.net/">Pcwizz</a> have
10935 done a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPzTZ61Pcuc">video
10936 review</a> on Youtube of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
10937 / Debian Edu</a> version 6.  He installed the standalone profile and
10938 the video show a walk-through of of the menu content, demonstration of
10939 a few programs and his view of our distribution.</p>
10940
10941 <p>There is also some really nice quotes (transcribed by me, might
10942 have heard wrong).  While looking thought the Graphics menu:</p>
10943
10944 <blockquote>
10945 "Basically everything you ever need in a school environment."
10946 </blockquote>
10947
10948 <p>And as a general evaluation of the entire distribution:</p>
10949
10950 <blockquote>
10951 "So, yeah, a bit bloated.  It kept all the Debian stuff in there, just
10952 to keep it nice and GNU.  So, I do not want to go on about it, but
10953 lets give it 7 out of 10.  I am not going to use it.  That is because
10954 I am not deploying a school network.  There may be some mythical
10955 feature to help you deploy Skolelinux on a school network."
10956 </blockquote>
10957
10958 <p>To bad he did not test the server profile, and discovered the PXE
10959 installation option.  It make it possible to install only the main
10960 server from CD, and the rest of the machines via the net, and might be
10961 considered the mythical feature he talk about. :)</p>
10962
10963 <p>While looking through the menus, there is also this funny comment
10964 about the part of the K menu generated from the Debian menu subsystem:
10965
10966 <blockquote>
10967 "[The K menu] have a special Debian section for software that no-one
10968 is going to look at, because it contain lots of junky stuff that you
10969 actually don't need in the education distribution, but have just been
10970 included because it isn't stripped out for some reason."
10971 </blockquote>
10972
10973 <p>I guess it is yet another argument for merging the Debian menu and
10974 Gnome/KDE desktop menu entries into
10975 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/DebianMenuUsingDesktopEntries">one
10976 consistent menu system</a> instead of two incomplete and partly
10977 inconsistent menu systems.</p>
10978
10979 <p>The entire video is available below for those accepting iframe
10980 embedding:</p>
10981
10982 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wPzTZ61Pcuc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
10983
10984       </div>
10985       <div class="tags">
10986
10987
10988         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
10989
10990
10991       </div>
10992     </div>
10993     <div class="padding"></div>
10994
10995     <div class="entry">
10996       <div class="title">
10997         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_update_released.html">First Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze update released</a>
10998       </div>
10999       <div class="date">
11000          8th March 2013
11001       </div>
11002       <div class="body">
11003         <p>Last Sunday, 2013-03-03,, Holger Levsen announced the first update
11004 of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a>
11005 based on Debian Squeeze.  This is the first update since
11006 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the
11007 initial release 2012-03-11</a>.  This is the
11008 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2013/03/msg00000.html">release
11009 announcement email from Holger</a>:</p>
11010
11011 <blockquote><p>Hi,</p>
11012
11013 <p>it's my pleasure to announce the immediate availability of Debian
11014 Edu 6.0.7+r1 ("Debian Edu Squeeze").</p>
11015
11016 <p>Debian Edu 6.0.7+r1 is an incremental update to Debian Edu
11017 6.0.4+r0, containing all the changes between Debian 6.0.4 and 6.0.7 as
11018 well Debian Edu specific bugfixes and enhancements. See below (in this
11019 mail) for the full list of (edu) changes.  Please see
11020 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311">http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311</a>
11021 for more information on "Debian Edu Squeeze".</p>
11022
11023 <p>Images are available for download at
11024 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/</a></p>
11025
11026 <p>md5sums:
11027 <br>1fe79eb4f0f9ae1c58fc318e26cc1e2e  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
11028 <br>a6ddd924a8bd9a1b5ca122e8fe1c34ec  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
11029 <br>ac6c72cd7925ccec51bfbf58e2a7c69c  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso</p>
11030
11031 <p>sha1sums:
11032 <br>a4b58233b672a99c7df8dc24fb6de3327654a5c3  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
11033 <br>9b524915e0ff2aa793f13d93123e5bd2bab2dbaa  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
11034 <br>43997614893fc5e9e59ad6ce066b05d07fd836fa  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso</p>
11035
11036 <p>These images are suitable for amd64+i386.</p>
11037
11038 <p>Changes for Debian Edu 6.0.7+r1 Codename "Squeeze", released
11039 2013-03-03:</p>
11040
11041 <ul>
11042   <li>sitesummary was updated from 0.1.3 to 0.1.8
11043   <ul>
11044         <li>Make Nagios configuration more robust and efficient</li>
11045         <li>Comply with 3.X kernel</li>
11046   </ul></li>
11047   <li>debian-edu-doc from 1.4~20120310~6.0.4+r0 to 1.4~20130228~6.0.7+r1
11048   <ul>
11049         <li>Minor updates from the wiki</li>
11050         <li>Danish translation now complete</li>
11051   </ul></li>
11052   <li>debian-edu-config from 1.453 to 1.455
11053      <ul>
11054         <li>Fix /etc/hosts for LTSP diskless workstations. Closes: #699880</li>
11055         <li>Make ltsp_local_mount script work for multiple devices.</li>
11056         <li>Correct Kerberos user policy: don't expire password after 2 days.
11057                 Closes: #664596</li>
11058         <li>Handle '#' characters in the root or first users password.
11059                 Closes: #664976</li>
11060         <li>Fixes for gosa-sync:
11061            <ul>
11062                 <li>Don't fail if password contains "</li>
11063                 <li>Don't disclose new password string in syslog</li>
11064            </ul></li>
11065         <li>Fixes for gosa-create:
11066            <ul>
11067                 <li>Invalidate libnss cache before applying changes</li>
11068                 <li>Multiple failures during mass user import into GOsa²</li>
11069                 <li>gosa-netgroups plugin: don't erase entries of attribute type
11070                          "memberNisNetgroup". Closes: #687256</li>
11071                 <li>First user now uses the same Kerberos policy as all other users</li>
11072            </ul></li>
11073         <li>Add Danish web page</li>
11074     </ul>
11075   <li>debian-edu-install from 1.528 to 1.530
11076     <ul>
11077         <li>Improve preseeding support and documentation</li>
11078     </ul></li>
11079 </ul>
11080
11081 <p>End-user documentation in English is available at
11082 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/</a>
11083 - translations to French, Italian, Danish and German are available in
11084 the debian-edu-doc package. (Other languages could use your help!)</p>
11085
11086 <p>If you want to contribute to Debian Edu, please join our
11087 mailinglist
11088 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">debian-edu@lists.debian.org</a>!
11089 </p></blockquote>
11090
11091 <p>I am very happy to see the fruits of a year of hard work. :)</p>
11092
11093       </div>
11094       <div class="tags">
11095
11096
11097         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11098
11099
11100       </div>
11101     </div>
11102     <div class="padding"></div>
11103
11104     <div class="entry">
11105       <div class="title">
11106         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikanalen___Complete_TV_station_organised_using_the_web.html">Frikanalen - Complete TV station organised using the web</a>
11107       </div>
11108       <div class="date">
11109          3rd March 2013
11110       </div>
11111       <div class="body">
11112         <p>Do you want to set up your own TV station, schedule videos and
11113 broadcast them on the air?  Using free software?  With video on demand
11114 support using
11115 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
11116 open standards</a>?  Included a web based video stream as well?  And
11117 administrate it all in your web browser from anywhere in the world?  A
11118 few years now the Norwegian public access TV-channel
11119 <a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> have been building a
11120 system to do just this.  The source code for the solution is licensed
11121 using the GNU LGPL, and
11122 <a href="http://github.com/Frikanalen">available from github</a>.</p>
11123
11124 <p>The idea is simple.  You upload a video file over the web, and
11125 attach meta information to the file.  You select a time slot in the
11126 program schedule, and when the time come it is played on the air and
11127 in the web stream.  It is also made available in a video on demand
11128 solution for anyone to see it also outside its scheduled time.  All
11129 you need to run a TV station - using your web browser.</p>
11130
11131 <p>There are several parts to this web based solution.  I'll mention
11132 the three most important ones.  The first part is the database of
11133 videos and the schedule.  This is written in Django and include a REST
11134 API.  The current database is SQLite, but the plan is to migrate it to
11135 PostgreSQL.  At the moment this system can be tested on
11136 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/">beta.frikanalen.tv</a>.  The
11137 second part is the video playout, taking the schedule information from
11138 the database and providing a video stream to broadcast.  This is done
11139 using <a href="http://www.casparcg.com/">CasparCG from SVT</a> and
11140 <a href="http://www.mltframework.org/">Media Lovin' Toolkit</a>.  Video
11141 signal distribution is handled using
11142 <a href="http://www.ob-encoder.com/">Open Broadcast Encoder</a>.  The
11143 third part is the converter, handling the transformation of uploaded
11144 video files to a format useful for broadcasting, streaming and video
11145 on demand.  It is still very much work in progress, so it is not yet
11146 decided what it will end up using.  Note that the source of the latter
11147 two parts are not yet pushed to github.  The lead author want to clean
11148 them up a bit more first.</p>
11149
11150 <p>The development is coordinated on the
11151 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23frikanalen">#frikanalen IRC
11152 channel</a> (irc.freenode.net), and discussed on
11153 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/frikanalen">the
11154 frikanalen mailing list</a>. The lead developer is Benjamin Bruheim
11155 (phed on IRC).  Anyone is welcome to participate in the
11156 development.</p>
11157
11158       </div>
11159       <div class="tags">
11160
11161
11162         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
11163
11164
11165       </div>
11166     </div>
11167     <div class="padding"></div>
11168
11169     <div class="entry">
11170       <div class="title">
11171         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dr__Richard_Stallman__founder_of_Free_Software_Foundation__give_a_talk_in_Oslo_March_1st_2013.html">Dr. Richard Stallman, founder of Free Software Foundation, give a talk in Oslo March 1st 2013</a>
11172       </div>
11173       <div class="date">
11174         27th February 2013
11175       </div>
11176       <div class="body">
11177         <p>Dr. <a href="http://www.stallman.org/">Richard Stallman</a>,
11178 founder of <a href="http://www.fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</a>,
11179 is giving <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/">a
11180 talk in Oslo March 1st 2013 17:00 to 19:00</a>.  The event is public
11181 and organised by <a href="">Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG)</a>
11182 (where I am the chair of the board) and
11183 <a href="http://www.friprog.no/">The Norwegian Open Source Competence
11184 Center</a>.  The title of the talk is «The Free Software Movement and
11185 GNU», with this description:
11186
11187 <p><blockquote>
11188 The Free Software Movement campaigns for computer users' freedom to
11189 cooperate and control their own computing. The Free Software Movement
11190 developed the GNU operating system, typically used together with the
11191 kernel Linux, specifically to make these freedoms possible.
11192 </blockquote></p>
11193
11194 <p>The meeting is open for everyone.  Due to space limitations, the
11195 doors opens for NUUG members at 16:15, and everyone else at 16:45.  I
11196 am really curious how many will show up.  See
11197 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/">the event
11198 page</a> for the location details.</p>
11199
11200       </div>
11201       <div class="tags">
11202
11203
11204         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
11205
11206
11207       </div>
11208     </div>
11209     <div class="padding"></div>
11210
11211     <div class="entry">
11212       <div class="title">
11213         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikart___Free_Garmin_maps_for_European_countries_based_on_OpenStreetmap.html">Frikart - Free Garmin maps for European countries based on OpenStreetmap</a>
11214       </div>
11215       <div class="date">
11216         15th February 2013
11217       </div>
11218       <div class="body">
11219         <p>If you, like me, want an updated a map for your Garmin GPS, there is
11220 now a great source of free maps available from
11221 <a href="http://www.frikart.no/garmin/index.html">Frikart</a>.  To
11222 download a map, just click on the country you are interested in, and
11223 download the map type you want.  There are 8 different maps available,
11224 using different colours and data selection.  Pick one of Roadmap, Topo
11225 Summer, Topo Winter, Roadmap II, Topo Summer II, Topo Winter II,
11226 "Trails - overlay map" and "Cross country - overlay map" (see the web
11227 page for descriptions).</p>
11228
11229 <p>The maps are updated weekly, so if you find something wrong in the
11230 map you can just edit the
11231 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> map source
11232 (anyone can contribute) and fetch a fixed map a week later. :)</p>
11233
11234       </div>
11235       <div class="tags">
11236
11237
11238         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>.
11239
11240
11241       </div>
11242     </div>
11243     <div class="padding"></div>
11244
11245     <div class="entry">
11246       <div class="title">
11247         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_Electronic__paper_invoices___using_vCard_in_a_QR_code.html">"Electronic" paper invoices - using vCard in a QR code</a>
11248       </div>
11249       <div class="date">
11250         12th February 2013
11251       </div>
11252       <div class="body">
11253         <p>Here in Norway, electronic invoices are spreading, and the
11254 <a href="http://www.anskaffelser.no/e-handel/faktura">solution promoted
11255 by the Norwegian government</a> require that invoices are sent through
11256 one of the approved facilitators, and it is not possible to send
11257 electronic invoices without an agreement with one of these
11258 facilitators.  This seem like a needless limitation to be able to
11259 transfer invoice information between buyers and sellers.  My preferred
11260 solution would be to just transfer the invoice information directly
11261 between seller and buyer, for example using SMTP, or some HTTP based
11262 protocol like REST or SOAP.  But this might also be overkill, as the
11263 "electronic" information can be transferred using paper invoices too,
11264 using a simple bar code.  My bar code encoding of choice would be QR
11265 codes, as this encoding can be read by any smart phone out there.  The
11266 content of the code could be anything, but I would go with
11267 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard">the vCard format</a>, as
11268 it too is supported by a lot of computer equipment these days.</p>
11269
11270 <p>The vCard format support extentions, and the invoice specific
11271 information can be included using such extentions.  For example an
11272 invoice from SLX Debian Labs (picked because we
11273 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">ask
11274 for donations to the Debian Edu project</a> and thus have bank account
11275 information publicly available) for NOK 1000.00 could have these extra
11276 fields:</p>
11277
11278 <p><pre>
11279 X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
11280 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
11281 X-INVOICE-KID:123412341234
11282 X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
11283 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
11284 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
11285 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
11286 </pre></p>
11287
11288 <p>The X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER field was proposed in a stackoverflow
11289 answer regarding
11290 <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10045664/storing-bank-account-in-vcard-file">how
11291 to put bank account information into a vCard</a>.  For payments in
11292 Norway, either X-INVOICE-KID (payment ID) or X-INVOICE-MSG could be
11293 used to pass on information to the seller when paying the invoice.</p>
11294
11295 <p>The complete vCard could look like this:</p>
11296
11297 <p><pre>
11298 BEGIN:VCARD
11299 VERSION:2.1
11300 ORG:SLX Debian Labs Foundation
11301 ADR;WORK:;;Gunnar Schjelderups vei 29D;OSLO;;0485;Norway
11302 URL;WORK:http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/
11303 EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:sdl-styret@rt.nuug.no
11304 REV:20130212T095000Z
11305 X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
11306 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
11307 X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
11308 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
11309 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
11310 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
11311 END:VCARD
11312 </pre></p>
11313
11314 <p>The resulting QR code created using
11315 <a href="http://fukuchi.org/works/qrencode/">qrencode</a> would look
11316 like this, and should be readable (and thus checkable) by any smart
11317 phone, or for example the <a href="http://zbar.sourceforge.net/">zbar
11318 bar code reader</a> and feed right into the approval and accounting
11319 system.</p>
11320
11321 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-12-qr-invoice.png"></p>
11322
11323 <p>The extension fields will most likely not show up in any normal
11324 vCard reader, so those parts would have to go directly into a system
11325 handling invoices.  I am a bit unsure how vCards without name parts
11326 are handled, but a simple test indicate that this work just fine.</p>
11327
11328 <p><strong>Update 2013-02-12 11:30</strong>: Added KID to the proposal
11329 based on feedback from Sturle Sunde.</p>
11330
11331       </div>
11332       <div class="tags">
11333
11334
11335         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
11336
11337
11338       </div>
11339     </div>
11340     <div class="padding"></div>
11341
11342     <div class="entry">
11343       <div class="title">
11344         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sleep_until_morning___home_automation_for_the_kids.html">Sleep until morning - home automation for the kids</a>
11345       </div>
11346       <div class="date">
11347         10th February 2013
11348       </div>
11349       <div class="body">
11350         <p><img align="left" style="margin-right:25px;" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-10-morning-light.jpeg"></p>
11351
11352 <p>With kids in the house, one challenge is getting them to sleep
11353 during the night and wake up when it is morning.  I mean, when I
11354 believe it is morning, and not two hours earlier.  In our household we
11355 have decided that 07:00 is the turning point, but getting the kids to
11356 sleep until 07:00 is a small challenge every day.  They have adapted
11357 quite well, and rarely wake up at 05:00 any more, but some times wake
11358 up at times like 05:50, 06:15, 06:30 or 06:45, and it is hard to put
11359 the awake one to bed again without disturbing and waking the rest.
11360 And I understand perfectly well that they fail to sleep until 07:00
11361 some times, as there is no way for them to know if it is before or
11362 after the magic moment without coming and asking us parents.</p>
11363
11364 <p>But yesterday I came up with a method to solve this problem.  It
11365 involve home automation.  A few years ago I bought a
11366 <a href="http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick">Tellstick</a> and RF
11367 switches at the local <a href="http://www.clasohlson.com/">Clas
11368 Ohlson</a> shop, allowing me to control lights and other electrical
11369 gadgets using my Linux server.  When I moved from the old flat to a
11370 small house, I put away all this equipment as most of the lighting in
11371 the house was not using wall sockets and thus not easy to connect to
11372 the gadgets I had.  But recently I bought a
11373 <a href="http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick_net">Tellstick
11374 Net</a> to be able to read sensor input as well as control power
11375 sockets.  I want to control ovens in the basement to avoid the pipes
11376 to freeze, and monitor the humidity to detect flooding.  The default
11377 setup for Tellstick Net is to be controlled by the vendor web service,
11378 which to me is a security problem, but it is also possible to build
11379 ones own
11380 <a href="http://developer.telldus.com/blog/2012/03/02/help-us-develop-local-access-using-tellstick-net-build-your-own-firmware">firmware
11381 with local access</A> instead of being controlled by a Swedish
11382 company, thanks to the release of the GPL licensed firmware source
11383 code.  I plan to get that running before I let it control anything
11384 important.  But while working on this, one idea to make it easier for
11385 the kids came to me yesterday.  We can set up a night light controlled
11386 by the computer, and turn it automatically on at 07:00.  The kids can
11387 then check the light in the morning to know if they are supposed to
11388 get up or not.  They joined me in setting everything up, and I
11389 repeated the concept several times before bed times to make sure they
11390 remembered to check the light before getting up in the morning.</p>
11391
11392 <p>We tested it this morning, and all the kids stayed in bed until
11393 after 07:00, and every one of them commented on the fact that the
11394 "morning light" was turned on and signalled that the morning had
11395 arrived.  So this look like a success, and I am excited to see how
11396 this develops the next few days. :) I really hope this can allow us
11397 all to sleep a bit longer in the morning.</p>
11398
11399 <p>A nice advantage of this setup is that we can remote control when
11400 to tell the kids to get up.  We do not have to wait until 07:00, and
11401 can also delay it if we want to.</p>
11402
11403       </div>
11404       <div class="tags">
11405
11406
11407         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11408
11409
11410       </div>
11411     </div>
11412     <div class="padding"></div>
11413
11414     <div class="entry">
11415       <div class="title">
11416         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html">Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</a>
11417       </div>
11418       <div class="date">
11419          2nd February 2013
11420       </div>
11421       <div class="body">
11422         <p>My
11423 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
11424 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
11425 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
11426 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
11427 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
11428 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
11429 version too.</p>
11430
11431 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
11432 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
11433 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
11434 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
11435 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
11436 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
11437 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
11438 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
11439
11440 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
11441 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
11442 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
11443 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
11444 it. :)</p>
11445
11446 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
11447 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
11448 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
11449
11450       </div>
11451       <div class="tags">
11452
11453
11454         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11455
11456
11457       </div>
11458     </div>
11459     <div class="padding"></div>
11460
11461     <div class="entry">
11462       <div class="title">
11463         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
11464       </div>
11465       <div class="date">
11466         22nd January 2013
11467       </div>
11468       <div class="body">
11469         <p>Yesterday, I
11470 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
11471 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
11472 pluggable hardware devices, which I
11473 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
11474 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
11475 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
11476 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
11477 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
11478 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
11479 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
11480 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
11481 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
11482 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
11483
11484 <pre>
11485 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
11486 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
11487 </pre>
11488
11489 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
11490 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
11491 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
11492 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
11493
11494 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
11495 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
11496 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
11497 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
11498 word.</p>
11499
11500 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
11501 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
11502 process.</p>
11503
11504 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
11505 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
11506
11507       </div>
11508       <div class="tags">
11509
11510
11511         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
11512
11513
11514       </div>
11515     </div>
11516     <div class="padding"></div>
11517
11518     <div class="entry">
11519       <div class="title">
11520         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
11521       </div>
11522       <div class="date">
11523         21st January 2013
11524       </div>
11525       <div class="body">
11526         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
11527 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
11528 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
11529 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
11530 it, fetch the
11531 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
11532 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
11533 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
11534 autostart script.</p>
11535
11536 <p>The design is simple:</p>
11537
11538 <ul>
11539
11540 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
11541 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
11542
11543 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
11544 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
11545 initially did.</li>
11546
11547 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
11548 the APT database, a database
11549 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
11550 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
11551
11552 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
11553 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
11554 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
11555 package or packages.</li>
11556
11557 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
11558 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
11559
11560 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
11561 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
11562
11563 </ul>
11564
11565 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
11566 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
11567 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
11568 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
11569
11570 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
11571 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
11572 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
11573 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
11574 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
11575
11576 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
11577 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
11578 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
11579 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
11580 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
11581 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
11582 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
11583 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
11584
11585 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
11586 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
11587 '<tt>svn checkout
11588 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
11589 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
11590 devscripts package.</p>
11591
11592 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
11593 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
11594 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
11595 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
11596 instructions</a> for details.</p>
11597
11598       </div>
11599       <div class="tags">
11600
11601
11602         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
11603
11604
11605       </div>
11606     </div>
11607     <div class="padding"></div>
11608
11609     <div class="entry">
11610       <div class="title">
11611         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</a>
11612       </div>
11613       <div class="date">
11614         19th January 2013
11615       </div>
11616       <div class="body">
11617         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
11618 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
11619 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
11620 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
11621 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
11622 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
11623 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
11624 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
11625 not a durable solution.
11626
11627 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
11628 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
11629
11630 <ul>
11631
11632 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
11633   than A4).</li>
11634 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
11635 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
11636 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
11637 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
11638 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
11639 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
11640 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
11641 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
11642 size).</li>
11643 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
11644   X.org packages.</li>
11645 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
11646   the time).
11647
11648 </ul>
11649
11650 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
11651 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
11652 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
11653 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
11654 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
11655 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
11656 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
11657 still be useful.</p>
11658
11659 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
11660 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
11661 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
11662 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
11663 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
11664 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
11665
11666       </div>
11667       <div class="tags">
11668
11669
11670         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11671
11672
11673       </div>
11674     </div>
11675     <div class="padding"></div>
11676
11677     <div class="entry">
11678       <div class="title">
11679         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a>
11680       </div>
11681       <div class="date">
11682         18th January 2013
11683       </div>
11684       <div class="body">
11685         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
11686 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
11687 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
11688 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
11689 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
11690 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
11691 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
11692
11693 <pre>
11694 #!/usr/bin/python
11695 import sys
11696 import apt
11697 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
11698     cache = apt.Cache()
11699     cache.open(None)
11700     thepkgs = []
11701     for pkg in cache:
11702         version = pkg.candidate
11703         if version is None:
11704             version = pkg.installed
11705         if version is None:
11706             continue
11707         record = version.record
11708         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
11709             continue
11710         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
11711         for t in mime_types:
11712             t = t.rstrip().strip()
11713             if t == mimetype:
11714                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
11715     return thepkgs
11716 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
11717 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
11718     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
11719 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
11720 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
11721     print "  %s" %pkg
11722 </pre>
11723
11724 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
11725
11726 <pre>
11727 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
11728 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
11729   gecko-mediaplayer
11730 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
11731 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
11732   browser-plugin-gnash
11733 %
11734 </pre>
11735
11736 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
11737 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
11738 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
11739 anyone working on adding it?</p>
11740
11741 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
11742 request for icweasel support for this feature is
11743 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
11744 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
11745 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
11746 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
11747
11748       </div>
11749       <div class="tags">
11750
11751
11752         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11753
11754
11755       </div>
11756     </div>
11757     <div class="padding"></div>
11758
11759     <div class="entry">
11760       <div class="title">
11761         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</a>
11762       </div>
11763       <div class="date">
11764         16th January 2013
11765       </div>
11766       <div class="body">
11767         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
11768 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
11769 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
11770 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
11771 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
11772 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
11773 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
11774 downloaded by the browser.</p>
11775
11776 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
11777 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
11778 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
11779 can be found on the
11780 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
11781 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
11782 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
11783 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
11784 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
11785
11786 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
11787
11788 <pre>
11789   count MIME type
11790   ----- -----------------------
11791      32 text/plain
11792      30 audio/mpeg
11793      29 image/png
11794      28 image/jpeg
11795      27 application/ogg
11796      26 audio/x-mp3
11797      25 image/tiff
11798      25 image/gif
11799      22 image/bmp
11800      22 audio/x-wav
11801      20 audio/x-flac
11802      19 audio/x-mpegurl
11803      18 video/x-ms-asf
11804      18 audio/x-musepack
11805      18 audio/x-mpeg
11806      18 application/x-ogg
11807      17 video/mpeg
11808      17 audio/x-scpls
11809      17 audio/ogg
11810      16 video/x-ms-wmv
11811 </pre>
11812
11813 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
11814
11815 <pre>
11816   count MIME type
11817   ----- -----------------------
11818      33 text/plain
11819      32 image/png
11820      32 image/jpeg
11821      29 audio/mpeg
11822      27 image/gif
11823      26 image/tiff
11824      26 application/ogg
11825      25 audio/x-mp3
11826      22 image/bmp
11827      21 audio/x-wav
11828      19 audio/x-mpegurl
11829      19 audio/x-mpeg
11830      18 video/mpeg
11831      18 audio/x-scpls
11832      18 audio/x-flac
11833      18 application/x-ogg
11834      17 video/x-ms-asf
11835      17 text/html
11836      17 audio/x-musepack
11837      16 image/x-xbitmap
11838 </pre>
11839
11840 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
11841
11842 <pre>
11843   count MIME type
11844   ----- -----------------------
11845      31 text/plain
11846      31 image/png
11847      31 image/jpeg
11848      29 audio/mpeg
11849      28 application/ogg
11850      27 image/gif
11851      26 image/tiff
11852      26 audio/x-mp3
11853      23 audio/x-wav
11854      22 image/bmp
11855      21 audio/x-flac
11856      20 audio/x-mpegurl
11857      19 audio/x-mpeg
11858      18 video/x-ms-asf
11859      18 video/mpeg
11860      18 audio/x-scpls
11861      18 application/x-ogg
11862      17 audio/x-musepack
11863      16 video/x-ms-wmv
11864      16 video/x-msvideo
11865 </pre>
11866
11867 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
11868 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
11869 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
11870 issues.</p>
11871
11872 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
11873 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
11874
11875       </div>
11876       <div class="tags">
11877
11878
11879         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11880
11881
11882       </div>
11883     </div>
11884     <div class="padding"></div>
11885
11886     <div class="entry">
11887       <div class="title">
11888         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html">Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</a>
11889       </div>
11890       <div class="date">
11891         15th January 2013
11892       </div>
11893       <div class="body">
11894         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
11895 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
11896 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
11897 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
11898 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
11899 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
11900 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
11901 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
11902 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
11903 packages.</p>
11904
11905 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
11906 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
11907 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
11908 modalias.</p>
11909
11910 <p><blockquote>
11911 Package: package-name
11912 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
11913 </blockquote></p>
11914
11915 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
11916 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
11917
11918 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
11919 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
11920
11921 <p><blockquote>
11922 Package: cheese
11923 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
11924 </blockquote></p>
11925
11926 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
11927 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
11928
11929 <p><blockquote>
11930 Package: pcmciautils
11931 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
11932 </blockquote></p>
11933
11934 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
11935 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
11936
11937 <p><blockquote>
11938 Package: colorhug-client
11939 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
11940 </blockquote></p>
11941
11942 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
11943 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
11944 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
11945
11946 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
11947 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
11948 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
11949 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
11950 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
11951 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
11952 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
11953 Raring.</p>
11954
11955 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
11956 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
11957 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
11958 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
11959 try the
11960 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
11961 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
11962 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
11963 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
11964
11965 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
11966 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
11967
11968 <p><blockquote>
11969 % ./hw-support-lookup
11970 <br>yubikey-personalization
11971 <br>%
11972 </blockquote></p>
11973
11974 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
11975 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
11976
11977 <p><blockquote>
11978 % ./hw-support-lookup
11979 <br>pcmciautils
11980 <br>%
11981 </blockquote></p>
11982
11983 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
11984 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
11985 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
11986
11987 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
11988 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
11989 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
11990 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
11991 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
11992 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
11993 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
11994 see if it work.</p>
11995
11996 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
11997 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
11998 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
11999 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
12000
12001       </div>
12002       <div class="tags">
12003
12004
12005         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
12006
12007
12008       </div>
12009     </div>
12010     <div class="padding"></div>
12011
12012     <div class="entry">
12013       <div class="title">
12014         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
12015       </div>
12016       <div class="date">
12017         14th January 2013
12018       </div>
12019       <div class="body">
12020         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
12021 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
12022 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
12023 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
12024 in
12025 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
12026 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
12027
12028 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
12029
12030 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
12031 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
12032 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
12033 &lt;URL: <a href="http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device">http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device</a> &gt;,
12034 &lt;URL: <a href="http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c">http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c</a> &gt; and
12035 &lt;URL: <a href="http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup">http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup</a> &gt;.
12036
12037 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
12038 this shell script:</p>
12039
12040 <pre>
12041 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
12042 </pre>
12043
12044 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
12045 using modinfo:</p>
12046
12047 <pre>
12048 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
12049 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
12050 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
12051 %
12052 </pre>
12053
12054 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
12055
12056 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
12057 Bridge memory controller:</p>
12058
12059 <p><blockquote>
12060 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
12061 </blockquote></p>
12062
12063 <p>This represent these values:</p>
12064
12065 <pre>
12066  v   00008086  (vendor)
12067  d   00002770  (device)
12068  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
12069  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
12070  bc  06        (bus class)
12071  sc  00        (bus subclass)
12072  i   00        (interface)
12073 </pre>
12074
12075 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
12076 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
12077 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
12078 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
12079
12080 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
12081 means.</p>
12082
12083 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
12084
12085 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
12086 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
12087
12088 <p><blockquote>
12089 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
12090 </blockquote></p>
12091
12092 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
12093
12094 <pre>
12095  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
12096  p    0001  (device product)
12097  d    0206  (bcddevice)
12098  dc     09  (device class)
12099  dsc    00  (device subclass)
12100  dp     00  (device protocol)
12101  ic     09  (interface class)
12102  isc    00  (interface subclass)
12103  ip     00  (interface protocol)
12104 </pre>
12105
12106 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
12107 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
12108 these alias entries show up:</p>
12109
12110 <p><blockquote>
12111 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
12112 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
12113 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
12114 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
12115 </blockquote></p>
12116
12117 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
12118 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
12119 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
12120
12121 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
12122
12123 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
12124 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
12125
12126 <p><blockquote>
12127 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
12128 </blockquote></p>
12129
12130 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
12131
12132 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
12133
12134 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
12135 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
12136 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
12137
12138 <p><blockquote>
12139 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
12140 </blockquote></p>
12141
12142 <p>The values present are</p>
12143
12144 <pre>
12145  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
12146  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
12147  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
12148  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
12149  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
12150  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
12151  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
12152  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
12153  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
12154  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
12155  ct   10             (chassis type)
12156  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
12157 </pre>
12158
12159 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
12160 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
12161
12162 <pre>
12163   3 Desktop
12164   4 Low Profile Desktop
12165   5 Pizza Box
12166   6 Mini Tower
12167   7 Tower
12168   8 Portable
12169   9 Laptop
12170  10 Notebook
12171  11 Hand Held
12172  12 Docking Station
12173  13 All In One
12174  14 Sub Notebook
12175  15 Space-saving
12176  16 Lunch Box
12177  17 Main Server Chassis
12178  18 Expansion Chassis
12179  19 Sub Chassis
12180  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
12181  21 Peripheral Chassis
12182  22 RAID Chassis
12183  23 Rack Mount Chassis
12184  24 Sealed-case PC
12185  25 Multi-system
12186  26 CompactPCI
12187  27 AdvancedTCA
12188  28 Blade
12189  29 Blade Enclosing
12190 </pre>
12191
12192 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
12193 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
12194 claim it is a desktop.</p>
12195
12196 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
12197
12198 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
12199 test machine:</p>
12200
12201 <p><blockquote>
12202 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
12203 </blockquote></p>
12204
12205 <p>The values present are</p>
12206
12207 <pre>
12208   ty  01  (type)
12209   pr  00  (prototype)
12210   id  00  (id)
12211   ex  00  (extra)
12212 </pre>
12213
12214 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
12215 the valid values are.</p>
12216
12217 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
12218
12219 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
12220 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
12221 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
12222 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
12223 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
12224 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
12225 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
12226
12227 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
12228
12229 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
12230 one can use the following shell script:</p>
12231
12232 <pre>
12233   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
12234     echo "$id" ; \
12235     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
12236   done
12237 </pre>
12238
12239 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
12240 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
12241
12242 <pre>
12243   acpi:ACPI0003:
12244     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
12245   acpi:device:
12246   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
12247   acpi:IBM0068:
12248     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
12249     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
12250     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
12251     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
12252   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
12253     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
12254     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
12255     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
12256   [...]
12257 </pre>
12258
12259 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
12260 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
12261 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
12262 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
12263
12264 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
12265 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
12266 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
12267
12268       </div>
12269       <div class="tags">
12270
12271
12272         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
12273
12274
12275       </div>
12276     </div>
12277     <div class="padding"></div>
12278
12279     <div class="entry">
12280       <div class="title">
12281         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html">Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</a>
12282       </div>
12283       <div class="date">
12284         10th January 2013
12285       </div>
12286       <div class="body">
12287         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
12288 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
12289 Launcher and updated the Debian package
12290 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
12291 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
12292 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
12293 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
12294 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
12295 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
12296 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
12297 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
12298 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
12299 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
12300 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
12301 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
12302 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
12303 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
12304 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
12305
12306       </div>
12307       <div class="tags">
12308
12309
12310         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
12311
12312
12313       </div>
12314     </div>
12315     <div class="padding"></div>
12316
12317     <div class="entry">
12318       <div class="title">
12319         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</a>
12320       </div>
12321       <div class="date">
12322          9th January 2013
12323       </div>
12324       <div class="body">
12325         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
12326 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
12327 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
12328 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
12329 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
12330 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
12331 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
12332 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
12333 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
12334 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
12335 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
12336
12337 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
12338 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
12339 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
12340 simple:
12341
12342 <ul>
12343
12344 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
12345   starting when a user log in.</li>
12346
12347 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
12348   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
12349
12350 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
12351   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
12352   packages.</li>
12353
12354 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
12355   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
12356
12357 </ul>
12358
12359 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
12360 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
12361 discover database to find packages and
12362 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
12363 packages.</p>
12364
12365 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
12366 draft package is now checked into
12367 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
12368 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
12369 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
12370 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
12371 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
12372 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
12373 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
12374 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
12375 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
12376 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
12377 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
12378 because of the freeze).</p>
12379
12380 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
12381 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
12382 inserted):</p>
12383
12384 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
12385
12386 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
12387 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
12388 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
12389
12390 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
12391 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
12392 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
12393 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
12394 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
12395 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
12396 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
12397
12398 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
12399 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
12400 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
12401 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
12402 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
12403 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
12404 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
12405 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
12406 not be installed?</p>
12407
12408 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
12409 please send me an email. :)</p>
12410
12411       </div>
12412       <div class="tags">
12413
12414
12415         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
12416
12417
12418       </div>
12419     </div>
12420     <div class="padding"></div>
12421
12422     <div class="entry">
12423       <div class="title">
12424         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</a>
12425       </div>
12426       <div class="date">
12427          2nd January 2013
12428       </div>
12429       <div class="body">
12430         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
12431 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
12432 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
12433 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
12434 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
12435 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
12436 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
12437 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
12438 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
12439 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
12440
12441 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
12442 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
12443 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
12444
12445       </div>
12446       <div class="tags">
12447
12448
12449         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
12450
12451
12452       </div>
12453     </div>
12454     <div class="padding"></div>
12455
12456     <div class="entry">
12457       <div class="title">
12458         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Christmas_present_for_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu.html">A Christmas present for Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a>
12459       </div>
12460       <div class="date">
12461         28th December 2012
12462       </div>
12463       <div class="body">
12464         <p>I was happy to discover a few days ago that the
12465 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a>
12466 project also this year received a Christmas present from Another
12467 Agency in Trondheim.  NOK 1000,- showed up on our donation account
12468 December 24th.  I want to express our thanks for this very welcome
12469 present.  As the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is very short on
12470 funding these days, and thus lack the money to do regular developer
12471 gatherings, this donation was most welcome.  One developer gathering
12472 cost around NOK 15&nbsp;000,-, so we need quite a lot more to keep the
12473 development pace we want.  Thus, I hope their example this year is
12474 followed by many others. :)</p>
12475
12476 <p>The public list of donors can be found on
12477 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">the
12478 donation page</a> for the project, which also contain instructions if
12479 you want to donate to the project.</p>
12480
12481       </div>
12482       <div class="tags">
12483
12484
12485         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12486
12487
12488       </div>
12489     </div>
12490     <div class="padding"></div>
12491
12492     <div class="entry">
12493       <div class="title">
12494         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">How to backport bitcoin-qt version 0.7.2-2 to Debian Squeeze</a>
12495       </div>
12496       <div class="date">
12497         25th December 2012
12498       </div>
12499       <div class="body">
12500         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
12501 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
12502
12503 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
12504 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
12505 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
12506 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
12507 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
12508 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
12509 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
12510 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
12511 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
12512 name.</p>
12513
12514 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
12515 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
12516 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
12517
12518 <blockquote><pre>
12519 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
12520 cd bitcoin
12521 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
12522 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
12523 </pre></blockquote>
12524
12525 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
12526 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
12527 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
12528 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
12529 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
12530 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
12531 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
12532 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
12533 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
12534
12535 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
12536 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
12537 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
12538
12539       </div>
12540       <div class="tags">
12541
12542
12543         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12544
12545
12546       </div>
12547     </div>
12548     <div class="padding"></div>
12549
12550     <div class="entry">
12551       <div class="title">
12552         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
12553       </div>
12554       <div class="date">
12555         21st December 2012
12556       </div>
12557       <div class="body">
12558         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
12559 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
12560 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
12561 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
12562 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
12563 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
12564 is now maintained by a
12565 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
12566 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
12567 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
12568 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
12569 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
12570 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
12571 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
12572 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
12573 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
12574 Corallo in a
12575 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
12576 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
12577 Debian package.</p>
12578
12579 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
12580 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
12581 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
12582 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
12583 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
12584 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
12585 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
12586 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
12587 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
12588 new version to unstable.
12589
12590 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
12591 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
12592 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
12593 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
12594 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
12595 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
12596 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
12597 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
12598 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
12599 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
12600 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
12601 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
12602 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
12603 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
12604 have not tested them.</p>
12605
12606 <p>My
12607 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
12608 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
12609 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
12610 years ago, as can be
12611 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
12612 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
12613 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
12614 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
12615 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
12616 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
12617 the same address as last time,
12618 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
12619
12620       </div>
12621       <div class="tags">
12622
12623
12624         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12625
12626
12627       </div>
12628     </div>
12629     <div class="padding"></div>
12630
12631     <div class="entry">
12632       <div class="title">
12633         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ledger___double_entry_accounting_using_text_based_storage_format.html">Ledger - double-entry accounting using text based storage format</a>
12634       </div>
12635       <div class="date">
12636         18th December 2012
12637       </div>
12638       <div class="body">
12639         <p>A few days ago I came across
12640 <a href="http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/hledger/">a blog post from Joey
12641 Hess</a> describing <a href="http://ledger-cli.org/">ledger</a> and
12642 hledger, a text based system for double-entry accounting.  I found it
12643 interesting, as I am involved with several organizations where
12644 accounting is an issue, and I have not really become too friendly with
12645 the different web based systems we use.  I find it hard to find what I
12646 look for in the menus and even harder try to get sensible data out of
12647 the systems.  Ledger seem different.  The accounting data is kept in
12648 text files that can be stored in a version control system, and there
12649
12650 are at least <a href="https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Ports">five
12651 different implementations</a> able to read the format.  An example
12652 entry look like this, and is simple enough that it will be trivial to
12653 generate entries based on CVS files fetched from the bank:</p>
12654
12655 <blockquote><pre>
12656 2004-05-27 Book Store
12657       Expenses:Books                 $20.00
12658       Liabilities:Visa
12659 </pre></blockquote>
12660
12661 <p>The concept seemed interesting enough for me to check it out and
12662 look for others using it.  I found blog posts from
12663 <a href="http://blog.spang.cc/posts/hledger_rocks_my_world/">Christine
12664 Spang</a>,
12665 <a href="http://bugsplat.info/2010-05-23-keeping-finances-with-ledger.html">Pete
12666 Keen</a>,
12667 <a href="http://blog.andrewcantino.com/blog/2010/11/06/command-line-accounting-with-ledger-and-reckon/">Andrew
12668 Cantino</a> and
12669 <a href="http://blog.iphoting.com/blog/2012/11/29/command-line-double-entry-accounting/">Ronald
12670 Ip</a> describing how they use it, as well as a post from
12671 <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/ledger-cli/r0oWjwbQ9Bo">Bradley
12672 M. Kuhn</a> at the Software Freedom Conservancy.  All seemed like good
12673 recommendations fitting my need.</p>
12674
12675 <p>The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/l/ledger.html">ledger</a>
12676 package is available in Debian Squeeze, while the
12677 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/h/haskell-hledger.html">hledger</a>
12678 package only is available in Debian Sid.  As I use Squeeze, ledger
12679 seemed the best choice to get started.</p>
12680
12681 <p>To get some real data to test on, I wrote a
12682 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/tools/lodo2ledger">web scraper</a> for
12683 <a href="http://www.lodo.no/">LODO</a>, the accounting system used by
12684 the <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a> association, and started to
12685 play with the data set.  I'm not really deeply into accounting, but I
12686 am able to get a simple balance and accounting status for example
12687 using the "<tt>ledger balance</tt>" command.  But I will have to
12688 gather more experience before I know if the ledger way is a good fit
12689 for the organisations I am involved in.</p>
12690
12691       </div>
12692       <div class="tags">
12693
12694
12695         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12696
12697
12698       </div>
12699     </div>
12700     <div class="padding"></div>
12701
12702     <div class="entry">
12703       <div class="title">
12704         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Scripting_the_Cerebrum_bofhd_user_administration_system_using_XML_RPC.html">Scripting the Cerebrum/bofhd user administration system using XML-RPC</a>
12705       </div>
12706       <div class="date">
12707          6th December 2012
12708       </div>
12709       <div class="body">
12710         <p>Where I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of
12711 Oslo</a>, we use the
12712 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/cerebrum/">Cerebrum user
12713 administration system</a> to maintain users, groups, DNS, DHCP, etc.
12714 I've known since the system was written that the server is providing
12715 an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPC">XML-RPC</a> API, but
12716 I have never spent time to try to figure out how to use it, as we
12717 always use the bofh command line client at work.  Until today.  I want
12718 to script the updating of DNS and DHCP to make it easier to set up
12719 virtual machines.  Here are a few notes on how to use it with
12720 Python.</p>
12721
12722 <p>I started by looking at the source of the Java
12723 <a href="http://cerebrum.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/cerebrum/trunk/cerebrum/clients/jbofh/">bofh
12724 client</a>, to figure out how it connected to the API server.  I also
12725 googled for python examples on how to use XML-RPC, and found
12726 <a href="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/XML-RPC-HOWTO/xmlrpc-howto-python.html">a
12727 simple example in</a> the XML-RPC howto.</p>
12728
12729 <p>This simple example code show how to connect, get the list of
12730 commands (as a JSON dump), and how to get the information about the
12731 user currently logged in:</p>
12732
12733 <blockquote><pre>
12734 #!/usr/bin/env python
12735 import getpass
12736 import xmlrpclib
12737 server_url = 'https://cerebrum-uio.uio.no:8000';
12738 username = getpass.getuser()
12739 password = getpass.getpass()
12740 server = xmlrpclib.Server(server_url);
12741 #print server.get_commands(sessionid)
12742 sessionid = server.login(username, password)
12743 print server.run_command(sessionid, "user_info", username)
12744 result = server.logout(sessionid)
12745 print result
12746 </pre></blockquote>
12747
12748 <p>Armed with this knowledge I can now move forward and script the DNS
12749 and DHCP updates I wanted to do.</p>
12750
12751       </div>
12752       <div class="tags">
12753
12754
12755         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
12756
12757
12758       </div>
12759     </div>
12760     <div class="padding"></div>
12761
12762     <div class="entry">
12763       <div class="title">
12764         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_the_value_of_copyright_taxed_.html">Why isn't the value of copyright taxed?</a>
12765       </div>
12766       <div class="date">
12767         17th November 2012
12768       </div>
12769       <div class="body">
12770         <p>While working on a
12771 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">Norwegian
12772 translation of the Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig</a> (76% done),
12773 which cover the problems with todays copyright law and how it stifles
12774 creativity, one idea occurred to me.  The idea is to get the tax
12775 office to help make more works enter the public domain and also help
12776 make it easier to clear rights for using copyrighted works.</p>
12777
12778 <p>I mentioned this idea briefly during Yesterdays
12779 <a href="http://www.farmann.no/2012/11/14/john-perry-barlow-in-oslo-friday-nov-16
12780 -15-30-19-00/">presentation
12781 by John Perry Barlow</a>, and concluded that it was best to put it
12782 in writing for a wider audience.  The idea is not really based on the
12783 argument that copyrighted works are "intellectual property", as the
12784 core requirement is that copyrighted work have value for the copyright
12785 holder and the tax office like to collect their share from any value
12786 controlled by the citizens in a country.  I'm sharing the idea here to
12787 let others consider it and perhaps shoot it down with a fresh set of
12788 arguments.</p>
12789
12790 <p>Most valuables are taxed by the government.  At least here in
12791 Norway, the amount of money you have, the value of our land property,
12792 the value of your house, the value of your car, the value of our
12793 stocks and other valuables are all added together.  If the tax value
12794 of these values exceed your debt, you have to pay the tax office some
12795 taxes for these values.  And copyrighted work have value.  It have
12796 value for the rights holder, who can earn money selling access to the
12797 work.  But it is not included in the tax calculations?  Why not?</p>
12798
12799 <p>If the government want to tax copyrighted works, it would want to
12800 maintain a database of all the copyrighted works and who are the
12801 rights holders for a given works, to be able to associate the works
12802 value to the right citizen or company for tax purposes.  If such
12803 database exist, it will become a lot easier to find out who to talk to
12804 for clearing permissions to use a copyrighted work, which is a very
12805 hard operation with todays copyright law.  To ensure that copyright
12806 holders keep the database up-to-date, it would have to become a
12807 requirement to be able to collect money for granting access to
12808 copyrighted works that the work is listed in the database with the
12809 correct right holder.</p>
12810
12811 <p>If copyright causes copyright holders to have to pay more taxes,
12812 they will have a small incentive to "disown" their copyright, and let
12813 the work enter the public domain. For works with several right holders
12814 one of the right holders could state (and get it registered in the
12815 database) that she do not need to be consulted when clearing rights to
12816 use the work in question and thus will not get any income from that
12817 work.  Stating this would have to be impossible to revert and stop the
12818 tax office from adding the value of that work to the given citizens
12819 tax calculation.  I assume the copyright law would stay the same,
12820 allowing creators to pick a license of their choosing, and also
12821 allowing them to put their work directly in the public domain.  The
12822 existence of such database will make it even easier to clear rights,
12823 and if the right holders listed in the database is taxed, this system
12824 would increase the amount of works that enter the public domain.</p>
12825
12826 <p>The effect would be that the tax office help to make it easier to
12827 get rights to use the works that have not yet entered the public
12828 domain and help to get more work into the public domain and .</p>
12829
12830 <p>Why have such taxing not happened yet?  I am sure the tax office
12831 would like to tax copyrighted work values if they could.</p>
12832
12833       </div>
12834       <div class="tags">
12835
12836
12837         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
12838
12839
12840       </div>
12841     </div>
12842     <div class="padding"></div>
12843
12844     <div class="entry">
12845       <div class="title">
12846         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html">Debian Edu interview: Angela Fuß</a>
12847       </div>
12848       <div class="date">
12849         14th November 2012
12850       </div>
12851       <div class="body">
12852         <p>Here is another interview with one of the people in the <a
12853 href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
12854 community.  I am running short on people willing to be interviewed, so
12855 if you know about someone I should interview, Please send me an email.
12856 After asking for many months, I finally managed to lure another one of
12857 the people behind the German
12858 "<a href="http://wiki.it-zukunft-schule.de/">IT-Zukunft Schule</a>"
12859 project out from maternity leave to conduct an interview.  Give a warm
12860 welcome to Angela Fuß. :)</p>
12861
12862 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
12863
12864 <p>I am a 39-year-old woman living in the very north of Germany near
12865 Denmark. I live in a patchwork family with "my man" Mike Gabriel, my
12866 two daughters, Mikes daughter and Mikes and my rather newborn son.
12867
12868 <p>At the moment - because of our little baby - I am spending most of
12869 the day by being a caring and organising mom for all the kids.
12870 Besides that I am really involved into and occupied with several inner
12871 growth processes: New born souls always bring the whole familiar
12872 system into movement and that needs time and focus ;-).  We are also
12873 in the middle of buying a house and moving to it.</p>
12874
12875 <p>In 2013 I will work again in my job in a German foundation for
12876 nature conservation. I am doing public relation work there.  Besides
12877 that - and that is the connection to Skolelinux / Debian Edu - I am
12878 working in our own school project "IT-Zukunft Schule" in North
12879 Germany. I am responsible for the quality assurance, the customer
12880 relationship management and the communication processes in the
12881 project.</p>
12882
12883 <p>Since 2001 I constantly have been training myself in communication
12884 and leadership. Besides that I am a forester, a landscaping gardener
12885 and a yoga teacher.</p>
12886
12887 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
12888 project?</strong></p>
12889
12890 <p>I fell in love with Mike ;-).</p>
12891
12892 <p>Very soon after getting to know him I was completely enrolled into
12893 Free Software.  At this time Mike did IT-services for one newly
12894 founded school in Kiel. Other schools in Kiel needed concepts for
12895 their IT environment.  Often when Mike came home from working at the
12896 newly founded school I found myself listening to his complaints about
12897 several points where the communication with the schools head or the
12898 teachers did not work.  So we were clear that he would not work for
12899 one more school if we did not set up a structure for communication
12900 between him, the schools head, the teachers, the students and the
12901 parents.</p>
12902
12903 <p>Together with our friend and hardware supplier Andreas Buchholz we
12904 started to get an overview of free software solutions suitable for
12905 schools. One day before Christmas 2010 Mike and I had a date with Kurt
12906 Gramlich in Gütersloh. As Kurt and I are really interested in building
12907 networks of people and in being in communication we dived into
12908 Skolelinux and brought it to the first grammar schools in Northern
12909 Germany.</p>
12910
12911 <p>For information about our school project you can read
12912 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">the
12913 interview with Mike Gabriel</a>.</p>
12914
12915 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
12916 Edu?</strong></p>
12917
12918 <p>First I have to say: I cannot answer this question technically. My
12919 answer comes rather from a social point of view.</p>
12920
12921 <p>The biggest advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu I see is the large
12922 and strong international community of Debian Developers in the
12923 background which is very alive and connected over mailinglists, blogs
12924 and meetings. My constant feeling for the Debian Community is: If
12925 something does not work they will somehow fix it. All is well
12926 ;-). This is of course a user experience.  What I also get as a big
12927 advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu is that everybody who uses it and
12928 works with it can also contribute to it - that includes students,
12929 teachers, parents...</p>
12930
12931 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
12932 Edu?</strong></p>
12933
12934 <p>I will answer this question relating to the internal structure of
12935 Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
12936
12937 <p>What I see as a major disadvantage is that there is a gap between
12938 the group of developers for Debian Edu and the people who make the
12939 marketing, that means the people that bring Skolelinux to the
12940 schools. There is a lack of communication between these two groups and
12941 I think that does not really work for Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
12942
12943 <p>Further I appreciate that Skolelinux / Debian Edu is known as a
12944 do-ocracy. Nevertheless I keep asking myself if at some points a
12945 democracy or some kind of hierarchical project structure would be good
12946 and helpful.  I am also missing some kind of contact between the
12947 Skolelinux / Debian Edu communities in Europe or on an international
12948 level. I think it would be good if there was more sharing between the
12949 different countries using Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
12950
12951 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
12952
12953 <p>On my laptop I am still using an Ubuntu 10.04 with a Gnome Desktop
12954 on.  As applications I use Openoffice.org, Gedit, Firefox, Pidgin,
12955 LaTeX and GnuCash. For mails I am using Horde. And I am really fond of
12956 my N900 running with Maemo.</p>
12957
12958 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
12959 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
12960
12961 <p>I am really convinced that in our school project "IT-Zukunft
12962 Schule" we have developed (and keep developing) a great way to get
12963 schools to use Free Software. We have written a detailed concept for
12964 that so I cannot explain the whole thing here. But in a nutshell the
12965 strategy has three crucial pillars:</p>
12966
12967 <ul>
12968
12969 <li>We really take time to get what sort of stories, questions and
12970 concerns the schools head and the teachers have about using different
12971 kinds of IT and we take time to enrol them into Free Software.</li>
12972
12973 <li>Our solution for schools is never just technical. In the centre
12974 are always the people who are going to use the software. From the very
12975 beginning of the planning for a school, we tell the schools head that
12976 they are paying us not only for a technical solution for their school,
12977 they also pay us for leading all the communication processes
12978 needed. If they do not want that, we are not working with them because
12979 we cannot give a guarantee for the quality of our work then.</li>
12980
12981 <li>Another focus lies in the training of teachers and students in
12982 co-administrating the IT-System at their school. They start getting in
12983 contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu community and they get the
12984 offer to become more and more independent from us.</li>
12985
12986 </ul>
12987
12988       </div>
12989       <div class="tags">
12990
12991
12992         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
12993
12994
12995       </div>
12996     </div>
12997     <div class="padding"></div>
12998
12999     <div class="entry">
13000       <div class="title">
13001         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_European_Central_Bank__ECB__take_a_look_at_bitcoin.html">The European Central Bank (ECB) take a look at bitcoin</a>
13002       </div>
13003       <div class="date">
13004          4th November 2012
13005       </div>
13006       <div class="body">
13007         <p>Slashdot just ran a story about the European Central Bank (ECB)
13008 <a href="http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemes201210en.pdf">releasing
13009 a report (PDF)</a> about virtual currencies and
13010 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>.  It is interesting to
13011 see how a member of the bitcoin community
13012 <a href="http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/10/30/the-ecb-report-on-bitcoin-and-virtual-currencies.html">receive
13013 the report</a>.  As for the future, I suspect the central banks and
13014 the governments will outlaw bitcoin if it gain any popularity, to avoid
13015 competition.  My thoughts go to the
13016 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wörgl">Wörgl experiment</a> with
13017 negative inflation on cash which was such a success that it was
13018 terminated by the Austrian National Bank in 1933.  A successful
13019 alternative would be a threat to the current money system and gain
13020 powerful forces to work against it.</p>
13021
13022 <p>While checking out the current status of bitcoin, I also discovered
13023 that the community already seem to have
13024 <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/27/3271637/bitcoin-savings-trust-pyramid-scheme-shuts-down">experienced
13025 its first pyramid game / Ponzi scheme</a>.  Not very surprising, given
13026 how members of "small" communities tend to trust each other.  I guess
13027 enterprising crocks will try again and again, as they do anywhere
13028 wealth is available.</p>
13029
13030       </div>
13031       <div class="tags">
13032
13033
13034         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
13035
13036
13037       </div>
13038     </div>
13039     <div class="padding"></div>
13040
13041     <div class="entry">
13042       <div class="title">
13043         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/12_years_of_outages___summarised_by_Stuart_Kendrick.html">12 years of outages - summarised by Stuart Kendrick</a>
13044       </div>
13045       <div class="date">
13046         26th October 2012
13047       </div>
13048       <div class="body">
13049         <p>I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a>
13050 looking after the computers, mostly on the unix side, but in general
13051 all over the place.  I am also a member (and currently leader) of
13052 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG association</a>, which in turn
13053 make me a member of <a href="http://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a>.  NUUG
13054 is an member organisation for us in Norway interested in free
13055 software, open standards and unix like operating systems, and USENIX
13056 is a US based member organisation with similar targets.  And thanks to
13057 these memberships, I get all issues of the great USENIX magazine
13058 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login">;login:</a> in the
13059 mail several times a year.  The magazine is great, and I read most of
13060 it every time.</p>
13061
13062 <p>In the last issue of the USENIX magazine ;login:, there is an
13063 article by <a href="http://www.skendric.com/">Stuart Kendrick</a> from
13064 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center titled
13065 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/october-2012-volume-37-number-5/what-takes-us-down">What
13066 Takes Us Down</a>" (longer version also
13067 <a href="http://www.skendric.com/problem/incident-analysis/2012-06-30/What-Takes-Us-Down.pdf">available
13068 from his own site</a>), where he report what he found when he
13069 processed the outage reports (both planned and unplanned) from the
13070 last twelve years and classified them according to cause, time of day,
13071 etc etc.  The article is a good read to get some empirical data on
13072 what kind of problems affect a data centre, but what really inspired
13073 me was the kind of reporting they had put in place since 2000.<p>
13074
13075 <p>The centre set up a mailing list, and started to send fairly
13076 standardised messages to this list when a outage was planned or when
13077 it already occurred, to announce the plan and get feedback on the
13078 assumtions on scope and user impact.  Here is the two example from the
13079 article: First the unplanned outage:
13080
13081 <blockquote><pre>
13082 Subject:     Exchange 2003 Cluster Issues
13083 Severity:    Critical (Unplanned)
13084 Start:       Monday, May 7, 2012, 11:58
13085 End:         Monday, May 7, 2012, 12:38
13086 Duration:    40 minutes
13087 Scope:       Exchange 2003
13088 Description: The HTTPS service on the Exchange cluster crashed, triggering
13089              a cluster failover.
13090
13091 User Impact: During this period, all Exchange users were unable to
13092              access e-mail. Zimbra users were unaffected.
13093 Technician:  [xxx]
13094 </pre></blockquote>
13095
13096 Next the planned outage:
13097
13098 <blockquote><pre>
13099 Subject:     H Building Switch Upgrades
13100 Severity:    Major (Planned)
13101 Start:       Saturday, June 16, 2012, 06:00
13102 End:         Saturday, June 16, 2012, 16:00
13103 Duration:    10 hours
13104 Scope:       H2 Transport
13105 Description: Currently, Catalyst 4006s provide 10/100 Ethernet to end-
13106              stations. We will replace these with newer Catalyst
13107              4510s.
13108 User Impact: All users on H2 will be isolated from the network during
13109              this work. Afterward, they will have gigabit
13110              connectivity.
13111 Technician:  [xxx]
13112 </pre></blockquote>
13113
13114 <p>He notes in his article that the date formats and other fields have
13115 been a bit too free form to make it easy to automatically process them
13116 into a database for further analysis, and I would have used ISO 8601
13117 dates myself to make it easier to process (in other words I would ask
13118 people to write '2012-06-16 06:00 +0000' instead of the start time
13119 format listed above).  There are also other issues with the format
13120 that could be improved, read the article for the details.</p>
13121
13122 <p>I find the idea of standardising outage messages seem to be such a
13123 good idea that I would like to get it implemented here at the
13124 university too.  We do register
13125 <a href="http://www.uio.no/tjenester/it/aktuelt/planlagte-tjenesteavbrudd/">planned
13126 changes and outages in a calendar</a>, and report the to a mailing
13127 list, but we do not do so in a structured format and there is not a
13128 report to the same location for unplanned outages.  Perhaps something
13129 for other sites to consider too?</p>
13130
13131       </div>
13132       <div class="tags">
13133
13134
13135         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix</a>.
13136
13137
13138       </div>
13139     </div>
13140     <div class="padding"></div>
13141
13142     <div class="entry">
13143       <div class="title">
13144         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Amazon_steal_books_from_customer_and_throw_out_her_out_without_any_explanation.html">Amazon steal books from customer and throw out her out without any explanation</a>
13145       </div>
13146       <div class="date">
13147         22nd October 2012
13148       </div>
13149       <div class="body">
13150         <p>A blog post from Martin Bekkelund today tell the story of
13151 <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/">how
13152 Amazon erased the books from a customer's kindle, locked the account
13153 and refuse to tell the customer why</a>.  If a real book store did
13154 this to a customer, it would be called breaking into private property
13155 and theft.  The story has spread around the net today.  A bit more
13156 background information is available in Norwegian from
13157 <a href="http://www.digi.no/904658/hun-ble-kastet-ut-av-amazon">digi.no</a>.
13158 It is no surprise that digital restriction mechanisms (DRM) are used
13159 this way, as it has been warned about such abuse since DRM was
13160 introduced many years back.  And Amazon proved in 2009 that it was
13161 willing to
13162 <a href="http://boingboing.net/2009/07/20/amazons-orwellian-de.html">
13163 break into customers equipment and remove the books</a> people had
13164 bought, when it removed the book 1984 by George Orwell from all the
13165 customers who had bought it.  From the official comments, it even
13166 sounded like
13167 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html">Amazon
13168 would never do that again</a>.  And here we are, three years
13169 later.</p>
13170
13171 <p>And thought this action is
13172 <a href="http://www.itavisen.no/904648/forbrukerraadet-helt-haarreisende">against
13173 Norwegian regulations and law</a>, it is according to the terms of use
13174 as written by Amazon, and it is hard to hold Amazon accountable to
13175 Norwegian laws.  It is just yet another example of unacceptable terms
13176 of use on the web, and how they are used to remove customer
13177 rights.</p>
13178
13179 <p>Luckily for electronic books, there are alternatives without
13180 unacceptable terms.  For example
13181 <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about 40,000
13182 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a> (1,652
13183 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The Internet
13184 Archive</a> (3,641,797 books) have heaps of books without DRM, which
13185 can read by anyone and shared with anyone.</p>
13186
13187 <p>Update 2012-10-23: This story broke in the morning on Monday. In
13188 the evening after the story had spread all across the Internet, Amazon
13189 restored the account of the user, as reported by
13190 <a href="http://www.digi.no/904675/helomvending-fra-amazon">digi.no</a>
13191 and <a href="http://nrk.no/kultur-og-underholdning/1.8368487">NRK</a>.
13192 Apparently public pressure work.  The story from Martin have seen
13193 several twitter messages per minute the last 24 hours, which is quite
13194 a lot, and is still drawing a lot of attention.  But even when the
13195 account is restored, the fundamental problem still exist.  I recommend
13196 reading two opinions from
13197 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/10/rights-you-have-no-right-to-your-ebooks/index.htm">Simon
13198 Phipps</a> and
13199 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/10/is-amazon-playing-fair/index.htm">Glen
13200 Moody</a> if you want to learn more about the fundamentals and more
13201 details about the original story.</p>
13202
13203       </div>
13204       <div class="tags">
13205
13206
13207         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
13208
13209
13210       </div>
13211     </div>
13212     <div class="padding"></div>
13213
13214     <div class="entry">
13215       <div class="title">
13216         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html">The fight for freedom and privacy</a>
13217       </div>
13218       <div class="date">
13219         18th October 2012
13220       </div>
13221       <div class="body">
13222         <p>Civil liberties and privacy in the western world are going down the
13223 drain, and it is hard to fight against it.  I try to do my best, but
13224 time is limited.  I hope you do your best too.  A few years ago I came
13225 across a marvellous drawing by
13226 <a href="http://www.claybennett.com/about.html">Clay Bennett</a>
13227 visualising some of what is going on.
13228
13229 <p><a href="http://www.claybennett.com/pages/security_fence.html">
13230 <img src="http://www.claybennett.com/images/archivetoons/security_fence.jpg"></a></p>
13231
13232 <blockquote>
13233 «They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
13234 safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.» - Benjamin Franklin
13235 </blockquote>
13236
13237 <p>Do you feel safe at the airport?  I do not.  Do you feel safe when
13238 you see a surveillance camera?  I do not.  Do you feel safe when you
13239 leave electronic traces of your behaviour and opinions?  I do not.  I
13240 just remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon">the
13241 Panopticon</a>, and can not help to think that we are slowly
13242 transforming our society to a huge Panopticon on our own.</p>
13243
13244       </div>
13245       <div class="tags">
13246
13247
13248         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
13249
13250
13251       </div>
13252     </div>
13253     <div class="padding"></div>
13254
13255     <div class="entry">
13256       <div class="title">
13257         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColonHelp_produser_sue_WordPress_to_silence_critic.html">ColonHelp produser sue WordPress to silence critic</a>
13258       </div>
13259       <div class="date">
13260         12th October 2012
13261       </div>
13262       <div class="body">
13263         <p>Thanks to a blog post by
13264 <a href="http://ramblingfoo.blogspot.no/2012/10/a-shitstorm-is-comming.html">Eddy
13265 Petrișor</a>, I became aware of yet another "alternative medicine"
13266 company using legal intimidation tactics to scare off critics.
13267 According to the originating blog post about the detox "cure"
13268 <a href="http://insulaindoielii.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/colon-help-sues-wordpress/">ColonHelp
13269 and its producers Zenyth Pharmaceuticals actions</a>, the producer
13270 sues Wordpress to get rid of the critical information.  To check if
13271 the story was for real, I contacted Automattic, the company behind
13272 wordpress.com, and they reply was "We can confirm that Zenyth is
13273 seeking a court order against WordPress / Automattic.  However, we
13274 don't believe the Terms of Service have been violated in this
13275 matter".</p>
13276
13277 <p>The story seem to be simply that a blogger checked the scientific
13278 foundation for a popular health product in Rumania, ColonHelp, and
13279 reported that there was no reason at all to believe it improved the
13280 health of its users.  This caused the company behind the product,
13281 Zenyth Pharmaceuticals, to use legal intimidation to try to silence
13282 the critic, instead of presenting its views and scientific foundation
13283 to argue its side.</p>
13284
13285 <p>This is the usual story, and the Zenyth Pharmaceuticals company
13286 deserve everyone to know how it failed to act properly.  Lets hope the
13287 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect">Streisand
13288 effect</a> can make it rethink its strategy.</p>
13289
13290 <p>What is the harm, you might think.  I suggest you take a look at
13291 <a href="http://www.whatstheharm.net/detoxification.html">a list of
13292 victims of detoxification</a>.</p>
13293
13294       </div>
13295       <div class="tags">
13296
13297
13298         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis</a>.
13299
13300
13301       </div>
13302     </div>
13303     <div class="padding"></div>
13304
13305     <div class="entry">
13306       <div class="title">
13307         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_is_your_local_library_collecting_the__wrong__computer_books_.html">Why is your local library collecting the "wrong" computer books?</a>
13308       </div>
13309       <div class="date">
13310          3rd October 2012
13311       </div>
13312       <div class="body">
13313         <p>I just read the blog post from Tim Retout
13314 <a href="http://retout.co.uk/blog/2012/10/02/the-library-challenge">about
13315 the computer science book collection available in his local
13316 library</a>, and just wanted to share my comment on his theory about
13317 computer books becoming obsolete so soon.  That is part of the reason
13318 why the selection is so sad in almost any local library (it is in mine
13319 too), but I believe the major contributing factor is that the people
13320 buying books to the library have no way to know a good and future
13321 computer classic from trash.  And they need to know which one will
13322 become a classic in the future, as they would normally buy one of the
13323 recently published books.</p>
13324
13325 <p>During my university years, I worked for a while at the university
13326 library, and even there the person in charge of buying computer
13327 related books (and in fact any natural science related book), did not
13328 know enough about computers to make a good educated guess.  Once, just
13329 before Christmas, they had some leftover money on the book budget and
13330 I was asked if I could pick out a lot of computer books in the
13331 university book store, for the library to buy for their collection.  I
13332 had a great time picking all the books I dreamt of buying and reading,
13333 and the books I knew were classics (like most of the
13334 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens">Stevens
13335 collection</a>).  I picked several of the generic O'Reilly books (ie
13336 documenting protocols, formats and systems, not specific versions of
13337 products) and stayed away from the 'teach yourself X in N days' class.
13338 I had a great time, and probably picked out more than a hundred books
13339 for the library that evening.</p>
13340
13341 <p>The sad fact is that there is no way a overworked librarian is
13342 going to know that for example
13343 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_of_Programming">The
13344 Practice of Programming</a> is a must-have in any computer library,
13345 and they will most of the time end up picking the wrong books to buy.
13346 Perhaps you can help your local library make better choices by giving
13347 the suggestions for books to get?  I know they would love to hear from
13348 you, even if their budget might block them from getting your favourite
13349 book right away.</p>
13350
13351       </div>
13352       <div class="tags">
13353
13354
13355         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13356
13357
13358       </div>
13359     </div>
13360     <div class="padding"></div>
13361
13362     <div class="entry">
13363       <div class="title">
13364         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Seventy_percent_done_with_Norwegian_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html">Seventy percent done with Norwegian docbook version of Free Culture</a>
13365       </div>
13366       <div class="date">
13367         23rd September 2012
13368       </div>
13369       <div class="body">
13370         <p>Since this summer, I have worked in my spare time on a Norwegian <a
13371 href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book <a
13372 href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
13373 The reason is that this book is a great primer on what problems exist
13374 in the current copyright laws, and I want it to be available also for
13375 those that are reluctant do read an English book.
13376
13377 When I started, I
13378 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
13379 for volunteers</a> to help me, but too few have volunteered so far,
13380 and progress is a bit slow.  Anyway, today I broken the 70 percent
13381 mark for the first rough translation.  At the moment, less than 700
13382 strings (paragraphs, index terms, titles) are left to translate.  With
13383 my current progress of 10-20 strings per day, it will take a while to
13384 complete the translation.  This graph show the updated progress:</p>
13385
13386 <img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
13387
13388 <p>Progress have slowed down lately due to family and work
13389 commitments.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out
13390 the project files currently available from
13391 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
13392
13393 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
13394 the updated
13395 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
13396 and
13397 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
13398 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
13399 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
13400 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
13401
13402       </div>
13403       <div class="tags">
13404
13405
13406         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
13407
13408
13409       </div>
13410     </div>
13411     <div class="padding"></div>
13412
13413     <div class="entry">
13414       <div class="title">
13415         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Giorgio_Pioda.html">Debian Edu interview: Giorgio Pioda</a>
13416       </div>
13417       <div class="date">
13418         17th September 2012
13419       </div>
13420       <div class="body">
13421         <p>After a long break in my row of interviews with people in the
13422 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
13423 community, I finally found time to wrap up another.  This time it is
13424 Giorgio Pioda, which showed up on the mailing list at the start of
13425 this year, asking questions and inspiring us to improve the first time
13426 administrators experience with Skolelinux. :) The interview was
13427 conduced in May, but I only found time to publish it now.</p>
13428
13429 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
13430
13431 <p>I have a PhD in chemistry but since several years I work as teacher
13432 in secondary (15-18 year old students) and tertiary (a kind of "light"
13433 university) schools. Five years ago I started to manage a Learning
13434 Management Service server and slowly I got more and more involved with
13435 IT. 3 years ago the graduating schools moved completely to Linux and I
13436 got the head of the IT for this. The experience collected in chemistry
13437 labs computers (for example NMR analysis of protein folding) and in
13438 the IT-courses during university where sufficient to start. Self
13439 training is anyway very important</p>
13440
13441 <p>I live in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, and the
13442 <a href="http://www.spse.ch/">SPSE school</a> (secondary) is a very
13443 special sport school for young people who try to became sport pro (for
13444 all sports, we have dozens of disciplines represented) and we are
13445 recognised by the Olympic Swiss Organisation.
13446
13447 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
13448 project?</strong></p>
13449
13450 <p>Looking for Linux / Primary Domain Controller (PDC) I found it
13451 already several years ago. But since the system was still not
13452 Kerberized and since our schools relies strongly on laptops I didn't
13453 use it. I plan to introduce it in the next future, probably for the
13454 next school year, since the squeeze release solved this security
13455 hole.</p>
13456
13457 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
13458 Edu?</strong></p>
13459
13460 <p>Many. First of all there is a strong and living community that is
13461 very generous for help and hints.  Chat help is crucial, together with
13462 the mailing list.  Second. With Skolelinux you get an already well
13463 engineered platform and you don't have to start to build up your PDC
13464 and your clients from GNU/scratch; I've already done this once and I
13465 can tell it, it is hard. Third, since Skolelinux is a standard
13466 platform, it is way easier to educate other IT people and even if the
13467 head IT is sick another one could pick up the task without too much
13468 hassle.</p>
13469
13470 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
13471 Edu?</strong></p>
13472
13473 <p>The only real problem I see is that it is a little too less
13474 flexible at client level. Debian stable is rocky and desirable, but
13475 there are many reasons that force for another choice. For example the
13476 need of new drivers for new PC, or the need for a specific OS for some
13477 devices that have specific software packages for another specific
13478 distribution (I have such a case for whiteboards that have only
13479 Ubuntu packages). Thus, I prepared compatibility packages educlient
13480 and eduroaming, hoping not to use them ;-)</p>
13481
13482 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
13483
13484 <p>I have a Debian Stable PDC at school (Kerberos, NIS, NFS) with
13485 mixed Debian and Ubuntu clients. If you think that this triad
13486 combination is exotic... well I discovered right yesterday that
13487 <a href="http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/Perceus-Report.html">Perceus</a>
13488 has the same...</p>
13489
13490 <p>For myself I run Debian wheezy/sid, but this combination is good
13491 only I you have enough competence to fix stuff for yourself, if
13492 something breaks.  Daily I use texmacs, gnumeric, a little bit of R
13493 statistics, kmplot, and less frequently OpenOffice.org.</p>
13494
13495 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
13496 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
13497
13498 <P>I think that the only real argument that school managers "hear" is
13499 cost reduction. They don't give too much weight on quality, stability,
13500 just because they are normally not open to change.</p>
13501
13502 <p>Students adapts very quickly to GNU/Linux (and for them being able
13503 to switch between different OS is a plus value); teachers and managers
13504 don't.</p>
13505
13506 <p>We decided to move to Linux because students at our school have own
13507 laptop and we have the responsibility to keep the laptop ready to use;
13508 we were really unsatisfied with Microsoft since every Monday we had 20
13509 machine to fix for viral infections... With Linux this has been
13510 reduced to zero, since people installs almost only from official
13511 repositories. I think that our special needs brought us to Linux.
13512 Those who don't have such needs will hardly move to Linux.</p>
13513
13514       </div>
13515       <div class="tags">
13516
13517
13518         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
13519
13520
13521       </div>
13522     </div>
13523     <div class="padding"></div>
13524
13525     <div class="entry">
13526       <div class="title">
13527         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_activity_to_standardise_video_codec.html">IETF activity to standardise video codec</a>
13528       </div>
13529       <div class="date">
13530         15th September 2012
13531       </div>
13532       <div class="body">
13533         <p>After the
13534 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">Opus
13535 codec made</a> it into <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> as
13536 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC 6716</a>, I had a look
13537 to see if there is any activity in IETF to standardise a video codec
13538 too, and I was happy to discover that there is some activity in this
13539 area.  A non-"working group" mailing list
13540 <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/video-codec">video-codec</a>
13541 was
13542 <a href="http://ietf.10.n7.nabble.com/New-Non-WG-Mailing-List-video-codec-Video-codec-BoF-discussion-list-td119548.html">created 2012-08-20</a>.  It is intended to discuss the topic and if a
13543 formal working group should be formed.</p>
13544
13545 <p>I look forward to see how this plays out.  There is already
13546 <a href="http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/video-codec/current/msg00003.html">an
13547 email from someone</a> in the MPEG group at ISO asking people to
13548 participate in the ISO group.  Given how ISO failed with OOXML and given
13549 that it so far (as far as I can remember) only have produced
13550 multimedia formats requiring royalty payments, I suspect
13551 joining the ISO group would be a complete waste of time, but I am not
13552 involved in any codec work and my opinion will not matter much.</p>
13553
13554 <p>If one of my readers is involved with codec work, I hope she will
13555 join this work to standardise a royalty free video codec within
13556 IETF.</p>
13557
13558       </div>
13559       <div class="tags">
13560
13561
13562         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
13563
13564
13565       </div>
13566     </div>
13567     <div class="padding"></div>
13568
13569     <div class="entry">
13570       <div class="title">
13571         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">IETF standardize its first multimedia codec: Opus</a>
13572       </div>
13573       <div class="date">
13574         12th September 2012
13575       </div>
13576       <div class="body">
13577         <p>Yesterday, <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> announced the
13578 publication of of
13579 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC 6716, the Definition
13580 of the Opus Audio Codec</a>, a low latency, variable bandwidth, codec
13581 intended for both VoIP, film and music.  This is the first time, as
13582 far as I know, that IETF have standardized a multimedia codec.  In
13583 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3533">RFC 3533</a>, IETF
13584 standardized the OGG container format, and it has proven to be a great
13585 royalty free container for audio, video and movies.  I hope IETF will
13586 continue to standardize more royalty free codeces, after ISO and MPEG
13587 have proven incapable of securing everyone equal rights to publish
13588 multimedia content on the Internet.</p>
13589
13590 <p>IETF require two interoperating independent implementations to
13591 ratify a standard, and have so far ensured to only standardize royalty
13592 free specifications.  Both are key factors to allow everyone (rich and
13593 poor), to compete on equal terms on the Internet.</p>
13594
13595 <p>Visit the <a href="http://opus-codec.org/">Opus project page</a> if
13596 you want to learn more about the solution.</p>
13597
13598       </div>
13599       <div class="tags">
13600
13601
13602         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
13603
13604
13605       </div>
13606     </div>
13607     <div class="padding"></div>
13608
13609     <div class="entry">
13610       <div class="title">
13611         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Git repository for song book for Computer Scientists</a>
13612       </div>
13613       <div class="date">
13614          7th September 2012
13615       </div>
13616       <div class="body">
13617         <p>As I
13618 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
13619 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
13620 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
13621 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
13622 repository for the project</a>.</p>
13623
13624 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
13625 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
13626 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
13627 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
13628
13629 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
13630 PostScript formats at
13631 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
13632 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
13633
13634       </div>
13635       <div class="tags">
13636
13637
13638         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
13639
13640
13641       </div>
13642     </div>
13643     <div class="padding"></div>
13644
13645     <div class="entry">
13646       <div class="title">
13647         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_software_forced_Microsoft_to_open_Office__and_don_t_forget_Officeshots_.html">Free software forced Microsoft to open Office (and don't forget Officeshots)</a>
13648       </div>
13649       <div class="date">
13650         23rd August 2012
13651       </div>
13652       <div class="body">
13653         <p>I came across a great comment from Simon Phipps today, about how
13654 <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/how-microsoft-was-forced-open-office-200233">Microsoft
13655 have been forced to open Office</a>, and it made me remember and
13656 revisit the great site
13657 <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">officeshots</a> which allow you
13658 to check out how different programs present the ODF file format.  I
13659 recommend both to those of my readers interested in ODF. :)</p>
13660
13661       </div>
13662       <div class="tags">
13663
13664
13665         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
13666
13667
13668       </div>
13669     </div>
13670     <div class="padding"></div>
13671
13672     <div class="entry">
13673       <div class="title">
13674         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Half_way_there_with_translated_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html">Half way there with translated docbook version of Free Culture</a>
13675       </div>
13676       <div class="date">
13677         17th August 2012
13678       </div>
13679       <div class="body">
13680         <p>In my spare time, I currently work on a Norwegian
13681 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book
13682 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig,
13683 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with the copyright law
13684 I can give to my parents and others that are reluctant to read an
13685 English book.  It is a marvellous set of examples on how the ever
13686 expanding copyright regulations hurt culture and society.  When the
13687 translation is done, I hope to find funding to print and ship a copy
13688 to all the members of the Norwegian parliament, before they sit down
13689 to debate the latest revisions to the Norwegian copyright law.  This
13690 summer I
13691 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
13692 for volunteers</a> to help me, and I have been able to secure the
13693 valuable contribution from at least one other Norwegian.</p>
13694
13695 <p>Two days ago, we finally broke the 50% mark.  Then more than 50% of
13696 the number of strings to translate (normally paragraphs, but also
13697 titles and index entries are also counted).  All parts from the
13698 beginning up to and including chapter four is translated.  So is
13699 chapters six, seven and the conclusion.  I created a graph to show the
13700 progress:</p>
13701
13702 <img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
13703
13704 <p>The number of strings to translate increase as I insert the index
13705 entries into the docbook.  They were missing with the docbook version
13706 I initially started with.  There are still quite a few index entries
13707 missing, but everyone starting with A, B, O, Z and Y are done.  I
13708 currently focus on completing the index entries, to get a complete
13709 english version of the docbook source.</p>
13710
13711 <p>There is still need for translators and people with docbook
13712 knowledge, to be able to get a good looking book (I still struggle
13713 with dblatex, xmlto and docbook-xsl) as well as to do the draft
13714 translation and proof reading.  And I would like the figures to be
13715 redrawn as SVGs to make it easy to translate them.  Any SVG master
13716 around?  I am sure there are some legal terms that are unfamiliar to
13717 me.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out the
13718 project files currently available from <a
13719 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
13720
13721 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
13722 the updated
13723 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
13724 and
13725 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
13726 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
13727 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
13728 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
13729
13730       </div>
13731       <div class="tags">
13732
13733
13734         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
13735
13736
13737       </div>
13738     </div>
13739     <div class="padding"></div>
13740
13741     <div class="entry">
13742       <div class="title">
13743         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Notes_on_language_codes_for_Norwegian_docbook_processing___.html">Notes on language codes for Norwegian docbook processing...</a>
13744       </div>
13745       <div class="date">
13746         10th August 2012
13747       </div>
13748       <div class="body">
13749         <p>In <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> one can specify
13750 the language used at the top, and the processing pipeline will use
13751 this information to pick the correct translations for 'chapter', 'see
13752 also', 'index' etc.  And for most languages used with docbook, I guess
13753 this work just fine.  For example a German user can start the document
13754 with &lt;book lang="de"&gt;, and the document will show up with the
13755 correct content with any of the docbook processors.  This is not the
13756 case for the language
13757 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html">I
13758 am working with at the moment</a>, Norwegian Bokmål.</p>
13759
13760 <p>For a while, I was confused about which language code to use,
13761 because I was unable to find any language code that would work across
13762 all tools.  I am currently testing dblatex, xmlto, docbook-xsl, and
13763 dbtoepub, and they do not handle Norwegian Bokmål the same way.  Some
13764 of them do not handle it at all.</p>
13765
13766 <p>A bit of background information is probably needed to understand
13767 this mess.  Norwegian is not one, but two written variants.  The
13768 variants are Norwegian Nynorsk and Norwegian Bokmål.  There are three
13769 two letter language codes associated with these languages, Norwegian
13770 is 'no', Norwegian Nynorsk is 'nn' and Norwegian Bokmål is 'nb'.
13771 Historically the 'no' language code was used for Norwegian Bokmål, but
13772 many years ago this was found to be å bad idea, and the recommendation
13773 is to use the most specific language code instead, to avoid confusion.
13774 In the transition period it is a good idea to make sure 'no' was an
13775 alias for 'nb'.</p>
13776
13777 <p>Back to docbook processing tools in Debian.  The dblatex tool only
13778 understand 'nn'.  There are translations for 'no', but not 'nb' (BTS
13779 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/684391">#684391</a>), but due to a bug
13780 (BTS <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682936">#682936</a>) the 'no'
13781 language code is not recognised.  The docbook-xsl tool chain only
13782 recognise 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'.  The xmlto tool only recognise
13783 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'.  The end result that there is no language
13784 code I can use to get the docbook file working with all of these tools
13785 at the same time. :(</p>
13786
13787 <p>The correct solution is to use &lt;book lang="nb"&gt;, but it will
13788 take time before that will work with all the free software docbook
13789 processors. :(</p>
13790
13791 <p>Oh, the joy of well integrated tools. :/</p>
13792
13793       </div>
13794       <div class="tags">
13795
13796
13797         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
13798
13799
13800       </div>
13801     </div>
13802     <div class="padding"></div>
13803
13804     <div class="entry">
13805       <div class="title">
13806         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Best_way_to_create_a_docbook_book_.html">Best way to create a docbook book?</a>
13807       </div>
13808       <div class="date">
13809         31st July 2012
13810       </div>
13811       <div class="body">
13812         <p>I tried to send this text to the
13813 <a href="https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/">docbook-apps
13814 mailing list at lists.oasis-open.org</a>, but it only accept messages
13815 from subscribers and rejected my post, and I completely lack the
13816 bandwidth required to subscribe to another mailing list, so instead I
13817 try to post my message here and hope my blog readers can help me
13818 out.</p>
13819
13820 <p>I am quite new to docbook processing, and am climbing a steep
13821 learning curve at the moment.</p>
13822
13823 <p>To give you some background, I am working on a Norwegian
13824 translation of the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, and I use
13825 docbook to handle the process.  The files to build the book are
13826 available from
13827 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.
13828 The book got around 400 pages with parts, images, footnotes, tables,
13829 index entries etc, which has proven to be a challenge for the free
13830 software docbook processors.  My build platform is Debian GNU/Linux
13831 Squeeze.</p>
13832
13833 <p>I want to build PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book, and have
13834 tried different tool chains to do the conversion from docbook to these
13835 formats.  I am currently focusing on the PDF version, and have a few
13836 problems.</p>
13837
13838 <ul>
13839
13840 <li>Using dblatex, the &lt;part&gt; handling is not the way I want to,
13841    as &lt;/part&gt; do not really end the &lt;part&gt;. (See
13842    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683166">BTS report #683166</a>), the
13843    xetex backend (needed to process UTF-8) give incorrect hyphens in
13844    index references spanning several pages (See
13845    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682901">BTS report #682901</a>), and
13846    I am unable to get the norwegian template texts (See
13847    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682936">BTS report #682936</a>).</li>
13848
13849 <li>Using straight xmlto fail with some latex error (See
13850    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683163">BTS report
13851    #683163</a>).</li>
13852
13853 <li>Using xmlto with the fop backend fail to handle images (do not
13854    show up in the PDF), fail to handle a long footnote (overlap
13855    footnote and text body, see
13856    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683197">BTS report #683197</a>), and
13857    fail to create a correct index (some lack page ref, and the page
13858    refs listed are not right).</li>
13859
13860 <li>Using xmlto with the dblatex backend behave like dblatex.</li>
13861
13862 <li>Using docbook-xls with xsltproc + fop have the same footnote and
13863    index problems the xmlto + fop processing.</li>
13864
13865 </ul>
13866
13867 <p>So I wonder, what would be the best way to create the PDF version
13868 of this book?  Are some of the bugs found above solved in new or
13869 experimental versions of some docbook tool chain?</p>
13870
13871 <p>What about HTML and EPUB versions?</p>
13872
13873       </div>
13874       <div class="tags">
13875
13876
13877         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
13878
13879
13880       </div>
13881     </div>
13882     <div class="padding"></div>
13883
13884     <div class="entry">
13885       <div class="title">
13886         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html">Free Culture in Norwegian - 5 chapters done, 74 percent left to do</a>
13887       </div>
13888       <div class="date">
13889         21st July 2012
13890       </div>
13891       <div class="body">
13892         <p>I reported earlier that I am working on
13893 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">a
13894 norwegian version</a> of the book
13895 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
13896 Progress is good, and yesterday I got a major contribution from Anders
13897 Hagen Jarmund completing chapter six.  The source files as well as a
13898 PDF and EPUB version of this book are available from
13899 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
13900
13901 <p>I am happy to report that the draft for the first two chapters
13902 (preface, introduction) is complete, and three other chapters are also
13903 completely translated.  This completes 26 percent of the number of
13904 strings (equivalent to paragraphs) in the book, and there is thus 74
13905 percent left to translate.  A graph of the progress is present at the
13906 bottom of the github project page.  There is still room for more
13907 contributors.  Get in touch or send github pull requests with fixes if
13908 you got time and are willing to help make this book make it to
13909 print. :)</p>
13910
13911 <p>The book translation framework could also be a good basis for other
13912 translations, if you want the book to be available in your
13913 language.</p>
13914
13915       </div>
13916       <div class="tags">
13917
13918
13919         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
13920
13921
13922       </div>
13923     </div>
13924     <div class="padding"></div>
13925
13926     <div class="entry">
13927       <div class="title">
13928         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Call_for_help_from_docbook_expert_to_tag_Free_Culture_by_Lawrence_Lessig.html">Call for help from docbook expert to tag Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig</a>
13929       </div>
13930       <div class="date">
13931         16th July 2012
13932       </div>
13933       <div class="body">
13934         <p>I am currently working on a
13935 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">project
13936 to translate</a> the book
13937 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig
13938 to Norwegian.  And the source we base our translation on is the
13939 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook">docbook</a> version, to
13940 allow us to use po4a and .po files to handle the translation, and for
13941 this to work well the docbook source document need to be properly
13942 tagged.  The source files of this project is available from
13943 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
13944
13945 <p>The problem is that the docbook source have flaws, and we have
13946 no-one involved in the project that is a docbook expert.  Is there a
13947 docbook expert somewhere that is interested in helping us create a
13948 well tagged docbook version of the book, and adjust our build process
13949 for the PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book?  This will provide a
13950 well tagged English version (our source document), and make it a lot
13951 easier for us to create a good Norwegian version.  If you can and want
13952 to help, please get in touch with me or fork the github project and
13953 send pull requests with fixes. :)</p>
13954
13955       </div>
13956       <div class="tags">
13957
13958
13959         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
13960
13961
13962       </div>
13963     </div>
13964     <div class="padding"></div>
13965
13966     <div class="entry">
13967       <div class="title">
13968         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__George_Bredberg.html">Debian Edu interview: George Bredberg</a>
13969       </div>
13970       <div class="date">
13971          9th July 2012
13972       </div>
13973       <div class="body">
13974         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
13975 Skolelinux</a> project have users all over the globe, but until
13976 recently we have not known about any users in Norway's neighbour
13977 country Sweden.  This changed when George Bredberg showed up in March
13978 this year on the mailing list, asking interesting questions about how
13979 to adjust and scale the just released
13980 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
13981 Wheezy</a> setup to his liking.  He granted me an interview, and I am
13982 happy to share his answers with you here.</p>
13983
13984 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
13985
13986 <p>I'm a 44 year old country guy that have been working 12 years at
13987 the same school as 50% IT-manager and 50% Teacher. My educational
13988 background is fil.kand in history and religious beliefs, an exam as a
13989 "folkhighschool" teacher, that is, for teaching grownups.  In
13990 Norwegian I believe it's called "Vuxenupplaring". I also have a master
13991 in "Technology and social change". So I'm not really a tech guy, I
13992 just like to study how humans and technology interact and that is my
13993 perspective when working with IT.</p>
13994
13995 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
13996 project?</strong></p>
13997
13998 I have followed the Skolelinux project for quite some time by
13999 now. Earlier I tested out the K12-LTSP project, which we used for some
14000 time, but I really like the idea of having a distribution aimed to be
14001 a complete solution for schools with necessary tools integrated. When
14002 K12-LTSP abandoned that idea some years ago, I started to look more
14003 seriously into Skolelinux instead.
14004
14005 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
14006 Edu?</strong></p>
14007
14008 The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete
14009 distribution, ready to install. It has LDAP-support, MS Windows
14010 integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an
14011 administrator a lot of time and headache. We were using another Linux
14012 based thin-client system called Thinlinc, that has served us very
14013 well. But that Skolelinux is based on VNC and LTSP, to me, is better
14014 when it comes to the kind of multimedia used in schools. That is
14015 showing videos from Youtube or educational TV. It is also easier to
14016 mix thin clients with workstations, since the user settings will be the
14017 same. In our VNC-based solution you had to "beat around the bush" by
14018 setting up a second, hidden, home-directory for user settings for the
14019 workstations, because they will be different from the ones used on the
14020 thin clients. Skolelinux support for diskless workstations are very
14021 convenient since a school today often need to use a class room
14022 projector showing videos in full screen. That is easily done with a
14023 small integrated media computer running as a diskless workstation. You
14024 have only two installs to update and configure. One for the thin
14025 clients and one for the workstations. Also saving a lot of time.  Our
14026 old system was also based on Redhat and CentOS. They are both very
14027 nice distributions, but they are sometimes painfully slow when it
14028 comes to updating multimedia support and multimedia programs (even
14029 such as Gimp), leaving us with a bit "oldish" applications. Debian is
14030 quicker to update.
14031
14032 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
14033 Edu?</strong></p>
14034
14035 <p>Debian is a bit too quick when it comes to updating. As an example
14036 we use old HP terminals as thinclients, and two times already this
14037 year (2012) the updates you get from the repositories has stopped
14038 sound from working with them.  It's a kernel/ALSA issue. So you have
14039 to be more careful properly testing the updates before you run them in
14040 a production environment. This has never happened with CentOS.</p>
14041
14042 <p>I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at
14043 install time.  In Skolelinux they are kind of hard coded into the
14044 distribution, when it comes to LDAP and at least samba integration.
14045 That is more a cosmetic/translation issue, and not a real problem.
14046 Running MS Windows applications within the Skolelinux environment needs
14047 to be better supported. That is, running them seamlessly via RDP, and
14048 support for single-sign on.  That will make the transition to free
14049 software easier, because you can keep the applications you really
14050 need.  No support will make it impossible if you work in a school where
14051 some applications can't be open source. As for us we really need to
14052 run Adobe InDesign in our journalist classes.  We run a journalist
14053 education, and is one of the very few non university ones that is ok:d
14054 by Svenska journalistförbundet (Swedish journalist association).  Our
14055 education gives the pupils the right of membership there, once they
14056 are done.  This is important if you want to get a job.</p>
14057
14058 <p>Adobe InDesign is the program most commonly used in newspapers and
14059 magazines.  We used Quark Express before, but they seem to loose there
14060 market to Adobe. The only "equivalent" to InDesign in the opensource
14061 world is Scribus, and its not advanced enough. At least not according
14062 to the teacher. I think it would be possible to use it, because they
14063 are not supposed to learn a program, they are supposed to learn how to
14064 edit and compile a newspaper.  But politically at our school we are not
14065 there yet.  And Scribus lacks a lot of things you find i InDesign.</p>
14066
14067 <p>We used even a windows program for sound editing when it comes to
14068 the radio-journalist part. The year to come we are going to try
14069 Audacity. That software has the same kind of limitations compared to
14070 Adobe Audition, but that teacher is a bit more open minded. We have
14071 tried Ardour also, but that instead is more like a music studio
14072 program, not intended for the kind of editing taking place in a radio
14073 studio. Its way to complex and the GUI is to scattered when you only
14074 want to cut, make pass-overs, add extra channels and normalise.  Those
14075 things you can do in Audacity, but its not as easy as in Audition. You
14076 have to do more things manually with envelopes, and that is a bit old
14077 fashion and timewasting. Its also harder to cut and move sound from
14078 one channel to another, which is a thing that you do frequently
14079 because you often find yourself needing to rearrange parts of the
14080 sound file.</p>
14081
14082 <p>So, I am not sure we will succeed in replacing even Audition, but we
14083 will try.  The problem is the students have certain expectations when
14084 they start an education towards a profession.  So the programs has to
14085 look and feel professional.  Good thing with radio, there are many
14086 programs out there, that radio studios use, so its not as standardised
14087 as Newspaper editing. That means, it does not really matter what
14088 program they learn, because once they start working they still have to
14089 learn the program the studio uses, so instead focus has to be to learn
14090 the editing part without to much focus on a specific software.</p>
14091
14092 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
14093
14094 <p>Myself I'm running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days.  I use almost
14095 only open source software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes
14096 to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;)
14097 )</p>
14098
14099 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
14100 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
14101
14102 <p>To get schools to use free software there has to be good open
14103 source software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But
14104 it's also very important that the multimedia support is working
14105 flawlessly.  The problems with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whatever
14106 will create problems when it comes to both teachers and
14107 students. Economy are also important for schools, so using thin
14108 clients, as long as they have good multimedia support, is a very good
14109 idea. It's also important that the open source software works even for
14110 the administration.  It's hard to convince the teachers to stick with
14111 open source, if the principal has to run Windows.  It also creates a
14112 problem if some classes has to use Windows for there tasks, since that
14113 will create a difference in "status" between classes, so a good
14114 support for running windows applications via the thin client (Linux)
14115 desktop is essential.  At least at our school, where we have mixed
14116 level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.</p>
14117
14118 <p>Update 2012-07-09 08:30: Paul Wise tipped me on IRC about three
14119 useful sources related to Free Software for radio stations: the LWN
14120 article <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/481607/">Radio station
14121 management with Airtime</a>,
14122 <a href="http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/airtime/">Airtime</a> which
14123 claim to be a Free open source radio automation software and
14124 <a href="http://www.rivendellaudio.org/">Rivendell</a> which claim to
14125 be complete radio broadcast automation solution.  All of them seem
14126 useful to the aspiring radio producer.</p>
14127
14128       </div>
14129       <div class="tags">
14130
14131
14132         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
14133
14134
14135       </div>
14136     </div>
14137     <div class="padding"></div>
14138
14139     <div class="entry">
14140       <div class="title">
14141         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_do_schools_waste_money_on_IT_.html">Why do schools waste money on IT?</a>
14142       </div>
14143       <div class="date">
14144          8th July 2012
14145       </div>
14146       <div class="body">
14147         <p>In the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project, we have realised that one
14148 of the major blockers for the project success is the purchasing skills
14149 in schools and municipalities.  We provide what the happy users of
14150 Debian Edu / Skolelinux say they need and to a lower cost than the
14151 alternatives, and yet so few schools decide to use our solution.  I
14152 was pleased to discover the same observation done by mySociety and Tom
14153 Steinberg in his blog post
14154 "<a href="http://www.mysociety.org/2012/06/19/can-you-recognize-the-million-pound-chair/">Can
14155 you recognize the million pound chair?</a>".  Read it and weep for the
14156 spending of your tax money.</p>
14157
14158 <p>Of course there are other factors involved as well, like our
14159 projects bad marketing skills and the Linux community fragmentation
14160 causing worry with the people on the outside, so we as a project need
14161 to keep working hard to gain users, but it is a up-hill battle when
14162 public decision makers are unable to understand computer system
14163 purchases.</p>
14164
14165       </div>
14166       <div class="tags">
14167
14168
14169         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14170
14171
14172       </div>
14173     </div>
14174     <div class="padding"></div>
14175
14176     <div class="entry">
14177       <div class="title">
14178         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Timetabling_Software___nice_free_software.html">Free Timetabling Software - nice free software</a>
14179       </div>
14180       <div class="date">
14181          7th July 2012
14182       </div>
14183       <div class="body">
14184         <p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
14185 Skolelinux</a> is a large collection of end user and school specific
14186 software.  It is one of the packages not installed by default but
14187 provided in the Debian archive for schools to install if they want to,
14188 is a system to automatically plan the school time table using
14189 information about available teachers, classes and rooms, combined with
14190 the list of required courses and how many hours each topic should
14191 receive.  The software is
14192
14193 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/">named FET</a>, and it provide a
14194 graphical user interface to input the required information, save the
14195 result in a fairly simple XML format, and generate time tables for
14196 both teachers and students.  It is available both for
14197 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download.html">Linux, MacOSX and
14198 Windows</a>.</p>
14199
14200 <p>This is <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/features.html">the
14201 feature list</a>, liftet from the project web site:</p>
14202
14203 <p><ul>
14204
14205   <li>FET is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL v2 or later.
14206     You can freely use, copy, modify and redistribute it </li>
14207
14208   <li>Localized to en_US (US English, default), ar (Arabic), ca
14209     (Catalan), da (Danish), de (German), el (Greek), es (Spanish), fa
14210     (Persian), fr (French), gl (Galician), he (Hebrew), hu
14211     (Hungarian), id (Indonesian), it (Italian), lt (Lithuanian), mk
14212     (Macedonian), ms (Malay), nl (Dutch), pl (Polish), pt_BR
14213     (Brazilian Portuguese), ro (Romanian), ru (Russian), si (Sinhala),
14214     sk (Slovak), sr (Serbian), tr (Turkish), uk (Ukrainian), uz
14215     (Uzbek) and vi (Vietnamese) (incompletely for some languages)
14216     </li>
14217
14218   <li>Fully automatic generation algorithm, allowing also
14219     semi-automatic or manual allocation</li>
14220
14221   <li>Platform independent implementation, allowing running on
14222     GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac and any system that Qt supports </li>
14223
14224   <li>Flexible modular XML format for the input file, allowing editing
14225     with an XML editor or by hand (besides FET interface)</li>
14226
14227   <li>Import/export from CSV format</li>
14228
14229   <li>The resulted timetables are exported into HTML, XML and CSV
14230     formats </li>
14231
14232   <li>Flexible students structure, organized into sets: years, groups
14233     and subgroups. FET allows overlapping years and groups and
14234     non-overlapping subgroups. You can even define individual students
14235     (as separate sets)</li>
14236
14237   <li>Each constraint has a weight percentage, from 0.0% to 100.0%
14238     (but some special constraints are allowed to have only 100% weight
14239     percentage)</li>
14240
14241   <li>Limits for the algorithm (all these limits can be increased on
14242     demand, as a custom version, because this would require a bit more
14243     memory):
14244     <ul>
14245       <li>Maximum total number of hours (periods) per day: 60</li>
14246       <li>Maximum number of working days per week: 35</li>
14247       <li>Maximum total number of teachers: 6000</li>
14248       <li>Maximum total number of sets of students: 30000</li>
14249       <li>Maximum total number of subjects: 6000</li>
14250       <li>Virtually unlimited number of activity tags</li>
14251       <li>Maximum number of activities: 30000</li>
14252       <li>Maximum number of rooms: 6000</li>
14253       <li>Maximum number of buildings: 6000</li>
14254       <li>Possibility of adding multiple teachers and
14255           students sets for each activity.  (it is possible
14256           also to have no teachers or no students sets for an
14257           activity)</li>
14258       <li>Virtually unlimited number of time constraints</li>
14259       <li>Virtually unlimited number of space constraints</li>
14260     </ul></li>
14261
14262   <li>A large and flexible palette of time constraints:
14263     <ul>
14264       <li>Break periods</li>
14265       <li>For teacher(s):
14266         <ul>
14267           <li>Not available periods</li>
14268           <li>Max/min days per week</li>
14269           <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
14270           <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
14271           <li>Min hours daily</li>
14272           <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
14273
14274           <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
14275             days per week</li>
14276         </ul></li>
14277       <li>For students (sets):
14278         <ul>
14279           <li>Not available periods</li>
14280           <li>Begins early (specify max allowed beginnings at second hour)</li>
14281           <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
14282           <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
14283           <li>Min hours daily</li>
14284           <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
14285
14286           <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
14287             days per week</li>
14288         </ul></li>
14289       <li>For an activity or a set of activities/subactivities:
14290         <ul>
14291           <li>A single preferred starting time</li>
14292           <li>A set of preferred starting times</li>
14293           <li>A set of preferred time slots</li>
14294           <li>Min/max days between them</li>
14295           <li>End(s) students day</li>
14296           <li>Same starting time/day/hour</li>
14297           <li>Occupy max time slots from selection (a complex and
14298             flexible constraint, useful in many situations)</li>
14299           <li>Consecutive, ordered, grouped (for 2 or 3 (sub)activities)</li>
14300           <li>Not overlapping</li>
14301           <li>Max simultaneous in selected time slots</li>
14302           <li>Min gaps between a set of (sub)activities</li>
14303         </ul></li>
14304     </ul></li>
14305
14306   <li>A large and flexible palette of space constraints:
14307     <ul>
14308       <li>Room not available periods</li>
14309       <li>For teacher(s):
14310         <ul>
14311           <li>Home room(s)</li>
14312           <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
14313           <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
14314         </ul>
14315       </li>
14316
14317       <li>For students (sets):
14318         <ul>
14319           <li>Home room(s)</li>
14320           <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
14321           <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
14322         </ul>
14323       </li>
14324       <li>Preferred room(s):
14325         <ul>
14326           <li>For a subject</li>
14327           <li>For an activity tag</li>
14328           <li>For a subject and an activity tag</li>
14329           <li>Individually for a (sub)activity</li>
14330         </ul>
14331       </li>
14332
14333       <li>For a set of activities:
14334         <ul>
14335           <li>Occupy a maximum number of different rooms</li>
14336         </ul>
14337       </li>
14338     </ul>
14339   </li>
14340 </ul></p>
14341
14342 <p>I have not used it myself, as I am not involved in time table
14343 planning at a school, but it seem to work fine when I test it.  If you
14344 need to set up your schools time table, and is tired of doing it
14345 manually, check it out.
14346
14347 A quick summary on how to use it can be found in
14348 <a href="http://marvelsoft.co.in/wp/2012/03/generate-timetable-for-state-cbse-icse-igcse-schools-free/">a
14349 blog post from MarvelSoft</a>.  If you find FET useful, please provide
14350 a recipe for the Debian Edu project in the
14351 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu#Howtos">Debian Edu HowTo
14352 section</a>.</p>
14353
14354       </div>
14355       <div class="tags">
14356
14357
14358         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
14359
14360
14361       </div>
14362     </div>
14363     <div class="padding"></div>
14364
14365     <div class="entry">
14366       <div class="title">
14367         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Can_Zimbra_be_told_to_send_autoreplies_to_the_From__address_.html">Can Zimbra be told to send autoreplies to the From: address?</a>
14368       </div>
14369       <div class="date">
14370          3rd July 2012
14371       </div>
14372       <div class="body">
14373         <p>In the NUUG <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a>
14374 project (Norwegian version of
14375 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> from
14376 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a>), we have discovered
14377 a problem with the municipalities using
14378 <a href="http://www.zimbra.com/">Zimbra</a>.  When FiksGataMi send a
14379 problem report to the government, the email From: address is set to
14380 the address of the person reporting the problem, while envelope sender
14381 is set to the FiksGataMi contact address.  The intention is to make
14382 sure the municipality send any replies to the person reporting the
14383 problem, while any email delivery problems are sent to us in NUUG.
14384 This work well in most cases, but not for Karmøy municipality using
14385 Zimbra.  Karmøy is using the vacation message function in Zimbra to
14386 send an automatic reply to report that the message has been received,
14387 and this message is sent to the envelope sender and not the address in
14388 the From: header.</p>
14389
14390 <p>This causes the automatic message from Karmøy to go to NUUGs
14391 request-tracker instance instead of to the person reporting the
14392 problem.  We can not really change the envelope sender address, as
14393 this would make it impossible for us to discover when there are
14394 problems with the MTAs receiving problem reports.  We have been in
14395 contact with the people at Karmøy municipality, and they are willing
14396 to adjust Zimbra if something can be changed there to get a better
14397 behaviour.</p>
14398
14399 <p>The default behaviour of Zimbra is as far as I can tell according
14400 to the specification in RFC 3834, which recommend that vacation
14401 messages are sent to the envelope sender and not to the From: address.
14402 But I wonder if it is possible to adjust or configure Zimbra to behave
14403 differently.  Anyone know?  Please let us know at
14404 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami">fiksgatami
14405 (at) nuug.no</a>.</p>
14406
14407       </div>
14408       <div class="tags">
14409
14410
14411         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14412
14413
14414       </div>
14415     </div>
14416     <div class="padding"></div>
14417
14418     <div class="entry">
14419       <div class="title">
14420         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jos__Luis_Redrejo_Rodr_guez.html">Debian Edu interview: José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez</a>
14421       </div>
14422       <div class="date">
14423         26th June 2012
14424       </div>
14425       <div class="body">
14426         <p>I've been too busy at home, but finally I found time to wrap up
14427 another interview with the people behind
14428 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
14429 This time we get to know José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez, one of our great
14430 helpers from Spain.  His effort was the reason we added support for
14431 several desktop types (KDE, Gnome and most recently LXDE) in Debian
14432 Edu, and have all of these available in the recently published
14433 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
14434 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
14435
14436 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
14437
14438 <p>I'm a father, teacher and engineer who is working for the Education
14439 ministry of the Region of Extremadura (Spain) in the implementation of
14440 ICT in schools</p>
14441
14442 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
14443 project?</strong></p>
14444
14445 <p>At 2006, I verified that both, we in Extremadura and Skolelinux
14446 project, had been working in parallel for some years, doing very
14447 similar things, using very similar tools and with similar targets, so
14448 I decided it was time to join forces as much as possible.</p>
14449
14450 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
14451 Edu?</strong></p>
14452
14453 <p>A community of highly skilled experts working together, with a
14454 really open schema of collaboration and work. I really love the
14455 concepts of Do-ocracy and Merit-ocracy and the way these concepts are
14456 been used everyday inside Debian Edu.</p>
14457
14458 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
14459 Edu?</strong></p>
14460
14461 <p>Sometimes the differences in the implementations, laws or
14462 economical and technical resources in the different countries don't
14463 allow us to agree in the same solution for all of us, and several
14464 approaches are needed, what is a waste of effort. Also, there is a
14465 lack of more man power to be able to follow the fast evolution of the
14466 technologies in school.</p>
14467
14468 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
14469
14470 <p>Debian, of course, and due to my kind of job I am most of my time
14471 between Iceweasel, <a href="http://www.geany.org/">Geany</a> and
14472 <a href="http://www.ohloh.net/p/gnome-terminator">Terminator</a>.</p>
14473
14474 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
14475 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
14476
14477 <p>I think there is not a single strategy because there are very
14478 different scenarios: schools with mixed proprietary and free
14479 environments, schools using only workstations, other schools using
14480 laptops, netbooks, tablets, interactive white-boards, etc.</p>
14481
14482 <p>Also the range of ages of the students is very broad and you can
14483 not use the same solutions for primary schools and secondary or even
14484 universities. So different strategies are needed.</p>
14485
14486 <p>But, looking at these differences, and looking back to the things
14487 we've done and implemented, and the places were we have spent most of
14488 our forces, I think we should focus as much as possible in free
14489 multi-platform environments, using only standards tools, and moving
14490 more and more to Internet or network solutions that could be deployed
14491 using wireless. I think we'll see more and more personal devices in
14492 the schools, devices the students and teachers will take home with
14493 them, so the solutions must be able to be taken at home and continue
14494 working there.</p>
14495
14496       </div>
14497       <div class="tags">
14498
14499
14500         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
14501
14502
14503       </div>
14504     </div>
14505     <div class="padding"></div>
14506
14507     <div class="entry">
14508       <div class="title">
14509         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
14510       </div>
14511       <div class="date">
14512         24th June 2012
14513       </div>
14514       <div class="body">
14515         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
14516 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
14517 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
14518 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
14519 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
14520 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
14521 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
14522 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
14523 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
14524 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
14525 missing in my book.</p>
14526
14527 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
14528 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
14529 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
14530 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
14531 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
14532 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
14533 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
14534
14535       </div>
14536       <div class="tags">
14537
14538
14539         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
14540
14541
14542       </div>
14543     </div>
14544     <div class="padding"></div>
14545
14546     <div class="entry">
14547       <div class="title">
14548         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___some_ideas_for_the_future_versions.html">Debian Edu - some ideas for the future versions</a>
14549       </div>
14550       <div class="date">
14551         11th June 2012
14552       </div>
14553       <div class="body">
14554         <p>During my work on
14555 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.nb.html">Debian Edu
14556 based on Squeeze</a>, I came across some issues that should be
14557 addressed in the Wheezy release.  I finally found time to wrap up my
14558 notes and provide quick summary of what I found, with a bit
14559 explanation.</p>
14560
14561 <p><ul>
14562
14563 <li>We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel
14564 changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages
14565 with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation
14566 system depend on tasksel tasks in
14567 /usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package
14568 installation.</li>
14569
14570 <li>Enable Kerberos login for more services.  Now with the Kerberos
14571 foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more
14572 services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions.  We should
14573 at least try to enable it for these services:
14574 <ul>
14575
14576   <li>CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using
14577     quotas.</li>
14578   <li>Nagios for admins checking the system status.</li>
14579   <li>GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords.</li>
14580   <li>LDAP for admins updating LDAP.</li>
14581   <li>Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active.</li>
14582   <li>ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt.</li>
14583
14584 </ul></li>
14585
14586 <li>When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to
14587 authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to
14588 use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it
14589 is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind</li>
14590
14591 <li>Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install.  The split made
14592 sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an
14593 inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values.</li>
14594
14595 <li>Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before
14596 touching the disk if the disk is too small.  This is
14597 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/653305">BTS report #653305</a> and the
14598 d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply
14599 it and upload.  After this is done we need to adjust
14600 debian-edu-install to use this new hook.</li>
14601
14602 <li>Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install
14603 time config).  LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install
14604 packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work
14605 in Wheezy.
14606
14607 <li>Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow
14608 the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding
14609 up KDE login on slow networks.</li>
14610
14611 <li>Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to
14612 change on first login.  This is useful when handing out password on
14613 paper, to make sure only the user know the password.  This require
14614 fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm.</li>
14615
14616 <li>Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary.
14617 The current command line script is not very friendly to people most
14618 familiar with GUIs.  This should probably be integrated into GOsa to
14619 have it available where the admin will be looking for it..</li>
14620
14621 <li>We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service
14622 actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses).  None of the
14623 Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me.</li>
14624
14625 <li>We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles
14626 using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less
14627 packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles.</li>
14628
14629 <li>We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password
14630 when changing password using the Kerberos protocol.  The hook was
14631 requested in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/588968">BTS report
14632 #588968</a> and is now available in Wheezy.  We might need to write a
14633 MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this.</li>
14634
14635 <li>We should clean up the set of applications installed by default.
14636 <ul>
14637
14638 <li>reduce the number of chemistry visualisers</li>
14639 <li>consider dropping xpaint</li>
14640 <li>and probably more?</li>
14641 </ul></li>
14642
14643 <li>Some hardware need external firmware to work properly.  This is
14644 mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other
14645 examples too.  For popular laptops to work out of the box, such
14646 firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide
14647 some GUI to do this.  Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we
14648 could consider using their packages.  At the moment we have some
14649 command line script to do this (one for the running system, another
14650 for the LTSP chroot).</li>
14651
14652
14653 <li>In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options.  We
14654 should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to
14655 install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to
14656 use.</li>
14657
14658 <li>The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out
14659 interesting educational packages.  We should work on the package
14660 tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational
14661 packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install
14662 new applications with a simple mouse click.</li>
14663
14664 <li>The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place,
14665 with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to
14666 be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable
14667 filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled.  We should
14668 implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it,
14669 instead of the "it is documented" method of today.</li>
14670
14671 <li>A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to
14672 "take over" the desktop of individual or all computers in the room.
14673 There are at least three implementations,
14674 <a href="italc.sourceforge.net/">italc</a>,
14675 <a href="http://www.itais.net/help/en/">controlaula</a> og
14676 <a href="http://www.epoptes.org/">epoptes</a> and we should pick one of
14677 them and make it trivial to set it up in a school.  The challenges is
14678 how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room
14679 and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a
14680 given room.</li>
14681
14682 <li>Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we
14683 should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into
14684 the Debian Edu network.  Not quite sure how.  Perhaps we should
14685 provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for
14686 them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange
14687 configuration and data with the central server.  This should be
14688 investigated.</li>
14689
14690 </ul></p>
14691
14692 <p>I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy
14693 version.</p>
14694
14695       </div>
14696       <div class="tags">
14697
14698
14699         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14700
14701
14702       </div>
14703     </div>
14704     <div class="padding"></div>
14705
14706     <div class="entry">
14707       <div class="title">
14708         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/TV_with_face_recognition__for_improved_viewer_experience.html">TV with face recognition, for improved viewer experience</a>
14709       </div>
14710       <div class="date">
14711          9th June 2012
14712       </div>
14713       <div class="body">
14714         <p>Slashdot got a story about Intel planning a
14715 <a href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/06/09/0012247/intel-to-launch-tv-service-with-facial-recognition-by-end-of-the-year">TV
14716 with face recognition</a> to recognise the viewer, and it occurred to
14717 me that it would be more interesting to turn it around, and do face
14718 recognition on the TV image itself.  It could let the viewer know who
14719 is present on the screen, and perhaps look up their credibility,
14720 company affiliation, previous appearances etc for the viewer to better
14721 evaluate what is being said and done.  That would be a feature I would
14722 be willing to pay for.</p>
14723
14724 <p>I would not be willing to pay for a TV that point a camera on my
14725 household, like the big brother feature apparently proposed by Intel.
14726 It is the telescreen idea fetched straight out of the book
14727 <a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt">1984 by George
14728 Orwell</a>.</p>
14729
14730       </div>
14731       <div class="tags">
14732
14733
14734         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
14735
14736
14737       </div>
14738     </div>
14739     <div class="padding"></div>
14740
14741     <div class="entry">
14742       <div class="title">
14743         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_service_to_look_up_HP_and_Dell_computer_hardware_support_status.html">Web service to look up HP and Dell computer hardware support status</a>
14744       </div>
14745       <div class="date">
14746          6th June 2012
14747       </div>
14748       <div class="body">
14749         <p>A few days ago
14750 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">I
14751 reported how to get</a> the support status out of Dell using an
14752 unofficial and undocumented SOAP API, which I since have found out was
14753 <a href="http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2012-February/045959.html">discovered
14754 by Daniel De Marco in february</a>.  Combined with my web scraping
14755 code for HP, Dell and IBM
14756 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">from
14757 2009</a>, I got inspired and wrote
14758 <a href="https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/">a
14759 web service</a> based on Scraperwiki to make it easy to look up the
14760 support status and get a machine readable result back.</p>
14761
14762 <p>This is what it look like at the moment when asking for the JSON
14763 output:
14764
14765 <blockquote><pre>
14766 % GET <a href="https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&vendor=Dell&servicetag=2v1xwn1">https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&vendor=Dell&servicetag=2v1xwn1</a>
14767 supportstatus({"servicetag": "2v1xwn1", "warrantyend": "2013-11-24", "shipped": "2010-11-24", "scrapestamputc": "2012-06-06T20:26:56.965847", "scrapedurl": "http://143.166.84.118/services/assetservice.asmx?WSDL", "vendor": "Dell", "productid": ""})
14768 %
14769 </pre></blockquote>
14770
14771 <p>It currently support Dell and HP, and I am hoping for help to add
14772 support for other vendors.  The python source is available on
14773 Scraperwiki and I welcome help with adding more features.</p>
14774
14775       </div>
14776       <div class="tags">
14777
14778
14779         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14780
14781
14782       </div>
14783     </div>
14784     <div class="padding"></div>
14785
14786     <div class="entry">
14787       <div class="title">
14788         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel</a>
14789       </div>
14790       <div class="date">
14791          2nd June 2012
14792       </div>
14793       <div class="body">
14794         <p>Back in 2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the
14795 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
14796 mailing list.  He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and
14797 thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the
14798 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
14799 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
14800
14801 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
14802
14803 <p>My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel,
14804 Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner
14805 (Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed
14806 by Angela).</p>
14807
14808 <p>During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator
14809 and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work
14810 touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During
14811 the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in
14812 becoming an osteopath.</p>
14813
14814 <p>Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel)
14815 have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at
14816 introducing free software into schools. The project's name is
14817 "IT-Zukunft Schule" (IT future for schools). The project links IT
14818 skills with communication skills.</p>
14819
14820 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
14821 project?</strong></p>
14822
14823 <p>While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for
14824 "IT-Zukunft Schule" we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to
14825 reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available,
14826 people said.  From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux
14827 distributions that target being used for school networks.</p>
14828
14829 <p>At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a
14830 commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen,
14831 Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we
14832 went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing
14833 and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian
14834 Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that
14835 got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most
14836 attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within
14837 the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.</p>
14838
14839 <p>In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local
14840 people.  People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data
14841 protection experts, other IT professionals.</p>
14842
14843 <p>We came to two conclusions:</p>
14844
14845 <p>First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in
14846 bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit
14847 by 100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup
14848 whereas most of each school's requirements could mapped by a standard
14849 IT solution.  The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and
14850 customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are
14851 possible.  In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a
14852 standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some
14853 degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here
14854 locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting
14855 point.</p>
14856
14857 <p>Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at
14858 all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions
14859 for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What
14860 has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment
14861 of people into using IT and teaching with IT. "IT-Zukunft Schule"
14862 tries to provide an approach for this.</p>
14863
14864 <p>Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains,
14865 defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in
14866 Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school's IT
14867 equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin)
14868 teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there
14869 spare time.</p>
14870
14871 <p>We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were
14872 networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school
14873 here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to
14874 teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi
14875 non-existent until 2010/2011.</p>
14876
14877 <p>Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in
14878 class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this
14879 avoidance do exist.</p>
14880
14881 <p>We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this
14882 social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey
14883 for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with
14884 several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and
14885 they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management
14886 at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new
14887 and probably a gain for all.</p>
14888
14889 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
14890 Edu?</strong></p>
14891
14892 <p>There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to
14893 any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian,
14894 the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone
14895 workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within
14896 project communication, honest communication within the group of
14897 developers, etc.</p>
14898
14899 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
14900 Edu?</strong></p>
14901
14902 <p>Every coin has two sides:</p>
14903
14904 <p>Technically: <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/311188">BTS issue
14905 #311188</a>, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network
14906 client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation
14907 should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think
14908 about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into
14909 several portions (to make it easier for new developers to
14910 contribute).</p>
14911
14912 <p>Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should
14913 find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for
14914 Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany
14915 promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are
14916 there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring
14917 these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and
14918 all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last
14919 meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people
14920 there being rather disconnected from the development department of
14921 Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
14922
14923 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
14924
14925 <p>For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.</p>
14926
14927 <p>For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For
14928 serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for
14929 more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.</p>
14930
14931 <p>I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the
14932 development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI.
14933 PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently
14934 is being integrated in Ubuntu's software center.</p>
14935
14936 <p>For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde
14937 as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber
14938 I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also
14939 the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive
14940 whiteboard.</p>
14941
14942 <p>My favourite terminal emulator is KDE's Yakuake.</p>
14943
14944 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
14945 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
14946
14947 <p>Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people,
14948 enrol people.</p>
14949
14950       </div>
14951       <div class="tags">
14952
14953
14954         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
14955
14956
14957       </div>
14958     </div>
14959     <div class="padding"></div>
14960
14961     <div class="entry">
14962       <div class="title">
14963         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">SOAP based webservice from Dell to check server support status</a>
14964       </div>
14965       <div class="date">
14966          1st June 2012
14967       </div>
14968       <div class="body">
14969         <p>A few years ago I wrote
14970 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">how
14971 to extract support status</a> for your Dell and HP servers.  Recently
14972 I have learned from colleges here at the
14973 <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> that Dell have
14974 made this even easier, by providing a SOAP based web service.  Given
14975 the service tag, one can now query the Dell servers and get machine
14976 readable information about the support status.  This perl code
14977 demonstrate how to do it:</p>
14978
14979 <p><pre>
14980 use strict;
14981 use warnings;
14982 use SOAP::Lite;
14983 use Data::Dumper;
14984 my $GUID = '11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111';
14985 my $App = 'test';
14986 my $servicetag = $ARGV[0] or die "Please supply a servicetag. $!\n";
14987 my ($deal, $latest, @dates);
14988 my $s = SOAP::Lite
14989     -> uri('http://support.dell.com/WebServices/')
14990     -> on_action( sub { join '', @_ } )
14991     -> proxy('http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx')
14992     ;
14993 my $a = $s->GetAssetInformation(
14994     SOAP::Data->name('guid')->value($GUID)->type(''),
14995     SOAP::Data->name('applicationName')->value($App)->type(''),
14996     SOAP::Data->name('serviceTags')->value($servicetag)->type(''),
14997 );
14998 print Dumper($a -> result) ;
14999 </pre></p>
15000
15001 <p>The output can look like this:</p>
15002
15003 <p><pre>
15004 $VAR1 = {
15005           'Asset' => {
15006                      'Entitlements' => {
15007                                        'EntitlementData' => [
15008                                                             {
15009                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
15010                                                               'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
15011                                                               'Provider' => '',
15012                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
15013                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
15014                                                             },
15015                                                             {
15016                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
15017                                                               'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
15018                                                               'Provider' => '',
15019                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
15020                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
15021                                                             },
15022                                                             {
15023                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
15024                                                               'EndDate' => '2007-07-29T00:00:00',
15025                                                               'Provider' => '',
15026                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
15027                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
15028                                                             }
15029                                                           ]
15030                                      },
15031                      'AssetHeaderData' => {
15032                                           'SystemModel' => 'GX620',
15033                                           'ServiceTag' => '8DSGD2J',
15034                                           'SystemShipDate' => '2006-07-29T19:00:00-05:00',
15035                                           'Buid' => '2323',
15036                                           'Region' => 'Europe',
15037                                           'SystemID' => 'PLX_GX620',
15038                                           'SystemType' => 'OptiPlex'
15039                                         }
15040                    }
15041         };
15042 </pre></p>
15043
15044 <p>I have not been able to find any documentation from Dell about this
15045 service outside the
15046 <a href="http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx?op=GetAssetInformation">inline
15047 documentation</a>, and according to
15048 <a href="http://iboyd.net/index.php/2012/02/14/updated-dell-warranty-information-script/">one
15049 comment</a> it can have stability issues, but it is a lot better than
15050 scraping HTML pages. :)</p>
15051
15052 <p>Wonder if HP and other server vendors have a similar service.  If
15053 you know of one, drop me an email. :)</p>
15054
15055       </div>
15056       <div class="tags">
15057
15058
15059         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
15060
15061
15062       </div>
15063     </div>
15064     <div class="padding"></div>
15065
15066     <div class="entry">
15067       <div class="title">
15068         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_monitor_calibration_using_ColorHug.html">First monitor calibration using ColorHug</a>
15069       </div>
15070       <div class="date">
15071         31st May 2012
15072       </div>
15073       <div class="body">
15074         <p>A few days ago my color calibration gadget
15075 <a href="http://www.hughski.com/index.html">ColorHug</a> arrived in the
15076 mail, and I've had a few days to test it.  As all my machines are
15077 running Debian Squeeze, where
15078 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">the
15079 calibration software</a> is missing (it is present in Wheezy and Sid),
15080 I ran the calibration using the Fedora based live CD.  This worked
15081 just fine.  So far I have only done the quick calibration.  It was
15082 slow enough for me, so I will leave the more extensive calibration for
15083 another day.</p>
15084
15085 <p>After calibration, I get a
15086 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile">ICC color
15087 profile</a> file that can be passed to programs understanding such
15088 tools.  KDE do not seem to understand it out of the box, so I searched
15089 for command line tools to use to load the color profile into X.
15090 xcalib was the first one I found, and it seem to work fine for single
15091 monitor setups.  But for my video player, a laptop with a flat screen
15092 attached, it was unable to load the color profile for the correct
15093 monitor.  After searching a bit, I
15094 <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1347896">discovered</a>
15095 that the dispwin tool from the argyll package would do what I wanted,
15096 and a simple</p>
15097
15098 <p><pre>
15099 dispwin -d 1 profile.icc
15100 </pre></p>
15101
15102 <p>later I had the color profile loaded for the correct monitor.  The
15103 result was a bit more pink than I expected.  I guess I picked the
15104 wrong monitor type for the "led" monitor I got, but the result is good
15105 enough for now.</p>
15106
15107       </div>
15108       <div class="tags">
15109
15110
15111         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15112
15113
15114       </div>
15115     </div>
15116     <div class="padding"></div>
15117
15118     <div class="entry">
15119       <div class="title">
15120         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html">Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter</a>
15121       </div>
15122       <div class="date">
15123         27th May 2012
15124       </div>
15125       <div class="body">
15126         <p>In 2003, a German teacher showed up on the
15127 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
15128 mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
15129 up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupils.  His name was Ralf
15130 Gesellensetter, and he has been an important tester and contributor
15131 since then, helping to make sure the
15132 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
15133 Squeeze</a> release became as good as it is..</p>
15134
15135 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
15136
15137 <p>I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
15138 Mathematics, and Computer Science ("Informatik"). During the past 12
15139 years (since 2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
15140 also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
15141 O- or A-level ("Abitur").  For quite as long, I've been taking care of
15142 our computer network.</p>
15143
15144 <p>Now, in my early 40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
15145 spare time together with my wife, our son (3 years) and our daughter
15146 (4 months).</p>
15147
15148 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
15149 project?</strong></p>
15150
15151 <p>We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
15152 my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
15153 very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
15154 ("Best Newcomer Distribution", also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
15155 to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt, 2005 (IIRC). Few
15156 months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
15157 (Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others.  For more
15158 than 7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
15159 our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
15160 approximately 50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
15161 locally installed Skolelinux image.  As a consequence, I joined quite
15162 a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
15163 (Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
15164 one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.</p>
15165
15166 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
15167 Edu?</strong></p>
15168
15169 <p>Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
15170 project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
15171 the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
15172 computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
15173 free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
15174 up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
15175 labs).  Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
15176 administration costs tend towards zero.</p>
15177
15178 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
15179 Edu?</strong></p>
15180
15181 <p>While Debian's stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
15182 might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
15183 budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
15184 supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
15185 office packages or desktop environments.  These schools have the
15186 option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
15187 capacity to do so.  Another issue is that Debian release cycles
15188 include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
15189 power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
15190 within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
15191 the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
15192 i.e. harder to understand for novices.</p>
15193
15194 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
15195
15196 <p>LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
15197 KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
15198 PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)</p>
15199
15200 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
15201 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
15202
15203 <p><ol>
15204
15205 <li>Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
15206 people really "own" their hardware, to make them understand the
15207 difference between proprietary software products, and free software
15208 developing.</li>
15209
15210 <li>Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany's public schools
15211 there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
15212 licenses), so schools won't benefit from any savings here. This
15213 privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
15214 share among German Skolelinux schools.</li>
15215
15216 <li>Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
15217 trained. In many cases, teachers' software customs are respected by
15218 decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.</li>
15219
15220 <li>Don't limit ourself to free software run natively. Everybody uses
15221 free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
15222 general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
15223 shared world wide (school books e.g.).</li>
15224
15225 <li>Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
15226 office suites is much above 20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don't
15227 need to know the "ribbon menu" in order to get employed.</li>
15228
15229 <li>Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.</li>
15230
15231 <li>Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
15232 for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
15233 Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials.  And
15234 keep sending documents in ODF formats.</li>
15235
15236 </ol></p>
15237
15238       </div>
15239       <div class="tags">
15240
15241
15242         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
15243
15244
15245       </div>
15246     </div>
15247     <div class="padding"></div>
15248
15249     <div class="entry">
15250       <div class="title">
15251         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html">The cost of ODF and OOXML</a>
15252       </div>
15253       <div class="date">
15254         26th May 2012
15255       </div>
15256       <div class="body">
15257         <p>I just come across a blog post from Glyn Moody reporting the
15258 claimed cost from Microsoft on requiring ODF to be used by the UK
15259 government.  I just sent him an email to let him know that his
15260 assumption are most likely wrong.  Sharing it here in case some of my
15261 blog readers have seem the same numbers float around in the UK.</p>
15262
15263 <p><blockquote> <p>Hi.  I just noted your
15264 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/does-microsoft-office-lock-in-cost-the-uk-government-500-million/index.htm">http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/does-microsoft-office-lock-in-cost-the-uk-government-500-million/index.htm</a>
15265 comment:</p>
15266
15267 <p><blockquote>"They're all in Danish, not unreasonably, but even
15268 with the help of Google Translate I can't find any figures about the
15269 savings of "moving to a flexible two standard" as claimed by the
15270 Microsoft email. But I assume it is backed up somewhere, so let's take
15271 it, and the £500 million figure for the UK, on trust."
15272 </blockquote></p>
15273
15274 <p>I can tell you that the Danish reports are inflated.  I believe it is
15275 the same reports that were used in the Norwegian debate around 2007,
15276 and Gisle Hannemyr (a well known IT commentator in Norway) had a look
15277 at the content.  In short, the reason it is claimed that using ODF
15278 will be so costly, is based on the assumption that this mean every
15279 existing document need to be converted from one of the MS Office
15280 formats to ODF, transferred to the receiver, and converted back from
15281 ODF to one of the MS Office formats, and that the conversion will cost
15282 10 minutes of work time for both the sender and the receiver.  In
15283 reality the sender would have a tool capable of saving to ODF, and the
15284 receiver would have a tool capable of reading it, and the time spent
15285 would at most be a few seconds for saving and loading, not 20 minutes
15286 of wasted effort.</p>
15287
15288 <p>Microsoft claimed all these costs were saved by allowing people to
15289 transfer the original files from MS Office instead of spending 10
15290 minutes converting to ODF. :)</p>
15291
15292 <p>See
15293 <a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php</a>
15294 and
15295 <a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php</a>
15296 for background information.  Norwegian only, sorry. :)</p>
15297 </blockquote></p>
15298
15299       </div>
15300       <div class="tags">
15301
15302
15303         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
15304
15305
15306       </div>
15307     </div>
15308     <div class="padding"></div>
15309
15310     <div class="entry">
15311       <div class="title">
15312         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColorHug___USB_and_free_software_based_screen_color_calibration.html">ColorHug - USB and free software based screen color calibration</a>
15313       </div>
15314       <div class="date">
15315         18th May 2012
15316       </div>
15317       <div class="body">
15318         <p>In january, I
15319 <a href="http://blog.cihar.com/archives/2012/01/17/colorhug-has-arrived/">discovered
15320 the ColorHug</a>, a USB dongle from
15321 <a href="http://www.hughski.com/index.html">Hughski</a> to calibrate
15322 the color on a computer screen.  The software required is
15323 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">included
15324 in Debian</a>, and I decided back then to preorder from the next
15325 batch.  Yesterday I finally heard back from them, and got the
15326 opportunity to order.  Today I ordered mine, and eagerly await the
15327 delivery.  I hope it arrive next week, as I got a confirmation that it
15328 should go in the mail on monday. :)</p>
15329
15330 <p>If you want to ensure the colors on the screen match the intended
15331 colors, I suggest you check out this cheap tool with free software
15332 drivers. :)</p>
15333
15334       </div>
15335       <div class="tags">
15336
15337
15338         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15339
15340
15341       </div>
15342     </div>
15343     <div class="padding"></div>
15344
15345     <div class="entry">
15346       <div class="title">
15347         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__J_rgen_Leibner.html">Debian Edu interview: Jürgen Leibner</a>
15348       </div>
15349       <div class="date">
15350         13th May 2012
15351       </div>
15352       <div class="body">
15353         <p>It has been a few busy weeks for me, but I am finally back to
15354 publish another interview with the people behind
15355 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
15356 This time it is one of our German developers, who have helped out over the
15357 years to make sure both a lot of major but also a lot of the minor
15358 details get right before release.
15359
15360 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
15361
15362 <p>My name is Jürgen Leibner, I'm 49 years old and living in
15363 Bielefeld, a town in northern Germany.  I worked nearly 20 years as
15364 certified engineer in the department for plant design and layout of an
15365 international company for machinery and equipment.  Since 2011 I'm a
15366 certified technical writer (tekom e.V.) and doing technical
15367 documentations for a steam turbine manufacturer.  From April this year
15368 I will manage the department of technical documentation at a
15369 manufacturer of automation and assembly line engineering.</p>
15370
15371 <p>My first contact with linux was around 1993. Since that time I used
15372 it at work and at home repeatedly but not exclusively as I do now at
15373 home since 2006.</p>
15374
15375 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
15376 project?</strong></p>
15377
15378 <p>Once a day in the early year of 2001 when I wanted to fetch my
15379 daughter from primary school, there was a teacher sitting in the
15380 middle of 20 old computers trying to boot them and he failed. I helped
15381 him to get them booting. That was seen by the school director and she
15382 asked me if I would like to manage that the school gets all that old
15383 computers in use. I answered: "Yes".</p>
15384
15385 <p>Some weeks later every of the 10 classrooms had one computer
15386 running Windows98. I began to collect old computers and equipment as
15387 gifts and installed the first computer room with a peer-to-peer
15388 network. I did my work at school without being payed in my spare time
15389 and with a lot of fun.  About one year later the school was connected
15390 to Internet and a local area network was installed in the school
15391 building.  That was the time to have a server and I knew it must be a
15392 Linux server to be able to fulfil all the wishes of the teachers and
15393 being able to do this in a transparent and economic way, without extra
15394 costs for things like licence and software.  So I searched for a
15395 school server system running under Linux and I found a couple of
15396 people nearby who founded 'skolelinux.de'. It was the Skolelinux
15397 prerelease 32 I first tried out for being used at the school.  I
15398 managed the IT of that school until the municipal authority took over
15399 the IT management and centralised the services for all schools in
15400 Bielefeld in December of 2006.</p>
15401
15402 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
15403 Edu?</strong></p>
15404
15405 <p>When I'm looking back to the beginning, there were other advantages
15406 for me as today.</p>
15407
15408 <p>In the past there were advantages like:</p>
15409
15410 <p><ul>
15411
15412 <li>I don't need to buy it so it generates no costs to the school as
15413 they had little money to spent for computers and software.</li>
15414
15415 <li>It has a licence which grands all rights to use it without
15416 cost.</li>
15417
15418 <li>It was more able to fit all requirements of a server system for
15419 schools than a Microsoft server system, even if there are only Windows
15420 clients because of it's preconfigured overall concept of being a
15421 infrastructure solution and community for schools, not only a
15422 server</li>
15423
15424 <li>I was able to configure the server to the needs of the
15425 school.</li>
15426
15427 </ul></p>
15428
15429 <p>Today some of the advantages has been lost, changed or new ones
15430 came up in this way:</p>
15431
15432 <p><ul>
15433
15434 <li>Most schools here do have money to buy hardware and software
15435 now.</li>
15436
15437 <li>They are today mostly managed from central IT departments which
15438 have own concepts which often do not fit to Debian Edu concepts
15439 because they are to close to Microsoft ideology.</li>
15440
15441 <li>With the Squeeze version of Debian Edu which now uses GOsa² for
15442 management I feel more able to manage the daily tasks than with the
15443 interfaces used in the past.</li>
15444
15445 <li>It is more modular than in the past and fits even better to the
15446 different needs.</li>
15447
15448 <li>The documentation is usable and gets better every day.</li>
15449
15450 <li>More people than ever before are using Debian Edu all over the
15451 world and so the community, which is an very important part I think,
15452 is sharing knowledge and minds.</li>
15453
15454 <li>Most, maybe all, of the technical requirements for schools are
15455 solved today by Debian Edu. </li>
15456
15457 </ul></p>
15458
15459 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
15460 Edu?</strong></p>
15461
15462 <p><ul>
15463
15464 <li>There are too few IT companies able to integrate Debian Edu into
15465 their product portfolio for serving schools with concepts or even
15466 whole municipality areas.</li>
15467
15468 <li>Debian Edu has beside other free and open software projects not
15469 enough lobbyists which promote free and open software to
15470 politicians.</li>
15471
15472 <li>Technically there are no disadvantages I'm aware of.</li>
15473
15474 </ul></p>
15475
15476 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
15477
15478 <p>I use Debian stable on my home server and on my little desktop
15479 computer. On my laptop I use Debian testing/sid. The applications I
15480 use on my laptop and my desktop are Open/Libre-office, Iceweasel,
15481 KMail, DigiKam, Amarok, Dolphin, okular and all the other programs I
15482 need from the KDE environment.  On console I use newsbeuter, mutt,
15483 screen, irssi and all the other famous and useful tools.</p>
15484
15485 <p>My home server provides mail services with exim, dovecot, roundcube
15486 and mutt over ssh on the console, file services with samba, NFS,
15487 rsync, web services with apache, moinmoin-wiki, multimedia services
15488 with gallery2 and mediatomb and database services with MySQL for me
15489 and the whole family.  I probably forgot something.</p>
15490
15491 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
15492 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
15493
15494 <p>I believe, we should provide concepts for IT companies to integrate
15495 Debian Edu into their product portfolio with use cases for different
15496 countries and areas all over the world.</p>
15497
15498       </div>
15499       <div class="tags">
15500
15501
15502         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
15503
15504
15505       </div>
15506     </div>
15507     <div class="padding"></div>
15508
15509     <div class="entry">
15510       <div class="title">
15511         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cutting_it_short___and_picking_the_right_tool_for_the_job.html">Cutting it short - and picking the right tool for the job</a>
15512       </div>
15513       <div class="date">
15514         30th April 2012
15515       </div>
15516       <div class="body">
15517         <p><!-- IMG_5869.JPG -->
15518 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg"></p>
15519
15520 <p>I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a
15521 common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway.
15522 But the last ones have not really been up to the task.  My last
15523 cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the
15524 time, and cutting my head took forever.  And the one before that did
15525 not work very well either.  We have looked for something better for a
15526 while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we
15527 discovered that there are indeed better tools available.  But these
15528 are not marketed and sold to "regular consumers".  The hair saloons
15529 can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell
15530 companies.  The models they sell, are very different from the ones
15531 available from Elkjøp and Lefdal.  The main difference is their
15532 efficiency.  It would cut my hair in 5 minutes, instead of the 30-40
15533 minutes required by my impotent Braun.  The hairdresser I visited had
15534 a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the
15535 producer.  But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.</p>
15536
15537 <p>The next step was to find somewhere to buy it.  This was not
15538 straight forward.  The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser
15539 did not want to sell anything to me.  But searching for the model on
15540 the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for
15541 around NOK 4000,-.  This was a bit much.  We kept searching and
15542 finally found a Danish supplier
15543 <a href="http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html">selling
15544 it for around NOK 1800,-</a>.  We ordered one, and it arrived a few
15545 days ago.</p>
15546
15547 <p>The instructions said it had to charge for 8 hours when we started
15548 to use it, so we left it charging over night.  Normally it will only
15549 need one hour to charge.  The following evening we successfully tested
15550 it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair
15551 cutter.  The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter
15552 toys.</p>
15553
15554       </div>
15555       <div class="tags">
15556
15557
15558         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15559
15560
15561       </div>
15562     </div>
15563     <div class="padding"></div>
15564
15565     <div class="entry">
15566       <div class="title">
15567         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html">HTC One X - Your video?  What do you mean?</a>
15568       </div>
15569       <div class="date">
15570         26th April 2012
15571       </div>
15572       <div class="body">
15573         <p>In <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
15574 article today</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
15575 <a href="http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke</a> reports
15576 that the video editor application included with
15577 <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
15578 X</a> have some quite surprising terms of use.  The article is mostly
15579 based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
15580
15581 <p><blockquote>
15582 "<a href="http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
15583 brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
15584 kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.</a>"
15585 </blockquote></p>
15586
15587 <p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
15588
15589 <p><blockquote>
15590 "Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
15591 commercially.  Although I can ONLY use them privately."
15592 </blockquote></p>
15593
15594 <p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
15595 suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
15596 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">discovered
15597 with my Canon IXUS 130</a>.  The HTC One X specification specifies that
15598 the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
15599 video.  AMR is
15600 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues">Adaptive
15601 Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
15602 Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
15603 <a href="http://www.voiceage.com/">VoiceAge</a>.  MP4 is
15604 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing">MPEG4 with
15605 H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
15606 with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
15607
15608 <p>I know why I prefer
15609 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open
15610 standards</a> also for video.</p>
15611
15612       </div>
15613       <div class="tags">
15614
15615
15616         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
15617
15618
15619       </div>
15620     </div>
15621     <div class="padding"></div>
15622
15623     <div class="entry">
15624       <div class="title">
15625         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a>
15626       </div>
15627       <div class="date">
15628         19th April 2012
15629       </div>
15630       <div class="body">
15631         <p>Here in Norway, the
15632 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
15633 Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
15634 a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
15635 standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
15636 government.  When the directory was created, the people behind it made
15637 an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
15638 standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
15639 to the government.  Free software and non-free software could compete
15640 on the same level.</p>
15641
15642 <p>But recently, some standards with RAND
15643 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
15644 And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
15645 directory.  And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
15646 standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
15647 implementing them.  The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
15648 user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
15649 willing to pay will get a license.  Both sound great in theory.  In
15650 practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
15651 be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user.  By
15652 definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
15653 So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
15654 And given that people will use the software without handing any money
15655 to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
15656 software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
15657 to implement a standard when the income available is zero.  The result
15658 in these situations is that free software are locked out from
15659 implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
15660
15661 <p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
15662 standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
15663 how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory.  Because free
15664 software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
15665 help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
15666 in Norway.  The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
15667 I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
15668 attention to these issues in the future.</p>
15669
15670 <p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
15671 from Simon Phipps
15672 (<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
15673 Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
15674
15675 <p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
15676 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog
15677 post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
15678 same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government.  I
15679 can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
15680 <a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the
15681 hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
15682 It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
15683 specifications with RAND terms.</p>
15684
15685       </div>
15686       <div class="tags">
15687
15688
15689         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
15690
15691
15692       </div>
15693     </div>
15694     <div class="padding"></div>
15695
15696     <div class="entry">
15697       <div class="title">
15698         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html">Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt</a>
15699       </div>
15700       <div class="date">
15701         15th April 2012
15702       </div>
15703       <div class="body">
15704         <p>Behind <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
15705 Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
15706 setting together all the pieces.  This time I present to you Andreas
15707 Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
15708 years.  He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
15709 up in the recently released
15710 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
15711 Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p>
15712
15713 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
15714
15715 <p>My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany.  After
15716 studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in
15717 Quantum Optics.  After that I worked some years in an optics company.
15718 Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started
15719 teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school.  I teach math, physics,
15720 information technology and science/technology.</p>
15721
15722 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
15723 project?</strong></p>
15724
15725 <p>Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu
15726 project because of my interest in education and Debian.  Within the
15727 qualification/training period for the teaching, I started
15728 contributing.</p>
15729
15730 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
15731 Edu?</strong></p>
15732
15733 <p>The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the
15734 out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the
15735 Debian Project!</p>
15736
15737 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
15738 Edu?</strong></p>
15739
15740 <p>As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its
15741 downside, too.  In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the
15742 setup, if you need or want that.  Further more, it is not easily
15743 possible to upgrade the system to a new release.  It takes much too
15744 long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps
15745 because the number of developers working on the core of the code is
15746 rather small and often busy elsewhere.</p>
15747
15748 <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN">Debian LAN</a>
15749 project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.</p>
15750
15751 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
15752
15753 <p>I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian
15754 on all my machines.  For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then
15755 mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing.  At school I
15756 have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.</p>
15757
15758 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
15759 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
15760
15761 <p>One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom:
15762 Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and
15763 politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader".  The school
15764 administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor.
15765 Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats.  Even
15766 free browsers do not work for the school administration.  Publishers
15767 of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.</p>
15768
15769 <p>To change this, political work is very important.  Parts of the
15770 political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years.
15771 However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free'
15772 the system.  There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and
15773 "Free/Open Standards".  I am not sure if all the involved parties have
15774 a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a
15775 fraction takes them seriously.  However it might slowly make free
15776 software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.</p>
15777
15778       </div>
15779       <div class="tags">
15780
15781
15782         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
15783
15784
15785       </div>
15786     </div>
15787     <div class="padding"></div>
15788
15789     <div class="entry">
15790       <div class="title">
15791         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html">Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye</a>
15792       </div>
15793       <div class="date">
15794          8th April 2012
15795       </div>
15796       <div class="body">
15797         <p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
15798 like <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>,
15799 and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
15800 contributor to the
15801 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
15802 Edu Squeeze release manual</a>.
15803
15804 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
15805
15806 <p>I'm a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
15807 occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.</p>
15808
15809 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
15810 project?</strong></p>
15811
15812 <p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user!  The only
15813 reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
15814 around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
15815 they'd like a native English speaker to proofread...  So I did a sweep
15816 through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
15817 "localisation".</p>
15818
15819 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
15820 Edu?</strong></p>
15821
15822 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
15823 Edu?</strong></p>
15824
15825 <p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it!  In fact I
15826 had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the
15827 education system.</p>
15828
15829 <p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
15830 as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
15831 everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
15832 money on the latest hardware.</p>
15833
15834 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
15835
15836 <p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
15837 software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
15838 words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).</p>
15839
15840 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
15841 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
15842
15843 <p>Well, I don't know.  I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning
15844 with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
15845 you would hardly need a strategy.</p>
15846
15847       </div>
15848       <div class="tags">
15849
15850
15851         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
15852
15853
15854       </div>
15855     </div>
15856     <div class="padding"></div>
15857
15858     <div class="entry">
15859       <div class="title">
15860         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html">Why the KDE menu is slow when /usr/ is NFS mounted - and a workaround</a>
15861       </div>
15862       <div class="date">
15863          6th April 2012
15864       </div>
15865       <div class="body">
15866         <p>Recently I have spent time with
15867 <a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a> on speeding
15868 up a <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
15869 Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
15870 process I discovered something very surprising.  The reason the KDE
15871 menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
15872 due to the way KDE find application icons.  I discovered that showing
15873 the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be
15874 passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server.  Most of these were
15875
15876 NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response.  Because the
15877 ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20
15878 ms, the menus would be very slow.  Looking at the strace of kicker in
15879 Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
15880 the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for
15881 non-existing files.  KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find
15882 one icon file.  In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
15883 around 230 access(2) calls.</p>
15884
15885 <p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
15886 directories, and the list of possible directories is large.  In
15887 (almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
15888 and .xpm.  The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
15889 mounted.  Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
15890 requests.  I am not the first one to discover this.  I found a
15891 <a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report
15892 from 2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.</p>
15893
15894 <p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
15895 kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
15896 used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
15897 for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
15898 icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/.  Finally, I add symlinks to
15899 these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
15900 for them.  This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
15901 one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu
15902 almost instantaneous.  I'm not quite sure where to make the package
15903 publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.</p>
15904
15905 <p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
15906 and icon handling, but also the login process.  Not quite sure how to
15907 speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
15908 that is not really an option at the moment.</p>
15909
15910 <p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
15911 (at) lists.debian.org.</p>
15912
15913 <p>Update 2015-08-04: The
15914 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debian-edu/upstream/kde-icon-cache.git/">source
15915 of the scripts and associated Debian package</a> is available from the
15916 Debian Edu github repository.</p>
15917
15918       </div>
15919       <div class="tags">
15920
15921
15922         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15923
15924
15925       </div>
15926     </div>
15927     <div class="padding"></div>
15928
15929     <div class="entry">
15930       <div class="title">
15931         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html">Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News</a>
15932       </div>
15933       <div class="date">
15934          5th April 2012
15935       </div>
15936       <div class="body">
15937         <p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
15938 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> by
15939 Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News.  The result was made public for
15940 non-subscribers today.  I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
15941 for schools.  Check out his article
15942 <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
15943 distribution for education</a> if you want to learn more.</p>
15944
15945       </div>
15946       <div class="tags">
15947
15948
15949         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15950
15951
15952       </div>
15953     </div>
15954     <div class="padding"></div>
15955
15956     <div class="entry">
15957       <div class="title">
15958         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html">Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</a>
15959       </div>
15960       <div class="date">
15961          1st April 2012
15962       </div>
15963       <div class="body">
15964         <p>Germany is a core area for the
15965 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
15966 user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
15967 Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
15968
15969 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
15970
15971 <p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
15972 Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
15973 "<a href="http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
15974 Dortmund</a>", a second chance school.  Here, young adults is given
15975 the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
15976 examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
15977 second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
15978 or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
15979
15980 <p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
15981 blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
15982 information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
15983 teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
15984 school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
15985 the end of April this year.</p>
15986
15987 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
15988 project?</strong></p>
15989
15990 <p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
15991 attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
15992 Project).  At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
15993 using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
15994 2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
15995 clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
15996 reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
15997 Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
15998 two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
15999 known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
16000 Skolelinux.</p>
16001
16002 <p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
16003 better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
16004 clients.  The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
16005 was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
16006 and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
16007 the admin teachers.</p>
16008
16009 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
16010 Edu?</strong></p>
16011
16012 <p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
16013 Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
16014 So it was a perfect choice.</p>
16015
16016 <p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
16017 possible to point teachers and students to programs like
16018 OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp.  It's of
16019 high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
16020 a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
16021
16022 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
16023 Edu?</strong></p>
16024
16025 <p>Nothing yet.</p>
16026
16027 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
16028
16029 <p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
16030 Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
16031 Annotator).  At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
16032 LibreOffice.</p>
16033
16034 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
16035 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
16036
16037 <p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
16038 that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
16039 interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>
16040
16041       </div>
16042       <div class="tags">
16043
16044
16045         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
16046
16047
16048       </div>
16049     </div>
16050     <div class="padding"></div>
16051
16052     <div class="entry">
16053       <div class="title">
16054         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html">Debian Edu screencast: Checking email with kmail using Kerberos authentication</a>
16055       </div>
16056       <div class="date">
16057         25th March 2012
16058       </div>
16059       <div class="body">
16060         <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
16061
16062 <p>The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I
16063 published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how
16064 to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos,
16065 allowing users to check their local email account without providing
16066 any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size,
16067 and also available from <a href="https://vimeo.com/38601767">vimeo</a>
16068 and download as a
16069 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv">Ogg
16070 Theora</a> file.  Check it out below.</p>
16071
16072 <p><video id="kmail-kerberos-movie" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
16073   <source src="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv" type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"' />
16074     <p>Download video as
16075       <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv">Ogg</a>.</p>
16076 </video></p>
16077
16078       </div>
16079       <div class="tags">
16080
16081
16082         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16083
16084
16085       </div>
16086     </div>
16087     <div class="padding"></div>
16088
16089     <div class="entry">
16090       <div class="title">
16091         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html">Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</a>
16092       </div>
16093       <div class="date">
16094         19th March 2012
16095       </div>
16096       <div class="body">
16097         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
16098 users are spread all across the globe.  The second inteview after
16099 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the
16100 Squeeze release</a> was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
16101 long time Linux user in United Kingdom.</p>
16102
16103 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
16104
16105 <p>I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings
16106 Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical
16107 author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also
16108 contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of
16109 encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six
16110 years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we
16111 weren't able to convert many of them into sustainable
16112 installations.</p>
16113
16114 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
16115 project?</strong></p>
16116
16117 <p>Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in
16118 London which I attended. However at that time our school network had
16119 just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came
16120 along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a
16121 mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as
16122 well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems
16123 have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the
16124 LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all
16125 these things we decided to try it.</p>
16126
16127 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
16128 Edu?</strong></p>
16129
16130 <p>By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
16131 from that I have always believed in the same "sustainable computing"
16132 goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which
16133 would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and
16134 low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know
16135 that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about 25
16136 Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had
16137 proprietary software everywhere.</p>
16138
16139 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
16140 Edu?</strong></p>
16141
16142 <p>As a newcomer I'm just finding out who's who in the community and
16143 how you're organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with
16144 various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only
16145 English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as
16146 users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!</p>
16147
16148 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
16149
16150 <p>Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba,
16151 OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the
16152 desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I
16153 use Ubuntu and an Android 4 eePad Transformer (but I'm not sure if
16154 that counts...)</p>
16155
16156 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
16157 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
16158
16159 <p>That's a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed
16160 and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels
16161 the notion of "computer" means simply "proprietary office
16162 applications".  However, schools today are experiencing budget
16163 constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows
16164 XP.  At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use
16165 iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no
16166 longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last
16167 realised that we need people with programming skills, so they're
16168 putting coding back in the curriculum! And it's encouraging that the
16169 first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.</p>
16170
16171 <p>I don't really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use
16172 free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian
16173 Edu users in this country has to be part of it.</p>
16174
16175       </div>
16176       <div class="tags">
16177
16178
16179         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
16180
16181
16182       </div>
16183     </div>
16184     <div class="padding"></div>
16185
16186     <div class="entry">
16187       <div class="title">
16188         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html">Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu</a>
16189       </div>
16190       <div class="date">
16191         16th March 2012
16192       </div>
16193       <div class="body">
16194         <p>Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and
16195 it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the
16196 translated versions in sync.  To do this we have come up with what we
16197 believe is a very efficient work flow.</p>
16198
16199 <ol>
16200
16201 <li>The documentation is written in a
16202 <a href="http://moinmo.in">moinmoin wiki</a> (see for example
16203 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">the
16204 Squeeze release manual</a>) with support for exporting the content as
16205 docbook XML.</li>
16206
16207 <li>This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style
16208 .pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files
16209 with the translated text.</li>
16210
16211 <li>The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell
16212 which part of the original wiki document is new or changed.  They can
16213 use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write
16214 the translation.  There is even a system in place to handle translated
16215 images.</li>
16216
16217 <li>The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook
16218 XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.</li>
16219
16220 <li>The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and
16221 create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.</li>
16222
16223 </ol>
16224
16225 <p>This setup work very well, but have a few issues.  The biggest
16226 issue is that <a href="http://moinmo.in/DocBook">the docbook support
16227 we use in moinmoin</a> is not actively maintained.  The docbook
16228 support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to
16229 make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.</p>
16230
16231 <p>If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the
16232 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc">debian-edu-doc
16233 package</a>.</p>
16234
16235       </div>
16236       <div class="tags">
16237
16238
16239         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16240
16241
16242       </div>
16243     </div>
16244     <div class="padding"></div>
16245
16246     <div class="entry">
16247       <div class="title">
16248         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html">Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze is out!</a>
16249       </div>
16250       <div class="date">
16251         11th March 2012
16252       </div>
16253       <div class="body">
16254         <p>This weekend we finally published the first stable release of
16255 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> based
16256 on Debian/Squeeze.  The full announcement is
16257 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">available</a>
16258 from the project announcement list.  Now is a good time to test if it
16259 you have not done so already.</p>
16260
16261 <p>I plan to present the new version at
16262 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/">a NUUG
16263 meeting</a> on tuesday.  I look forward to seeing you there if you are
16264 in Oslo, Norway.</p>
16265
16266       </div>
16267       <div class="tags">
16268
16269
16270         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16271
16272
16273       </div>
16274     </div>
16275     <div class="padding"></div>
16276
16277     <div class="entry">
16278       <div class="title">
16279         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html">Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</a>
16280       </div>
16281       <div class="date">
16282          9th March 2012
16283       </div>
16284       <div class="body">
16285         <p>Inspired by <a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/">the
16286 interview series</a> conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
16287 interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
16288 community.  This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
16289 more international audience.</p>
16290
16291 <p>While <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
16292 Skolelinux</a> originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
16293 Europe, there are users all around the globe.  One of those far away
16294 from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
16295 and contributor.  It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
16296 work out of the box in Japan.  I got him to answer a few questions,
16297 and am happy to share the response with you. :)
16298
16299
16300 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
16301
16302 <p>My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
16303 and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
16304 Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
16305 teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
16306 Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
16307 I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
16308 primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
16309 so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
16310 also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
16311 to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
16312 appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.</p>
16313
16314 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
16315 project?</strong></p>
16316
16317 <p>In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
16318 server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
16319 samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
16320 Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I
16321 did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server"
16322 and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading
16323 there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
16324 problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
16325 previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
16326 Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
16327 downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
16328 Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
16329 my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.</p>
16330
16331 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
16332 Edu?</strong></p>
16333
16334 <p>For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
16335 workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
16336 ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
16337 designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
16338 doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
16339 school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
16340 Japan.</p>
16341
16342 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
16343 Edu?</strong></p>
16344
16345 <p>The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
16346 have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
16347 make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
16348 who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
16349 important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
16350 instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
16351 default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
16352 kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
16353 Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is.  A
16354 second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
16355 customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
16356 multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It
16357 took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
16358 I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
16359 help.</p>
16360
16361 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
16362
16363 <p>Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
16364 studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
16365 (customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
16366 still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
16367 house, that's very useful for the family photos and music.  At school
16368 the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
16369 have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
16370 day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
16371 installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS.  We also
16372 have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
16373 and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.</p>
16374
16375 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
16376 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
16377
16378 <p>Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
16379 and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
16380 popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
16381 to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
16382 file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago.  The Edu aspect is
16383 also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
16384 Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu?  But of course the main attraction is
16385 budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
16386 compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
16387 is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
16388 are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser
16389 doesn't play flash, for example.</p>
16390
16391       </div>
16392       <div class="tags">
16393
16394
16395         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
16396
16397
16398       </div>
16399     </div>
16400     <div class="padding"></div>
16401
16402     <div class="entry">
16403       <div class="title">
16404         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html">Debian Edu screencast: Mass creation of user accounts in Squeeze</a>
16405       </div>
16406       <div class="date">
16407          7th March 2012
16408       </div>
16409       <div class="body">
16410         <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
16411
16412 <p>One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a
16413 screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on
16414 Debian Edu Squeeze.  The video is embedded here in quarter size, and
16415 also available from <a href="http://vimeo.com/37675399">vimeo</a> and
16416 download as a
16417 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg
16418 Theora</a> file.  Check it out below.</p>
16419
16420 <p><video id="gosa-mass-user-create-movie" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
16421   <source src="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv" type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"' />
16422     <p>Download video as
16423       <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg</a>.</p>
16424 </video></p>
16425
16426       </div>
16427       <div class="tags">
16428
16429
16430         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16431
16432
16433       </div>
16434     </div>
16435     <div class="padding"></div>
16436
16437     <div class="entry">
16438       <div class="title">
16439         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Third release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
16440       </div>
16441       <div class="date">
16442          4th March 2012
16443       </div>
16444       <div class="body">
16445         <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the third release
16446 candidate for <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
16447 Skolelinux</a> based on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
16448 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00000.html">available</a>
16449 from the project announcement list.  Check it out if you
16450 need a software solution for your school.</p>
16451
16452       </div>
16453       <div class="tags">
16454
16455
16456         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16457
16458
16459       </div>
16460     </div>
16461     <div class="padding"></div>
16462
16463     <div class="entry">
16464       <div class="title">
16465         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Stopmotion_for_making_stop_motion_animations_on_Linux___reloaded.html">Stopmotion for making stop motion animations on Linux - reloaded</a>
16466       </div>
16467       <div class="date">
16468          3rd March 2012
16469       </div>
16470       <div class="body">
16471         <p>Many years ago, the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
16472 / Debian Edu project</a> initiated a student project to create a tool
16473 for making stop motion movies.  The proposal came from a teacher
16474 needing such tool on Skolelinux.  The project, called "stopmotion",
16475 was manned by two extraordinary students and won a school award and a
16476 national aware with this great project.  The project was initiated and
16477 mentored by Herman Robak, and manned by the students Bjørn Erik Nilsen
16478 and Fredrik Berg Kjølstad.  They got in touch with people at Aardman
16479 Animation studio and received feedback on how professionals would like
16480 such stopmotion tool to work, and the end result was and is used by
16481 animators around the globe.  But as is usual after studying, both got
16482 jobs and went elsewhere, and did not have time to properly tend to the
16483 project, and it has been lingering for a few years now.  Until last
16484 year...</p>
16485
16486 <p>Last year some of the users got together with Herman, and moved the
16487 project to Sourceforge and in effect restarted the project under a new
16488 name,
16489 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxstopmotion/">linuxstopmotion</a>.
16490 The name change was done to make it possible to find the project using
16491 Internet search engines (try to search for 'stopmotion' to see what I
16492 mean). I've been following
16493 <a href="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linuxstopmotion-community">the
16494 mailing list</a> and the improvement already in place and planned for
16495 the future is encouraging.  If you want to make stop motion movies.
16496 Check it out. :)</p>
16497
16498       </div>
16499       <div class="tags">
16500
16501
16502         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
16503
16504
16505       </div>
16506     </div>
16507     <div class="padding"></div>
16508
16509     <div class="entry">
16510       <div class="title">
16511         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Second release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
16512       </div>
16513       <div class="date">
16514         27th February 2012
16515       </div>
16516       <div class="body">
16517         <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the second release
16518 candidate for <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
16519 Skolelinux</a> based on Squeeze.  The full announcement did for some
16520 reason not make it the project announcement list, but is
16521 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/02/msg00015.html">available</a>
16522 from the Debian development announcement list.  Check it out if you
16523 need a software solution for your school.</p>
16524
16525       </div>
16526       <div class="tags">
16527
16528
16529         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16530
16531
16532       </div>
16533     </div>
16534     <div class="padding"></div>
16535
16536     <div class="entry">
16537       <div class="title">
16538         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">First release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
16539       </div>
16540       <div class="date">
16541         19th February 2012
16542       </div>
16543       <div class="body">
16544         <p>One week delayed due to DVD build problems, we managed today to
16545 wrap up and publish the first release candidate for
16546 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
16547 on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
16548 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00001.html">available</a>
16549 on the project announcement list.  Check it out if you need a software
16550 solution for your school.</p>
16551
16552       </div>
16553       <div class="tags">
16554
16555
16556         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16557
16558
16559       </div>
16560     </div>
16561     <div class="padding"></div>
16562
16563     <div class="entry">
16564       <div class="title">
16565         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_figure_out_which_RAID_disk_to_replace_when_it_fail.html">How to figure out which RAID disk to replace when it fail</a>
16566       </div>
16567       <div class="date">
16568         14th February 2012
16569       </div>
16570       <div class="body">
16571         <p>Once in a while my home server have disk problems.  Thanks to Linux
16572 Software RAID, I have not lost data yet (but
16573 <a href="http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.raid/34532">I was
16574 close</a> this summer :).  But once a disk is starting to behave
16575 funny, a practical problem present itself.  How to get from the Linux
16576 device name (like /dev/sdd) to something that can be used to identify
16577 the disk when the computer is turned off?  In my case I have SATA
16578 disks with a unique ID printed on the label.  All I need is a way to
16579 figure out how to query the disk to get the ID out.</p>
16580
16581 <p>After fumbling a bit, I
16582 <a href="http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-getting-scsi-ide-harddisk-information/">found
16583 that hdparm -I</a> will report the disk serial number, which is
16584 printed on the disk label.  The following (almost) one-liner can be
16585 used to look up the ID of all the failed disks:</p>
16586
16587 <blockquote><pre>
16588 for d in $(cat /proc/mdstat |grep '(F)'|tr ' ' "\n"|grep '(F)'|cut -d\[ -f1|sort -u);
16589 do
16590     printf "Failed disk $d: "
16591     hdparm -I /dev/$d |grep 'Serial Num'
16592 done
16593 </blockquote></pre>
16594
16595 <p>Putting it here to make sure I do not have to search for it the
16596 next time, and in case other find it useful.</p>
16597
16598 <p>At the moment I have two failing disk. :(</p>
16599
16600 <blockquote><pre>
16601 Failed disk sdd1:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
16602 Failed disk sdd2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
16603 Failed disk sde2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1840589
16604 </blockquote></pre>
16605
16606 <p>The last time I had failing disks, I added the serial number on
16607 labels I printed and stuck on the short sides of each disk, to be able
16608 to figure out which disk to take out of the box without having to
16609 remove each disk to look at the physical vendor label.  The vendor
16610 label is at the top of the disk, which is hidden when the disks are
16611 mounted inside my box.</p>
16612
16613 <p>I really wish the check_linux_raid Nagios plugin for checking Linux
16614 Software RAID in the
16615 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nagios-plugins.html">nagios-plugins-standard</a>
16616 debian package would look up this value automatically, as it would
16617 make the plugin a lot more useful when my disks fail.  At the moment
16618 it only report a failure when there are no more spares left (it really
16619 should warn as soon as a disk is failing), and it do not tell me which
16620 disk(s) is failing when the RAID is running short on disks.</p>
16621
16622       </div>
16623       <div class="tags">
16624
16625
16626         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid</a>.
16627
16628
16629       </div>
16630     </div>
16631     <div class="padding"></div>
16632
16633     <div class="entry">
16634       <div class="title">
16635         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_proxy_configuration_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html">Automatic proxy configuration with Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
16636       </div>
16637       <div class="date">
16638         13th February 2012
16639       </div>
16640       <div class="body">
16641         <p>New in the Squeeze version of
16642 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is the
16643 ability for clients to automatically configure their proxy settings
16644 based on their environment.  We want all systems on the client to use
16645 the WPAD based proxy definition fetched from <tt>http://wpad/wpad.dat</tt>, to
16646 allow sites to control the proxy setting from a central place and make
16647 sure clients do not have hard coded proxy settings.  The schools can
16648 change the global proxy setting by editing
16649 <tt>tjener:/etc/debian-edu/www/wpad.dat</tt> and the change propagate
16650 to all Debian Edu clients in the network.</p>
16651
16652 <p>The problem is that some systems do not understand the WPAD system.
16653 In other words, how do one get from a WPAD file like this (this is a
16654 simple one, they can run arbitrary code):</p>
16655
16656 <blockquote><pre>
16657 function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
16658 {
16659    if (!isResolvable(host) ||
16660        isPlainHostName(host) ||
16661        dnsDomainIs(host, ".intern"))
16662       return "DIRECT";
16663    else
16664       return "PROXY webcache:3128; DIRECT";
16665 }
16666 </pre></blockquote>
16667
16668 <p>to a proxy setting in the process environment looking like this:</p>
16669
16670 <blockquote><pre>
16671 http_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
16672 ftp_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
16673 </pre></blockquote>
16674
16675 <p>To do this conversion I developed a perl script that will execute
16676 the javascript fragment in the WPAD file and return the proxy that
16677 would be used for
16678 <tt><a href="http://www.debian.org/">http://www.debian.org/</a></tt>,
16679 and insert this extracted proxy URL in <tt>/etc/environment</tt> and
16680 <tt>/etc/apt/apt.conf</tt>.  The perl script wpad-extract work just
16681 fine in Squeeze, but in Wheezy the library it need to run the
16682 javascript code is <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/631045">no longer
16683 able to build</a> because the C library it depended on is now a C++
16684 library.  I hope someone find a solution to that problem before Wheezy
16685 is frozen.  An alternative would be for us to rewrite wpad-extract to
16686 use some other javascript library currently working in Wheezy, but no
16687 known alternative is known at the moment.</p>
16688
16689 <p>This automatic proxy system allow the roaming workstation (aka
16690 laptop) setup in Debian Edu/Squeeze to use the proxy when the laptop
16691 is connected to the backbone network in a Debian Edu setup, and to
16692 automatically use any proxy present and announced using the WPAD
16693 feature when it is connected to other networks.  And if no proxy is
16694 announced, direct connections will be used instead.</p>
16695
16696 <p>Silently using a proxy announced on the network might be a privacy
16697 or security problem.  But those controlling DHCP and DNS on a network
16698 could just as easily set up a transparent proxy, and force all HTTP
16699 and FTP connections to use a proxy anyway, so I consider that
16700 distinction to be academic.  If you are afraid of using the wrong
16701 proxy, you should avoid connecting to the network in question in the
16702 first place.  In Debian Edu, the proxy setup is updated using dhcp and
16703 ifupdown hooks, to make sure the configuration is updated every time
16704 the network setup changes.</p>
16705
16706 <p>The WPAD system is documented in a
16707 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-wrec-wpad-01">IETF
16708 draft</a> and a
16709 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol">Wikipedia
16710 page</a> for those that want to learn more.</p>
16711
16712       </div>
16713       <div class="tags">
16714
16715
16716         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16717
16718
16719       </div>
16720     </div>
16721     <div class="padding"></div>
16722
16723     <div class="entry">
16724       <div class="title">
16725         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Saving_power_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_using_shutdown_at_night.html">Saving power with Debian Edu / Skolelinux using shutdown-at-night</a>
16726       </div>
16727       <div class="date">
16728          5th February 2012
16729       </div>
16730       <div class="body">
16731         <p>Since the Lenny version of
16732 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>, a
16733 feature to save power have been included.  It is as simple as it is
16734 practical: Shut down unused clients at night, and turn them on again
16735 in the morning.  This is done using the
16736 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/shutdown-at-night.html">shutdown-at-night</a> Debian package.</p>
16737
16738 <p>To enable this feature on a client, the machine need to be added to
16739 the netgroup shutdown-at-night-hosts.  For Debian Edu, this is done in
16740 LDAP, and once this is in place, the machine in question will check
16741 every hour from 16:00 until 06:00 to see if the machine is unused, and
16742 shut it down if it is.  If the hardware in question is supported by
16743 the
16744 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nvram-wakeup.html">nvram-wakeup</a>
16745 package, the BIOS is told to turn the machine back on around 07:00 +-
16746 10 minutes.  If this isn't working, one can configure wake-on-lan to
16747 try to turn on the client.  The wake-on-lan option is only documented
16748 and not enabled by default in Debian Edu.</p>
16749
16750 <p>It is important to not turn all machines on at once, as this can
16751 blow a fuse if several computers are connected to the same fuse like
16752 the common setup for a classroom.  The nvram-wakeup method only work
16753 for machines with a functioning hardware/BIOS clock.  I've seen old
16754 machines where the BIOS battery were dead and the hardware clock were
16755 starting from 0 (or was it 1990?) every boot.  If you have one of
16756 those, you have to turn on the computer manually.</p>
16757
16758 <p>The shutdown-at-night package is completely self contained, and can
16759 also be used outside the Debian Edu environment.  For those without a
16760 central LDAP server with netgroups, one can instead touch the file
16761 <tt>/etc/shutdown-at-night/shutdown-at-night</tt> to enable it.
16762 Perhaps you too can use it to save some power?</p>
16763
16764       </div>
16765       <div class="tags">
16766
16767
16768         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16769
16770
16771       </div>
16772     </div>
16773     <div class="padding"></div>
16774
16775     <div class="entry">
16776       <div class="title">
16777         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Third beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
16778       </div>
16779       <div class="date">
16780          4th February 2012
16781       </div>
16782       <div class="body">
16783         <p>I am happy to announce that finally we managed today to wrap up and
16784 publish the third beta version of
16785 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
16786 on Squeeze.  If you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with
16787 out of the box PXE configuration for running diskless machines and
16788 installing new machines, check it out.  If you need a software
16789 solution for your school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
16790 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00000.html">available</a>
16791 on the project announcement list.</p>
16792
16793 <p>I am very happy to report these changes and improvements since
16794 beta2 (there are more, see announcement for full list):</p>
16795
16796 <ul>
16797
16798 <li>It is now possible to change the pre-configured IP subnet from
16799   10.0.0.0/8 to something else by using the subnet-change tool after
16800   the installation.</li>
16801
16802 <li>Too full partitions are now automatically extended on the Main
16803   Server, based on the rules specified in /etc/fsautoresizetab.</li>
16804
16805 <li>The CUPS queues are now automatically flushed every night, and all
16806   disabled queues are restarted every hour.  This should cut down on
16807   the amount of manual administration needed for printers.</li>
16808
16809 <li>The set of initial users have been changed.  Now a personal user
16810   for the local system administrator is created during installation
16811   instead of the previously created localadmin and super-admin users,
16812   and this user is granted administrative privileges using group
16813   membership.  This reduces the number of passwords one need to keep
16814   up to date on the system.</li>
16815
16816 </ul>
16817
16818 <p>The new main server seem to work so well that I am testing it as my
16819 private DNS/LDAP/Kerberos/PXE/LTSP server at home.  I will use it look
16820 for issues we could fix to polish Debian Edu even further before the
16821 final Squeeze release is published.</p>
16822
16823 <p>Next weekend the project organise a
16824 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00001.html">developer
16825 gathering</a> in Oslo.  We will continue the work on the Squeeze
16826 version, and start initial planning for the Wheezy version.  Perhaps I
16827 will see you there?</p>
16828
16829       </div>
16830       <div class="tags">
16831
16832
16833         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16834
16835
16836       </div>
16837     </div>
16838     <div class="padding"></div>
16839
16840     <div class="entry">
16841       <div class="title">
16842         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Handling_non_free_firmware_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Handling non-free firmware in Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
16843       </div>
16844       <div class="date">
16845         27th January 2012
16846       </div>
16847       <div class="body">
16848         <p>With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs.
16849 This is the sad fact of todays computers.  In the next version of
16850 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
16851 on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make
16852 firmware blobs easier to handle.  The common use case I run into is a
16853 laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to
16854 work, but there are other use cases as well.</p>
16855
16856 <p>First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD
16857 with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free
16858 included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them
16859 during installation.  This take care firmware for network devices used
16860 by the installer when installing from from local media.  But for
16861 example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are
16862 not taken care of by this.</p>
16863
16864 <p>For non-network devices, we provide the script
16865 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware</tt> which
16866 search through the <tt>dmesg</tt> output for drivers requesting extra
16867 firmware.  The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz
16868 file available in the package repository, and the packages providing
16869 the requested firmware file(s) is installed.  I have proposed to do
16870 something similar in debian-installer (BTS report
16871 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">#655507</a>), to allow PXE
16872 installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better.  Run the
16873 script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed
16874 firmware packages.</p>
16875
16876 <p>Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and
16877 because some machines need firmware to get their network cards
16878 working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware
16879 included to be able to install at all.  To fill the PXE installation
16880 initrd with extra firmware, the
16881 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware</tt> script is
16882 provided.  Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the
16883 PXE initrd with firmware packages.</p>
16884
16885 <p>Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their
16886 network cards working.  For this,
16887 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware</tt> is
16888 provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs.  It is used
16889 the same way as the other firmware related tools.</p>
16890
16891 <p>At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation.  We
16892 do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use
16893 non-free software, and it is their choice.</p>
16894
16895 <p>We plan to release beta3 this weekend.  You might want to give it a
16896 try.</p>
16897
16898       </div>
16899       <div class="tags">
16900
16901
16902         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16903
16904
16905       </div>
16906     </div>
16907     <div class="padding"></div>
16908
16909     <div class="entry">
16910       <div class="title">
16911         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Setting_up_a_new_school_with_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Setting up a new school with Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
16912       </div>
16913       <div class="date">
16914         25th January 2012
16915       </div>
16916       <div class="body">
16917         <p>The next version of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu
16918 / Skolelinux</a> will include a new tool
16919 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp</tt>, which can be used to quickly set up all
16920 the computers in a school without much manual labour.  Here is a short
16921 summary on how to use it to set up a new school.</p>
16922
16923 <p>First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the
16924 central server in the network.  Next, PXE boot all the client machines
16925 as thin clients and wait 5 minutes after the last client booted to
16926 allow the clients to report their existence to the central server.  When
16927 this is done, log on to the central server and run
16928 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a</tt> in the <tt>konsole</tt> to use the
16929 collected information to generate system objects in LDAP.  The output
16930 will look similar to this:</p>
16931
16932 <p><blockquote><pre>
16933 % sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
16934 info: Updating machine tjener.intern [10.0.2.2] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:05.
16935 info: Create GOsa machine for auto-mac-00-01-02-03-04-06 [10.0.16.20] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:06.
16936
16937 Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.
16938
16939 Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
16940 enter password: *******
16941 %
16942 </pre></blockquote></p>
16943
16944 <p>After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the
16945 root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be
16946 populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with
16947 automatically generated names.  The final step to set up the school is
16948 then to log into <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa</a>,
16949 the web based user, group and system administration system to change
16950 system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally
16951 enable DHCP and DNS for the systems.  All clients that should be used
16952 as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts
16953 group.  After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE
16954 and get their assigned names and group based configuration
16955 automatically.</p>
16956
16957 <p>We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature
16958 enabled this weekend.  You might want to give it a try.</p>
16959
16960 <p>Update 2012-01-28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new
16961 hosts, one need to add the option -a.  I forgot to mention this in my
16962 original text, and have added it to the text now.</p>
16963
16964       </div>
16965       <div class="tags">
16966
16967
16968         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
16969
16970
16971       </div>
16972     </div>
16973     <div class="padding"></div>
16974
16975     <div class="entry">
16976       <div class="title">
16977         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Changing_the_default_Iceweasel_start_page_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Changing the default Iceweasel start page in Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
16978       </div>
16979       <div class="date">
16980         10th January 2012
16981       </div>
16982       <div class="body">
16983         <p>In the Squeeze version of
16984 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> soon
16985 to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
16986 start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
16987 all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP.  In
16988 addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
16989 are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
16990 first time.</p>
16991
16992 <p>The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
16993 labeledURI with "http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux" as the
16994 default content.  By changing this value to another URL, all users get
16995 to see the page behind this new URL.</p>
16996
16997 <p>An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool.  It can be
16998 called as "<tt>ldapvi -ZD '(cn=admin)'</tt>' to update LDAP with the
16999 new setting.</p>
17000
17001 <p>We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
17002 the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
17003 from within Iceweasel instead.</p>
17004
17005       </div>
17006       <div class="tags">
17007
17008
17009         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
17010
17011
17012       </div>
17013     </div>
17014     <div class="padding"></div>
17015
17016     <div class="entry">
17017       <div class="title">
17018         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Second beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
17019       </div>
17020       <div class="date">
17021          7th January 2012
17022       </div>
17023       <div class="body">
17024         <p>I am happy to announce that today we managed to wrap up and publish
17025 the second beta version of
17026 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>.  If
17027 you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with out of the box PXE
17028 configuration for running diskless machines and installing new
17029 machines, check it out.  If you need a software solution for your
17030 school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
17031 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00000.html">available</a>
17032 on the project announcement list.</p>
17033
17034       </div>
17035       <div class="tags">
17036
17037
17038         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
17039
17040
17041       </div>
17042     </div>
17043     <div class="padding"></div>
17044
17045     <div class="entry">
17046       <div class="title">
17047         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_an_hanging_debian_installer_for_Debian_Edu.html">Fixing an hanging debian installer for Debian Edu</a>
17048       </div>
17049       <div class="date">
17050          3rd January 2012
17051       </div>
17052       <div class="body">
17053         <p>During christmas, I have been working getting the next version of
17054 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ready
17055 for release.  The initial problem I looked at was particularly
17056 interesting.</p>
17057
17058 <P>The installer would hang at the end when it was doing it
17059 post-installation configuration, and whatevery I did to try to find
17060 the cause and fix it always worked while I tested it, but never when I
17061 integrated it into the installer and ran the installation from
17062 scratch.  I would try to restart processes, close file descriptors,
17063 remove or create files, and the installer would always unblock and
17064 wrap up its tasks.</p>
17065
17066 <p>Eventually the cause was found.  The kernel was simply running out
17067 of entropy, causing the Kerberos setup to hang waiting for more.
17068 Pressing keys was adding entropy to the kernel, and thus all my tries
17069 to fix the problem worked not because what I was typing to fix it, but
17070 because I was typing.</P>
17071
17072 <p>The fix I implemented was to add a background process looking at
17073 the level of entropy in the kernel (by checking
17074 /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail), and if it was too small, the
17075 installer will flush the kernel file buffers and do 'find /' to
17076 generate some disk IO.  Disk IO generate entropy in the kernel, and is
17077 one of the few things that can be initated from within the system to
17078 generate entropy.</p>
17079
17080 <p>The fix is in
17081 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/Installation">beta1
17082 of the Debian Edu/Squeeze</a> version, and we
17083 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu">welcome more testers and
17084 developers</a>.  We plan to release beta2 this weekend.</p>
17085
17086       </div>
17087       <div class="tags">
17088
17089
17090         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
17091
17092
17093       </div>
17094     </div>
17095     <div class="padding"></div>
17096
17097     <div class="entry">
17098       <div class="title">
17099         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
17100       </div>
17101       <div class="date">
17102         21st November 2011
17103       </div>
17104       <div class="body">
17105         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
17106 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
17107 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
17108 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
17109 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
17110 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
17111 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
17112 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
17113 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
17114 the tools to do so.</p>
17115
17116 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
17117 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
17118 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
17119 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
17120
17121 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
17122 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
17123 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
17124 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
17125 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
17126 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
17127 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
17128 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
17129
17130 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
17131 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
17132 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
17133
17134 <p><pre>
17135 #!/usr/bin/perl
17136 use strict;
17137 use warnings;
17138 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
17139 BEGIN {
17140     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
17141     my %rhelmodules = (
17142         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
17143         );
17144     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
17145         eval "use $module;";
17146         if ($@) {
17147             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
17148             system("yum install -y $pkg");
17149             eval "use $module;";
17150         }
17151     }
17152 }
17153 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
17154
17155 upgrade_dell();
17156
17157 exit 0;
17158
17159 sub run_firmware_script {
17160     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
17161     unless ($script) {
17162         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
17163         exit 1
17164     }
17165     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
17166
17167     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
17168         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
17169     } else {
17170         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
17171     }
17172 }
17173
17174 sub run_firmware_scripts {
17175     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
17176     # Run firmware packages
17177     for my $dir (@dirs) {
17178         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
17179         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
17180         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
17181             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
17182             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
17183         }
17184         closedir $dh;
17185     }
17186 }
17187
17188 sub download {
17189     my $url = shift;
17190     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
17191     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
17192 }
17193
17194 sub upgrade_dell {
17195     my @dirs;
17196     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
17197     chomp $product;
17198
17199     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
17200
17201         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
17202         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
17203
17204         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
17205             CLEANUP => 1
17206             );
17207         chdir($tmpdir);
17208         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
17209         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
17210         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
17211         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
17212         my $fwopts = "-q";
17213         if (@paths) {
17214             for my $url (@paths) {
17215                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
17216             }
17217             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
17218         } else {
17219             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
17220             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
17221         }
17222         chdir('/');
17223     } else {
17224         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
17225         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
17226     }
17227 }
17228
17229 sub fetch_dell_fw {
17230     my $path = shift;
17231     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
17232     download($url);
17233 }
17234
17235 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
17236 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
17237 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
17238 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
17239     my $filename = shift;
17240
17241     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
17242     chomp $product;
17243     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
17244
17245     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
17246
17247     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
17248     my @paths;
17249     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
17250         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
17251         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
17252         my $oscode;
17253         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
17254             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
17255         } else {
17256             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
17257         }
17258         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
17259         {
17260             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
17261         }
17262     }
17263     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
17264         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
17265
17266         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
17267         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
17268
17269         my $cpath = $component->{path};
17270         for my $path (@paths) {
17271             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
17272                 push(@paths, $cpath);
17273             }
17274         }
17275     }
17276     return @paths;
17277 }
17278 </pre>
17279
17280 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
17281 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
17282 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
17283 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
17284 outdated.</p>
17285
17286       </div>
17287       <div class="tags">
17288
17289
17290         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
17291
17292
17293       </div>
17294     </div>
17295     <div class="padding"></div>
17296
17297     <div class="entry">
17298       <div class="title">
17299         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_e_book_kiosk_for_the_public_libraries_.html">Free e-book kiosk for the public libraries?</a>
17300       </div>
17301       <div class="date">
17302          7th October 2011
17303       </div>
17304       <div class="body">
17305         <p>Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
17306 publishing houses how to handle electronic books.  Surprisingly, the
17307 libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
17308 (DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
17309 publishing houses.  Time limited renting (2-3 years) is one proposed
17310 model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
17311 Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
17312 models.</p>
17313
17314 <p>Anyway, while reading <a href="http://boklaben.no/?p=220">part of
17315 this debate</a>, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
17316 sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
17317 to a better model.  The idea is simple:</p>
17318
17319 <p>Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
17320 Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
17321 solution to hand out free e-books.  As a start, the books distributed
17322 by <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about
17323 36,000 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a>
17324 (1149 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The
17325 Internet Archive</a> (3,033,748 books) could be included, but any book
17326 where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
17327 distributed.</p>
17328
17329 <p>The computer system would make it easy to:</p>
17330
17331 <ul>
17332
17333 <li>Copy e-books into a USB stick, reading tablets, cell phones and
17334   other relevant equipment.</li>
17335
17336 <li>Show the books for reading on the the screen in the library.</li>
17337
17338 </ul>
17339
17340 <p>In addition to such kiosk solution, there should probably be a web
17341 site as well to allow people easy access to these books without
17342 visiting the library.  The site would be the distribution point for
17343 the kiosk systems, which would connect regularly to fetch any new
17344 books available.</p>
17345
17346 <p>Are there anyone working on a system like this?  I guess it would
17347 fit any library in the world, and not just the Norwegian public
17348 libraries. :)</p>
17349
17350       </div>
17351       <div class="tags">
17352
17353
17354         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
17355
17356
17357       </div>
17358     </div>
17359     <div class="padding"></div>
17360
17361     <div class="entry">
17362       <div class="title">
17363         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html">Ripping problematic DVDs using dvdbackup and genisoimage</a>
17364       </div>
17365       <div class="date">
17366         17th September 2011
17367       </div>
17368       <div class="body">
17369         <p>For convenience, I want to store copies of all my DVDs on my file
17370 server.  It allow me to save shelf space flat while still having my
17371 movie collection easily available.  It also make it possible to let
17372 the kids see their favourite DVDs without wearing the physical copies
17373 down.  I prefer to store the DVDs as ISOs to keep the DVD menu and
17374 subtitle options intact.  It also ensure that the entire film is one
17375 file on the disk.  As this is for personal use, the ripping is
17376 perfectly legal here in Norway.</p>
17377
17378 <p>Normally I rip the DVDs using dd like this:</p>
17379
17380 <blockquote><pre>
17381 #!/bin/sh
17382 # apt-get install lsdvd
17383 title=$(lsdvd 2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $3}')
17384 dd if=/dev/dvd of=/storage/dvds/$title.iso bs=1M
17385 </pre></blockquote>
17386
17387 <p>But some DVDs give a input/output error when I read it, and I have
17388 been looking for a better alternative.  I have no idea why this I/O
17389 error occur, but suspect my DVD drive, the Linux kernel driver or
17390 something fishy with the DVDs in question.  Or perhaps all three.</p>
17391
17392 <p>Anyway, I believe I found a solution today using dvdbackup and
17393 genisoimage.  This script gave me a working ISO for a problematic
17394 movie by first extracting the DVD file system and then re-packing it
17395 back as an ISO.
17396
17397 <blockquote><pre>
17398 #!/bin/sh
17399 # apt-get install lsdvd dvdbackup genisoimage
17400 set -e
17401 tmpdir=/storage/dvds/
17402 title=$(lsdvd 2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $3}')
17403 dvdbackup -i /dev/dvd -M -o $tmpdir -n$title
17404 genisoimage -dvd-video -o $tmpdir/$title.iso $tmpdir/$title
17405 rm -rf $tmpdir/$title
17406 </pre></blockquote>
17407
17408 <p>Anyone know of a better way available in Debian/Squeeze?</p>
17409
17410 <p>Update 2011-09-18: I got a tip from Konstantin Khomoutov about the
17411 readom program from the wodim package.  It is specially written to
17412 read optical media, and is called like this: <tt>readom dev=/dev/dvd
17413 f=image.iso</tt>.  It got 6 GB along with the problematic Cars DVD
17414 before it failed, and failed right away with a Timmy Time DVD.</p>
17415
17416 <p>Next, I got a tip from Bastian Blank about
17417 <a href="http://bblank.thinkmo.de/blog/new-software-python-dvdvideo">his
17418 program python-dvdvideo</a>, which seem to be just what I am looking
17419 for.  Tested it with my problematic Timmy Time DVD, and it succeeded
17420 creating a ISO image.  The git source built and installed just fine in
17421 Squeeze, so I guess this will be my tool of choice in the future.</p>
17422
17423       </div>
17424       <div class="tags">
17425
17426
17427         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
17428
17429
17430       </div>
17431     </div>
17432     <div class="padding"></div>
17433
17434     <div class="entry">
17435       <div class="title">
17436         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html">How is booting into runlevel 1 different from single user boots?</a>
17437       </div>
17438       <div class="date">
17439          4th August 2011
17440       </div>
17441       <div class="body">
17442         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
17443 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
17444 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
17445 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
17446 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
17447 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
17448 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
17449 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
17450 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
17451
17452 <p><blockquote>
17453 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
17454 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
17455 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
17456 </blockquote></p>
17457
17458 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
17459 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
17460 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
17461 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
17462 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
17463 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
17464 hard to explain.</p>
17465
17466 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
17467 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
17468 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
17469 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
17470 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
17471 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
17472 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
17473 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
17474 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
17475 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
17476 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
17477 mode).</p>
17478
17479 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
17480 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
17481 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
17482 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
17483 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
17484 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
17485 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
17486 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
17487 after visiting single user mode.</p>
17488
17489 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
17490 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
17491 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
17492 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
17493 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
17494 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
17495 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
17496 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
17497
17498 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
17499 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
17500 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
17501
17502       </div>
17503       <div class="tags">
17504
17505
17506         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
17507
17508
17509       </div>
17510     </div>
17511     <div class="padding"></div>
17512
17513     <div class="entry">
17514       <div class="title">
17515         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">What should start from /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian? - almost nothing</a>
17516       </div>
17517       <div class="date">
17518         30th July 2011
17519       </div>
17520       <div class="body">
17521         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
17522 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
17523 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
17524 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
17525 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
17526 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
17527 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
17528 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
17529 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
17530 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
17531 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
17532 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
17533 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
17534
17535 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
17536 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
17537 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
17538 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
17539 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
17540 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
17541 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
17542 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
17543 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
17544
17545 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
17546 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
17547 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
17548 is presented.</p>
17549
17550 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
17551 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
17552 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
17553 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
17554 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
17555 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
17556 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
17557 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
17558 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
17559 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
17560 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
17561 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
17562 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
17563 find time to push this forward.</p>
17564
17565       </div>
17566       <div class="tags">
17567
17568
17569         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
17570
17571
17572       </div>
17573     </div>
17574     <div class="padding"></div>
17575
17576     <div class="entry">
17577       <div class="title">
17578         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">What is missing in the Debian desktop, or why my parents use Kubuntu</a>
17579       </div>
17580       <div class="date">
17581         29th July 2011
17582       </div>
17583       <div class="body">
17584         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
17585 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
17586 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
17587 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
17588 issues.</p>
17589
17590 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
17591 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
17592 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
17593
17594 <ol>
17595
17596 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
17597 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
17598 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
17599 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
17600 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
17601 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
17602 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
17603 Debian.</li>
17604
17605 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
17606 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
17607 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
17608 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
17609 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
17610 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
17611 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
17612 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
17613 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
17614 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
17615 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
17616 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
17617 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
17618
17619 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
17620 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
17621 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
17622 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
17623 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
17624 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
17625 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
17626 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
17627 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
17628 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
17629
17630 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
17631 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
17632 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
17633 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
17634 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
17635 latter behaviour.</li>
17636
17637 </ol>
17638
17639 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
17640 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
17641 it do not matter much.</p>
17642
17643 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
17644 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
17645 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
17646
17647       </div>
17648       <div class="tags">
17649
17650
17651         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
17652
17653
17654       </div>
17655     </div>
17656     <div class="padding"></div>
17657
17658     <div class="entry">
17659       <div class="title">
17660         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html">Perl modules used by FixMyStreet which are missing in Debian/Squeeze</a>
17661       </div>
17662       <div class="date">
17663         26th July 2011
17664       </div>
17665       <div class="body">
17666         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
17667 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
17668 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
17669 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
17670 security support for a few years.</p>
17671
17672 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
17673 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
17674 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
17675 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
17676 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
17677 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
17678 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
17679 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
17680 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
17681 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
17682 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
17683 easier in the future.</p>
17684
17685 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
17686 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
17687 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
17688 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
17689 do not have time for.</p>
17690
17691       </div>
17692       <div class="tags">
17693
17694
17695         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>.
17696
17697
17698       </div>
17699     </div>
17700     <div class="padding"></div>
17701
17702     <div class="entry">
17703       <div class="title">
17704         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Software_vs__proprietary_softare___.html">Free Software vs. proprietary softare...</a>
17705       </div>
17706       <div class="date">
17707         20th June 2011
17708       </div>
17709       <div class="body">
17710         <p>Reading
17711 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2011/06/20/open-source-vs-closed-source-eulas/">the
17712 thingiverse blog</a>, I came across two highlights of interesting
17713 parts of the
17714 <a href="http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Autodesk_EULA">Autodesk</a>
17715 and
17716 <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/06/things-you-cant-do-with-the-microsoft-kinect-sdk.html">Microsoft
17717 Kinect</a> End User License Agreements (EULAs), which illustrates
17718 quite well why I stay away from software with EULAs.  Whenever I take
17719 the time to read their content, the terms are simply unacceptable.</p>
17720
17721       </div>
17722       <div class="tags">
17723
17724
17725         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
17726
17727
17728       </div>
17729     </div>
17730     <div class="padding"></div>
17731
17732     <div class="entry">
17733       <div class="title">
17734         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experimental_Open311_API_for_the_mySociety_fixmystreet_system.html">Experimental Open311 API for the mySociety fixmystreet system</a>
17735       </div>
17736       <div class="date">
17737         30th April 2011
17738       </div>
17739       <div class="body">
17740         <p>Today, the first draft implementation of an
17741 <a href="http://www.open311.org/">Open311 API</a> for the Norwegian
17742 service <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> started to
17743 work.  It is only available on the developer server for now, and I
17744 have not tested it using any existing Open311 client (I lack the
17745 platforms needed to run the clients I have found so far), but it is
17746 able to query the database and extract a list of open and closed
17747 requests within a given category and reported to a given municipality.
17748 I believe that is a good start to create a useful service for those
17749 that want to do data mining on the requests submitted so far.</p>
17750
17751 <p>Where is it?  Visit
17752 <a href="http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/">http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/</a>
17753 to have a look.  Please send feedback to the
17754 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami">fiksgatami
17755 (at) nuug.no</a> mailing list.</p>
17756
17757       </div>
17758       <div class="tags">
17759
17760
17761         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311</a>.
17762
17763
17764       </div>
17765     </div>
17766     <div class="padding"></div>
17767
17768     <div class="entry">
17769       <div class="title">
17770         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Initial_notes_on_adding_Open311_server_API_on_FixMyStreet.html">Initial notes on adding Open311 server API on FixMyStreet</a>
17771       </div>
17772       <div class="date">
17773         29th April 2011
17774       </div>
17775       <div class="body">
17776         <p>The last few days I have spent some time trying to add support for
17777 the <a href="http://www.open311.org/">Open311 API</a> in the
17778 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">Norwegian FixMyStreet service</a>.
17779 Earlier I believed Open311 would be a useful API to use to submit
17780 reports to the municipalities, but when I noticed that the
17781 <a href="http://fixmystreet.org.nz/">New Zealand version</a> of
17782 FixMyStreet had implemented Open311 on the server side, it occurred to
17783 me that this was a nice way to allow the public, press and
17784 municipalities to do data mining directly in the FixMyStreet service.
17785 Thus I went to work implementing the Open311 specification for
17786 FixMyStreet.  The implementation is not yet ready, but I am starting
17787 to get a draft limping along.  In the process, I have discovered a few
17788 issues with the Open311 specification.</p>
17789
17790 <p>One obvious missing feature is the lack of natural language
17791 handling in the specification.  The specification seem to assume all
17792 reports will be written in English, and do not provide a way for the
17793 receiving end to specify which languages are understood there.  To be
17794 able to use the same client and submit to several Open311 receivers,
17795 it would be useful to know which language to use when writing reports.
17796 I believe the specification should be extended to allow the receivers
17797 of problem reports to specify which language they accept, and the
17798 submitter to specify which language the report is written in.
17799 Language of a text can also be automatically guessed using statistical
17800 methods, but for multi-lingual persons like myself, it is useful to
17801 know which language to use when writing a problem report.  I suspect
17802 some lang=nb,nn kind of attribute would solve it.</p>
17803
17804 <p>A key part of the Open311 API is the list of services provided,
17805 which is similar to the categories used by FixMyStreet.  One issue I
17806 run into is the need to specify both name and unique identifier for
17807 each category.  The specification do not state that the identifier
17808 should be numeric, but all example implementations have used numbers
17809 here.  In FixMyStreet, there is no number associated with each
17810 category.  As the specification do not forbid it, I will use the name
17811 as the unique identifier for now and see how open311 clients handle
17812 it.</p>
17813
17814 <p>The report format in open311 and the report format in FixMyStreet
17815 differ in a key part.  FixMyStreet have a title and a description,
17816 while Open311 only have a description and lack the title.  I'm not
17817 quite sure how to best handle this yet.  When asking for a FixMyStreet
17818 report in Open311 format, I just merge title an description into the
17819 open311 description, but this is not going to work if the open311 API
17820 should be used for submitting new reports to FixMyStreet.</p>
17821
17822 <p>The search feature in Open311 is missing a way to ask for problems
17823 near a geographic location.  I believe this is important if one is to
17824 use Open311 as the query language for mobile units.  The specification
17825 should be extended to handle this, probably using some new lat=, lon=
17826 and range= options.</p>
17827
17828 <p>The final challenge I see is that the FixMyStreet code handle
17829 several administrations in one interface, while the Open311 API seem
17830 to assume only one administration.  For FixMyStreet, this mean a
17831 report can be sent to several administrations, and the categories
17832 available depend on the location of the problem.  Not quite sure how
17833 to best handle this.  I've noticed
17834 <a href="http://seeclickfix.com/open311/">SeeClickFix</a> added
17835 latitude and longitude options to the services request, but it do not
17836 solve the problem of what to return when no location is specified.
17837 Will have to investigate this a bit more.</p>
17838
17839 <p>My distaste for web forums have kept me from bringing these issues
17840 up with the open311 developer group.  I really wish they had a email
17841 list available via <a href="http://www.gmane.org/">Gmane</a> to use for
17842 discussions instead of only
17843 <a href="http://lists.open311.org/groups/discuss">a forum<a/>.  Oh,
17844 well.  That will probably resolve itself, one way or another.  I've
17845 also tried visiting the IRC channel #open311 on FreeNode, but no-one
17846 seem to reply to my questions there.  This make me wonder if I just
17847 fail to understand how the open311 community work.  It sure do not
17848 work like the free software project communities I am used to.</p>
17849
17850       </div>
17851       <div class="tags">
17852
17853
17854         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311</a>.
17855
17856
17857       </div>
17858     </div>
17859     <div class="padding"></div>
17860
17861     <div class="entry">
17862       <div class="title">
17863         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_enteres_Google_Summer_of_Code_2011.html">Gnash enteres Google Summer of Code 2011</a>
17864       </div>
17865       <div class="date">
17866          6th April 2011
17867       </div>
17868       <div class="body">
17869         <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project</a> is still
17870 the most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation.
17871 A few days ago the project
17872 <a href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnash-dev/2011-04/msg00011.html">announced</a>
17873 that it will participate in Google Summer of Code.  I hope many
17874 students apply, and that some of them succeed in getting AVM2 support
17875 into Gnash.</p>
17876
17877       </div>
17878       <div class="tags">
17879
17880
17881         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
17882
17883
17884       </div>
17885     </div>
17886     <div class="padding"></div>
17887
17888     <div class="entry">
17889       <div class="title">
17890         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Norwegian_FixMyStreet_have_kept_me_busy_the_last_few_weeks.html">A Norwegian FixMyStreet have kept me busy the last few weeks</a>
17891       </div>
17892       <div class="date">
17893          3rd April 2011
17894       </div>
17895       <div class="body">
17896         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
17897 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
17898 update in English.</p>
17899
17900 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
17901 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
17902 of the British service
17903 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
17904 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
17905 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
17906 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
17907 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
17908 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
17909 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
17910 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
17911 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
17912 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
17913 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
17914 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
17915 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
17916
17917 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
17918 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
17919 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
17920 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
17921 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
17922 public infrastructure.</p>
17923
17924 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
17925 such service?</p>
17926
17927       </div>
17928       <div class="tags">
17929
17930
17931         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>.
17932
17933
17934       </div>
17935     </div>
17936     <div class="padding"></div>
17937
17938     <div class="entry">
17939       <div class="title">
17940         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html">Using NVD and CPE to track CVEs in locally maintained software</a>
17941       </div>
17942       <div class="date">
17943         28th January 2011
17944       </div>
17945       <div class="body">
17946         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
17947 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
17948 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
17949 available on the Internet, and check our locally
17950 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
17951 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
17952 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
17953 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
17954 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
17955 out which security holes were present in our free software
17956 collection.</p>
17957
17958 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
17959 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
17960 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
17961 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
17962 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
17963 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
17964 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
17965 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
17966 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
17967 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
17968 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
17969 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
17970 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
17971 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
17972 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
17973 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
17974
17975 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
17976 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
17977 check out, one could look up
17978 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search?cpe=cpe%3A%2Fa%3Agnu%3Agzip:1.3.3">cpe:/a:gnu:gzip:1.3.3
17979 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
17980 The most recent one is
17981 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
17982 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
17983 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
17984
17985 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
17986 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
17987 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
17988 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
17989 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
17990 security issues out.</p>
17991
17992 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
17993 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
17994 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
17995 RHEL is providing
17996 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
17997 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
17998 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
17999
18000 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
18001 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
18002 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
18003 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
18004 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
18005 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
18006 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
18007 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
18008 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
18009 established soon.</p>
18010
18011 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
18012 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
18013 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
18014 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
18015 for their packages.</p>
18016
18017       </div>
18018       <div class="tags">
18019
18020
18021         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
18022
18023
18024       </div>
18025     </div>
18026     <div class="padding"></div>
18027
18028     <div class="entry">
18029       <div class="title">
18030         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Which_module_is_loaded_for_a_given_PCI_and_USB_device_.html">Which module is loaded for a given PCI and USB device?</a>
18031       </div>
18032       <div class="date">
18033         23rd January 2011
18034       </div>
18035       <div class="body">
18036         <p>In the
18037 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
18038 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
18039 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
18040 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
18041 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
18042 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
18043 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
18044 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
18045 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
18046 one of my machines like this:</p>
18047
18048 <pre>
18049 loaded modules:
18050 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
18051 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
18052 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
18053 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
18054 10de:03ec pata_amd
18055 10de:03f6 sata_nv
18056 1022:1103 k8temp
18057 109e:036e bttv
18058 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
18059 11ab:4364 sky2
18060 </pre>
18061
18062 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
18063 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
18064
18065 <pre>
18066 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
18067     echo loaded pci modules:
18068     (
18069         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
18070         for address in * ; do
18071             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
18072                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
18073                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
18074                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
18075                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
18076                     echo "$id $module"
18077                 fi
18078             fi
18079         done
18080     )
18081     echo
18082 fi
18083 </pre>
18084
18085 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
18086 mappings:</p>
18087
18088 <pre>
18089 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
18090     echo loaded usb modules:
18091     (
18092         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
18093         for address in * ; do
18094             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
18095                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
18096                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
18097                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
18098                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
18099                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
18100                         echo "$id $module"
18101                     fi
18102                 fi
18103             fi
18104         done
18105     )
18106     echo
18107 fi
18108 </pre>
18109
18110 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
18111 well.</p>
18112
18113       </div>
18114       <div class="tags">
18115
18116
18117         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
18118
18119
18120       </div>
18121     </div>
18122     <div class="padding"></div>
18123
18124     <div class="entry">
18125       <div class="title">
18126         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_video_format_most_supported_in_web_browsers_.html">The video format most supported in web browsers?</a>
18127       </div>
18128       <div class="date">
18129         16th January 2011
18130       </div>
18131       <div class="body">
18132         <p>The video format struggle on the web continues, and the three
18133 contenders seem to be Ogg Theora, H.264 and WebM.  Most video sites
18134 seem to use H.264, while others use Ogg Theora.  Interestingly enough,
18135 the comments I see give me the feeling that a lot of people believe
18136 H.264 is the most supported video format in browsers, but according to
18137 the Wikipedia article on
18138 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">HTML5 video</a>,
18139 this is not true.  Check out the nice table of supprted formats in
18140 different browsers there.  The format supported by most browsers is
18141 Ogg Theora, supported by released versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google
18142 Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Konqueror, Epiphany, Origyn Web Browser and
18143 BOLT browser, while not supported by Internet Explorer nor Safari.
18144 The runner up is WebM supported by released versions of Google Chrome
18145 Chromium Opera and Origyn Web Browser, and test versions of Mozilla
18146 Firefox.  H.264 is supported by released versions of Safari, Origyn
18147 Web Browser and BOLT browser, and the test version of Internet
18148 Explorer.  Those wanting Ogg Theora support in Internet Explorer and
18149 Safari can install plugins to get it.</p>
18150
18151 <p>To me, the simple conclusion from this is that to reach most users
18152 without any extra software installed, one uses Ogg Theora with the
18153 HTML5 video tag.   Of course to reach all those without a browser
18154 handling HTML5, one need fallback mechanisms.  In
18155 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>, we provide first fallback to a
18156 plugin capable of playing MPEG1 video, and those without such support
18157 we have a second fallback to the Cortado java applet playing Ogg
18158 Theora.  This seem to work quite well, as can be seen in an <a
18159 href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20110111-semantic-web/">example
18160 from last week</a>.</p>
18161
18162 <p>The reason Ogg Theora is the most supported format, and H.264 is
18163 the least supported is simple.  Implementing and using H.264
18164 require royalty payment to MPEG-LA, and the terms of use from MPEG-LA
18165 are incompatible with free software licensing.  If you believed H.264
18166 was without royalties and license terms, check out
18167 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
18168 Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps.</p>
18169
18170 <p>A incomplete list of sites providing video in Ogg Theora is
18171 available from
18172 <a href="http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/List_of_Theora_videos">the
18173 Xiph.org wiki</a>, if you want to have a look.  I'm not aware of a
18174 similar list for WebM nor H.264.</p>
18175
18176 <p>Update 2011-01-16 09:40: A question from Tollef on IRC made me
18177 realise that I failed to make it clear enough this text is about the
18178 &lt;video&gt; tag support in browsers and not the video support
18179 provided by external plugins like the Flash plugins.</p>
18180
18181       </div>
18182       <div class="tags">
18183
18184
18185         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
18186
18187
18188       </div>
18189     </div>
18190     <div class="padding"></div>
18191
18192     <div class="entry">
18193       <div class="title">
18194         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Chrome_plan_to_drop_H_264_support_for_HTML5__lt_video_gt_.html">Chrome plan to drop H.264 support for HTML5 &lt;video&gt;</a>
18195       </div>
18196       <div class="date">
18197         12th January 2011
18198       </div>
18199       <div class="body">
18200         <p>Today I discovered
18201 <a href="http://www.digi.no/860070/google-dropper-h264-stotten-i-chrome">via
18202 digi.no</a> that the Chrome developers, in a surprising announcement,
18203 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/html-video-codec-support-in-chrome.html">yesterday
18204 announced</a> plans to drop H.264 support for HTML5 &lt;video&gt; in
18205 the browser.  The argument used is that H.264 is not a "completely
18206 open" codec technology.  If you believe H.264 was free for everyone
18207 to use, I recommend having a look at the essay
18208 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
18209 Free That Matters</a>".  It is not free of cost for creators of video
18210 tools, nor those of us that want to publish on the Internet, and the
18211 terms provided by MPEG-LA excludes free software projects from
18212 licensing the patents needed for H.264.  Some background information
18213 on the Google announcement is available from
18214 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/24243/Google_To_Drop_H264_Support_from_Chrome">OSnews</a>.
18215 A good read. :)</p>
18216
18217 <p>Personally, I believe it is great that Google is taking a stand to
18218 promote equal terms for everyone when it comes to video publishing on
18219 the Internet.  This can only be done by publishing using free and open
18220 standards, which is only possible if the web browsers provide support
18221 for these free and open standards.  At the moment there seem to be two
18222 camps in the web browser world when it come to video support.  Some
18223 browsers support H.264, and others support
18224 <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg Theora</a> and
18225 <a href="http://www.webmproject.org/">WebM</a>
18226 (<a href="http://www.diracvideo.org/">Dirac</a> is not really an option
18227 yet), forcing those of us that want to publish video on the Internet
18228 and which can not accept the terms of use presented by MPEG-LA for
18229 H.264 to not reach all potential viewers.
18230 Wikipedia keep <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">an
18231 updated summary</a> of the current browser support.</p>
18232
18233 <p>Not surprising, several people would prefer Google to keep
18234 promoting H.264, and John Gruber
18235 <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2011/01/simple_questions">presents
18236 the mind set</a> of these people quite well.  His rhetorical questions
18237 provoked a reply from Thom Holwerda with another set of questions
18238 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/24245/10_Questions_for_John_Gruber_Regarding_H_264_WebM">presenting
18239 the issues with H.264</a>. Both are worth a read.</p>
18240
18241 <p>Some argue that if Google is dropping H.264 because it isn't free,
18242 they should also drop support for the Adobe Flash plugin.  This
18243 argument was covered by Simon Phipps in
18244 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/01/google-and-h264---far-from-hypocritical/index.htm">todays
18245 blog post</a>, which I find to put the issue in context.  To me it
18246 make perfect sense to drop native H.264 support for HTML5 in the
18247 browser while still allowing plugins.</p>
18248
18249 <p>I suspect the reason this announcement make so many people protest,
18250 is that all the users and promoters of H.264 suddenly get an uneasy
18251 feeling that they might be backing the wrong horse.  A lot of TV
18252 broadcasters have been moving to H.264 the last few years, and a lot
18253 of money has been invested in hardware based on the belief that they
18254 could use the same video format for both broadcasting and web
18255 publishing.  Suddenly this belief is shaken.</p>
18256
18257 <p>An interesting question is why Google is doing this.  While the
18258 presented argument might be true enough, I believe Google would only
18259 present the argument if the change make sense from a business
18260 perspective.  One reason might be that they are currently negotiating
18261 with MPEG-LA over royalties or usage terms, and giving MPEG-LA the
18262 feeling that dropping H.264 completely from Chroome, Youtube and
18263 Google Video would improve the negotiation position of Google.
18264 Another reason might be that Google want to save money by not having
18265 to pay the video tax to MPEG-LA at all, and thus want to move to a
18266 video format not requiring royalties at all.  A third reason might be
18267 that the Chrome development team simply want to avoid the
18268 Chrome/Chromium split to get more help with the development of Chrome.
18269 I guess time will tell.</p>
18270
18271 <p>Update 2011-01-15: The Google Chrome team provided
18272 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/more-about-chrome-html-video-codec.html">more
18273 background and information on the move</a> it a blog post yesterday.</p>
18274
18275       </div>
18276       <div class="tags">
18277
18278
18279         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
18280
18281
18282       </div>
18283     </div>
18284     <div class="padding"></div>
18285
18286     <div class="entry">
18287       <div class="title">
18288         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html">What standards are Free and Open as defined by Digistan?</a>
18289       </div>
18290       <div class="date">
18291         30th December 2010
18292       </div>
18293       <div class="body">
18294         <p>After trying to
18295 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">compare
18296 Ogg Theora</a> to
18297 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the Digistan
18298 definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
18299 to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
18300 this.  As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
18301 the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
18302 JPEG, PNG, SVG and others.  But to be able to complete this in a
18303 reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
18304
18305 <p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
18306 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse">the
18307 wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
18308 to help out.  The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
18309 place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
18310 NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
18311 of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
18312
18313 <p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do.  Do not be
18314 scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
18315
18316       </div>
18317       <div class="tags">
18318
18319
18320         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
18321
18322
18323       </div>
18324     </div>
18325     <div class="padding"></div>
18326
18327     <div class="entry">
18328       <div class="title">
18329         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html">The many definitions of a open standard</a>
18330       </div>
18331       <div class="date">
18332         27th December 2010
18333       </div>
18334       <div class="body">
18335         <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
18336 "<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
18337 Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
18338 the term has been decided by Digistan.  The term "Open Standard" has
18339 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
18340 about standards.  One end up discussing which definition is the best
18341 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
18342 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
18343
18344 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
18345 standards, here are a few that I know about.  This list is not
18346 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
18347 complete survey.  More definitions are available on the
18348 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
18349 page</a>.</p>
18350
18351 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
18352 Interoperability Framework version 1.0.  Really sad to notice that BSA
18353 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
18354 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
18355 their own people.  Anyway, the definition is still available and it
18356 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
18357 specification on equal terms.</p>
18358
18359 <blockquote>
18360
18361 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
18362 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
18363 open standard:</p>
18364
18365 <ul>
18366
18367 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
18368 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
18369 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
18370 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
18371
18372 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
18373 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
18374 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
18375 nominal fee.</li>
18376
18377 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
18378 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
18379 free basis.</li>
18380
18381 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
18382
18383 </ul>
18384 </blockquote>
18385
18386 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
18387 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
18388 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
18389 definition</a> in 2004.  It even made it into the Danish parlament as
18390 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
18391 definition of a open standard</a>.  Another from a different part of
18392 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
18393
18394 <blockquote>
18395
18396 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
18397
18398 <ol>
18399
18400 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
18401 tilgængelig.</li>
18402
18403 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
18404 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
18405
18406 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
18407 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
18408
18409 </ol>
18410
18411 </blockquote>
18412
18413 <p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
18414 definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
18415
18416 <blockquote>
18417
18418 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
18419
18420 <ol>
18421
18422 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
18423 manner equally available to all parties;</li>
18424
18425 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
18426 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
18427 Standard themselves;</li>
18428
18429 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
18430 any party or in any business model;</li>
18431
18432 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
18433 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
18434 parties;</li>
18435
18436 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
18437 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
18438 parties.</li>
18439
18440 </ol>
18441
18442 </blockquote>
18443
18444 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
18445 its
18446 <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
18447 Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
18448
18449 <blockquote>
18450 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
18451
18452 <ul>
18453
18454 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
18455   democratic:
18456
18457          <ul>
18458
18459          <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
18460             participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
18461             imposed by the organization under which it is developed
18462             and managed.</li>
18463
18464          <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
18465             method, can be changed through input from all
18466             participants.</li>
18467
18468          <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
18469             the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
18470
18471          <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
18472             and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
18473
18474          <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
18475             public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
18476             comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
18477
18478          </ul>
18479
18480 </li>
18481
18482 </ul>
18483
18484 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
18485 <ul>
18486
18487 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
18488   and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
18489   implementations to the interface described in the standard without
18490   undue or restrictive constraints.  Interfaces include APIs,
18491   protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
18492
18493 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
18494   a technical or economic barriers</li>
18495
18496 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
18497   interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
18498   program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
18499   programs and mutually to use the information which has been
18500   exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
18501   file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
18502   conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
18503   computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
18504   intended to function.</li>
18505
18506 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
18507   standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
18508   must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
18509
18510 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
18511   fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
18512   perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
18513   sell products based on the standard.  The only exceptions are
18514   terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
18515   outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
18516   patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
18517   only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
18518
18519       <ul>
18520
18521       <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
18522         licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
18523         (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
18524
18525       <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
18526         or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
18527         essential to practice that standard (also known as a
18528         "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
18529
18530       <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
18531         licensor</li>
18532
18533       </ul>
18534 </li>
18535
18536 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
18537   implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
18538   or restricted licensing terms</li>
18539
18540 </ul>
18541
18542 </blockquote>
18543
18544 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
18545 there are so many of them.  As you can see, the same holds true for
18546 open standard definitions.  Most of the definitions have a lot in
18547 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
18548 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
18549 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
18550 competition to downplay the significance of open standards.  I hope we
18551 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
18552 Standards.</p>
18553
18554       </div>
18555       <div class="tags">
18556
18557
18558         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
18559
18560
18561       </div>
18562     </div>
18563     <div class="padding"></div>
18564
18565     <div class="entry">
18566       <div class="title">
18567         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">Is Ogg Theora a free and open standard?</a>
18568       </div>
18569       <div class="date">
18570         25th December 2010
18571       </div>
18572       <div class="body">
18573         <p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
18574 Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
18575
18576 <blockquote>
18577
18578 <p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
18579 as follows:</p>
18580
18581 <ol>
18582
18583 <li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
18584 in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
18585 freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
18586
18587 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
18588 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
18589 open decision-making procedure available to all interested
18590 parties.</li>
18591
18592 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
18593 document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
18594 distribute, and use it freely.</li>
18595
18596 <li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
18597 irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
18598
18599 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
18600
18601 </ol>
18602
18603 <p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
18604 measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
18605 products based on the standard.</p>
18606 </blockquote>
18607
18608 <p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
18609 and open standard according to this definition.  Here is a short
18610 writeup of what I have been able to gather so far.  I brought up the
18611 topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
18612 <a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
18613 July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
18614 According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
18615 the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
18616
18617 <p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
18618
18619 <p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
18620 Ogg Theora specification.  It can be argued that the
18621 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
18622 given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
18623 making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
18624 obvious that this is a real risk.  One issue with the Xiph
18625 foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
18626 control the foundation) are not easily available on the web.  I've
18627 been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
18628 seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
18629 where is is spent in the foundation.  It is thus not obvious for an
18630 external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
18631 it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
18632 specification.  But it seem unlikely.</p>
18633
18634 <p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
18635
18636 <p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
18637 claim it to be, this point is fulfilled.  If Xiph foundation is
18638 controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
18639 documentation indicating this.</p>
18640
18641 <p>According to
18642 <a href="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
18643 prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
18644 government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
18645 the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
18646 Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
18647 report is correct.</p>
18648
18649 <p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
18650
18651 <p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
18652 container format</a> and both the
18653 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
18654 <a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
18655 the web.  This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
18656
18657 <blockquote>
18658
18659 Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
18660 specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
18661 capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
18662 the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
18663 specification compliance.
18664
18665 </blockquote>
18666
18667 <p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
18668 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
18669 this is the term:<p>
18670
18671 <blockquote>
18672
18673 <p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
18674 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
18675 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
18676 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
18677 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
18678 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
18679 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
18680 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
18681 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
18682 Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
18683 in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
18684 translate it into languages other than English.</p>
18685
18686 <p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
18687 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
18688 </blockquote>
18689
18690 <p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
18691 this term seem to be fulfilled.  There might be a problem with the
18692 missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
18693 thus reuse it in other specifications.  Not quite sure if that is a
18694 requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
18695
18696 <p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
18697
18698 <p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
18699 Theora format.
18700 <a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
18701 and
18702 <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
18703 Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
18704 patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
18705 them.  Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
18706 this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
18707 without paying any royalties.  For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
18708 Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
18709 than any real problem with Ogg Theora.</p>
18710
18711 <p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
18712
18713 <p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
18714
18715 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
18716
18717 <p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
18718 depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation.  Given the
18719 background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
18720 safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
18721 would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
18722 this.</p>
18723
18724 <p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
18725 see if they are free and open standards.</p>
18726
18727       </div>
18728       <div class="tags">
18729
18730
18731         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
18732
18733
18734       </div>
18735     </div>
18736     <div class="padding"></div>
18737
18738     <div class="entry">
18739       <div class="title">
18740         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_reply_from_Edgar_Villanueva_to_Microsoft_in_Peru.html">The reply from Edgar Villanueva to Microsoft in Peru</a>
18741       </div>
18742       <div class="date">
18743         25th December 2010
18744       </div>
18745       <div class="body">
18746         <p>A few days ago
18747 <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece">an
18748 article</a> in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
18749 2.0 of
18750 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Interoperability_Framework">European
18751 Interoperability Framework</a> has been successfully lobbied by the
18752 proprietary software industry to remove the focus on free software.
18753 Nothing very surprising there, given
18754 <a href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/29/2115235/Open-Source-Open-Standards-Under-Attack-In-Europe">earlier
18755 reports</a> on how Microsoft and others have stacked the committees in
18756 this work.  But I find this very sad.   The definition of
18757 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt">an
18758 open standard from version 1</a> was very good, and something I
18759 believe should be used also in the future, alongside
18760 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the
18761 definition from Digistan</A>.  Version 2 have removed the open
18762 standard definition from its content.</p>
18763
18764 <p>Anyway, the news reminded me of the great reply sent by Dr. Edgar
18765 Villanueva, congressman in Peru at the time, to Microsoft as a reply
18766 to Microsofts attack on his proposal regarding the use of free software
18767 in the public sector in Peru.  As the text was not available from a
18768 few of the URLs where it used to be available, I copy it here from
18769 <a href="http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.html">my
18770 source</a> to ensure it is available also in the future.  Some
18771 background information about that story is available in
18772 <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6099">an article</a> from
18773 Linux Journal in 2002.</p>
18774
18775 <blockquote>
18776 <p>Lima, 8th of April, 2002<br>
18777 To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ<br>
18778 General Manager of Microsoft Perú</p>
18779
18780 <p>Dear Sir:</p>
18781
18782 <p>First of all, I thank you for your letter of March 25, 2002 in which you state the official position of Microsoft relative to Bill Number 1609, Free Software in Public Administration, which is indubitably inspired by the desire for Peru to find a suitable place in the global technological context. In the same spirit, and convinced that we will find the best solutions through an exchange of clear and open ideas, I will take this opportunity to reply to the commentaries included in your letter.</p>
18783
18784 <p>While acknowledging that opinions such as yours constitute a significant contribution, it would have been even more worthwhile for me if, rather than formulating objections of a general nature (which we will analyze in detail later) you had gathered solid arguments for the advantages that proprietary software could bring to the Peruvian State, and to its citizens in general, since this would have allowed a more enlightening exchange in respect of each of our positions.</p>
18785
18786 <p>With the aim of creating an orderly debate, we will assume that what you call "open source software" is what the Bill defines as "free software", since there exists software for which the source code is distributed together with the program, but which does not fall within the definition established by the Bill; and that what you call "commercial software" is what the Bill defines as "proprietary" or "unfree", given that there exists free software which is sold in the market for a price like any other good or service.</p>
18787
18788 <p>It is also necessary to make it clear that the aim of the Bill we are discussing is not directly related to the amount of direct savings that can by made by using free software in state institutions. That is in any case a marginal aggregate value, but in no way is it the chief focus of the Bill. The basic principles which inspire the Bill are linked to the basic guarantees of a state of law, such as:</p>
18789
18790 <p>
18791 <ul>
18792 <li>Free access to public information by the citizen. </li>
18793 <li>Permanence of public data. </li>
18794 <li>Security of the State and citizens.</li>
18795 </ul>
18796 </p>
18797
18798 <p>To guarantee the free access of citizens to public information, it is indispensable that the encoding of data is not tied to a single provider. The use of standard and open formats gives a guarantee of this free access, if necessary through the creation of compatible free software.</p>
18799
18800 <p>To guarantee the permanence of public data, it is necessary that the usability and maintenance of the software does not depend on the goodwill of the suppliers, or on the monopoly conditions imposed by them. For this reason the State needs systems the development of which can be guaranteed due to the availability of the source code.</p>
18801
18802 <p>To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which allow control from a distance or the undesired transmission of information to third parties. Systems with source code freely accessible to the public are required to allow their inspection by the State itself, by the citizens, and by a large number of independent experts throughout the world. Our proposal brings further security, since the knowledge of the source code will eliminate the growing number of programs with *spy code*. </p>
18803
18804 <p>In the same way, our proposal strengthens the security of the citizens, both in their role as legitimate owners of information managed by the state, and in their role as consumers. In this second case, by allowing the growth of a widespread availability of free software not containing *spy code* able to put at risk privacy and individual freedoms.</p>
18805
18806 <p>In this sense, the Bill is limited to establishing the conditions under which the state bodies will obtain software in the future, that is, in a way compatible with these basic principles.</p>
18807
18808
18809 <p>From reading the Bill it will be clear that once passed:<br>
18810 <li>the law does not forbid the production of proprietary software</li>
18811 <li>the law does not forbid the sale of proprietary software</li>
18812 <li>the law does not specify which concrete software to use</li>
18813 <li>the law does not dictate the supplier from whom software will be bought</li>
18814 <li>the law does not limit the terms under which a software product can be licensed.</li>
18815
18816 </p>
18817
18818 <p>What the Bill does express clearly, is that, for software to be acceptable for the state it is not enough that it is technically capable of fulfilling a task, but that further the contractual conditions must satisfy a series of requirements regarding the license, without which the State cannot guarantee the citizen adequate processing of his data, watching over its integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility throughout time, as these are very critical aspects for its normal functioning.</p>
18819
18820 <p>We agree, Mr. Gonzalez, that information and communication technology have a significant impact on the quality of life of the citizens (whether it be positive or negative). We surely also agree that the basic values I have pointed out above are fundamental in a democratic state like Peru. So we are very interested to know of any other way of guaranteeing these principles, other than through the use of free software in the terms defined by the Bill.</p>
18821
18822 <p>As for the observations you have made, we will now go on to analyze them in detail:</p>
18823
18824 <p>Firstly, you point out that: "1. The bill makes it compulsory for all public bodies to use only free software, that is to say open source software, which breaches the principles of equality before the law, that of non-discrimination and the right of free private enterprise, freedom of industry and of contract, protected by the constitution."</p>
18825
18826 <p>This understanding is in error. The Bill in no way affects the rights you list; it limits itself entirely to establishing conditions for the use of software on the part of state institutions, without in any way meddling in private sector transactions. It is a well established principle that the State does not enjoy the wide spectrum of contractual freedom of the private sector, as it is limited in its actions precisely by the requirement for transparency of public acts; and in this sense, the preservation of the greater common interest must prevail when legislating on the matter.</p>
18827
18828 <p>The Bill protects equality under the law, since no natural or legal person is excluded from the right of offering these goods to the State under the conditions defined in the Bill and without more limitations than those established by the Law of State Contracts and Purchasing (T.U.O. by Supreme Decree No. 012-2001-PCM).</p>
18829
18830 <p>The Bill does not introduce any discrimination whatever, since it only establishes *how* the goods have to be provided (which is a state power) and not *who* has to provide them (which would effectively be discriminatory, if restrictions based on national origin, race religion, ideology, sexual preference etc. were imposed). On the contrary, the Bill is decidedly antidiscriminatory. This is so because by defining with no room for doubt the conditions for the provision of software, it prevents state bodies from using software which has a license including discriminatory conditions.</p>
18831
18832 <p>It should be obvious from the preceding two paragraphs that the Bill does not harm free private enterprise, since the latter can always choose under what conditions it will produce software; some of these will be acceptable to the State, and others will not be since they contradict the guarantee of the basic principles listed above. This free initiative is of course compatible with the freedom of industry and freedom of contract (in the limited form in which the State can exercise the latter). Any private subject can produce software under the conditions which the State requires, or can refrain from doing so. Nobody is forced to adopt a model of production, but if they wish to provide software to the State, they must provide the mechanisms which guarantee the basic principles, and which are those described in the Bill.</p>
18833
18834 <p>By way of an example: nothing in the text of the Bill would prevent your company offering the State bodies an office "suite", under the conditions defined in the Bill and setting the price that you consider satisfactory. If you did not, it would not be due to restrictions imposed by the law, but to business decisions relative to the method of commercializing your products, decisions with which the State is not involved.</p>
18835
18836 <p>To continue; you note that:" 2. The bill, by making the use of open source software compulsory, would establish discriminatory and non competitive practices in the contracting and purchasing by public bodies..."</p>
18837
18838 <p>This statement is just a reiteration of the previous one, and so the response can be found above. However, let us concern ourselves for a moment with your comment regarding "non-competitive ... practices."</p>
18839
18840 <p>Of course, in defining any kind of purchase, the buyer sets conditions which relate to the proposed use of the good or service. From the start, this excludes certain manufacturers from the possibility of competing, but does not exclude them "a priori", but rather based on a series of principles determined by the autonomous will of the purchaser, and so the process takes place in conformance with the law. And in the Bill it is established that *no one* is excluded from competing as far as he guarantees the fulfillment of the basic principles.</p>
18841
18842 <p>Furthermore, the Bill *stimulates* competition, since it tends to generate a supply of software with better conditions of usability, and to better existing work, in a model of continuous improvement.</p>
18843
18844 <p>On the other hand, the central aspect of competivity is the chance to provide better choices to the consumer. Now, it is impossible to ignore the fact that marketing does not play a neutral role when the product is offered on the market (since accepting the opposite would lead one to suppose that firms' expenses in marketing lack any sense), and that therefore a significant expense under this heading can influence the decisions of the purchaser. This influence of marketing is in large measure reduced by the bill that we are backing, since the choice within the framework proposed is based on the *technical merits* of the product and not on the effort put into commercialization by the producer; in this sense, competitiveness is increased, since the smallest software producer can compete on equal terms with the most powerful corporations.</p>
18845
18846 <p>It is necessary to stress that there is no position more anti-competitive than that of the big software producers, which frequently abuse their dominant position, since in innumerable cases they propose as a solution to problems raised by users: "update your software to the new version" (at the user's expense, naturally); furthermore, it is common to find arbitrary cessation of technical help for products, which, in the provider's judgment alone, are "old"; and so, to receive any kind of technical assistance, the user finds himself forced to migrate to new versions (with non-trivial costs, especially as changes in hardware platform are often involved). And as the whole infrastructure is based on proprietary data formats, the user stays "trapped" in the need to continue using products from the same supplier, or to make the huge effort to change to another environment (probably also proprietary).</p>
18847
18848 <p>You add: "3. So, by compelling the State to favor a business model based entirely on open source, the bill would only discourage the local and international manufacturing companies, which are the ones which really undertake important expenditures, create a significant number of direct and indirect jobs, as well as contributing to the GNP, as opposed to a model of open source software which tends to have an ever weaker economic impact, since it mainly creates jobs in the service sector."</p>
18849
18850 <p>I do not agree with your statement. Partly because of what you yourself point out in paragraph 6 of your letter, regarding the relative weight of services in the context of software use. This contradiction alone would invalidate your position. The service model, adopted by a large number of companies in the software industry, is much larger in economic terms, and with a tendency to increase, than the licensing of programs.</p>
18851
18852 <p>On the other hand, the private sector of the economy has the widest possible freedom to choose the economic model which best suits its interests, even if this freedom of choice is often obscured subliminally by the disproportionate expenditure on marketing by the producers of proprietary software.</p>
18853
18854 <p>In addition, a reading of your opinion would lead to the conclusion that the State market is crucial and essential for the proprietary software industry, to such a point that the choice made by the State in this bill would completely eliminate the market for these firms. If that is true, we can deduce that the State must be subsidizing the proprietary software industry. In the unlikely event that this were true, the State would have the right to apply the subsidies in the area it considered of greatest social value; it is undeniable, in this improbable hypothesis, that if the State decided to subsidize software, it would have to do so choosing the free over the proprietary, considering its social effect and the rational use of taxpayers money.</p>
18855
18856 <p>In respect of the jobs generated by proprietary software in countries like ours, these mainly concern technical tasks of little aggregate value; at the local level, the technicians who provide support for proprietary software produced by transnational companies do not have the possibility of fixing bugs, not necessarily for lack of technical capability or of talent, but because they do not have access to the source code to fix it. With free software one creates more technically qualified employment and a framework of free competence where success is only tied to the ability to offer good technical support and quality of service, one stimulates the market, and one increases the shared fund of knowledge, opening up alternatives to generate services of greater total value and a higher quality level, to the benefit of all involved: producers, service organizations, and consumers.</p>
18857
18858 <p>It is a common phenomenon in developing countries that local software industries obtain the majority of their takings in the service sector, or in the creation of "ad hoc" software. Therefore, any negative impact that the application of the Bill might have in this sector will be more than compensated by a growth in demand for services (as long as these are carried out to high quality standards). If the transnational software companies decide not to compete under these new rules of the game, it is likely that they will undergo some decrease in takings in terms of payment for licenses; however, considering that these firms continue to allege that much of the software used by the State has been illegally copied, one can see that the impact will not be very serious. Certainly, in any case their fortune will be determined by market laws, changes in which cannot be avoided; many firms traditionally associated with proprietary software have already set out on the road (supported by copious expense) of providing services associated with free software, which shows that the models are not mutually exclusive.</p>
18859
18860 <p>With this bill the State is deciding that it needs to preserve certain fundamental values. And it is deciding this based on its sovereign power, without affecting any of the constitutional guarantees. If these values could be guaranteed without having to choose a particular economic model, the effects of the law would be even more beneficial. In any case, it should be clear that the State does not choose an economic model; if it happens that there only exists one economic model capable of providing software which provides the basic guarantee of these principles, this is because of historical circumstances, not because of an arbitrary choice of a given model.</p>
18861
18862 <p>Your letter continues: "4. The bill imposes the use of open source software without considering the dangers that this can bring from the point of view of security, guarantee, and possible violation of the intellectual property rights of third parties."</p>
18863
18864 <p>Alluding in an abstract way to "the dangers this can bring", without specifically mentioning a single one of these supposed dangers, shows at the least some lack of knowledge of the topic. So, allow me to enlighten you on these points.</p>
18865
18866 <p>On security:</p>
18867
18868 <p>National security has already been mentioned in general terms in the initial discussion of the basic principles of the bill. In more specific terms, relative to the security of the software itself, it is well known that all software (whether proprietary or free) contains errors or "bugs" (in programmers' slang). But it is also well known that the bugs in free software are fewer, and are fixed much more quickly, than in proprietary software. It is not in vain that numerous public bodies responsible for the IT security of state systems in developed countries require the use of free software for the same conditions of security and efficiency.</p>
18869
18870 <p>What is impossible to prove is that proprietary software is more secure than free, without the public and open inspection of the scientific community and users in general. This demonstration is impossible because the model of proprietary software itself prevents this analysis, so that any guarantee of security is based only on promises of good intentions (biased, by any reckoning) made by the producer itself, or its contractors.</p>
18871
18872 <p>It should be remembered that in many cases, the licensing conditions include Non-Disclosure clauses which prevent the user from publicly revealing security flaws found in the licensed proprietary product.</p>
18873
18874 <p>In respect of the guarantee:</p>
18875
18876 <p>As you know perfectly well, or could find out by reading the "End User License Agreement" of the products you license, in the great majority of cases the guarantees are limited to replacement of the storage medium in case of defects, but in no case is compensation given for direct or indirect damages, loss of profits, etc... If as a result of a security bug in one of your products, not fixed in time by yourselves, an attacker managed to compromise crucial State systems, what guarantees, reparations and compensation would your company make in accordance with your licensing conditions? The guarantees of proprietary software, inasmuch as programs are delivered ``AS IS'', that is, in the state in which they are, with no additional responsibility of the provider in respect of function, in no way differ from those normal with free software.</p>
18877
18878 <p>On Intellectual Property:</p>
18879
18880 <p>Questions of intellectual property fall outside the scope of this bill, since they are covered by specific other laws. The model of free software in no way implies ignorance of these laws, and in fact the great majority of free software is covered by copyright. In reality, the inclusion of this question in your observations shows your confusion in respect of the legal framework in which free software is developed. The inclusion of the intellectual property of others in works claimed as one's own is not a practice that has been noted in the free software community; whereas, unfortunately, it has been in the area of proprietary software. As an example, the condemnation by the Commercial Court of Nanterre, France, on 27th September 2001 of Microsoft Corp. to a penalty of 3 million francs in damages and interest, for violation of intellectual property (piracy, to use the unfortunate term that your firm commonly uses in its publicity).</p>
18881
18882 <p>You go on to say that: "The bill uses the concept of open source software incorrectly, since it does not necessarily imply that the software is free or of zero cost, and so arrives at mistaken conclusions regarding State savings, with no cost-benefit analysis to validate its position."</p>
18883
18884 <p>This observation is wrong; in principle, freedom and lack of cost are orthogonal concepts: there is software which is proprietary and charged for (for example, MS Office), software which is proprietary and free of charge (MS Internet Explorer), software which is free and charged for (Red Hat, SuSE etc GNU/Linux distributions), software which is free and not charged for (Apache, Open Office, Mozilla), and even software which can be licensed in a range of combinations (MySQL).</p>
18885
18886 <p>Certainly free software is not necessarily free of charge. And the text of the bill does not state that it has to be so, as you will have noted after reading it. The definitions included in the Bill state clearly *what* should be considered free software, at no point referring to freedom from charges. Although the possibility of savings in payments for proprietary software licenses are mentioned, the foundations of the bill clearly refer to the fundamental guarantees to be preserved and to the stimulus to local technological development. Given that a democratic State must support these principles, it has no other choice than to use software with publicly available source code, and to exchange information only in standard formats.</p>
18887
18888 <p>If the State does not use software with these characteristics, it will be weakening basic republican principles. Luckily, free software also implies lower total costs; however, even given the hypothesis (easily disproved) that it was more expensive than proprietary software, the simple existence of an effective free software tool for a particular IT function would oblige the State to use it; not by command of this Bill, but because of the basic principles we enumerated at the start, and which arise from the very essence of the lawful democratic State.</p>
18889
18890 <p>You continue: "6. It is wrong to think that Open Source Software is free of charge. Research by the Gartner Group (an important investigator of the technological market recognized at world level) has shown that the cost of purchase of software (operating system and applications) is only 8% of the total cost which firms and institutions take on for a rational and truly beneficial use of the technology. The other 92% consists of: installation costs, enabling, support, maintenance, administration, and down-time."</p>
18891
18892 <p>This argument repeats that already given in paragraph 5 and partly contradicts paragraph 3. For the sake of brevity we refer to the comments on those paragraphs. However, allow me to point out that your conclusion is logically false: even if according to Gartner Group the cost of software is on average only 8% of the total cost of use, this does not in any way deny the existence of software which is free of charge, that is, with a licensing cost of zero.</p>
18893
18894 <p>In addition, in this paragraph you correctly point out that the service components and losses due to down-time make up the largest part of the total cost of software use, which, as you will note, contradicts your statement regarding the small value of services suggested in paragraph 3. Now the use of free software contributes significantly to reduce the remaining life-cycle costs. This reduction in the costs of installation, support etc. can be noted in several areas: in the first place, the competitive service model of free software, support and maintenance for which can be freely contracted out to a range of suppliers competing on the grounds of quality and low cost. This is true for installation, enabling, and support, and in large part for maintenance. In the second place, due to the reproductive characteristics of the model, maintenance carried out for an application is easily replicable, without incurring large costs (that is, without paying more than once for the same thing) since modifications, if one wishes, can be incorporated in the common fund of knowledge. Thirdly, the huge costs caused by non-functioning software ("blue screens of death", malicious code such as virus, worms, and trojans, exceptions, general protection faults and other well-known problems) are reduced considerably by using more stable software; and it is well known that one of the most notable virtues of free software is its stability.</p>
18895
18896 <p>You further state that: "7. One of the arguments behind the bill is the supposed freedom from costs of open-source software, compared with the costs of commercial software, without taking into account the fact that there exist types of volume licensing which can be highly advantageous for the State, as has happened in other countries."</p>
18897
18898 <p>I have already pointed out that what is in question is not the cost of the software but the principles of freedom of information, accessibility, and security. These arguments have been covered extensively in the preceding paragraphs to which I would refer you.</p>
18899
18900 <p>On the other hand, there certainly exist types of volume licensing (although unfortunately proprietary software does not satisfy the basic principles). But as you correctly pointed out in the immediately preceding paragraph of your letter, they only manage to reduce the impact of a component which makes up no more than 8% of the total.</p>
18901
18902 <p>You continue: "8. In addition, the alternative adopted by the bill (I) is clearly more expensive, due to the high costs of software migration, and (II) puts at risk compatibility and interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector, given the hundreds of versions of open source software on the market."</p>
18903
18904 <p>Let us analyze your statement in two parts. Your first argument, that migration implies high costs, is in reality an argument in favor of the Bill. Because the more time goes by, the more difficult migration to another technology will become; and at the same time, the security risks associated with proprietary software will continue to increase. In this way, the use of proprietary systems and formats will make the State ever more dependent on specific suppliers. Once a policy of using free software has been established (which certainly, does imply some cost) then on the contrary migration from one system to another becomes very simple, since all data is stored in open formats. On the other hand, migration to an open software context implies no more costs than migration between two different proprietary software contexts, which invalidates your argument completely.</p>
18905
18906 <p>The second argument refers to "problems in interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector" This statement implies a certain lack of knowledge of the way in which free software is built, which does not maximize the dependence of the user on a particular platform, as normally happens in the realm of proprietary software. Even when there are multiple free software distributions, and numerous programs which can be used for the same function, interoperability is guaranteed as much by the use of standard formats, as required by the bill, as by the possibility of creating interoperable software given the availability of the source code.</p>
18907
18908 <p>You then say that: "9. The majority of open source code does not offer adequate levels of service nor the guarantee from recognized manufacturers of high productivity on the part of the users, which has led various public organizations to retract their decision to go with an open source software solution and to use commercial software in its place."</p>
18909
18910 <p>This observation is without foundation. In respect of the guarantee, your argument was rebutted in the response to paragraph 4. In respect of support services, it is possible to use free software without them (just as also happens with proprietary software), but anyone who does need them can obtain support separately, whether from local firms or from international corporations, again just as in the case of proprietary software.</p>
18911
18912 <p>On the other hand, it would contribute greatly to our analysis if you could inform us about free software projects *established* in public bodies which have already been abandoned in favor of proprietary software. We know of a good number of cases where the opposite has taken place, but not know of any where what you describe has taken place.</p>
18913
18914 <p>You continue by observing that: "10. The bill discourages the creativity of the Peruvian software industry, which invoices 40 million US$/year, exports 4 million US$ (10th in ranking among non-traditional exports, more than handicrafts) and is a source of highly qualified employment. With a law that encourages the use of open source, software programmers lose their intellectual property rights and their main source of payment."</p>
18915
18916 <p>It is clear enough that nobody is forced to commercialize their code as free software. The only thing to take into account is that if it is not free software, it cannot be sold to the public sector. This is not in any case the main market for the national software industry. We covered some questions referring to the influence of the Bill on the generation of employment which would be both highly technically qualified and in better conditions for competition above, so it seems unnecessary to insist on this point.</p>
18917
18918 <p>What follows in your statement is incorrect. On the one hand, no author of free software loses his intellectual property rights, unless he expressly wishes to place his work in the public domain. The free software movement has always been very respectful of intellectual property, and has generated widespread public recognition of its authors. Names like those of Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall, Miguel de Icaza, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Andrea Arcangeli, Bruce Perens, Darren Reed, Alan Cox, Eric Raymond, and many others, are recognized world-wide for their contributions to the development of software that is used today by millions of people throughout the world. On the other hand, to say that the rewards for authors rights make up the main source of payment of Peruvian programmers is in any case a guess, in particular since there is no proof to this effect, nor a demonstration of how the use of free software by the State would influence these payments.</p>
18919
18920 <p>You go on to say that: "11. Open source software, since it can be distributed without charge, does not allow the generation of income for its developers through exports. In this way, the multiplier effect of the sale of software to other countries is weakened, and so in turn is the growth of the industry, while Government rules ought on the contrary to stimulate local industry."</p>
18921
18922 <p>This statement shows once again complete ignorance of the mechanisms of and market for free software. It tries to claim that the market of sale of non- exclusive rights for use (sale of licenses) is the only possible one for the software industry, when you yourself pointed out several paragraphs above that it is not even the most important one. The incentives that the bill offers for the growth of a supply of better qualified professionals, together with the increase in experience that working on a large scale with free software within the State will bring for Peruvian technicians, will place them in a highly competitive position to offer their services abroad.</p>
18923
18924 <p>You then state that: "12. In the Forum, the use of open source software in education was discussed, without mentioning the complete collapse of this initiative in a country like Mexico, where precisely the State employees who founded the project now state that open source software did not make it possible to offer a learning experience to pupils in the schools, did not take into account the capability at a national level to give adequate support to the platform, and that the software did not and does not allow for the levels of platform integration that now exist in schools."</p>
18925
18926 <p>In fact Mexico has gone into reverse with the Red Escolar (Schools Network) project. This is due precisely to the fact that the driving forces behind the Mexican project used license costs as their main argument, instead of the other reasons specified in our project, which are far more essential. Because of this conceptual mistake, and as a result of the lack of effective support from the SEP (Secretary of State for Public Education), the assumption was made that to implant free software in schools it would be enough to drop their software budget and send them a CD ROM with Gnu/Linux instead. Of course this failed, and it couldn't have been otherwise, just as school laboratories fail when they use proprietary software and have no budget for implementation and maintenance. That's exactly why our bill is not limited to making the use of free software mandatory, but recognizes the need to create a viable migration plan, in which the State undertakes the technical transition in an orderly way in order to then enjoy the advantages of free software.</p>
18927
18928 <p>You end with a rhetorical question: "13. If open source software satisfies all the requirements of State bodies, why do you need a law to adopt it? Shouldn't it be the market which decides freely which products give most benefits or value?"</p>
18929
18930 <p>We agree that in the private sector of the economy, it must be the market that decides which products to use, and no state interference is permissible there. However, in the case of the public sector, the reasoning is not the same: as we have already established, the state archives, handles, and transmits information which does not belong to it, but which is entrusted to it by citizens, who have no alternative under the rule of law. As a counterpart to this legal requirement, the State must take extreme measures to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of this information. The use of proprietary software raises serious doubts as to whether these requirements can be fulfilled, lacks conclusive evidence in this respect, and so is not suitable for use in the public sector.</p>
18931
18932 <p>The need for a law is based, firstly, on the realization of the fundamental principles listed above in the specific area of software; secondly, on the fact that the State is not an ideal homogeneous entity, but made up of multiple bodies with varying degrees of autonomy in decision making. Given that it is inappropriate to use proprietary software, the fact of establishing these rules in law will prevent the personal discretion of any state employee from putting at risk the information which belongs to citizens. And above all, because it constitutes an up-to-date reaffirmation in relation to the means of management and communication of information used today, it is based on the republican principle of openness to the public.</p>
18933
18934 <p>In conformance with this universally accepted principle, the citizen has the right to know all information held by the State and not covered by well- founded declarations of secrecy based on law. Now, software deals with information and is itself information. Information in a special form, capable of being interpreted by a machine in order to execute actions, but crucial information all the same because the citizen has a legitimate right to know, for example, how his vote is computed or his taxes calculated. And for that he must have free access to the source code and be able to prove to his satisfaction the programs used for electoral computations or calculation of his taxes.</p>
18935
18936 <p>I wish you the greatest respect, and would like to repeat that my office will always be open for you to expound your point of view to whatever level of detail you consider suitable.</p>
18937
18938 <p>Cordially,<br>
18939 DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ<br>
18940 Congressman of the Republic of Perú.</p>
18941 </blockquote>
18942
18943       </div>
18944       <div class="tags">
18945
18946
18947         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
18948
18949
18950       </div>
18951     </div>
18952     <div class="padding"></div>
18953
18954     <div class="entry">
18955       <div class="title">
18956         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html">Officeshots still going strong</a>
18957       </div>
18958       <div class="date">
18959         25th December 2010
18960       </div>
18961       <div class="body">
18962         <p>Half a year ago I
18963 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
18964 a bit</a> about <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>,
18965 a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
18966 the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.</p>
18967
18968 <p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
18969 Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
18970 different Office implementations handle different ODF features.  Sad
18971 to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
18972 LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
18973 for OfficeShots users yet).  I am glad to see that the ODF community
18974 got such a great test tool available.</p>
18975
18976       </div>
18977       <div class="tags">
18978
18979
18980         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
18981
18982
18983       </div>
18984     </div>
18985     <div class="padding"></div>
18986
18987     <div class="entry">
18988       <div class="title">
18989         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html">How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</a>
18990       </div>
18991       <div class="date">
18992         22nd December 2010
18993       </div>
18994       <div class="body">
18995         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
18996 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
18997 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
18998 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
18999 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
19000 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
19001 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
19002 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
19003 university.</p>
19004
19005 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
19006 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
19007 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
19008 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
19009 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
19010 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
19011 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
19012 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
19013
19014 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
19015 I perform on a new model.</p>
19016
19017 <ul>
19018
19019 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
19020 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
19021 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
19022
19023 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
19024 installation, X.org is working.</li>
19025
19026 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
19027 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
19028 reported by the program.</li>
19029
19030 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
19031 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
19032 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
19033 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
19034 normally test this by playing
19035 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
19036 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
19037
19038 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
19039 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
19040
19041 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
19042 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
19043
19044 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
19045 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
19046
19047 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
19048 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
19049 few.</li>
19050
19051 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
19052 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
19053 notice this.</li>
19054
19055 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
19056 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
19057 resume.</li>
19058
19059 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
19060 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
19061 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
19062 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
19063 not.</li>
19064
19065 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
19066 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
19067 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
19068 existence.</li>
19069
19070 </ul>
19071
19072 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
19073 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
19074 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
19075 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
19076 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
19077 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
19078 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
19079 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
19080
19081       </div>
19082       <div class="tags">
19083
19084
19085         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
19086
19087
19088       </div>
19089     </div>
19090     <div class="padding"></div>
19091
19092     <div class="entry">
19093       <div class="title">
19094         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
19095       </div>
19096       <div class="date">
19097         11th December 2010
19098       </div>
19099       <div class="body">
19100         <p>As I continue to explore
19101 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
19102 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
19103 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
19104
19105 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
19106 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
19107 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
19108 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
19109 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
19110 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
19111 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
19112 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
19113 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
19114 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
19115 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
19116 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
19117 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
19118 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
19119 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
19120 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
19121 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
19122 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
19123 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
19124 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
19125
19126 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
19127 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
19128 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
19129 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
19130 If the Skolelinux foundation
19131 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
19132 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
19133 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
19134 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
19135 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
19136 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
19137 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
19138 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
19139
19140 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
19141 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
19142 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
19143 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
19144 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
19145 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
19146 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
19147 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
19148 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
19149 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
19150 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
19151 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
19152 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
19153 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
19154 currencies.</p>
19155
19156 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
19157 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
19158 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
19159 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
19160 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
19161 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
19162 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
19163 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
19164 BitCoins.  Check out
19165 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
19166 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
19167 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
19168 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
19169 yet.</p>
19170
19171 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
19172 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
19173 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
19174 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
19175 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
19176
19177       </div>
19178       <div class="tags">
19179
19180
19181         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
19182
19183
19184       </div>
19185     </div>
19186     <div class="padding"></div>
19187
19188     <div class="entry">
19189       <div class="title">
19190         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</a>
19191       </div>
19192       <div class="date">
19193         10th December 2010
19194       </div>
19195       <div class="body">
19196         <p>With this weeks lawless
19197 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
19198 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
19199 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
19200 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
19201 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
19202 A blog post from
19203 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
19204 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
19205 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
19206 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
19207 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
19208 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
19209 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
19210
19211 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
19212 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
19213 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
19214 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
19215 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
19216 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
19217 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
19218 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
19219 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
19220 Debian</a> soon.</p>
19221
19222 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
19223 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
19224 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
19225 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
19226 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
19227 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
19228 you can even get
19229 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
19230 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
19231 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
19232 on the current exchange rates.</p>
19233
19234 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
19235 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
19236 donations to the address
19237 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
19238
19239       </div>
19240       <div class="tags">
19241
19242
19243         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
19244
19245
19246       </div>
19247     </div>
19248     <div class="padding"></div>
19249
19250     <div class="entry">
19251       <div class="title">
19252         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html">Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer</a>
19253       </div>
19254       <div class="date">
19255          9th December 2010
19256       </div>
19257       <div class="body">
19258         <p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
19259 student assosiation <a href="http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
19260 Osloensis</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
19261 get their own 3D printer.  They wanted to learn from me based on my
19262 work in the area.  After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
19263 offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
19264 the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon.  I look
19265 forward to see how this goes.  This monday their volunteer driver
19266 picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
19267 last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
19268 operational.</p>
19269
19270 <p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
19271 and seem capable of getting the reprap operational.  I really look
19272 forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
19273 <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse</a>.  I even got
19274 some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
19275 the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
19276 very cool 3D scanner.</p>
19277
19278       </div>
19279       <div class="tags">
19280
19281
19282         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap</a>.
19283
19284
19285       </div>
19286     </div>
19287     <div class="padding"></div>
19288
19289     <div class="entry">
19290       <div class="title">
19291         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_development_gathering_and_General_Assembly_for_FRiSK.html">Debian Edu development gathering and General Assembly for FRiSK</a>
19292       </div>
19293       <div class="date">
19294         29th November 2010
19295       </div>
19296       <div class="body">
19297         <p>On friday, the first Debian Edu / Skolelinux
19298 <a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2010-12-03-05-Oslo">development
19299 gathering</a> in a long time take place here in Oslo, Norway.  I
19300 really look forward to seeing all the good people working on the
19301 Squeeze release.  The gathering is open for everyone interested in
19302 learning more about Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
19303
19304 <p>On Saturday, the Norwegian member organization taking care of
19305 organizing these development gatherings, Fri Programvare i Skolen,
19306 will hold its
19307 <a href="http://friprogramvareiskolen.no/Genfors/2010">General Assembly
19308 for 2010</a>.  Membership is open for all, and currently there are 388
19309 people registered as members.  Last year 32 members cast their vote in
19310 the memberdb based election system.  I hope more people find time to
19311 vote this year.</p>
19312
19313       </div>
19314       <div class="tags">
19315
19316
19317         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
19318
19319
19320       </div>
19321     </div>
19322     <div class="padding"></div>
19323
19324     <div class="entry">
19325       <div class="title">
19326         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
19327       </div>
19328       <div class="date">
19329         27th November 2010
19330       </div>
19331       <div class="body">
19332         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
19333 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
19334 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
19335 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
19336 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
19337 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
19338 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
19339 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
19340
19341 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
19342 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
19343 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
19344 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
19345 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
19346 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
19347 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
19348 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
19349 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
19350 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
19351 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
19352
19353 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
19354 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
19355 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
19356 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
19357 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
19358 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
19359 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
19360 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
19361 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
19362 what is going on.</p>
19363
19364       </div>
19365       <div class="tags">
19366
19367
19368         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
19369
19370
19371       </div>
19372     </div>
19373     <div class="padding"></div>
19374
19375     <div class="entry">
19376       <div class="title">
19377         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove</a>
19378       </div>
19379       <div class="date">
19380         22nd November 2010
19381       </div>
19382       <div class="body">
19383         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
19384 upgrade testing of the
19385 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
19386 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
19387 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
19388 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
19389
19390 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
19391
19392 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
19393
19394 <blockquote><p>
19395   apache2.2-bin
19396   aptdaemon
19397   baobab
19398   binfmt-support
19399   browser-plugin-gnash
19400   cheese-common
19401   cli-common
19402   cups-pk-helper
19403   dmz-cursor-theme
19404   empathy
19405   empathy-common
19406   freedesktop-sound-theme
19407   freeglut3
19408   gconf-defaults-service
19409   gdm-themes
19410   gedit-plugins
19411   geoclue
19412   geoclue-hostip
19413   geoclue-localnet
19414   geoclue-manual
19415   geoclue-yahoo
19416   gnash
19417   gnash-common
19418   gnome
19419   gnome-backgrounds
19420   gnome-cards-data
19421   gnome-codec-install
19422   gnome-core
19423   gnome-desktop-environment
19424   gnome-disk-utility
19425   gnome-screenshot
19426   gnome-search-tool
19427   gnome-session-canberra
19428   gnome-system-log
19429   gnome-themes-extras
19430   gnome-themes-more
19431   gnome-user-share
19432   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
19433   gstreamer0.10-tools
19434   gtk2-engines
19435   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
19436   gtk2-engines-smooth
19437   hamster-applet
19438   libapache2-mod-dnssd
19439   libapr1
19440   libaprutil1
19441   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
19442   libaprutil1-ldap
19443   libart2.0-cil
19444   libboost-date-time1.42.0
19445   libboost-python1.42.0
19446   libboost-thread1.42.0
19447   libchamplain-0.4-0
19448   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
19449   libcheese-gtk18
19450   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
19451   libcryptui0
19452   libdiscid0
19453   libelf1
19454   libepc-1.0-2
19455   libepc-common
19456   libepc-ui-1.0-2
19457   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
19458   libfreerdp0
19459   libgconf2.0-cil
19460   libgdata-common
19461   libgdata7
19462   libgdu-gtk0
19463   libgee2
19464   libgeoclue0
19465   libgexiv2-0
19466   libgif4
19467   libglade2.0-cil
19468   libglib2.0-cil
19469   libgmime2.4-cil
19470   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
19471   libgnome2.24-cil
19472   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
19473   libgpod-common
19474   libgpod4
19475   libgtk2.0-cil
19476   libgtkglext1
19477   libgtksourceview2.0-common
19478   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
19479   libmono-addins0.2-cil
19480   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
19481   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
19482   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
19483   libmono-posix2.0-cil
19484   libmono-security2.0-cil
19485   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
19486   libmono-system2.0-cil
19487   libmtp8
19488   libmusicbrainz3-6
19489   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
19490   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
19491   libopal3.6.8
19492   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
19493   libpt2.6.7
19494   libpython2.6
19495   librpm1
19496   librpmio1
19497   libsdl1.2debian
19498   libsrtp0
19499   libssh-4
19500   libtelepathy-farsight0
19501   libtelepathy-glib0
19502   libtidy-0.99-0
19503   media-player-info
19504   mesa-utils
19505   mono-2.0-gac
19506   mono-gac
19507   mono-runtime
19508   nautilus-sendto
19509   nautilus-sendto-empathy
19510   p7zip-full
19511   pkg-config
19512   python-aptdaemon
19513   python-aptdaemon-gtk
19514   python-axiom
19515   python-beautifulsoup
19516   python-bugbuddy
19517   python-clientform
19518   python-coherence
19519   python-configobj
19520   python-crypto
19521   python-cupshelpers
19522   python-elementtree
19523   python-epsilon
19524   python-evolution
19525   python-feedparser
19526   python-gdata
19527   python-gdbm
19528   python-gst0.10
19529   python-gtkglext1
19530   python-gtksourceview2
19531   python-httplib2
19532   python-louie
19533   python-mako
19534   python-markupsafe
19535   python-mechanize
19536   python-nevow
19537   python-notify
19538   python-opengl
19539   python-openssl
19540   python-pam
19541   python-pkg-resources
19542   python-pyasn1
19543   python-pysqlite2
19544   python-rdflib
19545   python-serial
19546   python-tagpy
19547   python-twisted-bin
19548   python-twisted-conch
19549   python-twisted-core
19550   python-twisted-web
19551   python-utidylib
19552   python-webkit
19553   python-xdg
19554   python-zope.interface
19555   remmina
19556   remmina-plugin-data
19557   remmina-plugin-rdp
19558   remmina-plugin-vnc
19559   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
19560   rhythmbox-plugins
19561   rpm-common
19562   rpm2cpio
19563   seahorse-plugins
19564   shotwell
19565   software-center
19566   system-config-printer-udev
19567   telepathy-gabble
19568   telepathy-mission-control-5
19569   telepathy-salut
19570   tomboy
19571   totem
19572   totem-coherence
19573   totem-mozilla
19574   totem-plugins
19575   transmission-common
19576   xdg-user-dirs
19577   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
19578   xserver-xephyr
19579 </p></blockquote>
19580
19581 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
19582
19583 <blockquote><p>
19584   cheese
19585   ekiga
19586   eog
19587   epiphany-extensions
19588   evolution-exchange
19589   fast-user-switch-applet
19590   file-roller
19591   gcalctool
19592   gconf-editor
19593   gdm
19594   gedit
19595   gedit-common
19596   gnome-games
19597   gnome-games-data
19598   gnome-nettool
19599   gnome-system-tools
19600   gnome-themes
19601   gnuchess
19602   gucharmap
19603   guile-1.8-libs
19604   libavahi-ui0
19605   libdmx1
19606   libgalago3
19607   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
19608   libgtksourceview2.0-0
19609   liblircclient0
19610   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
19611   libspeexdsp1
19612   libsvga1
19613   rhythmbox
19614   seahorse
19615   sound-juicer
19616   system-config-printer
19617   totem-common
19618   transmission-gtk
19619   vinagre
19620   vino
19621 </p></blockquote>
19622
19623 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
19624
19625 <blockquote><p>
19626   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
19627 </p></blockquote>
19628
19629 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
19630
19631 <blockquote><p>
19632 [nothing]
19633 </p></blockquote>
19634
19635 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
19636
19637 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
19638
19639 <blockquote><p>
19640   ksmserver
19641 </p></blockquote>
19642
19643 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
19644
19645 <blockquote><p>
19646   kwin
19647   network-manager-kde
19648 </p></blockquote>
19649
19650 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
19651
19652 <blockquote><p>
19653   arts
19654   dolphin
19655   freespacenotifier
19656   google-gadgets-gst
19657   google-gadgets-xul
19658   kappfinder
19659   kcalc
19660   kcharselect
19661   kde-core
19662   kde-plasma-desktop
19663   kde-standard
19664   kde-window-manager
19665   kdeartwork
19666   kdeartwork-emoticons
19667   kdeartwork-style
19668   kdeartwork-theme-icon
19669   kdebase
19670   kdebase-apps
19671   kdebase-workspace
19672   kdebase-workspace-bin
19673   kdebase-workspace-data
19674   kdeeject
19675   kdelibs
19676   kdeplasma-addons
19677   kdeutils
19678   kdewallpapers
19679   kdf
19680   kfloppy
19681   kgpg
19682   khelpcenter4
19683   kinfocenter
19684   konq-plugins-l10n
19685   konqueror-nsplugins
19686   kscreensaver
19687   kscreensaver-xsavers
19688   ktimer
19689   kwrite
19690   libgle3
19691   libkde4-ruby1.8
19692   libkonq5
19693   libkonq5-templates
19694   libnetpbm10
19695   libplasma-ruby
19696   libplasma-ruby1.8
19697   libqt4-ruby1.8
19698   marble-data
19699   marble-plugins
19700   netpbm
19701   nuvola-icon-theme
19702   plasma-dataengines-workspace
19703   plasma-desktop
19704   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
19705   plasma-runners-addons
19706   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
19707   plasma-scriptengine-python
19708   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
19709   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
19710   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
19711   plasma-scriptengines
19712   plasma-wallpapers-addons
19713   plasma-widget-folderview
19714   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
19715   ruby
19716   sweeper
19717   update-notifier-kde
19718   xscreensaver-data-extra
19719   xscreensaver-gl
19720   xscreensaver-gl-extra
19721   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
19722 </p></blockquote>
19723
19724 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
19725
19726 <blockquote><p>
19727   ark
19728   google-gadgets-common
19729   google-gadgets-qt
19730   htdig
19731   kate
19732   kdebase-bin
19733   kdebase-data
19734   kdepasswd
19735   kfind
19736   klipper
19737   konq-plugins
19738   konqueror
19739   ksysguard
19740   ksysguardd
19741   libarchive1
19742   libcln6
19743   libeet1
19744   libeina-svn-06
19745   libggadget-1.0-0b
19746   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
19747   libgps19
19748   libkdecorations4
19749   libkephal4
19750   libkonq4
19751   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
19752   libkscreensaver5
19753   libksgrd4
19754   libksignalplotter4
19755   libkunitconversion4
19756   libkwineffects1a
19757   libmarblewidget4
19758   libntrack-qt4-1
19759   libntrack0
19760   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
19761   libplasmaclock4a
19762   libplasmagenericshell4
19763   libprocesscore4a
19764   libprocessui4a
19765   libqalculate5
19766   libqedje0a
19767   libqtruby4shared2
19768   libqzion0a
19769   libruby1.8
19770   libscim8c2a
19771   libsmokekdecore4-3
19772   libsmokekdeui4-3
19773   libsmokekfile3
19774   libsmokekhtml3
19775   libsmokekio3
19776   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
19777   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
19778   libsmokekparts3
19779   libsmokektexteditor3
19780   libsmokekutils3
19781   libsmokenepomuk3
19782   libsmokephonon3
19783   libsmokeplasma3
19784   libsmokeqtcore4-3
19785   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
19786   libsmokeqtgui4-3
19787   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
19788   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
19789   libsmokeqtscript4-3
19790   libsmokeqtsql4-3
19791   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
19792   libsmokeqttest4-3
19793   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
19794   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
19795   libsmokeqtxml4-3
19796   libsmokesolid3
19797   libsmokesoprano3
19798   libtaskmanager4a
19799   libtidy-0.99-0
19800   libweather-ion4a
19801   libxklavier16
19802   libxxf86misc1
19803   okteta
19804   oxygencursors
19805   plasma-dataengines-addons
19806   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
19807   plasma-widget-lancelot
19808   plasma-widgets-addons
19809   plasma-widgets-workspace
19810   polkit-kde-1
19811   ruby1.8
19812   systemsettings
19813   update-notifier-common
19814 </p></blockquote>
19815
19816 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
19817 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
19818 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
19819 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
19820
19821       </div>
19822       <div class="tags">
19823
19824
19825         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
19826
19827
19828       </div>
19829     </div>
19830     <div class="padding"></div>
19831
19832     <div class="entry">
19833       <div class="title">
19834         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html">Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images</a>
19835       </div>
19836       <div class="date">
19837         22nd November 2010
19838       </div>
19839       <div class="body">
19840         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
19841 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
19842 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
19843 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
19844 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
19845 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
19846 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
19847 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
19848 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
19849
19850 <p>I found
19851 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
19852 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
19853 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
19854 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
19855 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
19856 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
19857
19858 <pre>
19859 #!/bin/sh
19860
19861 # Based on
19862 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
19863
19864 set -e
19865 set -x
19866
19867 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
19868     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
19869     exit 1
19870 else
19871     host="$1"
19872 fi
19873
19874 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
19875     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
19876     exit 1
19877 fi
19878
19879 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
19880 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
19881 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
19882 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
19883
19884 img=$host.img
19885 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
19886 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
19887
19888 parted $img mklabel msdos
19889 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
19890 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
19891 parted $img set 1 boot on
19892
19893 modprobe dm-mod
19894 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
19895 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
19896
19897 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
19898 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
19899 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
19900
19901 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
19902 losetup -d /dev/loop0
19903 </pre>
19904
19905 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
19906 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
19907
19908 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
19909 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
19910 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
19911 seem to work just fine.</p>
19912
19913       </div>
19914       <div class="tags">
19915
19916
19917         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
19918
19919
19920       </div>
19921     </div>
19922     <div class="padding"></div>
19923
19924     <div class="entry">
19925       <div class="title">
19926         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome and KDE desktop</a>
19927       </div>
19928       <div class="date">
19929         20th November 2010
19930       </div>
19931       <div class="body">
19932         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
19933 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
19934 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
19935 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
19936
19937 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
19938 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
19939 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
19940
19941 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
19942
19943 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
19944
19945 <blockquote><p>
19946   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
19947   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
19948   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
19949   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
19950   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
19951   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
19952   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
19953   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
19954   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
19955   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
19956   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
19957   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
19958   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
19959   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
19960   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
19961   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
19962   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
19963   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
19964   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
19965   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
19966   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
19967   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
19968   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
19969   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
19970   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
19971   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
19972   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
19973   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
19974   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
19975   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
19976   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
19977   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
19978   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
19979   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
19980   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
19981   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
19982   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
19983   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
19984   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
19985   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
19986   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
19987   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
19988   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
19989   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
19990   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
19991   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
19992   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
19993   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
19994   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
19995   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
19996   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
19997   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
19998   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
19999   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
20000   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
20001   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
20002   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
20003   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
20004   zip
20005 </p></blockquote>
20006
20007 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
20008
20009 <blockquote><p>
20010   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
20011   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
20012   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
20013   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
20014   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
20015   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
20016   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
20017   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
20018   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
20019   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
20020   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
20021   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
20022   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
20023   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
20024   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
20025   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
20026   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
20027   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
20028   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
20029   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
20030   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
20031   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
20032   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
20033   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
20034   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
20035   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
20036   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
20037   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
20038   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
20039 </p></blockquote>
20040
20041 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
20042
20043 <blockquote><p>
20044   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
20045 </p></blockquote>
20046
20047 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
20048
20049 <blockquote><p>
20050 [nothing]
20051 </p></blockquote>
20052
20053 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
20054
20055 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
20056
20057 <blockquote><p>
20058   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
20059   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
20060   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
20061   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
20062   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
20063   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
20064   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
20065   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
20066   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
20067   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
20068   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
20069   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
20070   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
20071   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
20072   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
20073   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
20074   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
20075   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
20076   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
20077   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
20078   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
20079   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
20080   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
20081   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
20082   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
20083   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
20084   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
20085   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
20086   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
20087   ttf-sazanami-gothic
20088 </p></blockquote>
20089
20090 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
20091
20092 <blockquote><p>
20093   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
20094   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
20095   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
20096   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
20097   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
20098   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
20099   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
20100   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
20101   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
20102   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
20103   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
20104   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
20105   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
20106   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
20107   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
20108   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
20109   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
20110   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
20111   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
20112   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
20113   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
20114   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
20115   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
20116   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
20117   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
20118   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
20119   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
20120   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
20121   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
20122   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
20123   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
20124   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
20125   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
20126 </p></blockquote>
20127
20128 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
20129
20130 <blockquote><p>
20131   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
20132   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
20133   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
20134   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
20135   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
20136   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
20137   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
20138 </p></blockquote>
20139
20140 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
20141
20142 <blockquote><p>
20143   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
20144 </p></blockquote>
20145
20146       </div>
20147       <div class="tags">
20148
20149
20150         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
20151
20152
20153       </div>
20154     </div>
20155     <div class="padding"></div>
20156
20157     <div class="entry">
20158       <div class="title">
20159         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
20160       </div>
20161       <div class="date">
20162         20th November 2010
20163       </div>
20164       <div class="body">
20165         <p>Answering
20166 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
20167 call from the Gnash project</a> for
20168 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
20169 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
20170 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
20171 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
20172 releases out more often.</p>
20173
20174 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
20175 I have considered setting up a <a
20176 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
20177 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
20178 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
20179 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
20180 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
20181 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
20182 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
20183 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
20184 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
20185 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
20186 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
20187 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
20188
20189       </div>
20190       <div class="tags">
20191
20192
20193         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
20194
20195
20196       </div>
20197     </div>
20198     <div class="padding"></div>
20199
20200     <div class="entry">
20201       <div class="title">
20202         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
20203       </div>
20204       <div class="date">
20205          9th November 2010
20206       </div>
20207       <div class="body">
20208         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
20209
20210 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
20211 3D linked in from
20212 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
20213 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
20214
20215       </div>
20216       <div class="tags">
20217
20218
20219         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
20220
20221
20222       </div>
20223     </div>
20224     <div class="padding"></div>
20225
20226     <div class="entry">
20227       <div class="title">
20228         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_room_on_the_Debian_Edu_Sqeeze_DVD.html">Making room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD</a>
20229       </div>
20230       <div class="date">
20231          7th November 2010
20232       </div>
20233       <div class="body">
20234         <p>Prioritising packages for the Debian Edu /
20235 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> DVD, which is
20236 supposed provide a school with all the services and user applications
20237 needed on the pupils computer network has always been hard.  Even
20238 schools without Internet connections should be able to get Debian Edu
20239 working using this DVD.</p>
20240
20241 <p>The job became a lot harder when apt and aptitude started
20242 installing recommended packages by default.  We want the same set of
20243 packages to be installed when using the DVD and the netinst CD, and
20244 that means all recommended packages need to be on the DVD.  I created
20245 a patch for debian-cd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/601203">BTS
20246 report #601203</a> to do this, and since this change was applied to
20247 the Debian Edu DVD build, we have been seriously short on space.</p>
20248
20249 <p>A few days ago we decided to drop blender, wxmaxima and kicad from
20250 the default installation to save space on the DVD, believing that
20251 those needing these applications are few and can get them from the
20252 Debian archive.</p>
20253
20254 <p>Yesterday, I had a look what source packages to see which packages
20255 were using most space.  A few large packages are well know;
20256 openoffice.org, openclipart and fluid-soundfont.  But I also
20257 discovered that lilypond used 106 MiB and fglrx-driver used 53 MiB.
20258 The lilypond package is pulled in as a dependency for rosegarden, and
20259 when looking a bit closer I discovered that 99 MiB of the 106 MiB were
20260 the documentation package, which is recommended by the binary package.
20261 I decided to drop this documentation package from our DVD, as most of
20262 our users will use the GUI front-ends and do not need the lilypond
20263 documentation.  Similarly, I dropped the non-free fglrx-driver package
20264 which might be installed by d-i when its hardware is detected, as the
20265 free X driver should work.</p>
20266
20267 <p>With this change, we finally got space for the LXDE and Gnome
20268 desktop packages as well as the language specific packages making the
20269 DVD more useful again.</p>
20270
20271       </div>
20272       <div class="tags">
20273
20274
20275         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
20276
20277
20278       </div>
20279     </div>
20280     <div class="padding"></div>
20281
20282     <div class="entry">
20283       <div class="title">
20284         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
20285       </div>
20286       <div class="date">
20287         24th October 2010
20288       </div>
20289       <div class="body">
20290         <p>Some updates.</p>
20291
20292 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
20293 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
20294 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
20295 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
20296 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
20297 :)</p>
20298
20299 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
20300 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
20301 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
20302 It is called
20303 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
20304 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
20305 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
20306 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
20307 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
20308 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
20309
20310 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
20311 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
20312 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
20313 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
20314 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
20315 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
20316 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
20317 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
20318 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
20319 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
20320
20321       </div>
20322       <div class="tags">
20323
20324
20325         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
20326
20327
20328       </div>
20329     </div>
20330     <div class="padding"></div>
20331
20332     <div class="entry">
20333       <div class="title">
20334         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pledge_for_funding_to_the_Gnash_project_to_get_AVM2_support.html">Pledge for funding to the Gnash project to get AVM2 support</a>
20335       </div>
20336       <div class="date">
20337         19th October 2010
20338       </div>
20339       <div class="body">
20340         <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project</a> is the
20341 most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation. It
20342 has done great so far, but there is still far to go, and recently its
20343 funding has dried up.  I believe AVM2 support in Gnash is vital to the
20344 continued progress of the project, as more and more sites show up with
20345 AVM2 flash files.</p>
20346
20347 <p>To try to get funding for developing such support, I have started
20348 <a href="http://www.pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">a pledge</a> with the
20349 following text:</P>
20350
20351 <p><blockquote>
20352
20353   <p>"I will pay 100$ to the Gnash project to develop AVM2 support but
20354   only if 10 other people will do the same."</p>
20355
20356   <p>- Petter Reinholdtsen, free software developer</p>
20357
20358   <p>Deadline to sign up by: 24th December 2010</p>
20359
20360   <p>The Gnash project need to get support for the new Flash file
20361   format AVM2 to work with a lot of sites using Flash on the
20362   web. Gnash already work with a lot of Flash sites using the old AVM1
20363   format, but more and more sites are using the AVM2 format these
20364   days. The project web page is available from
20365   http://www.getgnash.org/ . Gnash is a free software implementation
20366   of Adobe Flash, allowing those of us that do not accept the terms of
20367   the Adobe Flash license to get access to Flash sites.</p>
20368
20369   <p>The project need funding to get developers to put aside enough
20370   time to develop the AVM2 support, and this pledge is my way to try
20371   to get this to happen.</p>
20372
20373   <p>The project accept donations via the OpenMediaNow foundation,
20374   <a href="http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32">http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32</a> .</p>
20375
20376 </blockquote></p>
20377
20378 <p>I hope you will support this effort too.  I hope more than 10
20379 people will participate to make this happen.  The more money the
20380 project gets, the more features it can develop using these funds.
20381 :)</p>
20382
20383       </div>
20384       <div class="tags">
20385
20386
20387         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
20388
20389
20390       </div>
20391     </div>
20392     <div class="padding"></div>
20393
20394     <div class="entry">
20395       <div class="title">
20396         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_version_of_a_Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot.html">First version of a Perl library to control the Spykee robot</a>
20397       </div>
20398       <div class="date">
20399          9th October 2010
20400       </div>
20401       <div class="body">
20402         <p>This summer I got the chance to buy cheap Spykee robots, and since
20403 then I have worked on getting Linux software in place to control them.
20404 The firmware for the robot is available from the producer, and using
20405 that source it was trivial to figure out the protocol specification.
20406 I've started on a perl library to control it, and made some demo
20407 programs using this perl library to allow one to control the
20408 robots.</p>
20409
20410 <p>The library is quite functional already, and capable of controlling
20411 the driving, fetching video, uploading MP3s and play them.  There are
20412 a few less important features too.</p>
20413
20414 <p>Since a few weeks ago, I ran out of time to spend on this project,
20415 but I never got around to releasing the current source.  I decided
20416 today that it was time to do something about it, and uploaded the
20417 source to my Debian package store at people.skolelinux.org.</p>
20418
20419 <p>Because it was simpler for me, I made a Debian package and
20420 published the source and deb.  If you got a spykee robot, grab the
20421 source or binary package:</p>
20422
20423 <p><ul>
20424 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.tar.gz">libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.tar.gz</a></li>
20425 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.dsc">libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.dsc</a></li>
20426 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1_all.deb">libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1_all.deb</a></li>
20427 </ul></p>
20428
20429 <p>If you are interested in helping out with developing this library,
20430 please let me know.</p>
20431
20432       </div>
20433       <div class="tags">
20434
20435
20436         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
20437
20438
20439       </div>
20440     </div>
20441     <div class="padding"></div>
20442
20443     <div class="entry">
20444       <div class="title">
20445         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Links_for_2010_10_03.html">Links for 2010-10-03</a>
20446       </div>
20447       <div class="date">
20448          3rd October 2010
20449       </div>
20450       <div class="body">
20451         <p><ul>
20452
20453 <li><a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/09/there-is-no-plan-b-why-the-ipv4-to-ipv6-transition-will-be-ugly.ars">There
20454 is no Plan B: why the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition will be ugly</a></li>
20455
20456 <li>Scanner looking under clothes
20457 <a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/10/03/nyheter/utenriks/reise/overvakingskamera/flyplasser/13667192/">has
20458 already been misused at Heathrow</a>.</li>
20459
20460 <li><a href="http://wiki.softwarelivre.org/Landell">Landell
20461 Webcasting</a> - interesting alternative for
20462 <ahref="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/">DVSwitch</a> with
20463 simple setup.
20464
20465 </ul></p>
20466
20467       </div>
20468       <div class="tags">
20469
20470
20471         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
20472
20473
20474       </div>
20475     </div>
20476     <div class="padding"></div>
20477
20478     <div class="entry">
20479       <div class="title">
20480         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">Terms of use for video produced by a Canon IXUS 130 digital camera</a>
20481       </div>
20482       <div class="date">
20483          9th September 2010
20484       </div>
20485       <div class="body">
20486         <p>A few days ago I had the mixed pleasure of bying a new digital
20487 camera, a Canon IXUS 130.  It was instructive and very disturbing to
20488 be able to verify that also this camera producer have the nerve to
20489 specify how I can or can not use the videos produced with the camera.
20490 Even thought I was aware of the issue, the options with new cameras
20491 are limited and I ended up bying the camera anyway.  What is the
20492 problem, you might ask?  It is software patents, MPEG-4, H.264 and the
20493 MPEG-LA that is the problem, and our right to record our experiences
20494 without asking for permissions that is at risk.
20495
20496 <p>On page 27 of the Danish instruction manual, this section is
20497 written:</p>
20498
20499 <blockquote>
20500 <p>This product is licensed under AT&T patents for the MPEG-4 standard
20501 and may be used for encoding MPEG-4 compliant video and/or decoding
20502 MPEG-4 compliant video that was encoded only (1) for a personal and
20503 non-commercial purpose or (2) by a video provider licensed under the
20504 AT&T patents to provide MPEG-4 compliant video.</p>
20505
20506 <p>No license is granted or implied for any other use for MPEG-4
20507 standard.</p>
20508 </blockquote>
20509
20510 <p>In short, the camera producer have chosen to use technology
20511 (MPEG-4/H.264) that is only provided if I used it for personal and
20512 non-commercial purposes, or ask for permission from the organisations
20513 holding the knowledge monopoly (patent) for technology used.</p>
20514
20515 <p>This issue has been brewing for a while, and I recommend you to
20516 read
20517 "<a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/23236/Why_Our_Civilization_s_Video_Art_and_Culture_is_Threatened_by_the_MPEG-LA">Why
20518 Our Civilization's Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the
20519 MPEG-LA</a>" by Eugenia Loli-Queru and
20520 "<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/">H.264 Is Not
20521 The Sort Of Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps to learn more about
20522 the issue.  The solution is to support the
20523 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
20524 open standards</a> for video, like <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg
20525 Theora</a>, and avoid MPEG-4 and H.264 if you can.</p>
20526
20527       </div>
20528       <div class="tags">
20529
20530
20531         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
20532
20533
20534       </div>
20535     </div>
20536     <div class="padding"></div>
20537
20538     <div class="entry">
20539       <div class="title">
20540         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html">Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu</a>
20541       </div>
20542       <div class="date">
20543          4th September 2010
20544       </div>
20545       <div class="body">
20546         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
20547 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
20548 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
20549 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
20550 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
20551 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
20552 installed.</p>
20553
20554 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
20555 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
20556 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
20557 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
20558 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
20559 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
20560 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
20561 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
20562 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
20563
20564 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
20565 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
20566 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
20567 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
20568 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
20569 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
20570 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
20571 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
20572 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
20573 pages they want to visit.</p>
20574
20575 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
20576 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
20577 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
20578 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
20579 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
20580 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
20581 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
20582 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
20583 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
20584 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
20585 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
20586
20587       </div>
20588       <div class="tags">
20589
20590
20591         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
20592
20593
20594       </div>
20595     </div>
20596     <div class="padding"></div>
20597
20598     <div class="entry">
20599       <div class="title">
20600         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_first_perl_GUI_application___controlling_a_Spykee_robot.html">My first perl GUI application - controlling a Spykee robot</a>
20601       </div>
20602       <div class="date">
20603          1st September 2010
20604       </div>
20605       <div class="body">
20606         <p>This evening I made my first Perl GUI application.  The last few
20607 days I have worked on a Perl module for controlling my recently
20608 aquired Spykee robots, and the module is now getting complete enought
20609 that it is possible to use it to control the robot driving at least.
20610 It was now time to figure out how to use it to create some GUI to
20611 allow me to drive the robot around.  I picked PerlQt as I have had
20612 positive experiences with the Qt API before, and spent a few minutes
20613 browsing the web for examples.  Using Qt Designer seemed like a short
20614 cut, so I ended up writing the perl GUI using Qt Designer and
20615 compiling it into a perl program using the puic program from
20616 libqt-perl.  Nothing fancy yet, but it got buttons to connect and
20617 drive around.</p>
20618
20619 <p>The perl module I have written provide a object oriented API for
20620 controlling the robot.  Here is an small example on how to use it:</p>
20621
20622 <p><pre>
20623 use Spykee;
20624 Spykee::discover(sub {$robot{$_[0]} = $_[1]});
20625 my $host = (keys %robot)[0];
20626 my $spykee = Spykee->new();
20627 $spykee->contact($host, "admin", "admin");
20628 $spykee->left();
20629 sleep 2;
20630 $spykee->right();
20631 sleep 2;
20632 $spykee->forward();
20633 sleep 2;
20634 $spykee->back();
20635 sleep 2;
20636 $spykee->stop();
20637 </pre></p>
20638
20639 <p>Thanks to the release of the source of the robot firmware, I could
20640 peek into the implementation at the other end to figure out how to
20641 implement the protocol used by the robot.  I've implemented several of
20642 the commands the robot understand, but is still missing the camera
20643 support to make it possible to control the robot from remote.  First I
20644 want to implement support for uploading new firmware and configuring
20645 the wireless network, to make it possible to bootstrap a Spykee robot
20646 without the producers Windows and MacOSX software (I only have Linux,
20647 so I had to ask a friend to come over to get the robot testing
20648 going. :).</p>
20649
20650 <p>Will release the source to the public soon, but need to figure out
20651 where to make it available first.  I will add a link to
20652 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot/">the NUUG wiki</a> for
20653 those that want to check back later to find it.</p>
20654
20655       </div>
20656       <div class="tags">
20657
20658
20659         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
20660
20661
20662       </div>
20663     </div>
20664     <div class="padding"></div>
20665
20666     <div class="entry">
20667       <div class="title">
20668         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken hard link handling with sshfs</a>
20669       </div>
20670       <div class="date">
20671         30th August 2010
20672       </div>
20673       <div class="body">
20674         <p>Just got an email from Tobias Gruetzmacher as a followup on my
20675 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">previous
20676 post about sshfs</a>.  He reported another problem with sshfs.  It
20677 fail to handle hard links properly.  A simple way to spot this is to
20678 look at the . and .. entries in the directory tree.  These should have
20679 a link count >1, but on sshfs the count is 1.  I just tested to see
20680 what happen when trying to hardlink, and this fail as well:</p>
20681
20682 <pre>
20683 % ln foo bar
20684 ln: creating hard link `bar' => `foo': Function not implemented
20685 %
20686 </pre>
20687
20688 <p>I have not yet found time to implement a test for this in my file
20689 system test code, but believe having working hard links is useful to
20690 avoid surprised unix programs.  Not as useful as working file locking
20691 and symlinks, which are required to get a working desktop, but useful
20692 nevertheless. :)</p>
20693
20694 <p>The latest version of the file system test code is available via
20695 git from
20696 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a></p>
20697
20698       </div>
20699       <div class="tags">
20700
20701
20702         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
20703
20704
20705       </div>
20706     </div>
20707     <div class="padding"></div>
20708
20709     <div class="entry">
20710       <div class="title">
20711         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken umask handling with sshfs</a>
20712       </div>
20713       <div class="date">
20714         26th August 2010
20715       </div>
20716       <div class="body">
20717         <p>My file system sematics program
20718 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">presented
20719 a few days ago</a> is very useful to verify that a file system can
20720 work as a unix home directory,and today I had to extend it a bit.  I'm
20721 looking into alternatives for home directory access here at the
20722 University of Oslo, and one of the options is sshfs.  My friend
20723 Finn-Arne mentioned a while back that they had used sshfs with Debian
20724 Edu, but stopped because of problems.  I asked today what the problems
20725 where, and he mentioned that sshfs failed to handle umask properly.
20726 Trying to detect the problem I wrote this addition to my fs testing
20727 script:</p>
20728
20729 <pre>
20730 mode_t touch_get_mode(const char *name, mode_t mode) {
20731   mode_t retval = 0;
20732   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, mode);
20733   if (-1 != fd) {
20734     unlink(name);
20735     struct stat statbuf;
20736     if (-1 != fstat(fd, &statbuf)) {
20737       retval = statbuf.st_mode & 0x1ff;
20738     }
20739     close(fd);
20740   }
20741   return retval;
20742 }
20743
20744 /* Try to detect problem discovered using sshfs */
20745 int test_umask(void) {
20746   printf("info: testing umask effect on file creation\n");
20747
20748   mode_t orig_umask = umask(000);
20749   mode_t newmode;
20750   if (0666 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
20751     printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 000\n",
20752            newmode);
20753   }
20754   umask(007);
20755   if (0660 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
20756     printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 007\n",
20757            newmode);
20758   }
20759
20760   umask (orig_umask);
20761   return 0;
20762 }
20763
20764 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
20765   [...]
20766   test_umask();
20767   return 0;
20768 }
20769 </pre>
20770
20771 <p>Sure enough.  On NFS to a netapp, I get this result:</p>
20772
20773 <pre>
20774 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
20775 info: testing symlink creation
20776 info: testing subdirectory creation
20777 info: testing fcntl locking
20778   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
20779   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
20780   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
20781   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
20782   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
20783   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
20784 info: testing umask effect on file creation
20785 </pre>
20786
20787 <p>When mounting the same directory using sshfs, I get this
20788 result:</p>
20789
20790 <pre>
20791 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
20792 info: testing symlink creation
20793 info: testing subdirectory creation
20794 info: testing fcntl locking
20795   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
20796   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
20797   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
20798   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
20799   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
20800   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
20801 info: testing umask effect on file creation
20802   error: Wrong file mode 644 when creating using mode 666 and umask 000
20803   error: Wrong file mode 640 when creating using mode 666 and umask 007
20804 </pre>
20805
20806 <p>So, I can conclude that sshfs is better than smb to a Netapp or a
20807 Windows server, but not good enough to be used as a home
20808 directory.</p>
20809
20810 <p>Update 2010-08-26: Reported the issue in
20811 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/594498">BTS report #594498</a></p>
20812
20813 <p>Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
20814 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
20815 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a>.</p>
20816
20817       </div>
20818       <div class="tags">
20819
20820
20821         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
20822
20823
20824       </div>
20825     </div>
20826     <div class="padding"></div>
20827
20828     <div class="entry">
20829       <div class="title">
20830         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Rob_Weir__How_to_Crush_Dissent.html">Rob Weir: How to Crush Dissent</a>
20831       </div>
20832       <div class="date">
20833         15th August 2010
20834       </div>
20835       <div class="body">
20836         <p>I found the notes from Rob Weir on
20837 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/VGb23-kta8c/how-to-crush-dissent.html">how
20838 to crush dissent</a> matching my own thoughts on the matter quite
20839 well.  Highly recommended for those wondering which road our society
20840 should go down.  In my view we have been heading the wrong way for a
20841 long time.</p>
20842
20843       </div>
20844       <div class="tags">
20845
20846
20847         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
20848
20849
20850       </div>
20851     </div>
20852     <div class="padding"></div>
20853
20854     <div class="entry">
20855       <div class="title">
20856         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_hardcoded_config_on_Debian_Edu_clients.html">No hardcoded config on Debian Edu clients</a>
20857       </div>
20858       <div class="date">
20859          9th August 2010
20860       </div>
20861       <div class="body">
20862         <p>As reported earlier, the last few days I have looked at how Debian
20863 Edu clients are configured, and tried to get rid of all hardcoded
20864 configuration settings on the clients.  I believe the work to be
20865 mostly done, and the clients seem to work just fine with dynamically
20866 generated configuration.</p>
20867
20868 <p>What is the point, you might ask?  The point is to allow a Debian
20869 Edu desktop to integrate into an existing network infrastructure
20870 without any manual configuration.</p>
20871
20872 <p>This is what happens when installing a Debian Edu client here at
20873 the University of Oslo using PXE.  With the PXE installation, I am
20874 asked for language (Norwegian Bokmål), locality (Norway) and keyboard
20875 layout (no-latin1), Debian Edu profile (Roaming Workstation), if I
20876 accept to reformat the hard drive (yes), if I want to submit info to
20877 popcon.debian.org (no) and root password (secret).  After answering
20878 these questions, the installer goes ahead and does its thing, and
20879 after around 50 minutes it is done.  I press enter to finish the
20880 installation, and the machine reboots into KDE.  When the machine is
20881 ready and kdm asks for login information, I enter my university
20882 username and password, am told by kdm that a local home directory has
20883 been created and that I must log in again, and finally log in with the
20884 same username and password to the KDE 4.4 desktop.  At no point during
20885 this process did it ask for university specific settings, and all the
20886 required configuration was dynamically detected using information
20887 fetched via DHCP and DNS.  The roaming workstation is now ready for
20888 use.</p>
20889
20890 <p>How was this done, you might wonder?  First of all, here is the
20891 list of things that need to be configured on the client to get it
20892 working properly out of the box:</p>
20893
20894 <ul>
20895 <li>IP address/netmask and DNS server.</li>
20896 <li>Web proxy URL.</li>
20897 <li>LDAP server for NSS directory information (user, group, etc).</li>
20898 <li>Kerberos server for PAM password checking.</li>
20899 <li>SMB mount point to access the network home directory. (*)</li>
20900 <li>Central syslog server to send syslog messages to. (*)</li>
20901 <li>Sitesummary collector URL to submit info to central server. (*)</li>
20902 </ul>
20903
20904 <p>(Hm, did I forget anything?  Let me knew if I did.)</p>
20905
20906 <p>The points marked (*) are not required to be able to use the
20907 machine, but needed to provide central storage and allowing system
20908 administrators to track their machines.  Since yesterday, everything
20909 but the sitesummary collector URL is dynamically discovered at boot
20910 and installation time in the svn version of Debian Edu.</p>
20911
20912 <p>The IP and DNS setup is fetched during boot using DHCP as usual.
20913 When a DHCP update arrives, the proxy setup is updated by looking for
20914 http://wpat/wpad.dat and using the content of this WPAD file to
20915 configure the http and ftp proxy in /etc/environment and
20916 /etc/apt/apt.conf.  I decided to update the proxy setup using a DHCP
20917 hook to ensure that the client stops using the Debian Edu proxy when
20918 it is moved outside the Debian Edu network, and instead uses any local
20919 proxy present on the new network when it moves around.</p>
20920
20921 <p>The DNS names of the LDAP, Kerberos and syslog server and related
20922 configuration are generated using DNS information at boot.  First the
20923 installer looks for a host named ldap in the current DNS domain.  If
20924 not found, it looks for _ldap._tcp SRV records in DNS instead.  If an
20925 LDAP server is found, its root DSE entry is requested and the
20926 attributes namingContexts and defaultNamingContext are used to
20927 determine which LDAP base to use for NSS.  If there are several
20928 namingContexts attibutes and the defaultNamingContext is present, that
20929 LDAP subtree is used as the base.  If defaultNamingContext is missing,
20930 the subtrees listed as namingContexts are searched in sequence for any
20931 object with class posixAccount or posixGroup, and the first one with
20932 such an object is used as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
20933 search is done by first looking for a host named kerberos, and then
20934 for the _kerberos._tcp SRV record.  I've been unable to find a way to
20935 look up the Kerberos realm, so for this the upper case string of the
20936 current DNS domain is used.</p>
20937
20938 <p>For the syslog server, the hosts syslog and loghost are searched
20939 for, and the _syslog._udp SRV record is consulted if no such host is
20940 found.  This algorithm works for both Debian Edu and the University of
20941 Oslo.  A similar strategy would work for locating the sitesummary
20942 server, but have not been implemented yet.  I decided to fetch and
20943 save these settings during installation, to make sure moving to a
20944 different network does not change the set of users being allowed to
20945 log in nor the passwords required to log in.  Usernames and passwords
20946 will be cached by sssd when the user logs in on the Debian Edu
20947 network, and will not change as the laptop move around.  For a
20948 non-roaming machine, there is no caching, but given that it is
20949 supposed to stay in place it should not matter much.  Perhaps we
20950 should switch those to use sssd too?</p>
20951
20952 <p>The user's SMB mount point for the network home directory is
20953 located when the user logs in for the first time.  The LDAP server is
20954 consulted to look for the user's LDAP object and the sambaHomePath
20955 attribute is used if found.  If it isn't found, the home directory
20956 path fetched from NSS is used instead.  Assuming the path is of the
20957 form /site/server/directory/username, the second part is looked up in
20958 DNS and used to generate a SMB URL of the form
20959 smb://server.domain/username.  This algorithm works for both Debian
20960 edu and the University of Oslo.  Perhaps there are better attributes
20961 to use or a better algorithm that works for more sites, but this will
20962 do for now. :)</p>
20963
20964 <p>This work should make it easier to integrate the Debian Edu clients
20965 into any LDAP/Kerberos infrastructure, and make the current setup even
20966 more flexible than before.  I suspect it will also work for thin
20967 client servers, allowing one to easily set up LTSP and hook it into a
20968 existing network infrastructure, but I have not had time to test this
20969 yet.</p>
20970
20971 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
20972 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
20973
20974 <p>Update 2010-08-09: Simon Farnsworth gave me a heads-up on how to
20975 detect Kerberos realm from DNS, by looking for _kerberos TXT entries
20976 before falling back to the upper case DNS domain name.  Will have to
20977 implement it for Debian Edu. :)</p>
20978
20979       </div>
20980       <div class="tags">
20981
20982
20983         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
20984
20985
20986       </div>
20987     </div>
20988     <div class="padding"></div>
20989
20990     <div class="entry">
20991       <div class="title">
20992         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">Testing if a file system can be used for home directories...</a>
20993       </div>
20994       <div class="date">
20995          8th August 2010
20996       </div>
20997       <div class="body">
20998         <p>A few years ago, I was involved in a project planning to use
20999 Windows file servers as home directory servers for Debian
21000 Edu/Skolelinux machines.  This was thought to be no problem, as the
21001 access would be through the SMB network file system protocol, and we
21002 knew other sites used SMB with unix and samba as the file server to
21003 mount home directories without any problems.  But, after months of
21004 struggling, we had to conclude that our goal was impossible.</p>
21005
21006 <p>The reason is simply that while SMB can be used for home
21007 directories when the file server is Samba running on Unix, this only
21008 work because of Samba have some extensions and the fact that the
21009 underlying file system is a unix file system.  When using a Windows
21010 file server, the underlying file system do not have POSIX semantics,
21011 and several programs will fail if the users home directory where they
21012 want to store their configuration lack POSIX semantics.</p>
21013
21014 <p>As part of this work, I wrote a small C program I want to share
21015 with you all, to replicate a few of the problematic applications (like
21016 OpenOffice.org and GCompris) and see if the file system was working as
21017 it should.  If you find yourself in spooky file system land, it might
21018 help you find your way out again.  This is the fs-test.c source:</p>
21019
21020 <pre>
21021 /*
21022  * Some tests to check the file system sematics.  Used to verify that
21023  * CIFS from a windows server do not work properly as a linux home
21024  * directory.
21025  * License: GPL v2 or later
21026  *
21027  * needs libsqlite3-dev and build-essential installed
21028  * compile with: gcc -Wall -lsqlite3 -DTEST_SQLITE fs-test.c -o fs-test
21029 */
21030
21031 #define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS 64
21032 #define _LARGEFILE_SOURCE 1
21033 #define _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE 1
21034
21035 #define _GNU_SOURCE /* for asprintf() */
21036
21037 #include &lt;errno.h>
21038 #include &lt;fcntl.h>
21039 #include &lt;stdio.h>
21040 #include &lt;string.h>
21041 #include &lt;stdlib.h>
21042 #include &lt;sys/file.h>
21043 #include &lt;sys/stat.h>
21044 #include &lt;sys/types.h>
21045 #include &lt;unistd.h>
21046
21047 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
21048 /*
21049  * Test sqlite open, as done by gcompris require the libsqlite3-dev
21050  * package and linking with -lsqlite3.  A more low level test is
21051  * below.
21052  * See also &lt;URL: http://www.sqlite.org./faq.html#q5 >.
21053  */
21054 #include &lt;sqlite3.h>
21055 #define CREATE_TABLE_USERS                                              \
21056   "CREATE TABLE users (user_id INT UNIQUE, login TEXT, lastname TEXT, firstname TEXT, birthdate TEXT, class_id INT ); "
21057 int test_sqlite_open(void) {
21058   char *zErrMsg;
21059   char *name = "testsqlite.db";
21060   sqlite3 *db=NULL;
21061   unlink(name);
21062   int rc = sqlite3_open(name, &db);
21063   if( rc ){
21064     printf("error: sqlite open of %s failed: %s\n", name, sqlite3_errmsg(db));
21065     sqlite3_close(db);
21066     return -1;
21067   }
21068
21069   /* create tables */
21070   rc = sqlite3_exec(db,CREATE_TABLE_USERS, NULL,  0, &zErrMsg);
21071   if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
21072     printf("error: sqlite table create failed: %s\n", zErrMsg);
21073     sqlite3_close(db);
21074     return -1;
21075   }
21076   printf("info: sqlite worked\n");
21077   sqlite3_close(db);
21078   return 0;
21079 }
21080 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
21081
21082 /*
21083  * Demonstrate locking issue found in gcompris using sqlite3.  This
21084  * work with ext3, but not with cifs server on Windows 2003.  This is
21085  * done in the sqlite3 library.
21086  * See also
21087  * &lt;URL:http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2001-08/msg00854.html> and the
21088  * POSIX specification
21089  * &lt;URL:http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fcntl.html>.
21090  */
21091 int test_gcompris_locking(void) {
21092   struct flock fl;
21093   char *name = "testsqlite.db";
21094   unlink(name);
21095   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, 0644);
21096   printf("info: testing fcntl locking\n");
21097
21098   fl.l_whence = SEEK_SET;
21099   fl.l_pid    = getpid();
21100   printf("  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
21101   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
21102   fl.l_len    = 1;
21103   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
21104   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
21105
21106   printf("  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
21107   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
21108   fl.l_len    = 510;
21109   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
21110   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
21111
21112   printf("  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824");
21113   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
21114   fl.l_len    = 1;
21115   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
21116   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
21117
21118   printf("  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
21119   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
21120   fl.l_len    = 1;
21121   fl.l_type   = F_WRLCK;
21122   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
21123
21124   printf("  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
21125   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
21126   fl.l_len    = 510;
21127   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
21128
21129   printf("  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824");
21130   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
21131   fl.l_len    = 2;
21132   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
21133   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
21134
21135   close(fd);
21136   return 0;
21137 }
21138
21139 /*
21140  * Test if permissions of freshly created directories allow entries
21141  * below them.  This was a problem with OpenOffice.org and gcompris.
21142  * Mounting with option 'sync' seem to solve this problem while
21143  * slowing down file operations.
21144  */
21145 int test_subdirectory_creation(void) {
21146 #define LEVELS 5
21147   char *path = strdup("test");
21148   char *dirs[LEVELS];
21149   int level;
21150   printf("info: testing subdirectory creation\n");
21151   for (level = 0; level &lt; LEVELS; level++) {
21152     char *newpath = NULL;
21153     if (-1 == mkdir(path, 0777)) {
21154       printf("  error: Unable to create directory '%s': %s\n",
21155              path, strerror(errno));
21156       break;
21157     }
21158     asprintf(&newpath, "%s/%s", path, "test");
21159     free(path);
21160     path = newpath;
21161   }
21162   return 0;
21163 }
21164
21165 /*
21166  * Test if symlinks can be created.  This was a problem detected with
21167  * KDE.
21168  */
21169 int test_symlinks(void) {
21170   printf("info: testing symlink creation\n");
21171   unlink("symlink");
21172   if (-1 == symlink("file", "symlink"))
21173     printf("  error: Unable to create symlink\n");
21174   return 0;
21175 }
21176
21177 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
21178   printf("Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system\n");
21179   test_symlinks();
21180   test_subdirectory_creation();
21181 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
21182   test_sqlite_open();
21183 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
21184   test_gcompris_locking();
21185   return 0;
21186 }
21187 </pre>
21188
21189 <p>When everything is working, it should print something like
21190 this:</p>
21191
21192 <pre>
21193 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
21194 info: testing symlink creation
21195 info: testing subdirectory creation
21196 info: sqlite worked
21197 info: testing fcntl locking
21198   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
21199   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
21200   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
21201   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
21202   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
21203   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
21204 </pre>
21205
21206 <p>I do not remember the exact details of the problems we saw, but one
21207 of them was with locking, where if I remember correctly, POSIX allow a
21208 read-only lock to be upgraded to a read-write lock without unlocking
21209 the read-only lock (while Windows do not).  Another was a bug in the
21210 CIFS/SMB client implementation in the Linux kernel where directory
21211 meta information would be wrong for a fraction of a second, making
21212 OpenOffice.org fail to create its deep directory tree because it was
21213 not allowed to create files in its freshly created directory.</p>
21214
21215 <p>Anyway, here is a nice tool for your tool box, might you never need
21216 it. :)</p>
21217
21218 <p>Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
21219 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
21220 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a>.</p>
21221
21222       </div>
21223       <div class="tags">
21224
21225
21226         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
21227
21228
21229       </div>
21230     </div>
21231     <div class="padding"></div>
21232
21233     <div class="entry">
21234       <div class="title">
21235         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Autodetecting_Client_setup_for_roaming_workstations_in_Debian_Edu.html">Autodetecting Client setup for roaming workstations in Debian Edu</a>
21236       </div>
21237       <div class="date">
21238          7th August 2010
21239       </div>
21240       <div class="body">
21241         <p>A few days ago, I
21242 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html">tried
21243 to install</a> a Roaming workation profile from Debian Edu/Squeeze
21244 while on the university network here at the University of Oslo, and
21245 noticed how much had to change to get it operational using the
21246 university infrastructure.  It was fairly easy, but it occured to me
21247 that Debian Edu would improve a lot if I could get the client to
21248 connect without any changes at all, and thus let the client configure
21249 itself during installation and first boot to use the infrastructure
21250 around it.  Now I am a huge step further along that road.</p>
21251
21252 <p>With our current squeeze-test packages, I can select the roaming
21253 workstation profile and get a working laptop connecting to the
21254 university LDAP server for user and group and our active directory
21255 servers for Kerberos authentication.  All this without any
21256 configuration at all during installation.  My users home directory got
21257 a bookmark in the KDE menu to mount it via SMB, with the correct URL.
21258 In short, openldap and sssd is correctly configured.  In addition to
21259 this, the client look for http://wpad/wpad.dat to configure a web
21260 proxy, and when it fail to find it no proxy settings are stored in
21261 /etc/environment and /etc/apt/apt.conf.  Iceweasel and KDE is
21262 configured to look for the same wpad configuration and also do not use
21263 a proxy when at the university network.  If the machine is moved to a
21264 network with such wpad setup, it would automatically use it when DHCP
21265 gave it a IP address.</p>
21266
21267 <p>The LDAP server is located using DNS, by first looking for the DNS
21268 entry ldap.$domain.  If this do not exist, it look for the
21269 _ldap._tcp.$domain SRV records and use the first one as the LDAP
21270 server.  Next, it connects to the LDAP server and search all
21271 namingContexts entries for posixAccount or posixGroup objects, and
21272 pick the first one as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
21273 algorithm is used to locate the LDAP server, and the realm is the
21274 uppercase version of $domain.</p>
21275
21276 <p>So, what is not working, you might ask.  SMB mounting my home
21277 directory do not work.  No idea why, but suspected the incorrect
21278 Kerberos settings in /etc/krb5.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf might be
21279 the cause.  These are not properly configured during installation, and
21280 had to be hand-edited to get the correct Kerberos realm and server,
21281 but SMB mounting still do not work. :(</p>
21282
21283 <p>With this automatic configuration in place, I expect a Debian Edu
21284 roaming profile installation would be able to automatically detect and
21285 connect to any site using LDAP and Kerberos for NSS directory and PAM
21286 authentication.  It should also work out of the box in a Active
21287 Directory environment providing posixAccount and posixGroup objects
21288 with UID and GID values.</p>
21289
21290 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
21291 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
21292
21293       </div>
21294       <div class="tags">
21295
21296
21297         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
21298
21299
21300       </div>
21301     </div>
21302     <div class="padding"></div>
21303
21304     <div class="entry">
21305       <div class="title">
21306         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html">Debian Edu roaming workstation - at the university of Oslo</a>
21307       </div>
21308       <div class="date">
21309          3rd August 2010
21310       </div>
21311       <div class="body">
21312         <p>The new roaming workstation profile in Debian Edu/Squeeze is fairly
21313 similar to the laptop setup am I working on using Ubuntu for the
21314 University of Oslo, and just for the heck of it, I tested today how
21315 hard it would be to integrate that profile into the university
21316 infrastructure.  In this case, it is the university LDAP server,
21317 Active Directory Kerberos server and SMB mounting from the Netapp file
21318 servers.</p>
21319
21320 <p>I was pleasantly surprised that the only three files needed to be
21321 changed (/etc/sssd/sssd.conf, /etc/ldap.conf and
21322 /etc/mklocaluser.d/20-debian-edu-config) and one file had to be added
21323 (/usr/share/perl5/Debian/Edu_Local.pm), to get the client working.
21324 Most of the changes were to get the client to use the university LDAP
21325 for NSS and Kerberos server for PAM, but one was to change a hard
21326 coded DNS domain name in the mklocaluser hook from .intern to
21327 .uio.no.</p>
21328
21329 <p>This testing was so encouraging, that I went ahead and adjusted the
21330 Debian Edu scripts and setup in subversion to centralise the roaming
21331 workstation setup a bit more and avoid the hardcoded DNS domain name,
21332 so that when I test this tomorrow, I expect to get away with modifying
21333 only /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and /etc/ldap.conf to get it to use the
21334 university servers.</p>
21335
21336 <p>My goal is to get the clients to have no hardcoded settings and
21337 fetch all their initial setup during installation and first boot, to
21338 allow them to be inserted also into environments where the default
21339 setup in Debian Edu has been changed or as with the university, where
21340 the environment is different but provides the protocols Debian Edu
21341 uses.</p>
21342
21343       </div>
21344       <div class="tags">
21345
21346
21347         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
21348
21349
21350       </div>
21351     </div>
21352     <div class="padding"></div>
21353
21354     <div class="entry">
21355       <div class="title">
21356         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
21357       </div>
21358       <div class="date">
21359         27th July 2010
21360       </div>
21361       <div class="body">
21362         <p>I discovered this while doing
21363 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
21364 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
21365 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
21366 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
21367 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
21368
21369 <p>An example is from todays
21370 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
21371 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
21372 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
21373 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
21374 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
21375 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
21376 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
21377
21378 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
21379
21380 <blockquote><pre>
21381 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
21382  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
21383   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
21384 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
21385  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
21386 </pre></blockquote>
21387
21388 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
21389 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
21390 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
21391 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
21392 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
21393 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
21394 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
21395 of dependency loops.</p>
21396
21397 <p>Thanks to
21398 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
21399 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
21400 dependencies
21401 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
21402 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
21403
21404 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
21405 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
21406 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
21407 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
21408 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
21409 it.</p>
21410
21411       </div>
21412       <div class="tags">
21413
21414
21415         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
21416
21417
21418       </div>
21419     </div>
21420     <div class="padding"></div>
21421
21422     <div class="entry">
21423       <div class="title">
21424         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu_test_release__alpha0__based_on_Squeeze_is_released.html">First Debian Edu test release (alpha0) based on Squeeze is released</a>
21425       </div>
21426       <div class="date">
21427         27th July 2010
21428       </div>
21429       <div class="body">
21430         <p>I just posted this announcement culminating several months of work
21431 with the next Debian Edu release.  Not nearly done, but one major step
21432 completed.</p>
21433
21434 <blockquote>
21435 <p>This is the first test release based on Squeeze. The focus of this
21436 release is to test the user application selection. To have a look,
21437 install the standalone profile and let the developers know if the set
21438 of installed packages i.e. applications should be modified. If some
21439 user application is missing, or if there are some applications that no
21440 longer make sense to be included in Debian Edu, please let us know.
21441 Also, if a useful application is missing the translation for your
21442 language of choice, please let us know too.</p>
21443
21444 <p>In addition, feedback and help to polish the desktop (menus,
21445 artwork, starters, etc.) is appreciated. We would like to ship a nice
21446 and handy KDE4 desktop targeted for schools out of the box.</p>
21447
21448 <p>The other profiles should be installable, but there is a lot more
21449 work left to be done before they are ready, so do not expect to
21450 much.</p>
21451
21452 <p>Changes compared to the lenny based version</p>
21453
21454 <ul>
21455 <li>Everything from Debian Squeeze
21456 <ul>
21457   <li>Desktop environment KDE 4.4 => the new KDE desktop in
21458          combination with some new artwork
21459   <li>Web browser Iceweasel 3.5
21460   <li>OpenOffice.org 3.2
21461   <li>Educational toolbox GCompris 9.3
21462   <li>Music creator Rosegarden 10.04.2
21463   <li>Image editor Gimp 2.6.10
21464   <li>Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.0
21465   <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.10.4
21466   <li>3D modeler Blender 2.49.2 (new application)
21467   <li>Video editor Kdenlive 0.7.7 (new application)
21468 </ul></li>
21469 <li>Now using Kerberos for password checking (migration not finished).
21470     Enabled for:
21471 <ul>
21472   <li>PAM
21473   <li>LDAP
21474   <li>IMAP
21475   <li>SMTP (sender verification)
21476 </ul>
21477 </li>
21478 <li>New experimental roaming workstation profile for laptops.</li>
21479 <li>Show welcome page to users when they first log in. The URL is
21480     fetched from LDAP.</li>
21481 <li>New LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and Gnome.</li>
21482 <li>General cleanup (not finished)</li>
21483 </ul>
21484 <p>The following features are not working as they should</p>
21485
21486 <ul>
21487 <li>No web based administration tool for creating users and groups. The
21488     scripts ldap-createuser-krb and ldap-add-user-to-group can be used
21489     for testing.</li>
21490 <li>DVD installs are missing debian-installer images for the PXE boot,
21491     and do not set up the PXE menu on eth0 because of this. LTSP
21492     clients should still boot from eth1 on thin client servers.</li>
21493 <li>The restructured KDE menu is not implemented.</li>
21494 <li>The LDAP server setup need to be reviewed for security.</li>
21495 <li>The LDAP directory structure need to be reworked.</li>
21496 <li>Different sets of packages are installed when using the DVD and the
21497     netinst CD. More packages are installed using the netinst CD.</li>
21498 <li>The jackd package fail to install. This is believed to be caused by
21499     some ongoing transition, and hopefully should be solved soon. The
21500     jackd1 package can be installed manually for those that need it.</li>
21501 <li>Some packages lack translations. See
21502     http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Squeeze for updated status,
21503     and help out with translations.</li>
21504 </ul>
21505
21506 <p>To download this multiarch netinstall release you can use</p>
21507
21508 <ul>
21509 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</a></li>
21510 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</a></li>
21511 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
21512 </ul>
21513 <p>To download this multiarch dvd release you can use</p>
21514
21515 <ul>
21516 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</a></li>
21517 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</a></li>
21518 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
21519 </ul>
21520
21521 <p>There is no source DVD available yet. It will be prepared when we
21522 get closer to the final release.</p>
21523
21524 <p>The MD5SUM of these images are</p>
21525
21526 <ul>
21527 <li>3dbf45d59f42a53518b6e3c9ec3b5eb6 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
21528 <li>22f2cbfce281d1c6e478be452638675d debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
21529 </ul>
21530
21531 <p>The SHA1SUM of these images are</p>
21532 <ul>
21533 <li>c53d1b69b40cf37cd27aefaf33f6f6a3821bedf0 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
21534 <li>2ec29d7db676d59d32197b05c277ffe16348376c debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
21535 </ul>
21536 <p>How to report bugs:
21537 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugsInBugzilla</p>
21538
21539 <p>Please direct replies to debian-edu@lists.debian.org</p>
21540 </blockquote>
21541
21542       </div>
21543       <div class="tags">
21544
21545
21546         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
21547
21548
21549       </div>
21550     </div>
21551     <div class="padding"></div>
21552
21553     <div class="entry">
21554       <div class="title">
21555         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_step_closer_to_single_signon_in_Debian_Edu.html">One step closer to single signon in Debian Edu</a>
21556       </div>
21557       <div class="date">
21558         25th July 2010
21559       </div>
21560       <div class="body">
21561         <p>The last few months me and the other Debian Edu developers have
21562 been working hard to get the Debian/Squeeze based version of Debian
21563 Edu/Skolelinux into shape.  This future version will use Kerberos for
21564 authentication, and services are slowly migrated to single signon,
21565 getting rid of password questions one at the time.</p>
21566
21567 <p>It will also feature a roaming workstation profile with local home
21568 directory, for laptops that are only some times on the Skolelinux
21569 network, and for this profile a shortcut is created in Gnome and KDE
21570 to gain access to the users home directory on the file server.  This
21571 shortcut uses SMB at the moment, and yesterday I had time to test if
21572 SMB mounting had started working in KDE after we added the cifs-utils
21573 package.  I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.</p>
21574
21575 <p>Thanks to the recent changes to our samba configuration to get it
21576 to use Kerberos for authentication, there were no question about user
21577 password when mounting the SMB volume.  A simple click on the shortcut
21578 in the KDE menu, and a window with the home directory popped
21579 up. :)</p>
21580
21581 <p>One step closer to a single signon solution out of the box in
21582 Debian Edu.  We already had PAM, LDAP, IMAP and SMTP in place, and now
21583 also Samba.  Next step is Cups and hopefully also NFS.</p>
21584
21585 <p>We had planned a alpha0 release of Debian Edu for today, but thanks
21586 to the autobuilder administrators for some architectures being slow to
21587 sign packages, we are still missing the fixed LTSP package we need for
21588 the release.  It was uploaded three days ago with urgency=high, and if
21589 it had entered testing yesterday we would have been able to test it in
21590 time for a alpha0 release today.  As the binaries for ia64 and powerpc
21591 still not uploaded to the Debian archive, we need to delay the alpha
21592 release another day.</p>
21593
21594 <p>If you want to help out with implementing Kerberos for Debian Edu,
21595 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
21596
21597       </div>
21598       <div class="tags">
21599
21600
21601         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
21602
21603
21604       </div>
21605     </div>
21606     <div class="padding"></div>
21607
21608     <div class="entry">
21609       <div class="title">
21610         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenStreetmap_one_step_closer_to_having_routing_on_its_front_page.html">OpenStreetmap one step closer to having routing on its front page</a>
21611       </div>
21612       <div class="date">
21613         18th July 2010
21614       </div>
21615       <div class="body">
21616         <p>Thanks to
21617 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Opengeodata/~3/wUTCzDZk3lc/project-of-the-week-which-way-home">todays
21618 opengeodata blog entry</a>, I just discovered that the
21619 OpenStreetmap.org site have gotten
21620 <a href="http://nroets.dev.openstreetmap.org/demo/index.html?layers=B000FTFTT">support
21621 for calculating routes</a>.  The support is still experimental and
21622 only available from the development server, until more experience is
21623 gathered on the user interface and any scalability issues.</p>
21624
21625 <p>Earlier, the routing I knew about using the OpenStreetmap.org data
21626 was provided by <a href="http://maps.cloudmade.com/">Cloudmade</a>,
21627 but having it on the main page is required to make everyone aware of
21628 the issue.  I've had people reject Openstreetmap.org as a viable
21629 alternative for them because the front page lacked routing support,
21630 and I hope their needs will be catered for when routing show up on the
21631 www.openstreetmap.org front page.</p>
21632
21633       </div>
21634       <div class="tags">
21635
21636
21637         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
21638
21639
21640       </div>
21641     </div>
21642     <div class="padding"></div>
21643
21644     <div class="entry">
21645       <div class="title">
21646         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html">What are they searching for - PowerDNS and ISC DHCP in LDAP</a>
21647       </div>
21648       <div class="date">
21649         17th July 2010
21650       </div>
21651       <div class="body">
21652         <p>This is a
21653 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
21654 on my
21655 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">previous
21656 work</a> on
21657 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
21658 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
21659
21660 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
21661 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
21662 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
21663 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
21664
21665 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
21666 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
21667 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
21668
21669 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
21670
21671 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
21672 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
21673 the web.
21674
21675 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
21676 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
21677 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
21678 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
21679 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
21680 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
21681
21682 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
21683 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
21684 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
21685 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
21686 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
21687 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
21688 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
21689 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
21690 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
21691 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
21692 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
21693 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
21694 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
21695 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
21696 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
21697 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
21698
21699 <blockquote><pre>
21700 ldapsearch -h ldap \
21701   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
21702   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
21703   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
21704   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
21705   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
21706   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
21707
21708 ldapsearch -h ldap \
21709   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
21710   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
21711   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
21712   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
21713   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
21714 </pre></blockquote>
21715
21716 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
21717 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
21718 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
21719 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
21720 also exist.</p>
21721
21722 <blockquote><pre>
21723 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
21724 objectclass: top
21725 objectclass: dnsdomain
21726 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
21727 dc: tjener
21728 arecord: 10.0.2.2
21729 associateddomain: tjener.intern
21730
21731 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
21732 objectclass: top
21733 objectclass: dnsdomain2
21734 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
21735 dc: 2
21736 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
21737 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
21738 </pre></blockquote>
21739
21740 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
21741 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
21742 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
21743 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
21744 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
21745 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
21746 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
21747 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
21748 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
21749 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
21750 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
21751 instead.</p>
21752
21753 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
21754 like this:</p>
21755
21756 <blockquote><pre>
21757 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
21758   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
21759   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
21760   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
21761   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
21762   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
21763
21764 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
21765   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
21766 </pre></blockquote>
21767
21768 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
21769 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
21770 reverse lookups.</p>
21771
21772 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
21773 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
21774 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
21775 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
21776
21777 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
21778 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
21779 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
21780
21781 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
21782 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
21783 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
21784 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
21785 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
21786
21787 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
21788 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
21789 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
21790 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
21791 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
21792
21793 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
21794 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
21795 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
21796 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
21797 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
21798 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
21799
21800 <blockquote><pre>
21801 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
21802     SUP top
21803     AUXILIARY
21804     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
21805           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
21806           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
21807           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
21808           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
21809     ))
21810 </pre></blockquote>
21811
21812 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
21813 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
21814 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
21815 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
21816 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
21817 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
21818
21819 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
21820
21821 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
21822 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
21823 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
21824 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
21825 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
21826
21827 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
21828 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
21829 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
21830 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
21831
21832 <blockquote><pre>
21833 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
21834 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
21835 </pre></blockquote>
21836
21837 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
21838 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
21839 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
21840 search result is this entry:</p>
21841
21842 <blockquote><pre>
21843 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
21844 cn: dhcp
21845 objectClass: top
21846 objectClass: dhcpServer
21847 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
21848 </pre></blockquote>
21849
21850 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
21851 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
21852 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
21853 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
21854 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
21855 The search result is this entry:</p>
21856
21857 <blockquote><pre>
21858 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
21859 cn: DHCP Config
21860 objectClass: top
21861 objectClass: dhcpService
21862 objectClass: dhcpOptions
21863 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
21864 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
21865 dhcpStatements: authoritative
21866 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
21867 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
21868 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
21869 </pre></blockquote>
21870
21871 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
21872 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
21873 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
21874 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
21875 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
21876 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
21877 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
21878 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
21879 related computer objects.</p>
21880
21881 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
21882 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
21883 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
21884 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
21885 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
21886 like:</p>
21887
21888 <blockquote><pre>
21889 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
21890 cn: hostname
21891 objectClass: top
21892 objectClass: dhcpHost
21893 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
21894 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
21895 </pre></blockquote>
21896
21897 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
21898 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
21899 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
21900 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
21901 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
21902 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
21903 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
21904 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
21905 structural object class.
21906
21907 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
21908
21909 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
21910 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
21911 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
21912 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
21913 in the configuration.</p>
21914
21915 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
21916 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
21917 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
21918 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
21919 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
21920 structure.</p>
21921
21922 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
21923 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
21924
21925 <blockquote><pre>
21926 ou=services
21927   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
21928     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
21929     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
21930       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
21931         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
21932     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
21933       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
21934         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
21935     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
21936       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
21937 </pre></blockquote>
21938
21939 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
21940 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
21941 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
21942 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
21943
21944 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
21945 like this:</p>
21946
21947 <blockquote><pre>
21948 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
21949 dc: hostname
21950 objectClass: top
21951 objectClass: dhcpHost
21952 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
21953 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
21954 associateddomain: hostname.intern
21955 arecord: 10.11.12.13
21956 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
21957 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
21958 </pre></blockquote>
21959
21960 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
21961 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
21962 auxiliary object class.</p>
21963
21964       </div>
21965       <div class="tags">
21966
21967
21968         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
21969
21970
21971       </div>
21972     </div>
21973     <div class="padding"></div>
21974
21975     <div class="entry">
21976       <div class="title">
21977         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
21978       </div>
21979       <div class="date">
21980         14th July 2010
21981       </div>
21982       <div class="body">
21983         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
21984 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
21985 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
21986 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
21987 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
21988
21989 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
21990 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
21991
21992 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
21993 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
21994 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
21995 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
21996 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
21997 to a slave DNS server.</p>
21998
21999 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
22000 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
22001 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
22002 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
22003 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
22004 seem to work.</p>
22005
22006 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
22007 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
22008 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
22009 this:</p>
22010
22011 <blockquote><pre>
22012   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
22013   cn: hostname
22014   objectClass: dhcphost
22015   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
22016   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
22017   associateddomain: hostname.intern
22018   arecord: 10.11.12.13
22019   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
22020   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
22021   ldapconfigsound: Y
22022 </pre></blockquote>
22023
22024 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
22025 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
22026 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
22027 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
22028
22029 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
22030 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
22031 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
22032 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
22033 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
22034 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
22035 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
22036 might be a good place to put it.</p>
22037
22038 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
22039 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
22040
22041       </div>
22042       <div class="tags">
22043
22044
22045         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
22046
22047
22048       </div>
22049     </div>
22050     <div class="padding"></div>
22051
22052     <div class="entry">
22053       <div class="title">
22054         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
22055       </div>
22056       <div class="date">
22057         11th July 2010
22058       </div>
22059       <div class="body">
22060         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
22061 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
22062 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
22063 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
22064
22065 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
22066 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
22067 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
22068 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
22069 LTSP clients.</p>
22070
22071 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
22072 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
22073 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
22074
22075 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
22076 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
22077 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
22078
22079 <blockquote><pre>
22080 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
22081 #
22082 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
22083 #
22084 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
22085 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
22086 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
22087 #
22088 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
22089 # existence of attribute names.
22090 #
22091 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
22092 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
22093 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
22094 #
22095 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
22096 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
22097 #
22098 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
22099 #     SUP top
22100 #     AUXILIARY
22101 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
22102
22103 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
22104 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
22105     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
22106     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
22107         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
22108         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
22109             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
22110             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
22111             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
22112             # bass value on to clients
22113             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
22114         done
22115     done
22116 fi
22117 </pre></blockquote>
22118
22119 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
22120 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
22121 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
22122 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
22123 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
22124
22125 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
22126 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
22127
22128 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
22129 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
22130 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
22131 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
22132 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
22133 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
22134
22135       </div>
22136       <div class="tags">
22137
22138
22139         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
22140
22141
22142       </div>
22143     </div>
22144     <div class="padding"></div>
22145
22146     <div class="entry">
22147       <div class="title">
22148         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
22149       </div>
22150       <div class="date">
22151          9th July 2010
22152       </div>
22153       <div class="body">
22154         <p>Since
22155 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
22156 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
22157 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
22158 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
22159 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
22160 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
22161 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
22162 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
22163 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
22164 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
22165 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
22166 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
22167 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
22168
22169       </div>
22170       <div class="tags">
22171
22172
22173         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
22174
22175
22176       </div>
22177     </div>
22178     <div class="padding"></div>
22179
22180     <div class="entry">
22181       <div class="title">
22182         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome desktop</a>
22183       </div>
22184       <div class="date">
22185          3rd July 2010
22186       </div>
22187       <div class="body">
22188         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
22189 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
22190 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
22191 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
22192 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
22193 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
22194 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
22195 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
22196
22197 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
22198 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
22199 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
22200 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
22201 publish the difference.</p>
22202
22203 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
22204
22205 <blockquote><p>
22206   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
22207   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
22208   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
22209   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
22210   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
22211   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
22212   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
22213   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
22214 </p></blockquote>
22215
22216 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
22217
22218 <blockquote><p>
22219   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
22220   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
22221   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
22222   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
22223   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
22224   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
22225   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
22226   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
22227   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
22228   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
22229   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
22230   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
22231   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
22232   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
22233   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
22234   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
22235   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
22236   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
22237   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
22238   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
22239 </p></blockquote>
22240
22241 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
22242
22243 <blockquote><p>
22244   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
22245   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
22246   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
22247   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
22248   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
22249   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
22250   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
22251   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
22252   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
22253   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
22254   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
22255   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
22256   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
22257   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
22258   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
22259   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
22260   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
22261   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
22262   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
22263   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
22264   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
22265 </p></blockquote>
22266
22267 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
22268
22269 <blockquote><p>
22270   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
22271   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
22272   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
22273 </p></blockquote>
22274
22275 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
22276 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
22277 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
22278 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
22279 the difference somewhat.
22280
22281       </div>
22282       <div class="tags">
22283
22284
22285         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
22286
22287
22288       </div>
22289     </div>
22290     <div class="padding"></div>
22291
22292     <div class="entry">
22293       <div class="title">
22294         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Caching_password__user_and_group_on_a_roaming_Debian_laptop.html">Caching password, user and group on a roaming Debian laptop</a>
22295       </div>
22296       <div class="date">
22297          1st July 2010
22298       </div>
22299       <div class="body">
22300         <p>For a laptop, centralized user directories and password checking is
22301 a bit troubling.  Laptops are typically used also when not connected
22302 to the network, and it is vital for a user to be able to log in or
22303 unlock the screen saver also when a central server is unavailable.
22304 This is possible by caching passwords and directory information (user
22305 and group attributes) locally, and the packages to do so are available
22306 in Debian.  Here follow two recipes to set this up in Debian/Squeeze.
22307 It is also possible to set up in Debian/Lenny, but require more manual
22308 setup there because pam-auth-update is missing in Lenny.</p>
22309
22310 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nscd + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir</h2>
22311
22312 This is the traditional method with a twist.  The password caching is
22313 provided by libpam-ccreds (version 10-4 or later is needed on
22314 Squeeze), and the directory caching is done by nscd.  The directory
22315 lookup and password checking is done using LDAP.  If one want to use
22316 Kerberos for password checking the libpam-ldapd package can be
22317 replaced with libpam-krb5 or libpam-heimdal.  If one is happy having a
22318 local home directory with the path listed in LDAP, one can use the
22319 pam_mkhomedir module from pam-modules to make this happen instead of
22320 using libpam-mklocaluser.  A setup for pam-auth-update to enable
22321 pam_mkhomedir will have to be written until a fix for
22322 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/568577">bug #568577</a> is in the
22323 archive.  Because I believe it is a bad idea to have local home
22324 directories using misleading paths like /site/server/partition/, I
22325 prefer to create a local user with the home directory in /home/.  This
22326 is done using the libpam-mklocaluser package.</p>
22327
22328 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured</p>
22329
22330 <blockquote><pre>
22331 libnss-ldapd libpam-ldapd nscd libpam-ccreds libpam-mklocaluser
22332 </pre></blockquote>
22333
22334 <p>The ldapd packages will ask for LDAP connection information, and
22335 one have to fill in the values that fits ones own site.  Make sure the
22336 PAM part uses encrypted connections, to make sure the password is not
22337 sent in clear text to the LDAP server.  I've been unable to get TLS
22338 certificate checking for a self signed certificate working, which make
22339 LDAP authentication unsafe for Debian Edu (nslcd is not checking if it
22340 is talking to the correct LDAP server), and very much welcome feedback
22341 on how to get this working.</p>
22342
22343 <p>Because nscd do not have a default configuration fit for offline
22344 caching until <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">bug #485282</a>
22345 is fixed, this configuration should be used instead of the one
22346 currently in /etc/nscd.conf.  The changes are in the fields
22347 reload-count and positive-time-to-live, and is based on the
22348 instructions I found in the
22349 <a href="http://www.flyn.org/laptopldap/">LDAP for Mobile Laptops</a>
22350 instructions by Flyn Computing.</p>
22351
22352 <blockquote><pre>
22353         debug-level             0
22354         reload-count            unlimited
22355         paranoia                no
22356
22357         enable-cache            passwd          yes
22358         positive-time-to-live   passwd          2592000
22359         negative-time-to-live   passwd          20
22360         suggested-size          passwd          211
22361         check-files             passwd          yes
22362         persistent              passwd          yes
22363         shared                  passwd          yes
22364         max-db-size             passwd          33554432
22365         auto-propagate          passwd          yes
22366
22367         enable-cache            group           yes
22368         positive-time-to-live   group           2592000
22369         negative-time-to-live   group           20
22370         suggested-size          group           211
22371         check-files             group           yes
22372         persistent              group           yes
22373         shared                  group           yes
22374         max-db-size             group           33554432
22375         auto-propagate          group           yes
22376
22377         enable-cache            hosts           no
22378         positive-time-to-live   hosts           2592000
22379         negative-time-to-live   hosts           20
22380         suggested-size          hosts           211
22381         check-files             hosts           yes
22382         persistent              hosts           yes
22383         shared                  hosts           yes
22384         max-db-size             hosts           33554432
22385
22386         enable-cache            services        yes
22387         positive-time-to-live   services        2592000
22388         negative-time-to-live   services        20
22389         suggested-size          services        211
22390         check-files             services        yes
22391         persistent              services        yes
22392         shared                  services        yes
22393         max-db-size             services        33554432
22394 </pre></blockquote>
22395
22396 <p>While we wait for a mechanism to update /etc/nsswitch.conf
22397 automatically like the one provided in
22398 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/496915">bug #496915</a>, the file
22399 content need to be manually replaced to ensure LDAP is used as the
22400 directory service on the machine.  /etc/nsswitch.conf should normally
22401 look like this:</p>
22402
22403 <blockquote><pre>
22404 passwd:         files ldap
22405 group:          files ldap
22406 shadow:         files ldap
22407 hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
22408 networks:       files
22409 protocols:      files
22410 services:       files
22411 ethers:         files
22412 rpc:            files
22413 netgroup:       files ldap
22414 </pre></blockquote>
22415
22416 <p>The important parts are that ldap is listed last for passwd, group,
22417 shadow and netgroup.</p>
22418
22419 <p>With these changes in place, any user in LDAP will be able to log
22420 in locally on the machine using for example kdm, get a local home
22421 directory created and have the password as well as user and group
22422 attributes cached.
22423
22424 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nss-updatedb + libpam-ccreds +
22425   libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir</h2>
22426
22427 <p>Because nscd have had its share of problems, and seem to have
22428 problems doing proper caching, I've seen suggestions and recipes to
22429 use nss-updatedb to copy parts of the LDAP database locally when the
22430 LDAP database is available.  I have not tested such setup, because I
22431 discovered sssd.</p>
22432
22433 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + sssd + libpam-mklocaluser</h2>
22434
22435 <p>A more flexible and robust setup than the nscd combination
22436 mentioned earlier that has shown up recently, is the
22437 <a href="https://fedorahosted.org/sssd/">sssd</a> package from Redhat.
22438 It is part of the <a href="http://www.freeipa.org/">FreeIPA</A> project
22439 to provide a Active Directory like directory service for Linux
22440 machines.  The sssd system combines the caching of passwords and user
22441 information into one package, and remove the need for nscd and
22442 libpam-ccreds.  It support LDAP and Kerberos, but not NIS.  Version
22443 1.2 do not support netgroups, but it is said that it will support this
22444 in version 1.5 expected to show up later in 2010.  Because the
22445 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd package</a>
22446 was missing in Debian, I ended up co-maintaining it with Werner, and
22447 version 1.2 is now in testing.
22448
22449 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured to get the
22450 roaming setup I want</p>
22451
22452 <blockquote><pre>
22453 libpam-sss libnss-sss libpam-mklocaluser
22454 </pre></blockquote>
22455
22456 The complete setup of sssd is done by editing/creating
22457 <tt>/etc/sssd/sssd.conf</tt>.
22458
22459 <blockquote><pre>
22460 [sssd]
22461 config_file_version = 2
22462 reconnection_retries = 3
22463 sbus_timeout = 30
22464 services = nss, pam
22465 domains = INTERN
22466
22467 [nss]
22468 filter_groups = root
22469 filter_users = root
22470 reconnection_retries = 3
22471
22472 [pam]
22473 reconnection_retries = 3
22474
22475 [domain/INTERN]
22476 enumerate = false
22477 cache_credentials = true
22478
22479 id_provider = ldap
22480 auth_provider = ldap
22481 chpass_provider = ldap
22482
22483 ldap_uri = ldap://ldap
22484 ldap_search_base = dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
22485 ldap_tls_reqcert = never
22486 ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
22487 </pre></blockquote>
22488
22489 <p>I got the same problem here with certificate checking.  Had to set
22490 "ldap_tls_reqcert = never" to get it working.</p>
22491
22492 <p>With the libnss-sss package in testing at the moment, the
22493 nsswitch.conf file is update automatically, so there is no need to
22494 modify it manually.</p>
22495
22496 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
22497 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
22498
22499       </div>
22500       <div class="tags">
22501
22502
22503         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
22504
22505
22506       </div>
22507     </div>
22508     <div class="padding"></div>
22509
22510     <div class="entry">
22511       <div class="title">
22512         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
22513       </div>
22514       <div class="date">
22515         28th June 2010
22516       </div>
22517       <div class="body">
22518         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
22519 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
22520 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
22521 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
22522 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
22523 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
22524 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
22525 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
22526 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
22527 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
22528
22529 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
22530 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
22531 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
22532 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
22533 released.</p>
22534
22535 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
22536 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
22537 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
22538 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
22539
22540 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
22541 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
22542
22543 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
22544 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
22545 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
22546 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
22547 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
22548
22549       </div>
22550       <div class="tags">
22551
22552
22553         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
22554
22555
22556       </div>
22557     </div>
22558     <div class="padding"></div>
22559
22560     <div class="entry">
22561       <div class="title">
22562         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object</a>
22563       </div>
22564       <div class="date">
22565         24th June 2010
22566       </div>
22567       <div class="body">
22568         <p>A while back, I
22569 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
22570 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
22571 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
22572 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
22573
22574 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
22575 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
22576 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
22577 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
22578
22579 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
22580 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
22581 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
22582 Debian Edu.</p>
22583
22584 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
22585 the
22586 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
22587 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
22588 available today from IETF.</p>
22589
22590 <pre>
22591 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
22592 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
22593 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
22594  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
22595         NAME 'dhcpHost'
22596         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
22597 -       SUP top
22598 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
22599         MUST cn
22600         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
22601         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
22602 </pre>
22603
22604 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
22605 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
22606 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
22607
22608 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
22609 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
22610
22611       </div>
22612       <div class="tags">
22613
22614
22615         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
22616
22617
22618       </div>
22619     </div>
22620     <div class="padding"></div>
22621
22622     <div class="entry">
22623       <div class="title">
22624         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html">Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output</a>
22625       </div>
22626       <div class="date">
22627         16th June 2010
22628       </div>
22629       <div class="body">
22630         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
22631 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
22632 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
22633 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
22634 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
22635 this:
22636
22637 <blockquote><pre>
22638 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
22639 tasksel --new-install
22640 </pre></blockquote>
22641
22642 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
22643 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
22644 any output what so ever.
22645
22646 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
22647 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
22648 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
22649 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
22650 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
22651 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
22652 code like this:
22653
22654 <blockquote><pre>
22655 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
22656 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
22657 $cmd
22658 </pre></blockquote>
22659
22660 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
22661 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
22662 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
22663 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
22664 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
22665 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
22666 installation.</p>
22667
22668 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
22669 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
22670 like this.</p>
22671
22672       </div>
22673       <div class="tags">
22674
22675
22676         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
22677
22678
22679       </div>
22680     </div>
22681     <div class="padding"></div>
22682
22683     <div class="entry">
22684       <div class="title">
22685         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">Officeshots taking shape</a>
22686       </div>
22687       <div class="date">
22688         13th June 2010
22689       </div>
22690       <div class="body">
22691         <p>For those of us caring about document exchange and
22692 interoperability, <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>
22693 is a great service.  It is to ODF documents what
22694 <a href="http://browsershots.org/">BrowserShots</a> is for web
22695 pages.</p>
22696
22697 <p>A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia
22698 that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project
22699 and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be
22700 interested in supporting the project.  I helped him to navigate his
22701 request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with
22702 a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut
22703 arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot.  The machine is
22704 administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily
22705 contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to
22706 see how the project is doing.</p>
22707
22708 <p>Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our
22709 machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as
22710 OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents
22711 in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and
22712 Windows.  This is great.</p>
22713
22714       </div>
22715       <div class="tags">
22716
22717
22718         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
22719
22720
22721       </div>
22722     </div>
22723     <div class="padding"></div>
22724
22725     <div class="entry">
22726       <div class="title">
22727         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</a>
22728       </div>
22729       <div class="date">
22730         13th June 2010
22731       </div>
22732       <div class="body">
22733         <p>My
22734 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
22735 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
22736 finally made the upgrade logs available from
22737 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
22738 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
22739 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
22740 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
22741
22742 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
22743 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
22744 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
22745 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
22746 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
22747 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
22748 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
22749 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
22750
22751 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
22752 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
22753 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
22754 too surprising.</p>
22755
22756 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
22757 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
22758 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
22759 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
22760 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
22761 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
22762 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
22763 continue.</p>
22764
22765 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
22766 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
22767   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
22768   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
22769   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
22770   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
22771   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
22772   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
22773   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
22774   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
22775   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
22776   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
22777   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
22778   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
22779   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
22780   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
22781   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
22782   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
22783   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
22784   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
22785   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
22786   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
22787   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
22788   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
22789   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
22790   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
22791   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
22792   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
22793   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
22794   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
22795
22796 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
22797
22798 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
22799   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
22800   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
22801   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
22802   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
22803   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
22804   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
22805   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
22806   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
22807   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
22808   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
22809   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
22810   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
22811   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
22812   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
22813   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
22814   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
22815   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
22816   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
22817   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
22818   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
22819   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
22820   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
22821   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
22822   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
22823   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
22824   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
22825   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
22826   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
22827   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
22828   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
22829   zip</p>
22830
22831 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
22832
22833 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
22834   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
22835   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
22836   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
22837   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
22838   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
22839   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
22840   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
22841   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
22842   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
22843   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
22844   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
22845   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
22846   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
22847   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
22848   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
22849   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
22850   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
22851   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
22852   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
22853   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
22854   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
22855   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
22856   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
22857   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
22858   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
22859   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
22860   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
22861
22862 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
22863 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
22864   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
22865   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
22866   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
22867   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
22868   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
22869   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
22870   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
22871   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
22872   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
22873   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
22874   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
22875   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
22876   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
22877   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
22878   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
22879   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
22880   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
22881   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
22882   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
22883   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
22884   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
22885   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
22886   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
22887   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
22888   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
22889   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
22890   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
22891   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
22892   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
22893   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
22894   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
22895   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
22896   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
22897   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
22898   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
22899   xulrunner-1.9</p>
22900
22901
22902       </div>
22903       <div class="tags">
22904
22905
22906         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
22907
22908
22909       </div>
22910     </div>
22911     <div class="padding"></div>
22912
22913     <div class="entry">
22914       <div class="title">
22915         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
22916       </div>
22917       <div class="date">
22918         11th June 2010
22919       </div>
22920       <div class="body">
22921         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
22922 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
22923 have been discovered and reported in the process
22924 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
22925 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
22926 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
22927 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
22928 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
22929
22930 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
22931 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
22932 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
22933 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
22934 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
22935 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
22936
22937 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
22938 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
22939 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
22940 is created.  The bug report
22941 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
22942 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
22943 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
22944 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
22945 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
22946 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
22947 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
22948 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
22949 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
22950 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
22951 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
22952 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
22953 Debian Squeeze.</p>
22954
22955 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
22956 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
22957 trick:</p>
22958
22959 <blockquote><pre>
22960 #!/bin/sh
22961 set -ex
22962
22963 if [ "$1" ] ; then
22964     desktop=$1
22965 else
22966     desktop=gnome
22967 fi
22968
22969 from=lenny
22970 to=squeeze
22971
22972 exec &lt; /dev/null
22973 unset LANG
22974 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
22975 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
22976 fuser -mv .
22977 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
22978 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
22979 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
22980 #!/bin/sh
22981 exit 101
22982 EOF
22983 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
22984 exit_cleanup() {
22985     umount $tmpdir/proc
22986 }
22987 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
22988 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
22989 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
22990
22991 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
22992
22993 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
22994 # to return the correct answers.
22995 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
22996     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
22997
22998 # Include the desktop and laptop task
22999 for test in desktop laptop ; do
23000     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
23001 #!/bin/sh
23002 exit 2
23003 EOF
23004     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
23005 done
23006
23007 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
23008 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
23009 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
23010 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
23011
23012 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
23013 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
23014 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
23015 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
23016 fuser -mv
23017 </pre></blockquote>
23018
23019 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
23020 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
23021 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
23022 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
23023 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
23024 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
23025
23026 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
23027 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
23028 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
23029 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
23030 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
23031 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
23032 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
23033
23034 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
23035 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
23036 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
23037 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
23038 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
23039 packages.</p>
23040
23041       </div>
23042       <div class="tags">
23043
23044
23045         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
23046
23047
23048       </div>
23049     </div>
23050     <div class="padding"></div>
23051
23052     <div class="entry">
23053       <div class="title">
23054         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html">Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it</a>
23055       </div>
23056       <div class="date">
23057          6th June 2010
23058       </div>
23059       <div class="body">
23060         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
23061 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
23062 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
23063 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
23064 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
23065 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
23066 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
23067
23068 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
23069 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
23070 COLUMNS):</p>
23071
23072 <blockquote><pre>
23073 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
23074 previous=N
23075 PREVLEVEL=
23076 RUNLEVEL=
23077 runlevel=S
23078 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
23079 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
23080 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
23081 </pre></blockquote>
23082
23083 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
23084 script.</p>
23085
23086 <blockquote><pre>
23087 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
23088 previous=N
23089 PREVLEVEL=N
23090 RUNLEVEL=S
23091 runlevel=S
23092 </pre></blockquote>
23093
23094 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
23095 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
23096 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
23097
23098 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
23099 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
23100 choice.</p>
23101
23102       </div>
23103       <div class="tags">
23104
23105
23106         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
23107
23108
23109       </div>
23110     </div>
23111     <div class="padding"></div>
23112
23113     <div class="entry">
23114       <div class="title">
23115         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
23116       </div>
23117       <div class="date">
23118          6th June 2010
23119       </div>
23120       <div class="body">
23121         <p>Via the
23122 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
23123 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
23124 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
23125 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
23126 following the standards wars of today.</p>
23127
23128       </div>
23129       <div class="tags">
23130
23131
23132         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
23133
23134
23135       </div>
23136     </div>
23137     <div class="padding"></div>
23138
23139     <div class="entry">
23140       <div class="title">
23141         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site</a>
23142       </div>
23143       <div class="date">
23144          3rd June 2010
23145       </div>
23146       <div class="body">
23147         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
23148 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
23149 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
23150 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
23151 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
23152
23153 <blockquote><pre>
23154 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
23155   vendor                    count
23156   Dell Computer Corporation     1
23157     PowerEdge 1750              1
23158   IBM                           1
23159     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
23160   Intel                         2
23161   [no-dmi-info]                 3
23162 maintainer:~#
23163 </pre></blockquote>
23164
23165 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
23166 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
23167 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
23168 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
23169 option to list the individual machines.</p>
23170
23171 <p>A larger list is
23172 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
23173 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
23174 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
23175 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
23176 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
23177 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
23178 collector.</p>
23179
23180       </div>
23181       <div class="tags">
23182
23183
23184         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
23185
23186
23187       </div>
23188     </div>
23189     <div class="padding"></div>
23190
23191     <div class="entry">
23192       <div class="title">
23193         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html">KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it?</a>
23194       </div>
23195       <div class="date">
23196          1st June 2010
23197       </div>
23198       <div class="body">
23199         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
23200 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
23201 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
23202 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
23203 wait.</p>
23204
23205 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
23206 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
23207 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
23208 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
23209 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
23210 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
23211
23212 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
23213 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
23214 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
23215 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
23216 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
23217 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
23218 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
23219 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
23220
23221 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
23222
23223       </div>
23224       <div class="tags">
23225
23226
23227         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
23228
23229
23230       </div>
23231     </div>
23232     <div class="padding"></div>
23233
23234     <div class="entry">
23235       <div class="title">
23236         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html">Parallellized boot seem to hold up well in Debian/testing</a>
23237       </div>
23238       <div class="date">
23239         27th May 2010
23240       </div>
23241       <div class="body">
23242         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
23243 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
23244 issues are known and should be solved:
23245
23246 <p><ul>
23247
23248 <li>The wicd package seen to
23249 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
23250 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
23251 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
23252 seem to be on the case.</li>
23253
23254 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
23255 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
23256 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
23257 maintainer is on the case.</li>
23258
23259 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
23260 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
23261 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
23262 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
23263 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
23264 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
23265 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
23266 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
23267
23268 </ul></p>
23269
23270 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
23271 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
23272 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
23273 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
23274
23275 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
23276 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
23277 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
23278 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
23279
23280 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
23281
23282       </div>
23283       <div class="tags">
23284
23285
23286         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
23287
23288
23289       </div>
23290     </div>
23291     <div class="padding"></div>
23292
23293     <div class="entry">
23294       <div class="title">
23295         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
23296       </div>
23297       <div class="date">
23298         22nd May 2010
23299       </div>
23300       <div class="body">
23301         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
23302 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
23303 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
23304 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
23305
23306 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
23307 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
23308 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
23309 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
23310 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
23311 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
23312 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
23313 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
23314 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
23315 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
23316 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
23317 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
23318 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
23319 going to work.</p>
23320
23321 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
23322 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
23323 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
23324 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
23325 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
23326 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
23327 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
23328 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
23329 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
23330 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
23331 Edu.</p>
23332
23333 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
23334 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
23335 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
23336 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
23337 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
23338 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
23339
23340 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
23341 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
23342
23343       </div>
23344       <div class="tags">
23345
23346
23347         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
23348
23349
23350       </div>
23351     </div>
23352     <div class="padding"></div>
23353
23354     <div class="entry">
23355       <div class="title">
23356         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pieces_of_the_roaming_laptop_puzzle_in_Debian.html">Pieces of the roaming laptop puzzle in Debian</a>
23357       </div>
23358       <div class="date">
23359         19th May 2010
23360       </div>
23361       <div class="body">
23362         <p>Today, the last piece of the puzzle for roaming laptops in Debian
23363 Edu finally entered the Debian archive.  Today, the new
23364 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-mklocaluser.html">libpam-mklocaluser</a>
23365 package was accepted.  Two days ago, two other pieces was accepted
23366 into unstable.  The
23367 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pam-python.html">pam-python</a>
23368 package needed by libpam-mklocaluser, and the
23369 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd</a> package
23370 passed NEW on Monday.  In addition, the
23371 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a>
23372 package we need is in experimental (version 10-4) since Saturday, and
23373 hopefully will be moved to unstable soon.</p>
23374
23375 <p>This collection of packages allow for two different setups for
23376 roaming laptops.  The traditional setup would be using libpam-ccreds,
23377 nscd and libpam-mklocaluser with LDAP or Kerberos authentication,
23378 which should work out of the box if the configuration changes proposed
23379 for nscd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">BTS report
23380 #485282</a> is implemented.  The alternative setup is to use sssd with
23381 libpam-mklocaluser to connect to LDAP or Kerberos and let sssd take
23382 care of the caching of passwords and group information.</p>
23383
23384 <p>I have so far been unable to get sssd to work with the LDAP server
23385 at the University, but suspect the issue is some SSL/GnuTLS related
23386 problem with the server certificate.  I plan to update the Debian
23387 package to version 1.2, which is scheduled for next week, and hope to
23388 find time to make sure the next release will include both the
23389 Debian/Ubuntu specific patches.  Upstream is friendly and responsive,
23390 and I am sure we will find a good solution.</p>
23391
23392 <p>The idea is to set up the roaming laptops to authenticate using
23393 LDAP or Kerberos and create a local user with home directory in /home/
23394 when a usre in LDAP logs in via KDM or GDM for the first time, and
23395 cache the password for offline checking, as well as caching group
23396 memberhips and other relevant LDAP information.  The
23397 libpam-mklocaluser package was created to make sure the local home
23398 directory is in /home/, instead of /site/server/directory/ which would
23399 be the home directory if pam_mkhomedir was used.  To avoid confusion
23400 with support requests and configuration, we do not want local laptops
23401 to have users in a path that is used for the same users home directory
23402 on the home directory servers.</p>
23403
23404 <p>One annoying problem with gdm is that it do not show the PAM
23405 message passed to the user from libpam-mklocaluser when the local user
23406 is created.  Instead gdm simply reject the login with some generic
23407 message.  The message is shown in kdm, ssh and login, so I guess it is
23408 a bug in gdm.  Have not investigated if there is some other message
23409 type that can be used instead to get gdm to also show the message.</p>
23410
23411 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
23412 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
23413
23414       </div>
23415       <div class="tags">
23416
23417
23418         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
23419
23420
23421       </div>
23422     </div>
23423     <div class="padding"></div>
23424
23425     <div class="entry">
23426       <div class="title">
23427         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html">Parallellized boot is now the default in Debian/unstable</a>
23428       </div>
23429       <div class="date">
23430         14th May 2010
23431       </div>
23432       <div class="body">
23433         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
23434 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
23435 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
23436 expected, if I am to believe the
23437 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
23438 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
23439 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
23440 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
23441 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
23442 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
23443 version.</p>
23444
23445 More information about
23446 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
23447 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
23448 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
23449 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
23450
23451 <blockquote><pre>
23452 CONCURRENCY=none
23453 </pre></blockquote>
23454
23455 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
23456 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
23457 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
23458 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
23459
23460       </div>
23461       <div class="tags">
23462
23463
23464         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
23465
23466
23467       </div>
23468     </div>
23469     <div class="padding"></div>
23470
23471     <div class="entry">
23472       <div class="title">
23473         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</a>
23474       </div>
23475       <div class="date">
23476         14th May 2010
23477       </div>
23478       <div class="body">
23479         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
23480 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
23481 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
23482 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
23483 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
23484 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
23485 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
23486 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
23487
23488 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
23489 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
23490 this on the collector host:</p>
23491
23492 <blockquote><pre>
23493 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
23494 </pre></blockquote>
23495
23496 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
23497 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
23498
23499 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
23500 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
23501 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
23502 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
23503 written yet.</p>
23504
23505       </div>
23506       <div class="tags">
23507
23508
23509         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
23510
23511
23512       </div>
23513     </div>
23514     <div class="padding"></div>
23515
23516     <div class="entry">
23517       <div class="title">
23518         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
23519       </div>
23520       <div class="date">
23521         13th May 2010
23522       </div>
23523       <div class="body">
23524         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
23525 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
23526 has been
23527 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
23528
23529 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
23530 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
23531 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
23532 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
23533 based boot system.  Tollef is
23534 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
23535 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
23536 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
23537 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
23538 at the moment do not.</p>
23539
23540 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
23541 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
23542 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
23543 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
23544 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
23545 way forward.</p>
23546
23547 <p>In the mean time, based on the
23548 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
23549 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
23550 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
23551 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
23552 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
23553 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
23554 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
23555 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
23556
23557       </div>
23558       <div class="tags">
23559
23560
23561         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
23562
23563
23564       </div>
23565     </div>
23566     <div class="padding"></div>
23567
23568     <div class="entry">
23569       <div class="title">
23570         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html">Parallellizing the boot in Debian Squeeze - ready for wider testing</a>
23571       </div>
23572       <div class="date">
23573          6th May 2010
23574       </div>
23575       <div class="body">
23576         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
23577 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
23578 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
23579 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
23580 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
23581 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
23582 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
23583
23584 <blockquote><pre>
23585 CONCURRENCY=makefile
23586 </pre></blockquote>
23587
23588 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
23589 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
23590 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
23591 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
23592 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
23593 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
23594 make this happen.</p>
23595
23596 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
23597 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
23598 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
23599 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
23600 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
23601
23602 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
23603 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
23604 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
23605 fix the remaining issues.</p>
23606
23607 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
23608 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
23609 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
23610 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
23611
23612       </div>
23613       <div class="tags">
23614
23615
23616         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
23617
23618
23619       </div>
23620     </div>
23621     <div class="padding"></div>
23622
23623     <div class="entry">
23624       <div class="title">
23625         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html">Forcing new users to change their password on first login</a>
23626       </div>
23627       <div class="date">
23628          2nd May 2010
23629       </div>
23630       <div class="body">
23631         <p>One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to
23632 create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to
23633 change the password on the first login attempt.</p>
23634
23635 <p>I'm not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian
23636 Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account.  The account
23637 and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but
23638 unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for
23639 passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.</p>
23640
23641 <p>A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these
23642 settings in /etc/shadow:</p>
23643
23644 <blockquote><pre>
23645 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
23646 Last password change                                    : May 02, 2010
23647 Password expires                                        : never
23648 Password inactive                                       : never
23649 Account expires                                         : never
23650 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
23651 Maximum number of days between password change          : 99999
23652 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
23653 root@tjener:~#
23654 </pre></blockquote>
23655
23656 <p>The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired
23657 account, is to change the date of the last password change to the
23658 lowest value possible (January 1th 1970), and the maximum password age
23659 to the difference in days between that date and today.  To make it
23660 simple, I went for 30 years (30 * 365 = 10950) and January 2th (to
23661 avoid testing if 0 is a valid value).</p>
23662
23663 <p>After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as
23664 intended:</p>
23665
23666 <blockquote><pre>
23667 root@tjener:~# chage -d 1 test; chage -M 10950 test
23668 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
23669 Last password change                                    : Jan 02, 1970
23670 Password expires                                        : never
23671 Password inactive                                       : never
23672 Account expires                                         : never
23673 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
23674 Maximum number of days between password change          : 10950
23675 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
23676 root@tjener:~#
23677 </pre></blockquote>
23678
23679 <p>So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in
23680 Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the
23681 user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).</p>
23682
23683 <p>Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make
23684 sure only the user itself have the account password?</p>
23685
23686 <p>If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for
23687 Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
23688
23689 <p>Update 2010-05-02 17:20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the
23690 shadow(8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of
23691 last password change to zero (0) will force the password to be changed
23692 on the first login.  This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so
23693 I did not notice this in my initial testing.  I have tested it on
23694 Squeeze, and '<tt>chage -d 0 username</tt>' do work there.  I have not
23695 tested it on Lenny yet.</p>
23696
23697 <p>Update 2010-05-02-19:05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an
23698 equivalent command to expire a password is '<tt>passwd -e
23699 username</tt>', which insert zero into the date of the last password
23700 change.</p>
23701
23702       </div>
23703       <div class="tags">
23704
23705
23706         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
23707
23708
23709       </div>
23710     </div>
23711     <div class="padding"></div>
23712
23713     <div class="entry">
23714       <div class="title">
23715         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thoughts_on_roaming_laptop_setup_for_Debian_Edu.html">Thoughts on roaming laptop setup for Debian Edu</a>
23716       </div>
23717       <div class="date">
23718         28th April 2010
23719       </div>
23720       <div class="body">
23721         <p>For some years now, I have wondered how we should handle laptops in
23722 Debian Edu.  The Debian Edu infrastructure is mostly designed to
23723 handle stationary computers, and less suited for computers that come
23724 and go.</p>
23725
23726 <p>Now I finally believe I have an sensible idea on how to adjust
23727 Debian Edu for laptops, by introducing a new profile for them, for
23728 example called Roaming Workstations.  Here are my thought on this.
23729 The setup would consist of the following:</p>
23730
23731 <ul>
23732
23733  <li>During installation, the user name of the owner / primary user of
23734    the laptop is requested and a local home directory is set up for
23735    the user, with uid and gid information fetched from the LDAP
23736    server.  This allow the user to work also when offline.  The
23737    central home directory can be available in a subdirectory on
23738    request, for example mounted via CIFS.  It could be mounted
23739    automatically when a user log in while on the Debian Edu network,
23740    and unmounted when the machine is taken away (network down,
23741    hibernate, etc), it can be set up to do automatic mounting on
23742    request (using autofs), or perhaps some GUI button on the desktop
23743    can be used to access it when needed.  Perhaps it is enough to use
23744    the fish protocol in KDE?</li>
23745
23746  <li>Password checking is set up to use LDAP or Kerberos
23747    authentication when the machine is on the Debian Edu network, and
23748    to cache the password for offline checking when the machine unable
23749    to reach the LDAP or Kerberos server.  This can be done using
23750    <a href="http://www.padl.com/OSS/pam_ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a>
23751    or the Fedora developed
23752    <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD">System
23753    Security Services Daemon</a> packages.</li>
23754
23755  <li>File synchronisation with the central home directory is set up
23756    using a shared directory in both the local and the central home
23757    directory, using unison.</li>
23758
23759  <li>Printing should be set up to print to all printers broadcasting
23760    their existence on the local network, and should then work out of
23761    the box with CUPS.  For sites needing accurate printer quotas, some
23762    system with Kerberos authentication or printing via ssh could be
23763    implemented.</li>
23764
23765  <li>For users that should have local root access to their laptop,
23766    sudo should be used to allow this to the local user.</li>
23767
23768  <li>It would be nice if user and group information from LDAP is
23769    cached on the client, but given that there are entries for the
23770    local user and primary group in /etc/, it should not be needed.</li>
23771
23772 </ul>
23773
23774 <p>I believe all the pieces to implement this are in Debian/testing at
23775 the moment.  If we work quickly, we should be able to get this ready
23776 in time for the Squeeze release to freeze.  Some of the pieces need
23777 tweaking, like libpam-ccreds should get support for pam-auth-update
23778 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566718">#566718</a>) and nslcd (or
23779 perhaps debian-edu-config) should get some integration code to stop
23780 its daemon when the LDAP server is unavailable to avoid long timeouts
23781 when disconnected from the net.  If we get Kerberos enabled, we need
23782 to make sure we avoid long timeouts there too.</p>
23783
23784 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
23785 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
23786
23787       </div>
23788       <div class="tags">
23789
23790
23791         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
23792
23793
23794       </div>
23795     </div>
23796     <div class="padding"></div>
23797
23798     <div class="entry">
23799       <div class="title">
23800         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Great_book___Content__Selected_Essays_on_Technology__Creativity__Copyright__and_the_Future_of_the_Future_.html">Great book: "Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future"</a>
23801       </div>
23802       <div class="date">
23803         19th April 2010
23804       </div>
23805       <div class="body">
23806         <p>The last few weeks i have had the pleasure of reading a
23807 thought-provoking collection of essays by Cory Doctorow, on topics
23808 touching copyright, virtual worlds, the future of man when the
23809 conscience mind can be duplicated into a computer and many more. The
23810 book titled "Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity,
23811 Copyright, and the Future of the Future" is available with few
23812 restrictions on the web, for example from
23813 <a href="http://craphound.com/content/">his own site</a>. I read the
23814 epub-version from
23815 <a href="http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2883">feedbooks</a> using
23816 <a href="http://www.fbreader.org/">fbreader</a> and my N810. I
23817 strongly recommend this book.</p>
23818
23819       </div>
23820       <div class="tags">
23821
23822
23823         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
23824
23825
23826       </div>
23827     </div>
23828     <div class="padding"></div>
23829
23830     <div class="entry">
23831       <div class="title">
23832         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kerberos_for_Debian_Edu_Squeeze_.html">Kerberos for Debian Edu/Squeeze?</a>
23833       </div>
23834       <div class="date">
23835         14th April 2010
23836       </div>
23837       <div class="body">
23838         <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20100413-kerberos/">Yesterdays
23839 NUUG presentation</a> about Kerberos was inspiring, and reminded me
23840 about the need to start using Kerberos in Skolelinux.  Setting up a
23841 Kerberos server seem to be straight forward, and if we get this in
23842 place a long time before the Squeeze version of Debian freezes, we
23843 have a chance to migrate Skolelinux away from NFSv3 for the home
23844 directories, and over to an architecture where the infrastructure do
23845 not have to trust IP addresses and machines, and instead can trust
23846 users and cryptographic keys instead.</p>
23847
23848 <p>A challenge will be integration and administration.  Is there a
23849 Kerberos implementation for Debian where one can control the
23850 administration access in Kerberos using LDAP groups?  With it, the
23851 school administration will have to maintain access control using flat
23852 files on the main server, which give a huge potential for errors.</p>
23853
23854 <p>A related question I would like to know is how well Kerberos and
23855 pam-ccreds (offline password check) work together.  Anyone know?</p>
23856
23857 <p>Next step will be to use Kerberos for access control in Lwat and
23858 Nagios.  I have no idea how much work that will be to implement.  We
23859 would also need to document how to integrate with Windows AD, as such
23860 shared network will require two Kerberos realms that need to cooperate
23861 to work properly.</p>
23862
23863 <p>I believe a good start would be to start using Kerberos on the
23864 skolelinux.no machines, and this way get ourselves experience with
23865 configuration and integration.  A natural starting point would be
23866 setting up ldap.skolelinux.no as the Kerberos server, and migrate the
23867 rest of the machines from PAM via LDAP to PAM via Kerberos one at the
23868 time.</p>
23869
23870 <p>If you would like to contribute to get this working in Skolelinux,
23871 I recommend you to see the video recording from yesterdays NUUG
23872 presentation, and start using Kerberos at home.  The video show show
23873 up in a few days.</p>
23874
23875       </div>
23876       <div class="tags">
23877
23878
23879         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
23880
23881
23882       </div>
23883     </div>
23884     <div class="padding"></div>
23885
23886     <div class="entry">
23887       <div class="title">
23888         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/After_6_years_of_waiting__the_Xreset_d_feature_is_implemented.html">After 6 years of waiting, the Xreset.d feature is implemented</a>
23889       </div>
23890       <div class="date">
23891          6th March 2010
23892       </div>
23893       <div class="body">
23894         <p>6 years ago, as part of the Debian Edu development I am involved
23895 in, I asked for a hook in the kdm and gdm setup to run scripts as root
23896 when the user log out.  A bug was submitted against the xfree86-common
23897 package in 2004 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/230422">#230422</a>),
23898 and revisited every time Debian Edu was working on a new release.
23899 Today, this finally paid off.</p>
23900
23901 <p>The framework for this feature was today commited to the git
23902 repositry for the xorg package, and the git repository for xdm has
23903 been updated to use this framework.  Next on my agenda is to make sure
23904 kdm and gdm also add code to use this framework.</p>
23905
23906 <p>In Debian Edu, we want to ability to run commands as root when the
23907 user log out, to get rid of runaway processes and do general cleanup
23908 after a user.  With this framework in place, we finally can do that in
23909 a generic way that work with all display managers using this
23910 framework.  My goal is to get all display managers in Debian use it,
23911 similar to how they use the Xsession.d framework today.<p>
23912
23913       </div>
23914       <div class="tags">
23915
23916
23917         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
23918
23919
23920       </div>
23921     </div>
23922     <div class="padding"></div>
23923
23924     <div class="entry">
23925       <div class="title">
23926         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Lenny_released__work_continues.html">Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Lenny released, work continues</a>
23927       </div>
23928       <div class="date">
23929         11th February 2010
23930       </div>
23931       <div class="body">
23932         <p>On Tuesday, the Debian/Lenny based version of
23933 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> was finally
23934 shipped.  This was a major leap forward for the project, and I am very
23935 pleased that we finally got the release wrapped up.  Work on the first
23936 point release starts imediately, as we plan to get that one out a
23937 month after the major release, to include all fixes for bugs we found
23938 and fixed too late in the release process to include last Tuesday.</p>
23939
23940 <p>Perhaps it even is time for some partying?</p>
23941
23942 <p>After this first point release, my plan is to focus again on the
23943 next major release, based on Squeeze.  We will try to get as many of
23944 the fixes we need into the official Debian packages before the freeze,
23945 and have just a few weeks or months to make it happen.</p>
23946
23947       </div>
23948       <div class="tags">
23949
23950
23951         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
23952
23953
23954       </div>
23955     </div>
23956     <div class="padding"></div>
23957
23958     <div class="entry">
23959       <div class="title">
23960         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Munin_and_Nagios_configuration.html">Automatic Munin and Nagios configuration</a>
23961       </div>
23962       <div class="date">
23963         27th January 2010
23964       </div>
23965       <div class="body">
23966         <p>One of the new features in the next Debian/Lenny based release of
23967 Debian Edu/Skolelinux, which is scheduled for release in the next few
23968 days, is automatic configuration of the service monitoring system
23969 Nagios.  The previous release had automatic configuration of trend
23970 analysis using Munin, and this Lenny based release take that a step
23971 further.</p>
23972
23973 <p>When installing a Debian Edu Main-server, it is automatically
23974 configured as a Munin and Nagios server.  In addition, it is
23975 configured to be a server for the
23976 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">SiteSummary
23977 system</a> I have written for use in Debian Edu.  The SiteSummary
23978 system is inspired by a system used by the University of Oslo where I
23979 work.  In short, the system provide a centralised collector of
23980 information about the computers on the network, and a client on each
23981 computer submitting information to this collector.  This allow for
23982 automatic information on which packages are installed on each machine,
23983 which kernel the machines are using, what kind of configuration the
23984 packages got etc.  This also allow us to automatically generate Munin
23985 and Nagios configuration.</p>
23986
23987 <p>All computers reporting to the sitesummary collector with the
23988 munin-node package installed is automatically enabled as a Munin
23989 client and graphs from the statistics collected from that machine show
23990 up automatically on http://www/munin/ on the Main-server.</p>
23991
23992 <p>All non-laptop computers reporting to the sitesummary collector are
23993 automatically monitored for network presence (ping and any network
23994 services detected).  In addition, all computers (also laptops) with
23995 the nagios-nrpe-server package installed and configured the way
23996 sitesummary would configure it, are monitored for full disks, software
23997 raid status, swap free and other checks that need to run locally on
23998 the machine.</p>
23999
24000 <p>The result is that the administrator on a school using Debian Edu
24001 based on Lenny will be able to check the health of his installation
24002 with one look at the Nagios settings, without having to spend any time
24003 keeping the Nagios configuration up-to-date.</p>
24004
24005 <p>The only configuration one need to do to get Nagios up and running
24006 is to set the password used to get access via HTTP.  The system
24007 administrator need to run "<tt>htpasswd /etc/nagios3/htpasswd.users
24008 nagiosadmin</tt>" to create a nagiosadmin user and set a password for
24009 it to be able to log into the Nagios web pages.  After that,
24010 everything is taken care of.</p>
24011
24012       </div>
24013       <div class="tags">
24014
24015
24016         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
24017
24018
24019       </div>
24020     </div>
24021     <div class="padding"></div>
24022
24023     <div class="entry">
24024       <div class="title">
24025         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Relative_popularity_of_document_formats__MS_Office_vs__ODF_.html">Relative popularity of document formats (MS Office vs. ODF)</a>
24026       </div>
24027       <div class="date">
24028         12th August 2009
24029       </div>
24030       <div class="body">
24031         <p>Just for fun, I did a search right now on Google for a few file ODF
24032 and MS Office based formats (not to be mistaken for ISO or ECMA
24033 OOXML), to get an idea of their relative usage.  I searched using
24034 'filetype:odt' and equvalent terms, and got these results:</P>
24035
24036 <table>
24037 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
24038 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:282000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
24039 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:75600</td> <td>pptx:183000</td></tr>
24040 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500     </td> <td>xlsx:145000</td></tr>
24041 </table>
24042
24043 <p>Next, I added a 'site:no' limit to get the numbers for Norway, and
24044 got these numbers:</p>
24045
24046 <table>
24047 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
24048 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480 </td> <td>docx:4460</td></tr>
24049 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:299   </td> <td>pptx:741</td></tr>
24050 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:187       </td> <td>xlsx:372</td></tr>
24051 </table>
24052
24053 <p>I wonder how these numbers change over time.</p>
24054
24055 <p>I am aware of Google returning different results and numbers based
24056 on where the search is done, so I guess these numbers will differ if
24057 they are conduced in another country.  Because of this, I did the same
24058 search from a machine in California, USA, a few minutes after the
24059 search done from a machine here in Norway.</p>
24060
24061
24062 <table>
24063 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
24064 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:129000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
24065 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:44200</td> <td>pptx:93900</td></tr>
24066 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500     </td> <td>xlsx:82400</td></tr>
24067 </table>
24068
24069 <p>And with 'site:no':
24070
24071 <table>
24072 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
24073 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480</td> <td>docx:3410</td></tr>
24074 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:175</td> <td>pptx:604</td></tr>
24075 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:186       </td> <td>xlsx:296</td></tr>
24076 </table>
24077
24078 <p>Interesting difference, not sure what to conclude from these
24079 numbers.</p>
24080
24081       </div>
24082       <div class="tags">
24083
24084
24085         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
24086
24087
24088       </div>
24089     </div>
24090     <div class="padding"></div>
24091
24092     <div class="entry">
24093       <div class="title">
24094         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ISO_still_hope_to_fix_OOXML.html">ISO still hope to fix OOXML</a>
24095       </div>
24096       <div class="date">
24097          8th August 2009
24098       </div>
24099       <div class="body">
24100         <p>According to <a
24101 href="http://twerner.blogspot.com/2009/08/defects-of-office-open-xml.html">a
24102 blog post from Torsten Werner</a>, the current defect report for ISO
24103 29500 (ISO OOXML) is 809 pages.  His interesting point is that the
24104 defect report is 71 pages more than the full ODF 1.1 specification.
24105 Personally I find it more interesting that ISO still believe ISO OOXML
24106 can be fixed in ISO.  Personally, I believe it is broken beyon repair,
24107 and I completely lack any trust in ISO for being able to get anywhere
24108 close to solving the problems.  I was part of the Norwegian committee
24109 involved in the OOXML fast track process, and was not impressed with
24110 Standard Norway and ISO in how they handled it.</p>
24111
24112 <p>These days I focus on ODF instead, which seem like a specification
24113 with the future ahead of it.  We are working in NUUG to organise a ODF
24114 seminar this autumn.</p>
24115
24116       </div>
24117       <div class="tags">
24118
24119
24120         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
24121
24122
24123       </div>
24124     </div>
24125     <div class="padding"></div>
24126
24127     <div class="entry">
24128       <div class="title">
24129         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html">Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing</a>
24130       </div>
24131       <div class="date">
24132         27th July 2009
24133       </div>
24134       <div class="body">
24135         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
24136 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
24137 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
24138 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
24139 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
24140 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
24141 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
24142
24143 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
24144 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
24145 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
24146
24147       </div>
24148       <div class="tags">
24149
24150
24151         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
24152
24153
24154       </div>
24155     </div>
24156     <div class="padding"></div>
24157
24158     <div class="entry">
24159       <div class="title">
24160         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
24161       </div>
24162       <div class="date">
24163         22nd July 2009
24164       </div>
24165       <div class="body">
24166         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
24167 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
24168 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
24169 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
24170 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
24171 the package up to date.</p>
24172
24173 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
24174 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
24175 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
24176 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
24177 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
24178 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
24179 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
24180 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
24181 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
24182 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
24183 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
24184 working on the future release.</p>
24185
24186 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
24187 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
24188
24189       </div>
24190       <div class="tags">
24191
24192
24193         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
24194
24195
24196       </div>
24197     </div>
24198     <div class="padding"></div>
24199
24200     <div class="entry">
24201       <div class="title">
24202         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
24203       </div>
24204       <div class="date">
24205         24th June 2009
24206       </div>
24207       <div class="body">
24208         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
24209 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
24210 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
24211 funded
24212 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
24213 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
24214 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
24215 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
24216 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
24217 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
24218
24219 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
24220 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
24221 boot:</p>
24222
24223 <ul>
24224
24225 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
24226
24227 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
24228    clock is in UTC.</li>
24229
24230 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
24231    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
24232    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
24233
24234 </ul>
24235
24236 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
24237 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
24238 Villegas</a>.
24239
24240 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
24241 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
24242 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
24243 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
24244 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
24245 using this.</p>
24246
24247 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
24248 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
24249 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
24250 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
24251 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
24252 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
24253 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
24254
24255       </div>
24256       <div class="tags">
24257
24258
24259         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
24260
24261
24262       </div>
24263     </div>
24264     <div class="padding"></div>
24265
24266     <div class="entry">
24267       <div class="title">
24268         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html">Two projects that have improved the quality of free software a lot</a>
24269       </div>
24270       <div class="date">
24271          2nd May 2009
24272       </div>
24273       <div class="body">
24274         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
24275 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
24276 do not yet know them.</p>
24277
24278 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
24279 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
24280 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
24281 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
24282 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
24283 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
24284 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
24285 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
24286 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
24287 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
24288 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
24289
24290 <p>The second one is
24291 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
24292 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
24293 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
24294 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
24295 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
24296 and the company behind it is running
24297 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
24298 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
24299 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
24300 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
24301 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
24302 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
24303 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
24304 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
24305
24306 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
24307 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
24308 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
24309 surrounded by today.</p>
24310
24311       </div>
24312       <div class="tags">
24313
24314
24315         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
24316
24317
24318       </div>
24319     </div>
24320     <div class="padding"></div>
24321
24322     <div class="entry">
24323       <div class="title">
24324         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html">No patch is not better than a useless patch</a>
24325       </div>
24326       <div class="date">
24327         28th April 2009
24328       </div>
24329       <div class="body">
24330         <p>Julien Blache
24331 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
24332 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
24333 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
24334 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
24335 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
24336 properties.</p>
24337
24338       </div>
24339       <div class="tags">
24340
24341
24342         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
24343
24344
24345       </div>
24346     </div>
24347     <div class="padding"></div>
24348
24349     <div class="entry">
24350       <div class="title">
24351         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recording_video_from_cron_using_VLC.html">Recording video from cron using VLC</a>
24352       </div>
24353       <div class="date">
24354          5th April 2009
24355       </div>
24356       <div class="body">
24357         <p>One think I have wanted to figure out for a along time is how to
24358 run vlc from cron to do recording of video streams on the net.  The
24359 task is trivial with mplayer, but I do not really trust the security
24360 of mplayer (it crashes too often on strange input), and thus prefer
24361 vlc.  I finally found a way to do it today.  I spent an hour or so
24362 searching the web for recipes and reading the documentation.  The
24363 hardest part was to get rid of the GUI window, but after finding the
24364 dummy interface, the command line finally presented itself:</p>
24365
24366 <blockquote><pre>URL=http://www.ping.uio.no/video/rms-oslo_2009.ogg
24367 SAVEFILE=rms.ogg
24368 DISPLAY= vlc -q $URL \
24369   --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
24370   --intf=dummy</pre></blockquote>
24371
24372 <p>The command stream the URL and store it in the SAVEFILE by
24373 duplicating the output stream to "nodisplay" and the file, using the
24374 dummy interface.  The dummy interface and the nodisplay output make
24375 sure no X interface is needed.</p>
24376
24377 <p>The cron job then need to start this job with the appropriate URL
24378 and file name to save, sleep for the duration wanted, and then kill
24379 the vlc process with SIGTERM.  Here is a complete script
24380 <tt>vlc-record</tt> to use from <tt>at</tt> or <tt>cron</tt>:</p>
24381
24382 <blockquote><pre>#!/bin/sh
24383 set -e
24384 URL="$1"
24385 SAVEFILE="$2"
24386 DURATION="$3"
24387 DISPLAY= vlc -q "$URL" \
24388   --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
24389   --intf=dummy < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &
24390 pid=$!
24391 sleep $DURATION
24392 kill $pid
24393 wait $pid</pre></blockquote>
24394
24395       </div>
24396       <div class="tags">
24397
24398
24399         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
24400
24401
24402       </div>
24403     </div>
24404     <div class="padding"></div>
24405
24406     <div class="entry">
24407       <div class="title">
24408         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html">Standardize on protocols and formats, not vendors and applications</a>
24409       </div>
24410       <div class="date">
24411         30th March 2009
24412       </div>
24413       <div class="body">
24414         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
24415 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
24416 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
24417 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
24418 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
24419 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
24420 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
24421 application.</p>
24422
24423 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
24424 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
24425 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
24426 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
24427 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
24428 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
24429 blocked from doing so.</p>
24430
24431 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
24432 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
24433 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
24434 requirements change.</p>
24435
24436 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
24437 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
24438 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
24439
24440       </div>
24441       <div class="tags">
24442
24443
24444         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
24445
24446
24447       </div>
24448     </div>
24449     <div class="padding"></div>
24450
24451     <div class="entry">
24452       <div class="title">
24453         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
24454       </div>
24455       <div class="date">
24456         29th March 2009
24457       </div>
24458       <div class="body">
24459         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
24460 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
24461 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
24462 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
24463 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
24464 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
24465 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
24466 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
24467 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
24468 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
24469 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
24470 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
24471 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
24472 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
24473 now. :)</p>
24474
24475       </div>
24476       <div class="tags">
24477
24478
24479         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
24480
24481
24482       </div>
24483     </div>
24484     <div class="padding"></div>
24485
24486     <div class="entry">
24487       <div class="title">
24488         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</a>
24489       </div>
24490       <div class="date">
24491         29th March 2009
24492       </div>
24493       <div class="body">
24494         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
24495 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
24496 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
24497 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
24498 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
24499 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
24500
24501 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
24502 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
24503 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
24504 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
24505 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
24506 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
24507 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
24508 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
24509 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
24510 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
24511 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
24512 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
24513 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
24514
24515 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
24516 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
24517 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
24518 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
24519
24520 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
24521 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
24522
24523 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
24524 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
24525 new IETF work group?</p>
24526
24527       </div>
24528       <div class="tags">
24529
24530
24531         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
24532
24533
24534       </div>
24535     </div>
24536     <div class="padding"></div>
24537
24538     <div class="entry">
24539       <div class="title">
24540         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">Checking server hardware support status for Dell, HP and IBM servers</a>
24541       </div>
24542       <div class="date">
24543         28th February 2009
24544       </div>
24545       <div class="body">
24546         <p>At work, we have a few hundred Linux servers, and with that amount
24547 of hardware it is important to keep track of when the hardware support
24548 contract expire for each server.  We have a machine (and service)
24549 register, which until recently did not contain much useful besides the
24550 machine room location and contact information for the system owner for
24551 each machine.  To make it easier for us to track support contract
24552 status, I've recently spent time on extending the machine register to
24553 include information about when the support contract expire, and to tag
24554 machines with expired contracts to make it easy to get a list of such
24555 machines.  I extended a perl script already being used to import
24556 information about machines into the register, to also do some screen
24557 scraping off the sites of Dell, HP and IBM (our majority of machines
24558 are from these vendors), and automatically check the support status
24559 for the relevant machines.  This make the support status information
24560 easily available and I hope it will make it easier for the computer
24561 owner to know when to get new hardware or renew the support contract.
24562 The result of this work documented that 27% of the machines in the
24563 registry is without a support contract, and made it very easy to find
24564 them.  27% might seem like a lot, but I see it more as the case of us
24565 using machines a bit longer than the 3 years a normal support contract
24566 last, to have test machines and a platform for less important
24567 services.  After all, the machines without a contract are working fine
24568 at the moment and the lack of contract is only a problem if any of
24569 them break down.  When that happen, we can either fix it using spare
24570 parts from other machines or move the service to another old
24571 machine.</p>
24572
24573 <p>I believe the code for screen scraping the Dell site was originally
24574 written by Trond Hasle Amundsen, and later adjusted by me and Morten
24575 Werner Forsbring.  The HP scraping was written by me after reading a
24576 nice article in ;login: about how to use WWW::Mechanize, and the IBM
24577 scraping was written by me based on the Dell code.  I know the HTML
24578 parsing could be done using nice libraries, but did not want to
24579 introduce more dependencies.  This is the current incarnation:</p>
24580
24581 <pre>
24582 use LWP::Simple;
24583 use POSIX;
24584 use WWW::Mechanize;
24585 use Date::Parse;
24586 [...]
24587 sub get_support_info {
24588     my ($machine, $model, $serial, $productnumber) = @_;
24589     my $str;
24590
24591     if ( $model =~ m/^Dell / ) {
24592         # fetch website from Dell support
24593         my $url = "http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/my_systems_info/no/details?c=no&amp;cs=nodhs1&amp;l=no&amp;s=dhs&amp;ServiceTag=$serial";
24594         my $webpage = get($url);
24595         return undef unless ($webpage);
24596
24597         my $daysleft = -1;
24598         my @lines = split(/\n/, $webpage);
24599         foreach my $line (@lines) {
24600             next unless ($line =~ m/Beskrivelse/);
24601             $line =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
24602             $line =~ s/^.+?;(Beskrivelse;)/$1/;
24603
24604             my @f = split(/\;/, $line);
24605             @f = @f[13 .. $#f];
24606             my $lastend = "";
24607             while ($f[3] eq "DELL") {
24608                 my ($type, $startstr, $endstr, $days) = @f[0, 5, 7, 10];
24609
24610                 my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
24611                                             localtime(str2time($startstr)));
24612                 my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
24613                                           localtime(str2time($endstr)));
24614                 $str .= "$type $start -> $end ";
24615                 @f = @f[14 .. $#f];
24616                 $lastend = $end if ($end gt $lastend);
24617             }
24618             my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
24619             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
24620                 if ($lastend lt $today);
24621         }
24622     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^HP / ) {
24623         my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
24624         my $url =
24625             'http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do';
24626         $mech->get($url);
24627         my $fields = {
24628             'BODServiceID' => 'NA',
24629             'RegisteredPurchaseDate' => '',
24630             'country' => 'NO',
24631             'productNumber' => $productnumber,
24632             'serialNumber1' => $serial,
24633         };
24634         $mech->submit_form( form_number => 2,
24635                             fields      => $fields );
24636         # Next step is screen scraping
24637         my $content = $mech->content();
24638
24639         $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
24640         $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
24641         $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
24642         $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
24643
24644         my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
24645
24646         while ($content =~ m/;Warranty Type;/) {
24647             my ($type, $status, $startstr, $stopstr) = $content =~
24648                 m/;Warranty Type;([^;]+);.+?;Status;(\w+);Start Date;([^;]+);End Date;([^;]+);/;
24649             $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty Type;//;
24650             my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
24651                                         localtime(str2time($startstr)));
24652             my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
24653                                       localtime(str2time($stopstr)));
24654
24655             $str .= "$type ($status) $start -> $end ";
24656
24657             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
24658                 if ($end lt $today);
24659         }
24660     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^IBM / ) {
24661         # This code ignore extended support contracts.
24662         my ($producttype) = $model =~ m/.*-\[(.{4}).+\]-/;
24663         if ($producttype &amp;&amp; $serial) {
24664             my $content =
24665                 get("http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/warranty?action=warranty&amp;brandind=5000008&amp;Submit=Submit&amp;type=$producttype&amp;serial=$serial");
24666             if ($content) {
24667                 $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
24668                 $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
24669                 $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
24670                 $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
24671
24672                 $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty status;//;
24673                 my ($status, $end) = $content =~ m/;Warranty status;([^;]+)\s*;Expiration date;(\S+) ;/;
24674
24675                 $str .= "($status) -> $end ";
24676
24677                 my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
24678                 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
24679                     if ($end lt $today);
24680             }
24681         }
24682     }
24683     return $str;
24684 }
24685 </pre>
24686
24687 <p>Here are some examples on how to use the function, using fake
24688 serial numbers.  The information passed in as arguments are fetched
24689 from dmidecode.</p>
24690
24691 <pre>
24692 print get_support_info("hp.host", "HP ProLiant BL460c G1", "1234567890"
24693                        "447707-B21");
24694 print get_support_info("dell.host", "Dell Inc. PowerEdge 2950", "1234567");
24695 print get_support_info("ibm.host", "IBM eserver xSeries 345 -[867061X]-",
24696                        "1234567");
24697 </pre>
24698
24699 <p>I would recommend this approach for tracking support contracts for
24700 everyone with more than a few computers to administer. :)</p>
24701
24702 <p>Update 2009-03-06: The IBM page do not include extended support
24703 contracts, so it is useless in that case.  The original Dell code do
24704 not handle extended support contracts either, but has been updated to
24705 do so.</p>
24706
24707       </div>
24708       <div class="tags">
24709
24710
24711         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
24712
24713
24714       </div>
24715     </div>
24716     <div class="padding"></div>
24717
24718     <div class="entry">
24719       <div class="title">
24720         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html">Using bar codes at a computing center</a>
24721       </div>
24722       <div class="date">
24723         20th February 2009
24724       </div>
24725       <div class="body">
24726         <p>At work with the University of Oslo, we have several hundred computers
24727 in our computing center.  This give us a challenge in tracking the
24728 location and cabling of the computers, when they are added, moved and
24729 removed.  Some times the location register is not updated when a
24730 computer is inserted or moved and we then have to search the room for
24731 the "missing" computer.</p>
24732
24733 <p>In the last issue of Linux Journal, I came across a project
24734 <a href="http://www.libdmtx.org/">libdmtx</a> to write and read bar
24735 code blocks as defined in the
24736 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix">The Data Matrix
24737 Standard</a>.  This is bar codes that can be read with a normal
24738 digital camera, for example that on a cell phone, and several such bar
24739 codes can be read by libdmtx from one picture.  The bar code standard
24740 allow up to 2 KiB to be written in the tag.  There is another project
24741 with <a href="http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/">a bar code
24742 writer written in postscript</a> capable of creating such bar codes,
24743 but this was the first time I found a tool to read these bar
24744 codes.</p>
24745
24746 <p>It occurred to me that this could be used to tag and track the
24747 machines in our computing center.  If both racks and computers are
24748 tagged this way, we can use a picture of the rack and all its
24749 computers to detect the rack location of any computer in that rack.
24750 If we do this regularly for the entire room, we will find all
24751 locations, and can detect movements and removals.</p>
24752
24753 <p>I decided to test if this would work in practice, and picked a
24754 random rack and tagged all the machines with their names.  Next, I
24755 took pictures with my digital camera, and gave the dmtxread program
24756 these JPEG pictures to see how many tags it could read.  This worked
24757 fairly well.  If the pictures was well focused and not taken from the
24758 side, all tags in the image could be read.  Because of limited space
24759 between the racks, I was unable to get a good picture of the entire
24760 rack, but could without problem read all tags from a picture covering
24761 about half the rack.  I had to limit the search time used by dmtxread
24762 to 60000 ms to make sure it terminated in a reasonable time frame.</p>
24763
24764 <p>My conclusion is that this could work, and we should probably look
24765 at adjusting our computer tagging procedures to use bar codes for
24766 easier automatic tracking of computers.</p>
24767
24768       </div>
24769       <div class="tags">
24770
24771
24772         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
24773
24774
24775       </div>
24776     </div>
24777     <div class="padding"></div>
24778
24779     <div class="entry">
24780       <div class="title">
24781         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/When_web_browser_developers_make_a_video_player___.html">When web browser developers make a video player...</a>
24782       </div>
24783       <div class="date">
24784         17th January 2009
24785       </div>
24786       <div class="body">
24787         <p>As part of the work we do in <a href="http://www.nuug.no">NUUG</a>
24788 to publish video recordings of our monthly presentations, we provide a
24789 page with embedded video for easy access to the recording.  Putting a
24790 good set of HTML tags together to get working embedded video in all
24791 browsers and across all operating systems is not easy.  I hope this
24792 will become easier when the &lt;video&gt; tag is implemented in all
24793 browsers, but I am not sure.  We provide the recordings in several
24794 formats, MPEG1, Ogg Theora, H.264 and Quicktime, and want the
24795 browser/media plugin to pick one it support and use it to play the
24796 recording, using whatever embed mechanism the browser understand.
24797 There is at least four different tags to use for this, the new HTML5
24798 &lt;video&gt; tag, the &lt;object&gt; tag, the &lt;embed&gt; tag and
24799 the &lt;applet&gt; tag.  All of these take a lot of options, and
24800 finding the best options is a major challenge.</p>
24801
24802 <p>I just tested the experimental Opera browser available from <a
24803 href="http://labs.opera.com">labs.opera.com</a>, to see how it handled
24804 a &lt;video&gt; tag with a few video sources and no extra attributes.
24805 I was not very impressed.  The browser start by fetching a picture
24806 from the video stream.  Not sure if it is the first frame, but it is
24807 definitely very early in the recording.  So far, so good. Next,
24808 instead of streaming the 76 MiB video file, it start to download all
24809 of it, but do not start to play the video.  This mean I have to wait
24810 for several minutes for the downloading to finish.  When the download
24811 is done, the playing of the video do not start!  Waiting for the
24812 download, but I do not get to see the video?  Some testing later, I
24813 discover that I have to add the controls="true" attribute to be able
24814 to get a play button to pres to start the video.  Adding
24815 autoplay="true" did not help.  I sure hope this is a misfeature of the
24816 test version of Opera, and that future implementations of the
24817 &lt;video&gt; tag will stream recordings by default, or at least start
24818 playing when the download is done.</p>
24819
24820 <p>The test page I used (since changed to add more attributes) is
24821 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20090113-foredrag-om-foredrag/">available
24822 from the nuug site</a>.  Will have to test it with the new Firefox
24823 too.</p>
24824
24825 <p>In the test process, I discovered a missing feature.  I was unable
24826 to find a way to get the URL of the playing video out of Opera, so I
24827 am not quite sure it picked the Ogg Theora version of the video.  I
24828 sure hope it was using the announced Ogg Theora support. :)</p>
24829
24830       </div>
24831       <div class="tags">
24832
24833
24834         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
24835
24836
24837       </div>
24838     </div>
24839     <div class="padding"></div>
24840
24841     <div class="entry">
24842       <div class="title">
24843         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_video_mixer_on_a_USB_stick.html">Software video mixer on a USB stick</a>
24844       </div>
24845       <div class="date">
24846         28th December 2008
24847       </div>
24848       <div class="body">
24849         <p>The <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> is
24850 recording our montly presentation on video, and recently we have
24851 worked on improving the quality of the recordings by mixing the slides
24852 directly with the video stream.  For this, we use the
24853 <a href="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/">dvswitch</a> package from
24854 the Debian video team.  As this require quite one computer per video
24855 source, and NUUG do not have enough laptops available, we need to
24856 borrow laptops.  And to avoid having to install extra software on
24857 these borrwed laptops, I have wrapped up all the programs needed on a
24858 bootable USB stick.  The software required is dvswitch with assosiated
24859 source, sink and mixer applications and
24860 <a href="http://www.kinodv.org/">dvgrab</a>.  To allow this setup to
24861 work without any configuration, I've patched dvswitch to use
24862 <a href="http://www.avahi.org/">avahi</a> to connect the various parts
24863 together.  And to allow us to use laptops without firewire plugs, I
24864 upgraded dvgrab to the one from Debian/unstable to get one that work
24865 with USB sources.  We have not yet tested this setup in a production
24866 setup, but I hope it will work properly, and allow us to set up a
24867 video mixer in a very short time frame.  We will need it for
24868 <a href="http://www.goopen.no/">Go Open 2009</a>.</p>
24869
24870 <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/video/bin/usbstick-dvswitch.img.gz">The
24871 USB image</a> is for a 1 GB memory stick, but can be used on any
24872 larger stick as well.</p>
24873
24874       </div>
24875       <div class="tags">
24876
24877
24878         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
24879
24880
24881       </div>
24882     </div>
24883     <div class="padding"></div>
24884
24885     <div class="entry">
24886       <div class="title">
24887         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html">Devcamp brought us closer to the Lenny based Debian Edu release</a>
24888       </div>
24889       <div class="date">
24890          7th December 2008
24891       </div>
24892       <div class="body">
24893         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
24894 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
24895 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
24896 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
24897 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
24898 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
24899 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
24900 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
24901
24902 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
24903 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
24904 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
24905 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
24906 of these cards.</p>
24907
24908       </div>
24909       <div class="tags">
24910
24911
24912         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp</a>.
24913
24914
24915       </div>
24916     </div>
24917     <div class="padding"></div>
24918
24919     <div class="entry">
24920       <div class="title">
24921         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html">The sorry state of multimedia browser plugins in Debian</a>
24922       </div>
24923       <div class="date">
24924         25th November 2008
24925       </div>
24926       <div class="body">
24927         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
24928 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
24929 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
24930 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
24931 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
24932 notes are available on
24933 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
24934 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
24935 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
24936 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
24937 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
24938 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
24939 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
24940 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
24941 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
24942
24943 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
24944 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
24945
24946       </div>
24947       <div class="tags">
24948
24949
24950         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
24951
24952
24953       </div>
24954     </div>
24955     <div class="padding"></div>
24956
24957     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="english.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
24958     <div id="sidebar">
24959
24960
24961
24962 <h2>Archive</h2>
24963 <ul>
24964
24965 <li>2016
24966 <ul>
24967
24968 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
24969
24970 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
24971
24972 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
24973
24974 </ul></li>
24975
24976 <li>2015
24977 <ul>
24978
24979 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
24980
24981 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
24982
24983 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
24984
24985 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
24986
24987 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
24988
24989 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
24990
24991 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
24992
24993 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
24994
24995 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
24996
24997 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
24998
24999 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
25000
25001 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
25002
25003 </ul></li>
25004
25005 <li>2014
25006 <ul>
25007
25008 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
25009
25010 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
25011
25012 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
25013
25014 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
25015
25016 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
25017
25018 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
25019
25020 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
25021
25022 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
25023
25024 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
25025
25026 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
25027
25028 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
25029
25030 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
25031
25032 </ul></li>
25033
25034 <li>2013
25035 <ul>
25036
25037 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
25038
25039 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
25040
25041 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
25042
25043 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
25044
25045 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
25046
25047 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
25048
25049 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
25050
25051 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
25052
25053 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
25054
25055 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
25056
25057 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
25058
25059 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
25060
25061 </ul></li>
25062
25063 <li>2012
25064 <ul>
25065
25066 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
25067
25068 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
25069
25070 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
25071
25072 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
25073
25074 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
25075
25076 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
25077
25078 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
25079
25080 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
25081
25082 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
25083
25084 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
25085
25086 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
25087
25088 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
25089
25090 </ul></li>
25091
25092 <li>2011
25093 <ul>
25094
25095 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
25096
25097 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
25098
25099 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
25100
25101 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
25102
25103 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
25104
25105 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
25106
25107 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
25108
25109 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
25110
25111 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
25112
25113 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
25114
25115 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
25116
25117 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
25118
25119 </ul></li>
25120
25121 <li>2010
25122 <ul>
25123
25124 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
25125
25126 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
25127
25128 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
25129
25130 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
25131
25132 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
25133
25134 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
25135
25136 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
25137
25138 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
25139
25140 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
25141
25142 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
25143
25144 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
25145
25146 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
25147
25148 </ul></li>
25149
25150 <li>2009
25151 <ul>
25152
25153 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
25154
25155 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
25156
25157 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
25158
25159 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
25160
25161 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
25162
25163 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
25164
25165 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
25166
25167 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
25168
25169 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
25170
25171 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
25172
25173 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
25174
25175 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
25176
25177 </ul></li>
25178
25179 <li>2008
25180 <ul>
25181
25182 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
25183
25184 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
25185
25186 </ul></li>
25187
25188 </ul>
25189
25190
25191
25192 <h2>Tags</h2>
25193 <ul>
25194
25195  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
25196
25197  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
25198
25199  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
25200
25201  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
25202
25203  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
25204
25205  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (15)</a></li>
25206
25207  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
25208
25209  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
25210
25211  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (122)</a></li>
25212
25213  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (154)</a></li>
25214
25215  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
25216
25217  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
25218
25219  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (20)</a></li>
25220
25221  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
25222
25223  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (305)</a></li>
25224
25225  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
25226
25227  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
25228
25229  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (25)</a></li>
25230
25231  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
25232
25233  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (16)</a></li>
25234
25235  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
25236
25237  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
25238
25239  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (11)</a></li>
25240
25241  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
25242
25243  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
25244
25245  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
25246
25247  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
25248
25249  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
25250
25251  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
25252
25253  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (37)</a></li>
25254
25255  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (7)</a></li>
25256
25257  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (273)</a></li>
25258
25259  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (177)</a></li>
25260
25261  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (22)</a></li>
25262
25263  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
25264
25265  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (58)</a></li>
25266
25267  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (92)</a></li>
25268
25269  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
25270
25271  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
25272
25273  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
25274
25275  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
25276
25277  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
25278
25279  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
25280
25281  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
25282
25283  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
25284
25285  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (45)</a></li>
25286
25287  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
25288
25289  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
25290
25291  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (49)</a></li>
25292
25293  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
25294
25295  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (10)</a></li>
25296
25297  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (36)</a></li>
25298
25299  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
25300
25301  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
25302
25303  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
25304
25305  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (55)</a></li>
25306
25307  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
25308
25309  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (38)</a></li>
25310
25311 </ul>
25312
25313
25314     </div>
25315     <p style="text-align: right">
25316  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
25317 </p>
25318
25319   </body>
25320 </html>