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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/Why_is_your_local_library_collecting_the__wrong__computer_books_.html">Why is your local library collecting the "wrong" computer books?</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28          3rd October 2012
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>I just read the blog post from Tim Retout
  32 <a href="http://retout.co.uk/blog/2012/10/02/the-library-challenge">about
  33 the computer science book collection available in his local
  34 library</a>, and just wanted to share my comment on his theory about
  35 computer books becoming obsolete so soon.  That is part of the reason
  36 why the selection is so sad in almost any local library (it is in mine
  37 too), but I believe the major contributing factor is that the people
  38 buying books to the library have no way to know a good and future
  39 computer classic from trash.  And they need to know which one will
  40 become a classic in the future, as they would normally buy one of the
  41 recently published books.</p>
  42
  43 <p>During my university years, I worked for a while at the university
  44 library, and even there the person in charge of buying computer
  45 related books (and in fact any natural science related book), did not
  46 know enough about computers to make a good educated guess.  Once, just
  47 before Christmas, they had some leftover money on the book budget and
  48 I was asked if I could pick out a lot of computer books in the
  49 university book store, for the library to buy for their collection.  I
  50 had a great time picking all the books I dreamt of buying and reading,
  51 and the books I knew were classics (like most of the
  52 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens">Stevens
  53 collection</a>).  I picked several of the generic O'Reilly books (ie
  54 documenting protocols, formats and systems, not specific versions of
  55 products) and stayed away from the 'teach yourself X in N days' class.
  56 I had a great time, and probably picked out more than a hundred books
  57 for the library that evening.</p>
  58
  59 <p>The sad fact is that there is no way a overworked librarian is
  60 going to know that for example
  61 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_of_Programming">The
  62 Practice of Programming</a> is a must-have in any computer library,
  63 and they will most of the time end up picking the wrong books to buy.
  64 Perhaps you can help your local library make better choices by giving
  65 the suggestions for books to get?  I know they would love to hear from
  66 you, even if their budget might block them from getting your favourite
  67 book right away.</p>
  68
  69       </div>
  70       <div class="tags">
  71
  72
  73         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
  74
  75
  76       </div>
  77     </div>
  78     <div class="padding"></div>
  79
  80     <div class="entry">
  81       <div class="title">
  82         <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>
  83       </div>
  84       <div class="date">
  85         23rd September 2012
  86       </div>
  87       <div class="body">
  88         <p>Since this summer, I have worked in my spare time on a Norwegian <a
  89 href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book <a
  90 href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
  91 The reason is that this book is a great primer on what problems exist
  92 in the current copyright laws, and I want it to be available also for
  93 those that are reluctant do read an English book.
  94
  95 When I started, I
  96 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
  97 for volunteers</a> to help me, but too few have volunteered so far,
  98 and progress is a bit slow.  Anyway, today I broken the 70 percent
  99 mark for the first rough translation.  At the moment, less than 700
 100 strings (paragraphs, index terms, titles) are left to translate.  With
 101 my current progress of 10-20 strings per day, it will take a while to
 102 complete the translation.  This graph show the updated progress:</p>
 103
 104 <img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
 105
 106 <p>Progress have slowed down lately due to family and work
 107 commitments.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out
 108 the project files currently available from
 109 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
 110
 111 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
 112 the updated
 113 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
 114 and
 115 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
 116 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
 117 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
 118 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
 119
 120       </div>
 121       <div class="tags">
 122
 123
 124         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>.
 125
 126
 127       </div>
 128     </div>
 129     <div class="padding"></div>
 130
 131     <div class="entry">
 132       <div class="title">
 133         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Giorgio_Pioda.html">Debian Edu interview: Giorgio Pioda</a>
 134       </div>
 135       <div class="date">
 136         17th September 2012
 137       </div>
 138       <div class="body">
 139         <p>After a long break in my row of interviews with people in the
 140 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
 141 community, I finally found time to wrap up another.  This time it is
 142 Giorgio Pioda, which showed up on the mailing list at the start of
 143 this year, asking questions and inspiring us to improve the first time
 144 administrators experience with Skolelinux. :) The interview was
 145 conduced in May, but I only found time to publish it now.</p>
 146
 147 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 148
 149 <p>I have a PhD in chemistry but since several years I work as teacher
 150 in secondary (15-18 year old students) and tertiary (a kind of "light"
 151 university) schools. Five years ago I started to manage a Learning
 152 Management Service server and slowly I got more and more involved with
 153 IT. 3 years ago the graduating schools moved completely to Linux and I
 154 got the head of the IT for this. The experience collected in chemistry
 155 labs computers (for example NMR analysis of protein folding) and in
 156 the IT-courses during university where sufficient to start. Self
 157 training is anyway very important</p>
 158
 159 <p>I live in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, and the
 160 <a href="http://www.spse.ch/">SPSE school</a> (secondary) is a very
 161 special sport school for young people who try to became sport pro (for
 162 all sports, we have dozens of disciplines represented) and we are
 163 recognised by the Olympic Swiss Organisation.
 164
 165 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
 166 project?</strong></p>
 167
 168 <p>Looking for Linux / Primary Domain Controller (PDC) I found it
 169 already several years ago. But since the system was still not
 170 Kerberized and since our schools relies strongly on laptops I didn't
 171 use it. I plan to introduce it in the next future, probably for the
 172 next school year, since the squeeze release solved this security
 173 hole.</p>
 174
 175 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 176 Edu?</strong></p>
 177
 178 <p>Many. First of all there is a strong and living community that is
 179 very generous for help and hints.  Chat help is crucial, together with
 180 the mailing list.  Second. With Skolelinux you get an already well
 181 engineered platform and you don't have to start to build up your PDC
 182 and your clients from GNU/scratch; I've already done this once and I
 183 can tell it, it is hard. Third, since Skolelinux is a standard
 184 platform, it is way easier to educate other IT people and even if the
 185 head IT is sick another one could pick up the task without too much
 186 hassle.</p>
 187
 188 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 189 Edu?</strong></p>
 190
 191 <p>The only real problem I see is that it is a little too less
 192 flexible at client level. Debian stable is rocky and desirable, but
 193 there are many reasons that force for another choice. For example the
 194 need of new drivers for new PC, or the need for a specific OS for some
 195 devices that have specific software packages for another specific
 196 distribution (I have such a case for whiteboards that have only
 197 Ubuntu packages). Thus, I prepared compatibility packages educlient
 198 and eduroaming, hoping not to use them ;-)</p>
 199
 200 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 201
 202 <p>I have a Debian Stable PDC at school (Kerberos, NIS, NFS) with
 203 mixed Debian and Ubuntu clients. If you think that this triad
 204 combination is exotic... well I discovered right yesterday that
 205 <a href="http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/Perceus-Report.html">Perceus</a>
 206 has the same...</p>
 207
 208 <p>For myself I run Debian wheezy/sid, but this combination is good
 209 only I you have enough competence to fix stuff for yourself, if
 210 something breaks.  Daily I use texmacs, gnumeric, a little bit of R
 211 statistics, kmplot, and less frequently OpenOffice.org.</p>
 212
 213 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 214 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 215
 216 <P>I think that the only real argument that school managers "hear" is
 217 cost reduction. They don't give too much weight on quality, stability,
 218 just because they are normally not open to change.</p>
 219
 220 <p>Students adapts very quickly to GNU/Linux (and for them being able
 221 to switch between different OS is a plus value); teachers and managers
 222 don't.</p>
 223
 224 <p>We decided to move to Linux because students at our school have own
 225 laptop and we have the responsibility to keep the laptop ready to use;
 226 we were really unsatisfied with Microsoft since every Monday we had 20
 227 machine to fix for viral infections... With Linux this has been
 228 reduced to zero, since people installs almost only from official
 229 repositories. I think that our special needs brought us to Linux.
 230 Those who don't have such needs will hardly move to Linux.</p>
 231
 232       </div>
 233       <div class="tags">
 234
 235
 236         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>.
 237
 238
 239       </div>
 240     </div>
 241     <div class="padding"></div>
 242
 243     <div class="entry">
 244       <div class="title">
 245         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_activity_to_standardise_video_codec.html">IETF activity to standardise video codec</a>
 246       </div>
 247       <div class="date">
 248         15th September 2012
 249       </div>
 250       <div class="body">
 251         <p>After the
 252 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">Opus
 253 codec made</a> it into <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> as
 254 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC 6716</a>, I had a look
 255 to see if there is any activity in IETF to standardise a video codec
 256 too, and I was happy to discover that there is some activity in this
 257 area.  A non-"working group" mailing list
 258 <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/video-codec">video-codec</a>
 259 was
 260 <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
 261 formal working group should be formed.</p>
 262
 263 <p>I look forward to see how this plays out.  There is already
 264 <a href="http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/video-codec/current/msg00003.html">an
 265 email from someone</a> in the MPEG group at ISO asking people to
 266 participate in the ISO group.  Given how ISO failed with OOXML and given
 267 that it so far (as far as I can remember) only have produced
 268 multimedia formats requiring royalty payments, I suspect
 269 joining the ISO group would be a complete waste of time, but I am not
 270 involved in any codec work and my opinion will not matter much.</p>
 271
 272 <p>If one of my readers is involved with codec work, I hope she will
 273 join this work to standardise a royalty free video codec within
 274 IETF.</p>
 275
 276       </div>
 277       <div class="tags">
 278
 279
 280         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>.
 281
 282
 283       </div>
 284     </div>
 285     <div class="padding"></div>
 286
 287     <div class="entry">
 288       <div class="title">
 289         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">IETF standardize its first multimedia codec: Opus</a>
 290       </div>
 291       <div class="date">
 292         12th September 2012
 293       </div>
 294       <div class="body">
 295         <p>Yesterday, <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> announced the
 296 publication of of
 297 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC 6716, the Definition
 298 of the Opus Audio Codec</a>, a low latency, variable bandwidth, codec
 299 intended for both VoIP, film and music.  This is the first time, as
 300 far as I know, that IETF have standardized a multimedia codec.  In
 301 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3533">RFC 3533</a>, IETF
 302 standardized the OGG container format, and it has proven to be a great
 303 royalty free container for audio, video and movies.  I hope IETF will
 304 continue to standardize more royalty free codeces, after ISO and MPEG
 305 have proven incapable of securing everyone equal rights to publish
 306 multimedia content on the Internet.</p>
 307
 308 <p>IETF require two interoperating independent implementations to
 309 ratify a standard, and have so far ensured to only standardize royalty
 310 free specifications.  Both are key factors to allow everyone (rich and
 311 poor), to compete on equal terms on the Internet.</p>
 312
 313 <p>Visit the <a href="http://opus-codec.org/">Opus project page</a> if
 314 you want to learn more about the solution.</p>
 315
 316       </div>
 317       <div class="tags">
 318
 319
 320         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>.
 321
 322
 323       </div>
 324     </div>
 325     <div class="padding"></div>
 326
 327     <div class="entry">
 328       <div class="title">
 329         <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>
 330       </div>
 331       <div class="date">
 332          7th September 2012
 333       </div>
 334       <div class="body">
 335         <p>As I
 336 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
 337 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
 338 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
 339 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
 340 repository for the project</a>.</p>
 341
 342 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
 343 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
 344 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
 345 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
 346
 347 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
 348 PostScript formats at
 349 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
 350 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
 351
 352       </div>
 353       <div class="tags">
 354
 355
 356         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>.
 357
 358
 359       </div>
 360     </div>
 361     <div class="padding"></div>
 362
 363     <div class="entry">
 364       <div class="title">
 365         <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>
 366       </div>
 367       <div class="date">
 368         23rd August 2012
 369       </div>
 370       <div class="body">
 371         <p>I came across a great comment from Simon Phipps today, about how
 372 <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/how-microsoft-was-forced-open-office-200233">Microsoft
 373 have been forced to open Office</a>, and it made me remember and
 374 revisit the great site
 375 <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">officeshots</a> which allow you
 376 to check out how different programs present the ODF file format.  I
 377 recommend both to those of my readers interested in ODF. :)</p>
 378
 379       </div>
 380       <div class="tags">
 381
 382
 383         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>.
 384
 385
 386       </div>
 387     </div>
 388     <div class="padding"></div>
 389
 390     <div class="entry">
 391       <div class="title">
 392         <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>
 393       </div>
 394       <div class="date">
 395         17th August 2012
 396       </div>
 397       <div class="body">
 398         <p>In my spare time, I currently work on a Norwegian
 399 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book
 400 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig,
 401 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with the copyright law
 402 I can give to my parents and others that are reluctant to read an
 403 English book.  It is a marvellous set of examples on how the ever
 404 expanding copyright regulations hurt culture and society.  When the
 405 translation is done, I hope to find funding to print and ship a copy
 406 to all the members of the Norwegian parliament, before they sit down
 407 to debate the latest revisions to the Norwegian copyright law.  This
 408 summer I
 409 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
 410 for volunteers</a> to help me, and I have been able to secure the
 411 valuable contribution from at least one other Norwegian.</p>
 412
 413 <p>Two days ago, we finally broke the 50% mark.  Then more than 50% of
 414 the number of strings to translate (normally paragraphs, but also
 415 titles and index entries are also counted).  All parts from the
 416 beginning up to and including chapter four is translated.  So is
 417 chapters six, seven and the conclusion.  I created a graph to show the
 418 progress:</p>
 419
 420 <img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
 421
 422 <p>The number of strings to translate increase as I insert the index
 423 entries into the docbook.  They were missing with the docbook version
 424 I initially started with.  There are still quite a few index entries
 425 missing, but everyone starting with A, B, O, Z and Y are done.  I
 426 currently focus on completing the index entries, to get a complete
 427 english version of the docbook source.</p>
 428
 429 <p>There is still need for translators and people with docbook
 430 knowledge, to be able to get a good looking book (I still struggle
 431 with dblatex, xmlto and docbook-xsl) as well as to do the draft
 432 translation and proof reading.  And I would like the figures to be
 433 redrawn as SVGs to make it easy to translate them.  Any SVG master
 434 around?  I am sure there are some legal terms that are unfamiliar to
 435 me.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out the
 436 project files currently available from <a
 437 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
 438
 439 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
 440 the updated
 441 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
 442 and
 443 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
 444 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
 445 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
 446 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
 447
 448       </div>
 449       <div class="tags">
 450
 451
 452         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>.
 453
 454
 455       </div>
 456     </div>
 457     <div class="padding"></div>
 458
 459     <div class="entry">
 460       <div class="title">
 461         <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>
 462       </div>
 463       <div class="date">
 464         10th August 2012
 465       </div>
 466       <div class="body">
 467         <p>In <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> one can specify
 468 the language used at the top, and the processing pipeline will use
 469 this information to pick the correct translations for 'chapter', 'see
 470 also', 'index' etc.  And for most languages used with docbook, I guess
 471 this work just fine.  For example a German user can start the document
 472 with &lt;book lang="de"&gt;, and the document will show up with the
 473 correct content with any of the docbook processors.  This is not the
 474 case for the language
 475 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html">I
 476 am working with at the moment</a>, Norwegian Bokmål.</p>
 477
 478 <p>For a while, I was confused about which language code to use,
 479 because I was unable to find any language code that would work across
 480 all tools.  I am currently testing dblatex, xmlto, docbook-xsl, and
 481 dbtoepub, and they do not handle Norwegian Bokmål the same way.  Some
 482 of them do not handle it at all.</p>
 483
 484 <p>A bit of background information is probably needed to understand
 485 this mess.  Norwegian is not one, but two written variants.  The
 486 variants are Norwegian Nynorsk and Norwegian Bokmål.  There are three
 487 two letter language codes associated with these languages, Norwegian
 488 is 'no', Norwegian Nynorsk is 'nn' and Norwegian Bokmål is 'nb'.
 489 Historically the 'no' language code was used for Norwegian Bokmål, but
 490 many years ago this was found to be å bad idea, and the recommendation
 491 is to use the most specific language code instead, to avoid confusion.
 492 In the transition period it is a good idea to make sure 'no' was an
 493 alias for 'nb'.</p>
 494
 495 <p>Back to docbook processing tools in Debian.  The dblatex tool only
 496 understand 'nn'.  There are translations for 'no', but not 'nb' (BTS
 497 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/684391">#684391</a>), but due to a bug
 498 (BTS <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682936">#682936</a>) the 'no'
 499 language code is not recognised.  The docbook-xsl tool chain only
 500 recognise 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'.  The xmlto tool only recognise
 501 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'.  The end result that there is no language
 502 code I can use to get the docbook file working with all of these tools
 503 at the same time. :(</p>
 504
 505 <p>The correct solution is to use &lt;book lang="nb"&gt;, but it will
 506 take time before that will work with all the free software docbook
 507 processors. :(</p>
 508
 509 <p>Oh, the joy of well integrated tools. :/</p>
 510
 511       </div>
 512       <div class="tags">
 513
 514
 515         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>.
 516
 517
 518       </div>
 519     </div>
 520     <div class="padding"></div>
 521
 522     <div class="entry">
 523       <div class="title">
 524         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Best_way_to_create_a_docbook_book_.html">Best way to create a docbook book?</a>
 525       </div>
 526       <div class="date">
 527         31st July 2012
 528       </div>
 529       <div class="body">
 530         <p>I tried to send this text to the
 531 <a href="https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/">docbook-apps
 532 mailing list at lists.oasis-open.org</a>, but it only accept messages
 533 from subscribers and rejected my post, and I completely lack the
 534 bandwidth required to subscribe to another mailing list, so instead I
 535 try to post my message here and hope my blog readers can help me
 536 out.</p>
 537
 538 <p>I am quite new to docbook processing, and am climbing a steep
 539 learning curve at the moment.</p>
 540
 541 <p>To give you some background, I am working on a Norwegian
 542 translation of the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, and I use
 543 docbook to handle the process.  The files to build the book are
 544 available from
 545 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.
 546 The book got around 400 pages with parts, images, footnotes, tables,
 547 index entries etc, which has proven to be a challenge for the free
 548 software docbook processors.  My build platform is Debian GNU/Linux
 549 Squeeze.</p>
 550
 551 <p>I want to build PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book, and have
 552 tried different tool chains to do the conversion from docbook to these
 553 formats.  I am currently focusing on the PDF version, and have a few
 554 problems.</p>
 555
 556 <ul>
 557
 558 <li>Using dblatex, the &lt;part&gt; handling is not the way I want to,
 559    as &lt;/part&gt; do not really end the &lt;part&gt;. (See
 560    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683166">BTS report #683166</a>), the
 561    xetex backend (needed to process UTF-8) give incorrect hyphens in
 562    index references spanning several pages (See
 563    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682901">BTS report #682901</a>), and
 564    I am unable to get the norwegian template texts (See
 565    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682936">BTS report #682936</a>).</li>
 566
 567 <li>Using straight xmlto fail with some latex error (See
 568    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683163">BTS report
 569    #683163</a>).</li>
 570
 571 <li>Using xmlto with the fop backend fail to handle images (do not
 572    show up in the PDF), fail to handle a long footnote (overlap
 573    footnote and text body, see
 574    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683197">BTS report #683197</a>), and
 575    fail to create a correct index (some lack page ref, and the page
 576    refs listed are not right).</li>
 577
 578 <li>Using xmlto with the dblatex backend behave like dblatex.</li>
 579
 580 <li>Using docbook-xls with xsltproc + fop have the same footnote and
 581    index problems the xmlto + fop processing.</li>
 582
 583 </ul>
 584
 585 <p>So I wonder, what would be the best way to create the PDF version
 586 of this book?  Are some of the bugs found above solved in new or
 587 experimental versions of some docbook tool chain?</p>
 588
 589 <p>What about HTML and EPUB versions?</p>
 590
 591       </div>
 592       <div class="tags">
 593
 594
 595         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>.
 596
 597
 598       </div>
 599     </div>
 600     <div class="padding"></div>
 601
 602     <div class="entry">
 603       <div class="title">
 604         <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>
 605       </div>
 606       <div class="date">
 607         21st July 2012
 608       </div>
 609       <div class="body">
 610         <p>I reported earlier that I am working on
 611 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">a
 612 norwegian version</a> of the book
 613 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
 614 Progress is good, and yesterday I got a major contribution from Anders
 615 Hagen Jarmund completing chapter six.  The source files as well as a
 616 PDF and EPUB version of this book are available from
 617 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
 618
 619 <p>I am happy to report that the draft for the first two chapters
 620 (preface, introduction) is complete, and three other chapters are also
 621 completely translated.  This completes 26 percent of the number of
 622 strings (equivalent to paragraphs) in the book, and there is thus 74
 623 percent left to translate.  A graph of the progress is present at the
 624 bottom of the github project page.  There is still room for more
 625 contributors.  Get in touch or send github pull requests with fixes if
 626 you got time and are willing to help make this book make it to
 627 print. :)</p>
 628
 629 <p>The book translation framework could also be a good basis for other
 630 translations, if you want the book to be available in your
 631 language.</p>
 632
 633       </div>
 634       <div class="tags">
 635
 636
 637         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>.
 638
 639
 640       </div>
 641     </div>
 642     <div class="padding"></div>
 643
 644     <div class="entry">
 645       <div class="title">
 646         <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>
 647       </div>
 648       <div class="date">
 649         16th July 2012
 650       </div>
 651       <div class="body">
 652         <p>I am currently working on a
 653 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">project
 654 to translate</a> the book
 655 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig
 656 to Norwegian.  And the source we base our translation on is the
 657 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook">docbook</a> version, to
 658 allow us to use po4a and .po files to handle the translation, and for
 659 this to work well the docbook source document need to be properly
 660 tagged.  The source files of this project is available from
 661 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
 662
 663 <p>The problem is that the docbook source have flaws, and we have
 664 no-one involved in the project that is a docbook expert.  Is there a
 665 docbook expert somewhere that is interested in helping us create a
 666 well tagged docbook version of the book, and adjust our build process
 667 for the PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book?  This will provide a
 668 well tagged English version (our source document), and make it a lot
 669 easier for us to create a good Norwegian version.  If you can and want
 670 to help, please get in touch with me or fork the github project and
 671 send pull requests with fixes. :)</p>
 672
 673       </div>
 674       <div class="tags">
 675
 676
 677         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>.
 678
 679
 680       </div>
 681     </div>
 682     <div class="padding"></div>
 683
 684     <div class="entry">
 685       <div class="title">
 686         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__George_Bredberg.html">Debian Edu interview: George Bredberg</a>
 687       </div>
 688       <div class="date">
 689          9th July 2012
 690       </div>
 691       <div class="body">
 692         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
 693 Skolelinux</a> project have users all over the globe, but until
 694 recently we have not known about any users in Norway's neighbour
 695 country Sweden.  This changed when George Bredberg showed up in March
 696 this year on the mailing list, asking interesting questions about how
 697 to adjust and scale the just released
 698 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
 699 Wheezy</a> setup to his liking.  He granted me an interview, and I am
 700 happy to share his answers with you here.</p>
 701
 702 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 703
 704 <p>I'm a 44 year old country guy that have been working 12 years at
 705 the same school as 50% IT-manager and 50% Teacher. My educational
 706 background is fil.kand in history and religious beliefs, an exam as a
 707 "folkhighschool" teacher, that is, for teaching grownups.  In
 708 Norwegian I believe it's called "Vuxenupplaring". I also have a master
 709 in "Technology and social change". So I'm not really a tech guy, I
 710 just like to study how humans and technology interact and that is my
 711 perspective when working with IT.</p>
 712
 713 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
 714 project?</strong></p>
 715
 716 I have followed the Skolelinux project for quite some time by
 717 now. Earlier I tested out the K12-LTSP project, which we used for some
 718 time, but I really like the idea of having a distribution aimed to be
 719 a complete solution for schools with necessary tools integrated. When
 720 K12-LTSP abandoned that idea some years ago, I started to look more
 721 seriously into Skolelinux instead.
 722
 723 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 724 Edu?</strong></p>
 725
 726 The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete
 727 distribution, ready to install. It has LDAP-support, MS Windows
 728 integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an
 729 administrator a lot of time and headache. We were using another Linux
 730 based thin-client system called Thinlinc, that has served us very
 731 well. But that Skolelinux is based on VNC and LTSP, to me, is better
 732 when it comes to the kind of multimedia used in schools. That is
 733 showing videos from Youtube or educational TV. It is also easier to
 734 mix thin clients with workstations, since the user settings will be the
 735 same. In our VNC-based solution you had to "beat around the bush" by
 736 setting up a second, hidden, home-directory for user settings for the
 737 workstations, because they will be different from the ones used on the
 738 thin clients. Skolelinux support for diskless workstations are very
 739 convenient since a school today often need to use a class room
 740 projector showing videos in full screen. That is easily done with a
 741 small integrated media computer running as a diskless workstation. You
 742 have only two installs to update and configure. One for the thin
 743 clients and one for the workstations. Also saving a lot of time.  Our
 744 old system was also based on Redhat and CentOS. They are both very
 745 nice distributions, but they are sometimes painfully slow when it
 746 comes to updating multimedia support and multimedia programs (even
 747 such as Gimp), leaving us with a bit "oldish" applications. Debian is
 748 quicker to update.
 749
 750 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 751 Edu?</strong></p>
 752
 753 <p>Debian is a bit too quick when it comes to updating. As an example
 754 we use old HP terminals as thinclients, and two times already this
 755 year (2012) the updates you get from the repositories has stopped
 756 sound from working with them.  It's a kernel/ALSA issue. So you have
 757 to be more careful properly testing the updates before you run them in
 758 a production environment. This has never happened with CentOS.</p>
 759
 760 <p>I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at
 761 install time.  In Skolelinux they are kind of hard coded into the
 762 distribution, when it comes to LDAP and at least samba integration.
 763 That is more a cosmetic/translation issue, and not a real problem.
 764 Running MS Windows applications within the Skolelinux environment needs
 765 to be better supported. That is, running them seamlessly via RDP, and
 766 support for single-sign on.  That will make the transition to free
 767 software easier, because you can keep the applications you really
 768 need.  No support will make it impossible if you work in a school where
 769 some applications can't be open source. As for us we really need to
 770 run Adobe InDesign in our journalist classes.  We run a journalist
 771 education, and is one of the very few non university ones that is ok:d
 772 by Svenska journalistförbundet (Swedish journalist association).  Our
 773 education gives the pupils the right of membership there, once they
 774 are done.  This is important if you want to get a job.</p>
 775
 776 <p>Adobe InDesign is the program most commonly used in newspapers and
 777 magazines.  We used Quark Express before, but they seem to loose there
 778 market to Adobe. The only "equivalent" to InDesign in the opensource
 779 world is Scribus, and its not advanced enough. At least not according
 780 to the teacher. I think it would be possible to use it, because they
 781 are not supposed to learn a program, they are supposed to learn how to
 782 edit and compile a newspaper.  But politically at our school we are not
 783 there yet.  And Scribus lacks a lot of things you find i InDesign.</p>
 784
 785 <p>We used even a windows program for sound editing when it comes to
 786 the radio-journalist part. The year to come we are going to try
 787 Audacity. That software has the same kind of limitations compared to
 788 Adobe Audition, but that teacher is a bit more open minded. We have
 789 tried Ardour also, but that instead is more like a music studio
 790 program, not intended for the kind of editing taking place in a radio
 791 studio. Its way to complex and the GUI is to scattered when you only
 792 want to cut, make pass-overs, add extra channels and normalise.  Those
 793 things you can do in Audacity, but its not as easy as in Audition. You
 794 have to do more things manually with envelopes, and that is a bit old
 795 fashion and timewasting. Its also harder to cut and move sound from
 796 one channel to another, which is a thing that you do frequently
 797 because you often find yourself needing to rearrange parts of the
 798 sound file.</p>
 799
 800 <p>So, I am not sure we will succeed in replacing even Audition, but we
 801 will try.  The problem is the students have certain expectations when
 802 they start an education towards a profession.  So the programs has to
 803 look and feel professional.  Good thing with radio, there are many
 804 programs out there, that radio studios use, so its not as standardised
 805 as Newspaper editing. That means, it does not really matter what
 806 program they learn, because once they start working they still have to
 807 learn the program the studio uses, so instead focus has to be to learn
 808 the editing part without to much focus on a specific software.</p>
 809
 810 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 811
 812 <p>Myself I'm running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days.  I use almost
 813 only open source software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes
 814 to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;)
 815 )</p>
 816
 817 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 818 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 819
 820 <p>To get schools to use free software there has to be good open
 821 source software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But
 822 it's also very important that the multimedia support is working
 823 flawlessly.  The problems with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whatever
 824 will create problems when it comes to both teachers and
 825 students. Economy are also important for schools, so using thin
 826 clients, as long as they have good multimedia support, is a very good
 827 idea. It's also important that the open source software works even for
 828 the administration.  It's hard to convince the teachers to stick with
 829 open source, if the principal has to run Windows.  It also creates a
 830 problem if some classes has to use Windows for there tasks, since that
 831 will create a difference in "status" between classes, so a good
 832 support for running windows applications via the thin client (Linux)
 833 desktop is essential.  At least at our school, where we have mixed
 834 level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.</p>
 835
 836 <p>Update 2012-07-09 08:30: Paul Wise tipped me on IRC about three
 837 useful sources related to Free Software for radio stations: the LWN
 838 article <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/481607/">Radio station
 839 management with Airtime</a>,
 840 <a href="http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/airtime/">Airtime</a> which
 841 claim to be a Free open source radio automation software and
 842 <a href="http://www.rivendellaudio.org/">Rivendell</a> which claim to
 843 be complete radio broadcast automation solution.  All of them seem
 844 useful to the aspiring radio producer.</p>
 845
 846       </div>
 847       <div class="tags">
 848
 849
 850         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>.
 851
 852
 853       </div>
 854     </div>
 855     <div class="padding"></div>
 856
 857     <div class="entry">
 858       <div class="title">
 859         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_do_schools_waste_money_on_IT_.html">Why do schools waste money on IT?</a>
 860       </div>
 861       <div class="date">
 862          8th July 2012
 863       </div>
 864       <div class="body">
 865         <p>In the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project, we have realised that one
 866 of the major blockers for the project success is the purchasing skills
 867 in schools and municipalities.  We provide what the happy users of
 868 Debian Edu / Skolelinux say they need and to a lower cost than the
 869 alternatives, and yet so few schools decide to use our solution.  I
 870 was pleased to discover the same observation done by mySociety and Tom
 871 Steinberg in his blog post
 872 "<a href="http://www.mysociety.org/2012/06/19/can-you-recognize-the-million-pound-chair/">Can
 873 you recognize the million pound chair?</a>".  Read it and weep for the
 874 spending of your tax money.</p>
 875
 876 <p>Of course there are other factors involved as well, like our
 877 projects bad marketing skills and the Linux community fragmentation
 878 causing worry with the people on the outside, so we as a project need
 879 to keep working hard to gain users, but it is a up-hill battle when
 880 public decision makers are unable to understand computer system
 881 purchases.</p>
 882
 883       </div>
 884       <div class="tags">
 885
 886
 887         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>.
 888
 889
 890       </div>
 891     </div>
 892     <div class="padding"></div>
 893
 894     <div class="entry">
 895       <div class="title">
 896         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Timetabling_Software___nice_free_software.html">Free Timetabling Software - nice free software</a>
 897       </div>
 898       <div class="date">
 899          7th July 2012
 900       </div>
 901       <div class="body">
 902         <p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
 903 Skolelinux</a> is a large collection of end user and school specific
 904 software.  It is one of the packages not installed by default but
 905 provided in the Debian archive for schools to install if they want to,
 906 is a system to automatically plan the school time table using
 907 information about available teachers, classes and rooms, combined with
 908 the list of required courses and how many hours each topic should
 909 receive.  The software is
 910
 911 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/">named FET</a>, and it provide a
 912 graphical user interface to input the required information, save the
 913 result in a fairly simple XML format, and generate time tables for
 914 both teachers and students.  It is available both for
 915 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download.html">Linux, MacOSX and
 916 Windows</a>.</p>
 917
 918 <p>This is <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/features.html">the
 919 feature list</a>, liftet from the project web site:</p>
 920
 921 <p><ul>
 922
 923   <li>FET is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL v2 or later.
 924     You can freely use, copy, modify and redistribute it </li>
 925
 926   <li>Localized to en_US (US English, default), ar (Arabic), ca
 927     (Catalan), da (Danish), de (German), el (Greek), es (Spanish), fa
 928     (Persian), fr (French), gl (Galician), he (Hebrew), hu
 929     (Hungarian), id (Indonesian), it (Italian), lt (Lithuanian), mk
 930     (Macedonian), ms (Malay), nl (Dutch), pl (Polish), pt_BR
 931     (Brazilian Portuguese), ro (Romanian), ru (Russian), si (Sinhala),
 932     sk (Slovak), sr (Serbian), tr (Turkish), uk (Ukrainian), uz
 933     (Uzbek) and vi (Vietnamese) (incompletely for some languages)
 934     </li>
 935
 936   <li>Fully automatic generation algorithm, allowing also
 937     semi-automatic or manual allocation</li>
 938
 939   <li>Platform independent implementation, allowing running on
 940     GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac and any system that Qt supports </li>
 941
 942   <li>Flexible modular XML format for the input file, allowing editing
 943     with an XML editor or by hand (besides FET interface)</li>
 944
 945   <li>Import/export from CSV format</li>
 946
 947   <li>The resulted timetables are exported into HTML, XML and CSV
 948     formats </li>
 949
 950   <li>Flexible students structure, organized into sets: years, groups
 951     and subgroups. FET allows overlapping years and groups and
 952     non-overlapping subgroups. You can even define individual students
 953     (as separate sets)</li>
 954
 955   <li>Each constraint has a weight percentage, from 0.0% to 100.0%
 956     (but some special constraints are allowed to have only 100% weight
 957     percentage)</li>
 958
 959   <li>Limits for the algorithm (all these limits can be increased on
 960     demand, as a custom version, because this would require a bit more
 961     memory):
 962     <ul>
 963       <li>Maximum total number of hours (periods) per day: 60</li>
 964       <li>Maximum number of working days per week: 35</li>
 965       <li>Maximum total number of teachers: 6000</li>
 966       <li>Maximum total number of sets of students: 30000</li>
 967       <li>Maximum total number of subjects: 6000</li>
 968       <li>Virtually unlimited number of activity tags</li>
 969       <li>Maximum number of activities: 30000</li>
 970       <li>Maximum number of rooms: 6000</li>
 971       <li>Maximum number of buildings: 6000</li>
 972       <li>Possibility of adding multiple teachers and
 973           students sets for each activity.  (it is possible
 974           also to have no teachers or no students sets for an
 975           activity)</li>
 976       <li>Virtually unlimited number of time constraints</li>
 977       <li>Virtually unlimited number of space constraints</li>
 978     </ul></li>
 979
 980   <li>A large and flexible palette of time constraints:
 981     <ul>
 982       <li>Break periods</li>
 983       <li>For teacher(s):
 984         <ul>
 985           <li>Not available periods</li>
 986           <li>Max/min days per week</li>
 987           <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
 988           <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
 989           <li>Min hours daily</li>
 990           <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
 991
 992           <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
 993             days per week</li>
 994         </ul></li>
 995       <li>For students (sets):
 996         <ul>
 997           <li>Not available periods</li>
 998           <li>Begins early (specify max allowed beginnings at second hour)</li>
 999           <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
1000           <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
1001           <li>Min hours daily</li>
1002           <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
1003
1004           <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
1005             days per week</li>
1006         </ul></li>
1007       <li>For an activity or a set of activities/subactivities:
1008         <ul>
1009           <li>A single preferred starting time</li>
1010           <li>A set of preferred starting times</li>
1011           <li>A set of preferred time slots</li>
1012           <li>Min/max days between them</li>
1013           <li>End(s) students day</li>
1014           <li>Same starting time/day/hour</li>
1015           <li>Occupy max time slots from selection (a complex and
1016             flexible constraint, useful in many situations)</li>
1017           <li>Consecutive, ordered, grouped (for 2 or 3 (sub)activities)</li>
1018           <li>Not overlapping</li>
1019           <li>Max simultaneous in selected time slots</li>
1020           <li>Min gaps between a set of (sub)activities</li>
1021         </ul></li>
1022     </ul></li>
1023
1024   <li>A large and flexible palette of space constraints:
1025     <ul>
1026       <li>Room not available periods</li>
1027       <li>For teacher(s):
1028         <ul>
1029           <li>Home room(s)</li>
1030           <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
1031           <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
1032         </ul>
1033       </li>
1034
1035       <li>For students (sets):
1036         <ul>
1037           <li>Home room(s)</li>
1038           <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
1039           <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
1040         </ul>
1041       </li>
1042       <li>Preferred room(s):
1043         <ul>
1044           <li>For a subject</li>
1045           <li>For an activity tag</li>
1046           <li>For a subject and an activity tag</li>
1047           <li>Individually for a (sub)activity</li>
1048         </ul>
1049       </li>
1050
1051       <li>For a set of activities:
1052         <ul>
1053           <li>Occupy a maximum number of different rooms</li>
1054         </ul>
1055       </li>
1056     </ul>
1057   </li>
1058 </ul></p>
1059
1060 <p>I have not used it myself, as I am not involved in time table
1061 planning at a school, but it seem to work fine when I test it.  If you
1062 need to set up your schools time table, and is tired of doing it
1063 manually, check it out.
1064
1065 A quick summary on how to use it can be found in
1066 <a href="http://marvelsoft.co.in/wp/2012/03/generate-timetable-for-state-cbse-icse-igcse-schools-free/">a
1067 blog post from MarvelSoft</a>.  If you find FET useful, please provide
1068 a recipe for the Debian Edu project in the
1069 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu#Howtos">Debian Edu HowTo
1070 section</a>.</p>
1071
1072       </div>
1073       <div class="tags">
1074
1075
1076         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>.
1077
1078
1079       </div>
1080     </div>
1081     <div class="padding"></div>
1082
1083     <div class="entry">
1084       <div class="title">
1085         <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>
1086       </div>
1087       <div class="date">
1088          3rd July 2012
1089       </div>
1090       <div class="body">
1091         <p>In the NUUG <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a>
1092 project (Norwegian version of
1093 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> from
1094 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a>), we have discovered
1095 a problem with the municipalities using
1096 <a href="http://www.zimbra.com/">Zimbra</a>.  When FiksGataMi send a
1097 problem report to the government, the email From: address is set to
1098 the address of the person reporting the problem, while envelope sender
1099 is set to the FiksGataMi contact address.  The intention is to make
1100 sure the municipality send any replies to the person reporting the
1101 problem, while any email delivery problems are sent to us in NUUG.
1102 This work well in most cases, but not for Karmøy municipality using
1103 Zimbra.  Karmøy is using the vacation message function in Zimbra to
1104 send an automatic reply to report that the message has been received,
1105 and this message is sent to the envelope sender and not the address in
1106 the From: header.</p>
1107
1108 <p>This causes the automatic message from Karmøy to go to NUUGs
1109 request-tracker instance instead of to the person reporting the
1110 problem.  We can not really change the envelope sender address, as
1111 this would make it impossible for us to discover when there are
1112 problems with the MTAs receiving problem reports.  We have been in
1113 contact with the people at Karmøy municipality, and they are willing
1114 to adjust Zimbra if something can be changed there to get a better
1115 behaviour.</p>
1116
1117 <p>The default behaviour of Zimbra is as far as I can tell according
1118 to the specification in RFC 3834, which recommend that vacation
1119 messages are sent to the envelope sender and not to the From: address.
1120 But I wonder if it is possible to adjust or configure Zimbra to behave
1121 differently.  Anyone know?  Please let us know at
1122 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami">fiksgatami
1123 (at) nuug.no</a>.</p>
1124
1125       </div>
1126       <div class="tags">
1127
1128
1129         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>.
1130
1131
1132       </div>
1133     </div>
1134     <div class="padding"></div>
1135
1136     <div class="entry">
1137       <div class="title">
1138         <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>
1139       </div>
1140       <div class="date">
1141         26th June 2012
1142       </div>
1143       <div class="body">
1144         <p>I've been too busy at home, but finally I found time to wrap up
1145 another interview with the people behind
1146 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
1147 This time we get to know José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez, one of our great
1148 helpers from Spain.  His effort was the reason we added support for
1149 several desktop types (KDE, Gnome and most recently LXDE) in Debian
1150 Edu, and have all of these available in the recently published
1151 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
1152 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
1153
1154 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
1155
1156 <p>I'm a father, teacher and engineer who is working for the Education
1157 ministry of the Region of Extremadura (Spain) in the implementation of
1158 ICT in schools</p>
1159
1160 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
1161 project?</strong></p>
1162
1163 <p>At 2006, I verified that both, we in Extremadura and Skolelinux
1164 project, had been working in parallel for some years, doing very
1165 similar things, using very similar tools and with similar targets, so
1166 I decided it was time to join forces as much as possible.</p>
1167
1168 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
1169 Edu?</strong></p>
1170
1171 <p>A community of highly skilled experts working together, with a
1172 really open schema of collaboration and work. I really love the
1173 concepts of Do-ocracy and Merit-ocracy and the way these concepts are
1174 been used everyday inside Debian Edu.</p>
1175
1176 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
1177 Edu?</strong></p>
1178
1179 <p>Sometimes the differences in the implementations, laws or
1180 economical and technical resources in the different countries don't
1181 allow us to agree in the same solution for all of us, and several
1182 approaches are needed, what is a waste of effort. Also, there is a
1183 lack of more man power to be able to follow the fast evolution of the
1184 technologies in school.</p>
1185
1186 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
1187
1188 <p>Debian, of course, and due to my kind of job I am most of my time
1189 between Iceweasel, <a href="http://www.geany.org/">Geany</a> and
1190 <a href="http://www.ohloh.net/p/gnome-terminator">Terminator</a>.</p>
1191
1192 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
1193 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
1194
1195 <p>I think there is not a single strategy because there are very
1196 different scenarios: schools with mixed proprietary and free
1197 environments, schools using only workstations, other schools using
1198 laptops, netbooks, tablets, interactive white-boards, etc.</p>
1199
1200 <p>Also the range of ages of the students is very broad and you can
1201 not use the same solutions for primary schools and secondary or even
1202 universities. So different strategies are needed.</p>
1203
1204 <p>But, looking at these differences, and looking back to the things
1205 we've done and implemented, and the places were we have spent most of
1206 our forces, I think we should focus as much as possible in free
1207 multi-platform environments, using only standards tools, and moving
1208 more and more to Internet or network solutions that could be deployed
1209 using wireless. I think we'll see more and more personal devices in
1210 the schools, devices the students and teachers will take home with
1211 them, so the solutions must be able to be taken at home and continue
1212 working there.</p>
1213
1214       </div>
1215       <div class="tags">
1216
1217
1218         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>.
1219
1220
1221       </div>
1222     </div>
1223     <div class="padding"></div>
1224
1225     <div class="entry">
1226       <div class="title">
1227         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
1228       </div>
1229       <div class="date">
1230         24th June 2012
1231       </div>
1232       <div class="body">
1233         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
1234 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
1235 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
1236 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
1237 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
1238 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
1239 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
1240 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
1241 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
1242 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
1243 missing in my book.</p>
1244
1245 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
1246 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
1247 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
1248 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
1249 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
1250 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
1251 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
1252
1253       </div>
1254       <div class="tags">
1255
1256
1257         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>.
1258
1259
1260       </div>
1261     </div>
1262     <div class="padding"></div>
1263
1264     <div class="entry">
1265       <div class="title">
1266         <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>
1267       </div>
1268       <div class="date">
1269         11th June 2012
1270       </div>
1271       <div class="body">
1272         <p>During my work on
1273 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.nb.html">Debian Edu
1274 based on Squeeze</a>, I came across some issues that should be
1275 addressed in the Wheezy release.  I finally found time to wrap up my
1276 notes and provide quick summary of what I found, with a bit
1277 explanation.</p>
1278
1279 <p><ul>
1280
1281 <li>We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel
1282 changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages
1283 with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation
1284 system depend on tasksel tasks in
1285 /usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package
1286 installation.</li>
1287
1288 <li>Enable Kerberos login for more services.  Now with the Kerberos
1289 foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more
1290 services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions.  We should
1291 at least try to enable it for these services:
1292 <ul>
1293
1294   <li>CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using
1295     quotas.</li>
1296   <li>Nagios for admins checking the system status.</li>
1297   <li>GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords.</li>
1298   <li>LDAP for admins updating LDAP.</li>
1299   <li>Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active.</li>
1300   <li>ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt.</li>
1301
1302 </ul></li>
1303
1304 <li>When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to
1305 authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to
1306 use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it
1307 is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind</li>
1308
1309 <li>Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install.  The split made
1310 sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an
1311 inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values.</li>
1312
1313 <li>Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before
1314 touching the disk if the disk is too small.  This is
1315 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/653305">BTS report #653305</a> and the
1316 d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply
1317 it and upload.  After this is done we need to adjust
1318 debian-edu-install to use this new hook.</li>
1319
1320 <li>Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install
1321 time config).  LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install
1322 packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work
1323 in Wheezy.
1324
1325 <li>Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow
1326 the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding
1327 up KDE login on slow networks.</li>
1328
1329 <li>Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to
1330 change on first login.  This is useful when handing out password on
1331 paper, to make sure only the user know the password.  This require
1332 fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm.</li>
1333
1334 <li>Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary.
1335 The current command line script is not very friendly to people most
1336 familiar with GUIs.  This should probably be integrated into GOsa to
1337 have it available where the admin will be looking for it..</li>
1338
1339 <li>We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service
1340 actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses).  None of the
1341 Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me.</li>
1342
1343 <li>We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles
1344 using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less
1345 packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles.</li>
1346
1347 <li>We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password
1348 when changing password using the Kerberos protocol.  The hook was
1349 requested in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/588968">BTS report
1350 #588968</a> and is now available in Wheezy.  We might need to write a
1351 MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this.</li>
1352
1353 <li>We should clean up the set of applications installed by default.
1354 <ul>
1355
1356 <li>reduce the number of chemistry visualisers</li>
1357 <li>consider dropping xpaint</li>
1358 <li>and probably more?</li>
1359 </ul></li>
1360
1361 <li>Some hardware need external firmware to work properly.  This is
1362 mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other
1363 examples too.  For popular laptops to work out of the box, such
1364 firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide
1365 some GUI to do this.  Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we
1366 could consider using their packages.  At the moment we have some
1367 command line script to do this (one for the running system, another
1368 for the LTSP chroot).</li>
1369
1370
1371 <li>In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options.  We
1372 should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to
1373 install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to
1374 use.</li>
1375
1376 <li>The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out
1377 interesting educational packages.  We should work on the package
1378 tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational
1379 packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install
1380 new applications with a simple mouse click.</li>
1381
1382 <li>The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place,
1383 with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to
1384 be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable
1385 filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled.  We should
1386 implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it,
1387 instead of the "it is documented" method of today.</li>
1388
1389 <li>A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to
1390 "take over" the desktop of individual or all computers in the room.
1391 There are at least three implementations,
1392 <a href="italc.sourceforge.net/">italc</a>,
1393 <a href="http://www.itais.net/help/en/">controlaula</a> og
1394 <a href="http://www.epoptes.org/">epoptes</a> and we should pick one of
1395 them and make it trivial to set it up in a school.  The challenges is
1396 how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room
1397 and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a
1398 given room.</li>
1399
1400 <li>Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we
1401 should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into
1402 the Debian Edu network.  Not quite sure how.  Perhaps we should
1403 provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for
1404 them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange
1405 configuration and data with the central server.  This should be
1406 investigated.</li>
1407
1408 </ul></p>
1409
1410 <p>I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy
1411 version.</p>
1412
1413       </div>
1414       <div class="tags">
1415
1416
1417         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>.
1418
1419
1420       </div>
1421     </div>
1422     <div class="padding"></div>
1423
1424     <div class="entry">
1425       <div class="title">
1426         <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>
1427       </div>
1428       <div class="date">
1429          9th June 2012
1430       </div>
1431       <div class="body">
1432         <p>Slashdot got a story about Intel planning a
1433 <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
1434 with face recognition</a> to recognise the viewer, and it occurred to
1435 me that it would be more interesting to turn it around, and do face
1436 recognition on the TV image itself.  It could let the viewer know who
1437 is present on the screen, and perhaps look up their credibility,
1438 company affiliation, previous appearances etc for the viewer to better
1439 evaluate what is being said and done.  That would be a feature I would
1440 be willing to pay for.</p>
1441
1442 <p>I would not be willing to pay for a TV that point a camera on my
1443 household, like the big brother feature apparently proposed by Intel.
1444 It is the telescreen idea fetched straight out of the book
1445 <a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt">1984 by George
1446 Orwell</a>.</p>
1447
1448       </div>
1449       <div class="tags">
1450
1451
1452         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>.
1453
1454
1455       </div>
1456     </div>
1457     <div class="padding"></div>
1458
1459     <div class="entry">
1460       <div class="title">
1461         <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>
1462       </div>
1463       <div class="date">
1464          6th June 2012
1465       </div>
1466       <div class="body">
1467         <p>A few days ago
1468 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">I
1469 reported how to get</a> the support status out of Dell using an
1470 unofficial and undocumented SOAP API, which I since have found out was
1471 <a href="http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2012-February/045959.html">discovered
1472 by Daniel De Marco in february</a>.  Combined with my web scraping
1473 code for HP, Dell and IBM
1474 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">from
1475 2009</a>, I got inspired and wrote
1476 <a href="https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/">a
1477 web service</a> based on Scraperwiki to make it easy to look up the
1478 support status and get a machine readable result back.</p>
1479
1480 <p>This is what it look like at the moment when asking for the JSON
1481 output:
1482
1483 <blockquote><pre>
1484 % 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>
1485 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": ""})
1486 %
1487 </pre></blockquote>
1488
1489 <p>It currently support Dell and HP, and I am hoping for help to add
1490 support for other vendors.  The python source is available on
1491 Scraperwiki and I welcome help with adding more features.</p>
1492
1493       </div>
1494       <div class="tags">
1495
1496
1497         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>.
1498
1499
1500       </div>
1501     </div>
1502     <div class="padding"></div>
1503
1504     <div class="entry">
1505       <div class="title">
1506         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel</a>
1507       </div>
1508       <div class="date">
1509          2nd June 2012
1510       </div>
1511       <div class="body">
1512         <p>Back in 2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the
1513 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
1514 mailing list.  He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and
1515 thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the
1516 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
1517 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
1518
1519 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
1520
1521 <p>My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel,
1522 Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner
1523 (Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed
1524 by Angela).</p>
1525
1526 <p>During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator
1527 and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work
1528 touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During
1529 the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in
1530 becoming an osteopath.</p>
1531
1532 <p>Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel)
1533 have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at
1534 introducing free software into schools. The project's name is
1535 "IT-Zukunft Schule" (IT future for schools). The project links IT
1536 skills with communication skills.</p>
1537
1538 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
1539 project?</strong></p>
1540
1541 <p>While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for
1542 "IT-Zukunft Schule" we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to
1543 reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available,
1544 people said.  From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux
1545 distributions that target being used for school networks.</p>
1546
1547 <p>At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a
1548 commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen,
1549 Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we
1550 went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing
1551 and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian
1552 Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that
1553 got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most
1554 attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within
1555 the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.</p>
1556
1557 <p>In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local
1558 people.  People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data
1559 protection experts, other IT professionals.</p>
1560
1561 <p>We came to two conclusions:</p>
1562
1563 <p>First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in
1564 bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit
1565 by 100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup
1566 whereas most of each school's requirements could mapped by a standard
1567 IT solution.  The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and
1568 customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are
1569 possible.  In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a
1570 standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some
1571 degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here
1572 locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting
1573 point.</p>
1574
1575 <p>Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at
1576 all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions
1577 for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What
1578 has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment
1579 of people into using IT and teaching with IT. "IT-Zukunft Schule"
1580 tries to provide an approach for this.</p>
1581
1582 <p>Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains,
1583 defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in
1584 Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school's IT
1585 equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin)
1586 teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there
1587 spare time.</p>
1588
1589 <p>We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were
1590 networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school
1591 here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to
1592 teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi
1593 non-existent until 2010/2011.</p>
1594
1595 <p>Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in
1596 class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this
1597 avoidance do exist.</p>
1598
1599 <p>We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this
1600 social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey
1601 for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with
1602 several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and
1603 they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management
1604 at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new
1605 and probably a gain for all.</p>
1606
1607 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
1608 Edu?</strong></p>
1609
1610 <p>There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to
1611 any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian,
1612 the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone
1613 workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within
1614 project communication, honest communication within the group of
1615 developers, etc.</p>
1616
1617 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
1618 Edu?</strong></p>
1619
1620 <p>Every coin has two sides:</p>
1621
1622 <p>Technically: <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/311188">BTS issue
1623 #311188</a>, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network
1624 client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation
1625 should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think
1626 about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into
1627 several portions (to make it easier for new developers to
1628 contribute).</p>
1629
1630 <p>Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should
1631 find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for
1632 Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany
1633 promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are
1634 there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring
1635 these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and
1636 all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last
1637 meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people
1638 there being rather disconnected from the development department of
1639 Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
1640
1641 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
1642
1643 <p>For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.</p>
1644
1645 <p>For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For
1646 serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for
1647 more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.</p>
1648
1649 <p>I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the
1650 development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI.
1651 PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently
1652 is being integrated in Ubuntu's software center.</p>
1653
1654 <p>For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde
1655 as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber
1656 I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also
1657 the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive
1658 whiteboard.</p>
1659
1660 <p>My favourite terminal emulator is KDE's Yakuake.</p>
1661
1662 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
1663 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
1664
1665 <p>Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people,
1666 enrol people.</p>
1667
1668       </div>
1669       <div class="tags">
1670
1671
1672         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>.
1673
1674
1675       </div>
1676     </div>
1677     <div class="padding"></div>
1678
1679     <div class="entry">
1680       <div class="title">
1681         <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>
1682       </div>
1683       <div class="date">
1684          1st June 2012
1685       </div>
1686       <div class="body">
1687         <p>A few years ago I wrote
1688 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">how
1689 to extract support status</a> for your Dell and HP servers.  Recently
1690 I have learned from colleges here at the
1691 <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> that Dell have
1692 made this even easier, by providing a SOAP based web service.  Given
1693 the service tag, one can now query the Dell servers and get machine
1694 readable information about the support status.  This perl code
1695 demonstrate how to do it:</p>
1696
1697 <p><pre>
1698 use strict;
1699 use warnings;
1700 use SOAP::Lite;
1701 use Data::Dumper;
1702 my $GUID = '11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111';
1703 my $App = 'test';
1704 my $servicetag = $ARGV[0] or die "Please supply a servicetag. $!\n";
1705 my ($deal, $latest, @dates);
1706 my $s = SOAP::Lite
1707     -> uri('http://support.dell.com/WebServices/')
1708     -> on_action( sub { join '', @_ } )
1709     -> proxy('http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx')
1710     ;
1711 my $a = $s->GetAssetInformation(
1712     SOAP::Data->name('guid')->value($GUID)->type(''),
1713     SOAP::Data->name('applicationName')->value($App)->type(''),
1714     SOAP::Data->name('serviceTags')->value($servicetag)->type(''),
1715 );
1716 print Dumper($a -> result) ;
1717 </pre></p>
1718
1719 <p>The output can look like this:</p>
1720
1721 <p><pre>
1722 $VAR1 = {
1723           'Asset' => {
1724                      'Entitlements' => {
1725                                        'EntitlementData' => [
1726                                                             {
1727                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
1728                                                               'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
1729                                                               'Provider' => '',
1730                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
1731                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
1732                                                             },
1733                                                             {
1734                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
1735                                                               'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
1736                                                               'Provider' => '',
1737                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
1738                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
1739                                                             },
1740                                                             {
1741                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
1742                                                               'EndDate' => '2007-07-29T00:00:00',
1743                                                               'Provider' => '',
1744                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
1745                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
1746                                                             }
1747                                                           ]
1748                                      },
1749                      'AssetHeaderData' => {
1750                                           'SystemModel' => 'GX620',
1751                                           'ServiceTag' => '8DSGD2J',
1752                                           'SystemShipDate' => '2006-07-29T19:00:00-05:00',
1753                                           'Buid' => '2323',
1754                                           'Region' => 'Europe',
1755                                           'SystemID' => 'PLX_GX620',
1756                                           'SystemType' => 'OptiPlex'
1757                                         }
1758                    }
1759         };
1760 </pre></p>
1761
1762 <p>I have not been able to find any documentation from Dell about this
1763 service outside the
1764 <a href="http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx?op=GetAssetInformation">inline
1765 documentation</a>, and according to
1766 <a href="http://iboyd.net/index.php/2012/02/14/updated-dell-warranty-information-script/">one
1767 comment</a> it can have stability issues, but it is a lot better than
1768 scraping HTML pages. :)</p>
1769
1770 <p>Wonder if HP and other server vendors have a similar service.  If
1771 you know of one, drop me an email. :)</p>
1772
1773       </div>
1774       <div class="tags">
1775
1776
1777         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>.
1778
1779
1780       </div>
1781     </div>
1782     <div class="padding"></div>
1783
1784     <div class="entry">
1785       <div class="title">
1786         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_monitor_calibration_using_ColorHug.html">First monitor calibration using ColorHug</a>
1787       </div>
1788       <div class="date">
1789         31st May 2012
1790       </div>
1791       <div class="body">
1792         <p>A few days ago my color calibration gadget
1793 <a href="http://www.hughski.com/index.html">ColorHug</a> arrived in the
1794 mail, and I've had a few days to test it.  As all my machines are
1795 running Debian Squeeze, where
1796 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">the
1797 calibration software</a> is missing (it is present in Wheezy and Sid),
1798 I ran the calibration using the Fedora based live CD.  This worked
1799 just fine.  So far I have only done the quick calibration.  It was
1800 slow enough for me, so I will leave the more extensive calibration for
1801 another day.</p>
1802
1803 <p>After calibration, I get a
1804 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile">ICC color
1805 profile</a> file that can be passed to programs understanding such
1806 tools.  KDE do not seem to understand it out of the box, so I searched
1807 for command line tools to use to load the color profile into X.
1808 xcalib was the first one I found, and it seem to work fine for single
1809 monitor setups.  But for my video player, a laptop with a flat screen
1810 attached, it was unable to load the color profile for the correct
1811 monitor.  After searching a bit, I
1812 <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1347896">discovered</a>
1813 that the dispwin tool from the argyll package would do what I wanted,
1814 and a simple</p>
1815
1816 <p><pre>
1817 dispwin -d 1 profile.icc
1818 </pre></p>
1819
1820 <p>later I had the color profile loaded for the correct monitor.  The
1821 result was a bit more pink than I expected.  I guess I picked the
1822 wrong monitor type for the "led" monitor I got, but the result is good
1823 enough for now.</p>
1824
1825       </div>
1826       <div class="tags">
1827
1828
1829         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1830
1831
1832       </div>
1833     </div>
1834     <div class="padding"></div>
1835
1836     <div class="entry">
1837       <div class="title">
1838         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html">Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter</a>
1839       </div>
1840       <div class="date">
1841         27th May 2012
1842       </div>
1843       <div class="body">
1844         <p>In 2003, a German teacher showed up on the
1845 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
1846 mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
1847 up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupils.  His name was Ralf
1848 Gesellensetter, and he has been an important tester and contributor
1849 since then, helping to make sure the
1850 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
1851 Squeeze</a> release became as good as it is..</p>
1852
1853 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
1854
1855 <p>I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
1856 Mathematics, and Computer Science ("Informatik"). During the past 12
1857 years (since 2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
1858 also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
1859 O- or A-level ("Abitur").  For quite as long, I've been taking care of
1860 our computer network.</p>
1861
1862 <p>Now, in my early 40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
1863 spare time together with my wife, our son (3 years) and our daughter
1864 (4 months).</p>
1865
1866 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
1867 project?</strong></p>
1868
1869 <p>We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
1870 my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
1871 very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
1872 ("Best Newcomer Distribution", also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
1873 to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt, 2005 (IIRC). Few
1874 months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
1875 (Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others.  For more
1876 than 7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
1877 our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
1878 approximately 50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
1879 locally installed Skolelinux image.  As a consequence, I joined quite
1880 a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
1881 (Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
1882 one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.</p>
1883
1884 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
1885 Edu?</strong></p>
1886
1887 <p>Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
1888 project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
1889 the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
1890 computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
1891 free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
1892 up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
1893 labs).  Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
1894 administration costs tend towards zero.</p>
1895
1896 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
1897 Edu?</strong></p>
1898
1899 <p>While Debian's stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
1900 might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
1901 budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
1902 supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
1903 office packages or desktop environments.  These schools have the
1904 option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
1905 capacity to do so.  Another issue is that Debian release cycles
1906 include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
1907 power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
1908 within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
1909 the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
1910 i.e. harder to understand for novices.</p>
1911
1912 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
1913
1914 <p>LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
1915 KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
1916 PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)</p>
1917
1918 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
1919 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
1920
1921 <p><ol>
1922
1923 <li>Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
1924 people really "own" their hardware, to make them understand the
1925 difference between proprietary software products, and free software
1926 developing.</li>
1927
1928 <li>Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany's public schools
1929 there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
1930 licenses), so schools won't benefit from any savings here. This
1931 privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
1932 share among German Skolelinux schools.</li>
1933
1934 <li>Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
1935 trained. In many cases, teachers' software customs are respected by
1936 decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.</li>
1937
1938 <li>Don't limit ourself to free software run natively. Everybody uses
1939 free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
1940 general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
1941 shared world wide (school books e.g.).</li>
1942
1943 <li>Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
1944 office suites is much above 20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don't
1945 need to know the "ribbon menu" in order to get employed.</li>
1946
1947 <li>Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.</li>
1948
1949 <li>Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
1950 for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
1951 Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials.  And
1952 keep sending documents in ODF formats.</li>
1953
1954 </ol></p>
1955
1956       </div>
1957       <div class="tags">
1958
1959
1960         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>.
1961
1962
1963       </div>
1964     </div>
1965     <div class="padding"></div>
1966
1967     <div class="entry">
1968       <div class="title">
1969         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html">The cost of ODF and OOXML</a>
1970       </div>
1971       <div class="date">
1972         26th May 2012
1973       </div>
1974       <div class="body">
1975         <p>I just come across a blog post from Glyn Moody reporting the
1976 claimed cost from Microsoft on requiring ODF to be used by the UK
1977 government.  I just sent him an email to let him know that his
1978 assumption are most likely wrong.  Sharing it here in case some of my
1979 blog readers have seem the same numbers float around in the UK.</p>
1980
1981 <p><blockquote> <p>Hi.  I just noted your
1982 <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>
1983 comment:</p>
1984
1985 <p><blockquote>"They're all in Danish, not unreasonably, but even
1986 with the help of Google Translate I can't find any figures about the
1987 savings of "moving to a flexible two standard" as claimed by the
1988 Microsoft email. But I assume it is backed up somewhere, so let's take
1989 it, and the £500 million figure for the UK, on trust."
1990 </blockquote></p>
1991
1992 <p>I can tell you that the Danish reports are inflated.  I believe it is
1993 the same reports that were used in the Norwegian debate around 2007,
1994 and Gisle Hannemyr (a well known IT commentator in Norway) had a look
1995 at the content.  In short, the reason it is claimed that using ODF
1996 will be so costly, is based on the assumption that this mean every
1997 existing document need to be converted from one of the MS Office
1998 formats to ODF, transferred to the receiver, and converted back from
1999 ODF to one of the MS Office formats, and that the conversion will cost
2000 10 minutes of work time for both the sender and the receiver.  In
2001 reality the sender would have a tool capable of saving to ODF, and the
2002 receiver would have a tool capable of reading it, and the time spent
2003 would at most be a few seconds for saving and loading, not 20 minutes
2004 of wasted effort.</p>
2005
2006 <p>Microsoft claimed all these costs were saved by allowing people to
2007 transfer the original files from MS Office instead of spending 10
2008 minutes converting to ODF. :)</p>
2009
2010 <p>See
2011 <a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php</a>
2012 and
2013 <a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php</a>
2014 for background information.  Norwegian only, sorry. :)</p>
2015 </blockquote></p>
2016
2017       </div>
2018       <div class="tags">
2019
2020
2021         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>.
2022
2023
2024       </div>
2025     </div>
2026     <div class="padding"></div>
2027
2028     <div class="entry">
2029       <div class="title">
2030         <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>
2031       </div>
2032       <div class="date">
2033         18th May 2012
2034       </div>
2035       <div class="body">
2036         <p>In january, I
2037 <a href="http://blog.cihar.com/archives/2012/01/17/colorhug-has-arrived/">discovered
2038 the ColorHug</a>, a USB dongle from
2039 <a href="http://www.hughski.com/index.html">Hughski</a> to calibrate
2040 the color on a computer screen.  The software required is
2041 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">included
2042 in Debian</a>, and I decided back then to preorder from the next
2043 batch.  Yesterday I finally heard back from them, and got the
2044 opportunity to order.  Today I ordered mine, and eagerly await the
2045 delivery.  I hope it arrive next week, as I got a confirmation that it
2046 should go in the mail on monday. :)</p>
2047
2048 <p>If you want to ensure the colors on the screen match the intended
2049 colors, I suggest you check out this cheap tool with free software
2050 drivers. :)</p>
2051
2052       </div>
2053       <div class="tags">
2054
2055
2056         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2057
2058
2059       </div>
2060     </div>
2061     <div class="padding"></div>
2062
2063     <div class="entry">
2064       <div class="title">
2065         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__J_rgen_Leibner.html">Debian Edu interview: Jürgen Leibner</a>
2066       </div>
2067       <div class="date">
2068         13th May 2012
2069       </div>
2070       <div class="body">
2071         <p>It has been a few busy weeks for me, but I am finally back to
2072 publish another interview with the people behind
2073 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
2074 This time it is one of our German developers, who have helped out over the
2075 years to make sure both a lot of major but also a lot of the minor
2076 details get right before release.
2077
2078 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
2079
2080 <p>My name is Jürgen Leibner, I'm 49 years old and living in
2081 Bielefeld, a town in northern Germany.  I worked nearly 20 years as
2082 certified engineer in the department for plant design and layout of an
2083 international company for machinery and equipment.  Since 2011 I'm a
2084 certified technical writer (tekom e.V.) and doing technical
2085 documentations for a steam turbine manufacturer.  From April this year
2086 I will manage the department of technical documentation at a
2087 manufacturer of automation and assembly line engineering.</p>
2088
2089 <p>My first contact with linux was around 1993. Since that time I used
2090 it at work and at home repeatedly but not exclusively as I do now at
2091 home since 2006.</p>
2092
2093 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2094 project?</strong></p>
2095
2096 <p>Once a day in the early year of 2001 when I wanted to fetch my
2097 daughter from primary school, there was a teacher sitting in the
2098 middle of 20 old computers trying to boot them and he failed. I helped
2099 him to get them booting. That was seen by the school director and she
2100 asked me if I would like to manage that the school gets all that old
2101 computers in use. I answered: "Yes".</p>
2102
2103 <p>Some weeks later every of the 10 classrooms had one computer
2104 running Windows98. I began to collect old computers and equipment as
2105 gifts and installed the first computer room with a peer-to-peer
2106 network. I did my work at school without being payed in my spare time
2107 and with a lot of fun.  About one year later the school was connected
2108 to Internet and a local area network was installed in the school
2109 building.  That was the time to have a server and I knew it must be a
2110 Linux server to be able to fulfil all the wishes of the teachers and
2111 being able to do this in a transparent and economic way, without extra
2112 costs for things like licence and software.  So I searched for a
2113 school server system running under Linux and I found a couple of
2114 people nearby who founded 'skolelinux.de'. It was the Skolelinux
2115 prerelease 32 I first tried out for being used at the school.  I
2116 managed the IT of that school until the municipal authority took over
2117 the IT management and centralised the services for all schools in
2118 Bielefeld in December of 2006.</p>
2119
2120 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2121 Edu?</strong></p>
2122
2123 <p>When I'm looking back to the beginning, there were other advantages
2124 for me as today.</p>
2125
2126 <p>In the past there were advantages like:</p>
2127
2128 <p><ul>
2129
2130 <li>I don't need to buy it so it generates no costs to the school as
2131 they had little money to spent for computers and software.</li>
2132
2133 <li>It has a licence which grands all rights to use it without
2134 cost.</li>
2135
2136 <li>It was more able to fit all requirements of a server system for
2137 schools than a Microsoft server system, even if there are only Windows
2138 clients because of it's preconfigured overall concept of being a
2139 infrastructure solution and community for schools, not only a
2140 server</li>
2141
2142 <li>I was able to configure the server to the needs of the
2143 school.</li>
2144
2145 </ul></p>
2146
2147 <p>Today some of the advantages has been lost, changed or new ones
2148 came up in this way:</p>
2149
2150 <p><ul>
2151
2152 <li>Most schools here do have money to buy hardware and software
2153 now.</li>
2154
2155 <li>They are today mostly managed from central IT departments which
2156 have own concepts which often do not fit to Debian Edu concepts
2157 because they are to close to Microsoft ideology.</li>
2158
2159 <li>With the Squeeze version of Debian Edu which now uses GOsa² for
2160 management I feel more able to manage the daily tasks than with the
2161 interfaces used in the past.</li>
2162
2163 <li>It is more modular than in the past and fits even better to the
2164 different needs.</li>
2165
2166 <li>The documentation is usable and gets better every day.</li>
2167
2168 <li>More people than ever before are using Debian Edu all over the
2169 world and so the community, which is an very important part I think,
2170 is sharing knowledge and minds.</li>
2171
2172 <li>Most, maybe all, of the technical requirements for schools are
2173 solved today by Debian Edu. </li>
2174
2175 </ul></p>
2176
2177 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2178 Edu?</strong></p>
2179
2180 <p><ul>
2181
2182 <li>There are too few IT companies able to integrate Debian Edu into
2183 their product portfolio for serving schools with concepts or even
2184 whole municipality areas.</li>
2185
2186 <li>Debian Edu has beside other free and open software projects not
2187 enough lobbyists which promote free and open software to
2188 politicians.</li>
2189
2190 <li>Technically there are no disadvantages I'm aware of.</li>
2191
2192 </ul></p>
2193
2194 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
2195
2196 <p>I use Debian stable on my home server and on my little desktop
2197 computer. On my laptop I use Debian testing/sid. The applications I
2198 use on my laptop and my desktop are Open/Libre-office, Iceweasel,
2199 KMail, DigiKam, Amarok, Dolphin, okular and all the other programs I
2200 need from the KDE environment.  On console I use newsbeuter, mutt,
2201 screen, irssi and all the other famous and useful tools.</p>
2202
2203 <p>My home server provides mail services with exim, dovecot, roundcube
2204 and mutt over ssh on the console, file services with samba, NFS,
2205 rsync, web services with apache, moinmoin-wiki, multimedia services
2206 with gallery2 and mediatomb and database services with MySQL for me
2207 and the whole family.  I probably forgot something.</p>
2208
2209 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2210 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
2211
2212 <p>I believe, we should provide concepts for IT companies to integrate
2213 Debian Edu into their product portfolio with use cases for different
2214 countries and areas all over the world.</p>
2215
2216       </div>
2217       <div class="tags">
2218
2219
2220         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>.
2221
2222
2223       </div>
2224     </div>
2225     <div class="padding"></div>
2226
2227     <div class="entry">
2228       <div class="title">
2229         <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>
2230       </div>
2231       <div class="date">
2232         30th April 2012
2233       </div>
2234       <div class="body">
2235         <p><!-- IMG_5869.JPG -->
2236 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg"></p>
2237
2238 <p>I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a
2239 common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway.
2240 But the last ones have not really been up to the task.  My last
2241 cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the
2242 time, and cutting my head took forever.  And the one before that did
2243 not work very well either.  We have looked for something better for a
2244 while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we
2245 discovered that there are indeed better tools available.  But these
2246 are not marketed and sold to "regular consumers".  The hair saloons
2247 can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell
2248 companies.  The models they sell, are very different from the ones
2249 available from Elkjøp and Lefdal.  The main difference is their
2250 efficiency.  It would cut my hair in 5 minutes, instead of the 30-40
2251 minutes required by my impotent Braun.  The hairdresser I visited had
2252 a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the
2253 producer.  But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.</p>
2254
2255 <p>The next step was to find somewhere to buy it.  This was not
2256 straight forward.  The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser
2257 did not want to sell anything to me.  But searching for the model on
2258 the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for
2259 around NOK 4000,-.  This was a bit much.  We kept searching and
2260 finally found a Danish supplier
2261 <a href="http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html">selling
2262 it for around NOK 1800,-</a>.  We ordered one, and it arrived a few
2263 days ago.</p>
2264
2265 <p>The instructions said it had to charge for 8 hours when we started
2266 to use it, so we left it charging over night.  Normally it will only
2267 need one hour to charge.  The following evening we successfully tested
2268 it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair
2269 cutter.  The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter
2270 toys.</p>
2271
2272       </div>
2273       <div class="tags">
2274
2275
2276         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2277
2278
2279       </div>
2280     </div>
2281     <div class="padding"></div>
2282
2283     <div class="entry">
2284       <div class="title">
2285         <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>
2286       </div>
2287       <div class="date">
2288         26th April 2012
2289       </div>
2290       <div class="body">
2291         <p>In <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
2292 article today</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
2293 <a href="http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke</a> reports
2294 that the video editor application included with
2295 <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
2296 X</a> have some quite surprising terms of use.  The article is mostly
2297 based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
2298
2299 <p><blockquote>
2300 "<a href="http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
2301 brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
2302 kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.</a>"
2303 </blockquote></p>
2304
2305 <p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
2306
2307 <p><blockquote>
2308 "Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
2309 commercially.  Although I can ONLY use them privately."
2310 </blockquote></p>
2311
2312 <p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
2313 suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
2314 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">discovered
2315 with my Canon IXUS 130</a>.  The HTC One X specification specifies that
2316 the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
2317 video.  AMR is
2318 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues">Adaptive
2319 Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
2320 Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
2321 <a href="http://www.voiceage.com/">VoiceAge</a>.  MP4 is
2322 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing">MPEG4 with
2323 H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
2324 with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
2325
2326 <p>I know why I prefer
2327 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open
2328 standards</a> also for video.</p>
2329
2330       </div>
2331       <div class="tags">
2332
2333
2334         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/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>.
2335
2336
2337       </div>
2338     </div>
2339     <div class="padding"></div>
2340
2341     <div class="entry">
2342       <div class="title">
2343         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a>
2344       </div>
2345       <div class="date">
2346         19th April 2012
2347       </div>
2348       <div class="body">
2349         <p>Here in Norway, the
2350 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
2351 Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
2352 a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
2353 standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
2354 government.  When the directory was created, the people behind it made
2355 an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
2356 standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
2357 to the government.  Free software and non-free software could compete
2358 on the same level.</p>
2359
2360 <p>But recently, some standards with RAND
2361 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
2362 And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
2363 directory.  And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
2364 standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
2365 implementing them.  The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
2366 user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
2367 willing to pay will get a license.  Both sound great in theory.  In
2368 practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
2369 be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user.  By
2370 definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
2371 So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
2372 And given that people will use the software without handing any money
2373 to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
2374 software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
2375 to implement a standard when the income available is zero.  The result
2376 in these situations is that free software are locked out from
2377 implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
2378
2379 <p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
2380 standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
2381 how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory.  Because free
2382 software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
2383 help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
2384 in Norway.  The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
2385 I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
2386 attention to these issues in the future.</p>
2387
2388 <p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
2389 from Simon Phipps
2390 (<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
2391 Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
2392
2393 <p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
2394 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog
2395 post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
2396 same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government.  I
2397 can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
2398 <a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the
2399 hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
2400 It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
2401 specifications with RAND terms.</p>
2402
2403       </div>
2404       <div class="tags">
2405
2406
2407         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>.
2408
2409
2410       </div>
2411     </div>
2412     <div class="padding"></div>
2413
2414     <div class="entry">
2415       <div class="title">
2416         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html">Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt</a>
2417       </div>
2418       <div class="date">
2419         15th April 2012
2420       </div>
2421       <div class="body">
2422         <p>Behind <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
2423 Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
2424 setting together all the pieces.  This time I present to you Andreas
2425 Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
2426 years.  He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
2427 up in the recently released
2428 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
2429 Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p>
2430
2431 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
2432
2433 <p>My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany.  After
2434 studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in
2435 Quantum Optics.  After that I worked some years in an optics company.
2436 Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started
2437 teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school.  I teach math, physics,
2438 information technology and science/technology.</p>
2439
2440 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2441 project?</strong></p>
2442
2443 <p>Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu
2444 project because of my interest in education and Debian.  Within the
2445 qualification/training period for the teaching, I started
2446 contributing.</p>
2447
2448 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2449 Edu?</strong></p>
2450
2451 <p>The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the
2452 out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the
2453 Debian Project!</p>
2454
2455 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2456 Edu?</strong></p>
2457
2458 <p>As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its
2459 downside, too.  In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the
2460 setup, if you need or want that.  Further more, it is not easily
2461 possible to upgrade the system to a new release.  It takes much too
2462 long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps
2463 because the number of developers working on the core of the code is
2464 rather small and often busy elsewhere.</p>
2465
2466 <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN">Debian LAN</a>
2467 project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.</p>
2468
2469 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
2470
2471 <p>I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian
2472 on all my machines.  For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then
2473 mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing.  At school I
2474 have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.</p>
2475
2476 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2477 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
2478
2479 <p>One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom:
2480 Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and
2481 politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader".  The school
2482 administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor.
2483 Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats.  Even
2484 free browsers do not work for the school administration.  Publishers
2485 of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.</p>
2486
2487 <p>To change this, political work is very important.  Parts of the
2488 political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years.
2489 However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free'
2490 the system.  There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and
2491 "Free/Open Standards".  I am not sure if all the involved parties have
2492 a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a
2493 fraction takes them seriously.  However it might slowly make free
2494 software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.</p>
2495
2496       </div>
2497       <div class="tags">
2498
2499
2500         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>.
2501
2502
2503       </div>
2504     </div>
2505     <div class="padding"></div>
2506
2507     <div class="entry">
2508       <div class="title">
2509         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html">Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye</a>
2510       </div>
2511       <div class="date">
2512          8th April 2012
2513       </div>
2514       <div class="body">
2515         <p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
2516 like <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>,
2517 and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
2518 contributor to the
2519 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
2520 Edu Squeeze release manual</a>.
2521
2522 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
2523
2524 <p>I'm a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
2525 occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.</p>
2526
2527 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2528 project?</strong></p>
2529
2530 <p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user!  The only
2531 reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
2532 around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
2533 they'd like a native English speaker to proofread...  So I did a sweep
2534 through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
2535 "localisation".</p>
2536
2537 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2538 Edu?</strong></p>
2539
2540 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2541 Edu?</strong></p>
2542
2543 <p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it!  In fact I
2544 had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the
2545 education system.</p>
2546
2547 <p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
2548 as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
2549 everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
2550 money on the latest hardware.</p>
2551
2552 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
2553
2554 <p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
2555 software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
2556 words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).</p>
2557
2558 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2559 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
2560
2561 <p>Well, I don't know.  I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning
2562 with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
2563 you would hardly need a strategy.</p>
2564
2565       </div>
2566       <div class="tags">
2567
2568
2569         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>.
2570
2571
2572       </div>
2573     </div>
2574     <div class="padding"></div>
2575
2576     <div class="entry">
2577       <div class="title">
2578         <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>
2579       </div>
2580       <div class="date">
2581          6th April 2012
2582       </div>
2583       <div class="body">
2584         <p>Recently I have spent time with
2585 <a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a> on speeding
2586 up a <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
2587 Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
2588 process I discovered something very surprising.  The reason the KDE
2589 menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
2590 due to the way KDE find application icons.  I discovered that showing
2591 the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be
2592 passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server.  Most of these were
2593
2594 NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response.  Because the
2595 ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20
2596 ms, the menus would be very slow.  Looking at the strace of kicker in
2597 Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
2598 the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for
2599 non-existing files.  KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find
2600 one icon file.  In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
2601 around 230 access(2) calls.</p>
2602
2603 <p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
2604 directories, and the list of possible directories is large.  In
2605 (almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
2606 and .xpm.  The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
2607 mounted.  Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
2608 requests.  I am not the first one to discover this.  I found a
2609 <a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report
2610 from 2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.</p>
2611
2612 <p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
2613 kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
2614 used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
2615 for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
2616 icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/.  Finally, I add symlinks to
2617 these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
2618 for them.  This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
2619 one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu
2620 almost instantaneous.  I'm not quite sure where to make the package
2621 publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.</p>
2622
2623 <p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
2624 and icon handling, but also the login process.  Not quite sure how to
2625 speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
2626 that is not really an option at the moment.</p>
2627
2628 <p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
2629 (at) lists.debian.org.</p>
2630
2631       </div>
2632       <div class="tags">
2633
2634
2635         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>.
2636
2637
2638       </div>
2639     </div>
2640     <div class="padding"></div>
2641
2642     <div class="entry">
2643       <div class="title">
2644         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html">Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News</a>
2645       </div>
2646       <div class="date">
2647          5th April 2012
2648       </div>
2649       <div class="body">
2650         <p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
2651 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> by
2652 Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News.  The result was made public for
2653 non-subscribers today.  I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
2654 for schools.  Check out his article
2655 <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
2656 distribution for education</a> if you want to learn more.</p>
2657
2658       </div>
2659       <div class="tags">
2660
2661
2662         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>.
2663
2664
2665       </div>
2666     </div>
2667     <div class="padding"></div>
2668
2669     <div class="entry">
2670       <div class="title">
2671         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html">Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</a>
2672       </div>
2673       <div class="date">
2674          1st April 2012
2675       </div>
2676       <div class="body">
2677         <p>Germany is a core area for the
2678 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
2679 user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
2680 Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
2681
2682 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
2683
2684 <p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
2685 Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
2686 "<a href="http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
2687 Dortmund</a>", a second chance school.  Here, young adults is given
2688 the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
2689 examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
2690 second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
2691 or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
2692
2693 <p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
2694 blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
2695 information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
2696 teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
2697 school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
2698 the end of April this year.</p>
2699
2700 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2701 project?</strong></p>
2702
2703 <p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
2704 attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
2705 Project).  At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
2706 using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
2707 2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
2708 clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
2709 reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
2710 Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
2711 two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
2712 known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
2713 Skolelinux.</p>
2714
2715 <p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
2716 better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
2717 clients.  The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
2718 was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
2719 and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
2720 the admin teachers.</p>
2721
2722 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2723 Edu?</strong></p>
2724
2725 <p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
2726 Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
2727 So it was a perfect choice.</p>
2728
2729 <p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
2730 possible to point teachers and students to programs like
2731 OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp.  It's of
2732 high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
2733 a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
2734
2735 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2736 Edu?</strong></p>
2737
2738 <p>Nothing yet.</p>
2739
2740 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
2741
2742 <p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
2743 Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
2744 Annotator).  At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
2745 LibreOffice.</p>
2746
2747 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2748 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
2749
2750 <p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
2751 that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
2752 interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>
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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</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_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html">Debian Edu screencast: Checking email with kmail using Kerberos authentication</a>
2768       </div>
2769       <div class="date">
2770         25th March 2012
2771       </div>
2772       <div class="body">
2773         <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
2774
2775 <p>The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I
2776 published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how
2777 to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos,
2778 allowing users to check their local email account without providing
2779 any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size,
2780 and also available from <a href="https://vimeo.com/38601767">vimeo</a>
2781 and download as a
2782 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv">Ogg
2783 Theora</a> file.  Check it out below.</p>
2784
2785 <p><video id="kmail-kerberos-movie" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
2786   <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"' />
2787     <p>Download video as
2788       <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv">Ogg</a>.</p>
2789 </video></p>
2790
2791       </div>
2792       <div class="tags">
2793
2794
2795         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>.
2796
2797
2798       </div>
2799     </div>
2800     <div class="padding"></div>
2801
2802     <div class="entry">
2803       <div class="title">
2804         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html">Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</a>
2805       </div>
2806       <div class="date">
2807         19th March 2012
2808       </div>
2809       <div class="body">
2810         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
2811 users are spread all across the globe.  The second inteview after
2812 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the
2813 Squeeze release</a> was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
2814 long time Linux user in United Kingdom.</p>
2815
2816 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
2817
2818 <p>I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings
2819 Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical
2820 author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also
2821 contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of
2822 encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six
2823 years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we
2824 weren't able to convert many of them into sustainable
2825 installations.</p>
2826
2827 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2828 project?</strong></p>
2829
2830 <p>Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in
2831 London which I attended. However at that time our school network had
2832 just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came
2833 along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a
2834 mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as
2835 well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems
2836 have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the
2837 LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all
2838 these things we decided to try it.</p>
2839
2840 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2841 Edu?</strong></p>
2842
2843 <p>By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
2844 from that I have always believed in the same "sustainable computing"
2845 goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which
2846 would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and
2847 low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know
2848 that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about 25
2849 Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had
2850 proprietary software everywhere.</p>
2851
2852 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2853 Edu?</strong></p>
2854
2855 <p>As a newcomer I'm just finding out who's who in the community and
2856 how you're organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with
2857 various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only
2858 English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as
2859 users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!</p>
2860
2861 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
2862
2863 <p>Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba,
2864 OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the
2865 desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I
2866 use Ubuntu and an Android 4 eePad Transformer (but I'm not sure if
2867 that counts...)</p>
2868
2869 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2870 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
2871
2872 <p>That's a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed
2873 and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels
2874 the notion of "computer" means simply "proprietary office
2875 applications".  However, schools today are experiencing budget
2876 constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows
2877 XP.  At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use
2878 iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no
2879 longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last
2880 realised that we need people with programming skills, so they're
2881 putting coding back in the curriculum! And it's encouraging that the
2882 first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.</p>
2883
2884 <p>I don't really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use
2885 free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian
2886 Edu users in this country has to be part of it.</p>
2887
2888       </div>
2889       <div class="tags">
2890
2891
2892         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>.
2893
2894
2895       </div>
2896     </div>
2897     <div class="padding"></div>
2898
2899     <div class="entry">
2900       <div class="title">
2901         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html">Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu</a>
2902       </div>
2903       <div class="date">
2904         16th March 2012
2905       </div>
2906       <div class="body">
2907         <p>Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and
2908 it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the
2909 translated versions in sync.  To do this we have come up with what we
2910 believe is a very efficient work flow.</p>
2911
2912 <ol>
2913
2914 <li>The documentation is written in a
2915 <a href="http://moinmo.in">moinmoin wiki</a> (see for example
2916 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">the
2917 Squeeze release manual</a>) with support for exporting the content as
2918 docbook XML.</li>
2919
2920 <li>This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style
2921 .pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files
2922 with the translated text.</li>
2923
2924 <li>The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell
2925 which part of the original wiki document is new or changed.  They can
2926 use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write
2927 the translation.  There is even a system in place to handle translated
2928 images.</li>
2929
2930 <li>The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook
2931 XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.</li>
2932
2933 <li>The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and
2934 create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.</li>
2935
2936 </ol>
2937
2938 <p>This setup work very well, but have a few issues.  The biggest
2939 issue is that <a href="http://moinmo.in/DocBook">the docbook support
2940 we use in moinmoin</a> is not actively maintained.  The docbook
2941 support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to
2942 make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.</p>
2943
2944 <p>If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the
2945 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc">debian-edu-doc
2946 package</a>.</p>
2947
2948       </div>
2949       <div class="tags">
2950
2951
2952         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>.
2953
2954
2955       </div>
2956     </div>
2957     <div class="padding"></div>
2958
2959     <div class="entry">
2960       <div class="title">
2961         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html">Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze is out!</a>
2962       </div>
2963       <div class="date">
2964         11th March 2012
2965       </div>
2966       <div class="body">
2967         <p>This weekend we finally published the first stable release of
2968 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> based
2969 on Debian/Squeeze.  The full announcement is
2970 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">available</a>
2971 from the project announcement list.  Now is a good time to test if it
2972 you have not done so already.</p>
2973
2974 <p>I plan to present the new version at
2975 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/">a NUUG
2976 meeting</a> on tuesday.  I look forward to seeing you there if you are
2977 in Oslo, Norway.</p>
2978
2979       </div>
2980       <div class="tags">
2981
2982
2983         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>.
2984
2985
2986       </div>
2987     </div>
2988     <div class="padding"></div>
2989
2990     <div class="entry">
2991       <div class="title">
2992         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html">Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</a>
2993       </div>
2994       <div class="date">
2995          9th March 2012
2996       </div>
2997       <div class="body">
2998         <p>Inspired by <a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/">the
2999 interview series</a> conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
3000 interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3001 community.  This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
3002 more international audience.</p>
3003
3004 <p>While <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
3005 Skolelinux</a> originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
3006 Europe, there are users all around the globe.  One of those far away
3007 from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
3008 and contributor.  It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
3009 work out of the box in Japan.  I got him to answer a few questions,
3010 and am happy to share the response with you. :)
3011
3012
3013 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
3014
3015 <p>My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
3016 and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
3017 Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
3018 teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
3019 Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
3020 I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
3021 primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
3022 so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
3023 also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
3024 to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
3025 appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.</p>
3026
3027 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3028 project?</strong></p>
3029
3030 <p>In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
3031 server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
3032 samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
3033 Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I
3034 did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server"
3035 and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading
3036 there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
3037 problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
3038 previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
3039 Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
3040 downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
3041 Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
3042 my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.</p>
3043
3044 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3045 Edu?</strong></p>
3046
3047 <p>For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
3048 workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
3049 ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
3050 designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
3051 doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
3052 school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
3053 Japan.</p>
3054
3055 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3056 Edu?</strong></p>
3057
3058 <p>The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
3059 have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
3060 make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
3061 who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
3062 important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
3063 instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
3064 default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
3065 kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
3066 Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is.  A
3067 second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
3068 customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
3069 multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It
3070 took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
3071 I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
3072 help.</p>
3073
3074 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
3075
3076 <p>Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
3077 studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
3078 (customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
3079 still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
3080 house, that's very useful for the family photos and music.  At school
3081 the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
3082 have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
3083 day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
3084 installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS.  We also
3085 have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
3086 and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.</p>
3087
3088 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3089 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
3090
3091 <p>Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
3092 and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
3093 popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
3094 to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
3095 file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago.  The Edu aspect is
3096 also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
3097 Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu?  But of course the main attraction is
3098 budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
3099 compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
3100 is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
3101 are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser
3102 doesn't play flash, for example.</p>
3103
3104       </div>
3105       <div class="tags">
3106
3107
3108         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>.
3109
3110
3111       </div>
3112     </div>
3113     <div class="padding"></div>
3114
3115     <div class="entry">
3116       <div class="title">
3117         <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>
3118       </div>
3119       <div class="date">
3120          7th March 2012
3121       </div>
3122       <div class="body">
3123         <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
3124
3125 <p>One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a
3126 screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on
3127 Debian Edu Squeeze.  The video is embedded here in quarter size, and
3128 also available from <a href="http://vimeo.com/37675399">vimeo</a> and
3129 download as a
3130 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg
3131 Theora</a> file.  Check it out below.</p>
3132
3133 <p><video id="gosa-mass-user-create-movie" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
3134   <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"' />
3135     <p>Download video as
3136       <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg</a>.</p>
3137 </video></p>
3138
3139       </div>
3140       <div class="tags">
3141
3142
3143         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>.
3144
3145
3146       </div>
3147     </div>
3148     <div class="padding"></div>
3149
3150     <div class="entry">
3151       <div class="title">
3152         <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>
3153       </div>
3154       <div class="date">
3155          4th March 2012
3156       </div>
3157       <div class="body">
3158         <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the third release
3159 candidate for <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
3160 Skolelinux</a> based on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
3161 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00000.html">available</a>
3162 from the project announcement list.  Check it out if you
3163 need a software solution for your school.</p>
3164
3165       </div>
3166       <div class="tags">
3167
3168
3169         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>.
3170
3171
3172       </div>
3173     </div>
3174     <div class="padding"></div>
3175
3176     <div class="entry">
3177       <div class="title">
3178         <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>
3179       </div>
3180       <div class="date">
3181          3rd March 2012
3182       </div>
3183       <div class="body">
3184         <p>Many years ago, the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
3185 / Debian Edu project</a> initiated a student project to create a tool
3186 for making stop motion movies.  The proposal came from a teacher
3187 needing such tool on Skolelinux.  The project, called "stopmotion",
3188 was manned by two extraordinary students and won a school award and a
3189 national aware with this great project.  The project was initiated and
3190 mentored by Herman Robak, and manned by the students Bjørn Erik Nilsen
3191 and Fredrik Berg Kjølstad.  They got in touch with people at Aardman
3192 Animation studio and received feedback on how professionals would like
3193 such stopmotion tool to work, and the end result was and is used by
3194 animators around the globe.  But as is usual after studying, both got
3195 jobs and went elsewhere, and did not have time to properly tend to the
3196 project, and it has been lingering for a few years now.  Until last
3197 year...</p>
3198
3199 <p>Last year some of the users got together with Herman, and moved the
3200 project to Sourceforge and in effect restarted the project under a new
3201 name,
3202 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxstopmotion/">linuxstopmotion</a>.
3203 The name change was done to make it possible to find the project using
3204 Internet search engines (try to search for 'stopmotion' to see what I
3205 mean). I've been following
3206 <a href="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linuxstopmotion-community">the
3207 mailing list</a> and the improvement already in place and planned for
3208 the future is encouraging.  If you want to make stop motion movies.
3209 Check it out. :)</p>
3210
3211       </div>
3212       <div class="tags">
3213
3214
3215         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>.
3216
3217
3218       </div>
3219     </div>
3220     <div class="padding"></div>
3221
3222     <div class="entry">
3223       <div class="title">
3224         <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>
3225       </div>
3226       <div class="date">
3227         27th February 2012
3228       </div>
3229       <div class="body">
3230         <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the second release
3231 candidate for <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
3232 Skolelinux</a> based on Squeeze.  The full announcement did for some
3233 reason not make it the project announcement list, but is
3234 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/02/msg00015.html">available</a>
3235 from the Debian development announcement list.  Check it out if you
3236 need a software solution for your school.</p>
3237
3238       </div>
3239       <div class="tags">
3240
3241
3242         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>.
3243
3244
3245       </div>
3246     </div>
3247     <div class="padding"></div>
3248
3249     <div class="entry">
3250       <div class="title">
3251         <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>
3252       </div>
3253       <div class="date">
3254         19th February 2012
3255       </div>
3256       <div class="body">
3257         <p>One week delayed due to DVD build problems, we managed today to
3258 wrap up and publish the first release candidate for
3259 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
3260 on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
3261 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00001.html">available</a>
3262 on the project announcement list.  Check it out if you need a software
3263 solution for your school.</p>
3264
3265       </div>
3266       <div class="tags">
3267
3268
3269         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>.
3270
3271
3272       </div>
3273     </div>
3274     <div class="padding"></div>
3275
3276     <div class="entry">
3277       <div class="title">
3278         <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>
3279       </div>
3280       <div class="date">
3281         14th February 2012
3282       </div>
3283       <div class="body">
3284         <p>Once in a while my home server have disk problems.  Thanks to Linux
3285 Software RAID, I have not lost data yet (but
3286 <a href="http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.raid/34532">I was
3287 close</a> this summer :).  But once a disk is starting to behave
3288 funny, a practical problem present itself.  How to get from the Linux
3289 device name (like /dev/sdd) to something that can be used to identify
3290 the disk when the computer is turned off?  In my case I have SATA
3291 disks with a unique ID printed on the label.  All I need is a way to
3292 figure out how to query the disk to get the ID out.</p>
3293
3294 <p>After fumbling a bit, I
3295 <a href="http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-getting-scsi-ide-harddisk-information/">found
3296 that hdparm -I</a> will report the disk serial number, which is
3297 printed on the disk label.  The following (almost) one-liner can be
3298 used to look up the ID of all the failed disks:</p>
3299
3300 <blockquote><pre>
3301 for d in $(cat /proc/mdstat |grep '(F)'|tr ' ' "\n"|grep '(F)'|cut -d\[ -f1|sort -u);
3302 do
3303     printf "Failed disk $d: "
3304     hdparm -I /dev/$d |grep 'Serial Num'
3305 done
3306 </blockquote></pre>
3307
3308 <p>Putting it here to make sure I do not have to search for it the
3309 next time, and in case other find it useful.</p>
3310
3311 <p>At the moment I have two failing disk. :(</p>
3312
3313 <blockquote><pre>
3314 Failed disk sdd1:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
3315 Failed disk sdd2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
3316 Failed disk sde2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1840589
3317 </blockquote></pre>
3318
3319 <p>The last time I had failing disks, I added the serial number on
3320 labels I printed and stuck on the short sides of each disk, to be able
3321 to figure out which disk to take out of the box without having to
3322 remove each disk to look at the physical vendor label.  The vendor
3323 label is at the top of the disk, which is hidden when the disks are
3324 mounted inside my box.</p>
3325
3326 <p>I really wish the check_linux_raid Nagios plugin for checking Linux
3327 Software RAID in the
3328 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nagios-plugins.html">nagios-plugins-standard</a>
3329 debian package would look up this value automatically, as it would
3330 make the plugin a lot more useful when my disks fail.  At the moment
3331 it only report a failure when there are no more spares left (it really
3332 should warn as soon as a disk is failing), and it do not tell me which
3333 disk(s) is failing when the RAID is running short on disks.</p>
3334
3335       </div>
3336       <div class="tags">
3337
3338
3339         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>.
3340
3341
3342       </div>
3343     </div>
3344     <div class="padding"></div>
3345
3346     <div class="entry">
3347       <div class="title">
3348         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_proxy_configuration_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html">Automatic proxy configuration with Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
3349       </div>
3350       <div class="date">
3351         13th February 2012
3352       </div>
3353       <div class="body">
3354         <p>New in the Squeeze version of
3355 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is the
3356 ability for clients to automatically configure their proxy settings
3357 based on their environment.  We want all systems on the client to use
3358 the WPAD based proxy definition fetched from <tt>http://wpad/wpad.dat</tt>, to
3359 allow sites to control the proxy setting from a central place and make
3360 sure clients do not have hard coded proxy settings.  The schools can
3361 change the global proxy setting by editing
3362 <tt>tjener:/etc/debian-edu/www/wpad.dat</tt> and the change propagate
3363 to all Debian Edu clients in the network.</p>
3364
3365 <p>The problem is that some systems do not understand the WPAD system.
3366 In other words, how do one get from a WPAD file like this (this is a
3367 simple one, they can run arbitrary code):</p>
3368
3369 <blockquote><pre>
3370 function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
3371 {
3372    if (!isResolvable(host) ||
3373        isPlainHostName(host) ||
3374        dnsDomainIs(host, ".intern"))
3375       return "DIRECT";
3376    else
3377       return "PROXY webcache:3128; DIRECT";
3378 }
3379 </pre></blockquote>
3380
3381 <p>to a proxy setting in the process environment looking like this:</p>
3382
3383 <blockquote><pre>
3384 http_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
3385 ftp_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
3386 </pre></blockquote>
3387
3388 <p>To do this conversion I developed a perl script that will execute
3389 the javascript fragment in the WPAD file and return the proxy that
3390 would be used for
3391 <tt><a href="http://www.debian.org/">http://www.debian.org/</a></tt>,
3392 and insert this extracted proxy URL in <tt>/etc/environment</tt> and
3393 <tt>/etc/apt/apt.conf</tt>.  The perl script wpad-extract work just
3394 fine in Squeeze, but in Wheezy the library it need to run the
3395 javascript code is <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/631045">no longer
3396 able to build</a> because the C library it depended on is now a C++
3397 library.  I hope someone find a solution to that problem before Wheezy
3398 is frozen.  An alternative would be for us to rewrite wpad-extract to
3399 use some other javascript library currently working in Wheezy, but no
3400 known alternative is known at the moment.</p>
3401
3402 <p>This automatic proxy system allow the roaming workstation (aka
3403 laptop) setup in Debian Edu/Squeeze to use the proxy when the laptop
3404 is connected to the backbone network in a Debian Edu setup, and to
3405 automatically use any proxy present and announced using the WPAD
3406 feature when it is connected to other networks.  And if no proxy is
3407 announced, direct connections will be used instead.</p>
3408
3409 <p>Silently using a proxy announced on the network might be a privacy
3410 or security problem.  But those controlling DHCP and DNS on a network
3411 could just as easily set up a transparent proxy, and force all HTTP
3412 and FTP connections to use a proxy anyway, so I consider that
3413 distinction to be academic.  If you are afraid of using the wrong
3414 proxy, you should avoid connecting to the network in question in the
3415 first place.  In Debian Edu, the proxy setup is updated using dhcp and
3416 ifupdown hooks, to make sure the configuration is updated every time
3417 the network setup changes.</p>
3418
3419 <p>The WPAD system is documented in a
3420 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-wrec-wpad-01">IETF
3421 draft</a> and a
3422 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol">Wikipedia
3423 page</a> for those that want to learn more.</p>
3424
3425       </div>
3426       <div class="tags">
3427
3428
3429         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>.
3430
3431
3432       </div>
3433     </div>
3434     <div class="padding"></div>
3435
3436     <div class="entry">
3437       <div class="title">
3438         <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>
3439       </div>
3440       <div class="date">
3441          5th February 2012
3442       </div>
3443       <div class="body">
3444         <p>Since the Lenny version of
3445 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>, a
3446 feature to save power have been included.  It is as simple as it is
3447 practical: Shut down unused clients at night, and turn them on again
3448 in the morning.  This is done using the
3449 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/shutdown-at-night.html">shutdown-at-night</a> Debian package.</p>
3450
3451 <p>To enable this feature on a client, the machine need to be added to
3452 the netgroup shutdown-at-night-hosts.  For Debian Edu, this is done in
3453 LDAP, and once this is in place, the machine in question will check
3454 every hour from 16:00 until 06:00 to see if the machine is unused, and
3455 shut it down if it is.  If the hardware in question is supported by
3456 the
3457 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nvram-wakeup.html">nvram-wakeup</a>
3458 package, the BIOS is told to turn the machine back on around 07:00 +-
3459 10 minutes.  If this isn't working, one can configure wake-on-lan to
3460 try to turn on the client.  The wake-on-lan option is only documented
3461 and not enabled by default in Debian Edu.</p>
3462
3463 <p>It is important to not turn all machines on at once, as this can
3464 blow a fuse if several computers are connected to the same fuse like
3465 the common setup for a classroom.  The nvram-wakeup method only work
3466 for machines with a functioning hardware/BIOS clock.  I've seen old
3467 machines where the BIOS battery were dead and the hardware clock were
3468 starting from 0 (or was it 1990?) every boot.  If you have one of
3469 those, you have to turn on the computer manually.</p>
3470
3471 <p>The shutdown-at-night package is completely self contained, and can
3472 also be used outside the Debian Edu environment.  For those without a
3473 central LDAP server with netgroups, one can instead touch the file
3474 <tt>/etc/shutdown-at-night/shutdown-at-night</tt> to enable it.
3475 Perhaps you too can use it to save some power?</p>
3476
3477       </div>
3478       <div class="tags">
3479
3480
3481         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>.
3482
3483
3484       </div>
3485     </div>
3486     <div class="padding"></div>
3487
3488     <div class="entry">
3489       <div class="title">
3490         <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>
3491       </div>
3492       <div class="date">
3493          4th February 2012
3494       </div>
3495       <div class="body">
3496         <p>I am happy to announce that finally we managed today to wrap up and
3497 publish the third beta version of
3498 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
3499 on Squeeze.  If you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with
3500 out of the box PXE configuration for running diskless machines and
3501 installing new machines, check it out.  If you need a software
3502 solution for your school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
3503 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00000.html">available</a>
3504 on the project announcement list.</p>
3505
3506 <p>I am very happy to report these changes and improvements since
3507 beta2 (there are more, see announcement for full list):</p>
3508
3509 <ul>
3510
3511 <li>It is now possible to change the pre-configured IP subnet from
3512   10.0.0.0/8 to something else by using the subnet-change tool after
3513   the installation.</li>
3514
3515 <li>Too full partitions are now automatically extended on the Main
3516   Server, based on the rules specified in /etc/fsautoresizetab.</li>
3517
3518 <li>The CUPS queues are now automatically flushed every night, and all
3519   disabled queues are restarted every hour.  This should cut down on
3520   the amount of manual administration needed for printers.</li>
3521
3522 <li>The set of initial users have been changed.  Now a personal user
3523   for the local system administrator is created during installation
3524   instead of the previously created localadmin and super-admin users,
3525   and this user is granted administrative privileges using group
3526   membership.  This reduces the number of passwords one need to keep
3527   up to date on the system.</li>
3528
3529 </ul>
3530
3531 <p>The new main server seem to work so well that I am testing it as my
3532 private DNS/LDAP/Kerberos/PXE/LTSP server at home.  I will use it look
3533 for issues we could fix to polish Debian Edu even further before the
3534 final Squeeze release is published.</p>
3535
3536 <p>Next weekend the project organise a
3537 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00001.html">developer
3538 gathering</a> in Oslo.  We will continue the work on the Squeeze
3539 version, and start initial planning for the Wheezy version.  Perhaps I
3540 will see you there?</p>
3541
3542       </div>
3543       <div class="tags">
3544
3545
3546         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>.
3547
3548
3549       </div>
3550     </div>
3551     <div class="padding"></div>
3552
3553     <div class="entry">
3554       <div class="title">
3555         <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>
3556       </div>
3557       <div class="date">
3558         27th January 2012
3559       </div>
3560       <div class="body">
3561         <p>With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs.
3562 This is the sad fact of todays computers.  In the next version of
3563 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
3564 on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make
3565 firmware blobs easier to handle.  The common use case I run into is a
3566 laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to
3567 work, but there are other use cases as well.</p>
3568
3569 <p>First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD
3570 with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free
3571 included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them
3572 during installation.  This take care firmware for network devices used
3573 by the installer when installing from from local media.  But for
3574 example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are
3575 not taken care of by this.</p>
3576
3577 <p>For non-network devices, we provide the script
3578 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware</tt> which
3579 search through the <tt>dmesg</tt> output for drivers requesting extra
3580 firmware.  The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz
3581 file available in the package repository, and the packages providing
3582 the requested firmware file(s) is installed.  I have proposed to do
3583 something similar in debian-installer (BTS report
3584 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">#655507</a>), to allow PXE
3585 installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better.  Run the
3586 script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed
3587 firmware packages.</p>
3588
3589 <p>Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and
3590 because some machines need firmware to get their network cards
3591 working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware
3592 included to be able to install at all.  To fill the PXE installation
3593 initrd with extra firmware, the
3594 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware</tt> script is
3595 provided.  Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the
3596 PXE initrd with firmware packages.</p>
3597
3598 <p>Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their
3599 network cards working.  For this,
3600 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware</tt> is
3601 provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs.  It is used
3602 the same way as the other firmware related tools.</p>
3603
3604 <p>At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation.  We
3605 do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use
3606 non-free software, and it is their choice.</p>
3607
3608 <p>We plan to release beta3 this weekend.  You might want to give it a
3609 try.</p>
3610
3611       </div>
3612       <div class="tags">
3613
3614
3615         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>.
3616
3617
3618       </div>
3619     </div>
3620     <div class="padding"></div>
3621
3622     <div class="entry">
3623       <div class="title">
3624         <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>
3625       </div>
3626       <div class="date">
3627         25th January 2012
3628       </div>
3629       <div class="body">
3630         <p>The next version of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu
3631 / Skolelinux</a> will include a new tool
3632 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp</tt>, which can be used to quickly set up all
3633 the computers in a school without much manual labour.  Here is a short
3634 summary on how to use it to set up a new school.</p>
3635
3636 <p>First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the
3637 central server in the network.  Next, PXE boot all the client machines
3638 as thin clients and wait 5 minutes after the last client booted to
3639 allow the clients to report their existence to the central server.  When
3640 this is done, log on to the central server and run
3641 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a</tt> in the <tt>konsole</tt> to use the
3642 collected information to generate system objects in LDAP.  The output
3643 will look similar to this:</p>
3644
3645 <p><blockquote><pre>
3646 % sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
3647 info: Updating machine tjener.intern [10.0.2.2] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:05.
3648 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.
3649
3650 Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.
3651
3652 Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
3653 enter password: *******
3654 %
3655 </pre></blockquote></p>
3656
3657 <p>After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the
3658 root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be
3659 populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with
3660 automatically generated names.  The final step to set up the school is
3661 then to log into <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa</a>,
3662 the web based user, group and system administration system to change
3663 system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally
3664 enable DHCP and DNS for the systems.  All clients that should be used
3665 as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts
3666 group.  After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE
3667 and get their assigned names and group based configuration
3668 automatically.</p>
3669
3670 <p>We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature
3671 enabled this weekend.  You might want to give it a try.</p>
3672
3673 <p>Update 2012-01-28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new
3674 hosts, one need to add the option -a.  I forgot to mention this in my
3675 original text, and have added it to the text now.</p>
3676
3677       </div>
3678       <div class="tags">
3679
3680
3681         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>.
3682
3683
3684       </div>
3685     </div>
3686     <div class="padding"></div>
3687
3688     <div class="entry">
3689       <div class="title">
3690         <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>
3691       </div>
3692       <div class="date">
3693         10th January 2012
3694       </div>
3695       <div class="body">
3696         <p>In the Squeeze version of
3697 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> soon
3698 to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
3699 start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
3700 all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP.  In
3701 addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
3702 are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
3703 first time.</p>
3704
3705 <p>The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
3706 labeledURI with "http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux" as the
3707 default content.  By changing this value to another URL, all users get
3708 to see the page behind this new URL.</p>
3709
3710 <p>An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool.  It can be
3711 called as "<tt>ldapvi -ZD '(cn=admin)'</tt>' to update LDAP with the
3712 new setting.</p>
3713
3714 <p>We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
3715 the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
3716 from within Iceweasel instead.</p>
3717
3718       </div>
3719       <div class="tags">
3720
3721
3722         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>.
3723
3724
3725       </div>
3726     </div>
3727     <div class="padding"></div>
3728
3729     <div class="entry">
3730       <div class="title">
3731         <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>
3732       </div>
3733       <div class="date">
3734          7th January 2012
3735       </div>
3736       <div class="body">
3737         <p>I am happy to announce that today we managed to wrap up and publish
3738 the second beta version of
3739 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>.  If
3740 you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with out of the box PXE
3741 configuration for running diskless machines and installing new
3742 machines, check it out.  If you need a software solution for your
3743 school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
3744 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00000.html">available</a>
3745 on the project announcement list.</p>
3746
3747       </div>
3748       <div class="tags">
3749
3750
3751         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>.
3752
3753
3754       </div>
3755     </div>
3756     <div class="padding"></div>
3757
3758     <div class="entry">
3759       <div class="title">
3760         <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>
3761       </div>
3762       <div class="date">
3763          3rd January 2012
3764       </div>
3765       <div class="body">
3766         <p>During christmas, I have been working getting the next version of
3767 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ready
3768 for release.  The initial problem I looked at was particularly
3769 interesting.</p>
3770
3771 <P>The installer would hang at the end when it was doing it
3772 post-installation configuration, and whatevery I did to try to find
3773 the cause and fix it always worked while I tested it, but never when I
3774 integrated it into the installer and ran the installation from
3775 scratch.  I would try to restart processes, close file descriptors,
3776 remove or create files, and the installer would always unblock and
3777 wrap up its tasks.</p>
3778
3779 <p>Eventually the cause was found.  The kernel was simply running out
3780 of entropy, causing the Kerberos setup to hang waiting for more.
3781 Pressing keys was adding entropy to the kernel, and thus all my tries
3782 to fix the problem worked not because what I was typing to fix it, but
3783 because I was typing.</P>
3784
3785 <p>The fix I implemented was to add a background process looking at
3786 the level of entropy in the kernel (by checking
3787 /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail), and if it was too small, the
3788 installer will flush the kernel file buffers and do 'find /' to
3789 generate some disk IO.  Disk IO generate entropy in the kernel, and is
3790 one of the few things that can be initated from within the system to
3791 generate entropy.</p>
3792
3793 <p>The fix is in
3794 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/Installation">beta1
3795 of the Debian Edu/Squeeze</a> version, and we
3796 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu">welcome more testers and
3797 developers</a>.  We plan to release beta2 this weekend.</p>
3798
3799       </div>
3800       <div class="tags">
3801
3802
3803         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>.
3804
3805
3806       </div>
3807     </div>
3808     <div class="padding"></div>
3809
3810     <div class="entry">
3811       <div class="title">
3812         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
3813       </div>
3814       <div class="date">
3815         21st November 2011
3816       </div>
3817       <div class="body">
3818         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
3819 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
3820 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
3821 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
3822 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
3823 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
3824 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
3825 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
3826 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
3827 the tools to do so.</p>
3828
3829 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
3830 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
3831 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
3832 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
3833
3834 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
3835 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
3836 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
3837 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
3838 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
3839 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
3840 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
3841 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
3842
3843 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
3844 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
3845 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
3846
3847 <p><pre>
3848 #!/usr/bin/perl
3849 use strict;
3850 use warnings;
3851 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
3852 BEGIN {
3853     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
3854     my %rhelmodules = (
3855         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
3856         );
3857     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
3858         eval "use $module;";
3859         if ($@) {
3860             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
3861             system("yum install -y $pkg");
3862             eval "use $module;";
3863         }
3864     }
3865 }
3866 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
3867
3868 upgrade_dell();
3869
3870 exit 0;
3871
3872 sub run_firmware_script {
3873     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
3874     unless ($script) {
3875         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
3876         exit 1
3877     }
3878     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
3879
3880     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
3881         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
3882     } else {
3883         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
3884     }
3885 }
3886
3887 sub run_firmware_scripts {
3888     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
3889     # Run firmware packages
3890     for my $dir (@dirs) {
3891         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
3892         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
3893         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
3894             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
3895             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
3896         }
3897         closedir $dh;
3898     }
3899 }
3900
3901 sub download {
3902     my $url = shift;
3903     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
3904     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
3905 }
3906
3907 sub upgrade_dell {
3908     my @dirs;
3909     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
3910     chomp $product;
3911
3912     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
3913
3914         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
3915         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
3916
3917         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
3918             CLEANUP => 1
3919             );
3920         chdir($tmpdir);
3921         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
3922         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
3923         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
3924         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
3925         my $fwopts = "-q";
3926         if (@paths) {
3927             for my $url (@paths) {
3928                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
3929             }
3930             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
3931         } else {
3932             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
3933             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
3934         }
3935         chdir('/');
3936     } else {
3937         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
3938         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
3939     }
3940 }
3941
3942 sub fetch_dell_fw {
3943     my $path = shift;
3944     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
3945     download($url);
3946 }
3947
3948 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
3949 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
3950 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
3951 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
3952     my $filename = shift;
3953
3954     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
3955     chomp $product;
3956     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
3957
3958     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
3959
3960     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
3961     my @paths;
3962     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
3963         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
3964         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
3965         my $oscode;
3966         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
3967             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
3968         } else {
3969             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
3970         }
3971         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
3972         {
3973             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
3974         }
3975     }
3976     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
3977         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
3978
3979         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
3980         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
3981
3982         my $cpath = $component->{path};
3983         for my $path (@paths) {
3984             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
3985                 push(@paths, $cpath);
3986             }
3987         }
3988     }
3989     return @paths;
3990 }
3991 </pre>
3992
3993 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
3994 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
3995 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
3996 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
3997 outdated.</p>
3998
3999       </div>
4000       <div class="tags">
4001
4002
4003         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>.
4004
4005
4006       </div>
4007     </div>
4008     <div class="padding"></div>
4009
4010     <div class="entry">
4011       <div class="title">
4012         <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>
4013       </div>
4014       <div class="date">
4015          7th October 2011
4016       </div>
4017       <div class="body">
4018         <p>Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
4019 publishing houses how to handle electronic books.  Surprisingly, the
4020 libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
4021 (DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
4022 publishing houses.  Time limited renting (2-3 years) is one proposed
4023 model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
4024 Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
4025 models.</p>
4026
4027 <p>Anyway, while reading <a href="http://boklaben.no/?p=220">part of
4028 this debate</a>, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
4029 sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
4030 to a better model.  The idea is simple:</p>
4031
4032 <p>Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
4033 Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
4034 solution to hand out free e-books.  As a start, the books distributed
4035 by <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (abount
4036 36,000 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a>
4037 (1149 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The
4038 Internet Archive</a> (3,033,748 books) could be included, but any book
4039 where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
4040 distributed.</p>
4041
4042 <p>The computer system would make it easy to:</p>
4043
4044 <ul>
4045
4046 <li>Copy e-books into a USB stick, reading tablets, cell phones and
4047   other relevant equipment.</li>
4048
4049 <li>Show the books for reading on the the screen in the library.</li>
4050
4051 </ul>
4052
4053 <p>In addition to such kiosk solution, there should probably be a web
4054 site as well to allow people easy access to these books without
4055 visiting the library.  The site would be the distribution point for
4056 the kiosk systems, which would connect regularly to fetch any new
4057 books available.</p>
4058
4059 <p>Are there anyone working on a system like this?  I guess it would
4060 fit any library in the world, and not just the Norwegian public
4061 libraries. :)</p>
4062
4063       </div>
4064       <div class="tags">
4065
4066
4067         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>.
4068
4069
4070       </div>
4071     </div>
4072     <div class="padding"></div>
4073
4074     <div class="entry">
4075       <div class="title">
4076         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html">Ripping problematic DVDs using dvdbackup and genisoimage</a>
4077       </div>
4078       <div class="date">
4079         17th September 2011
4080       </div>
4081       <div class="body">
4082         <p>For convenience, I want to store copies of all my DVDs on my file
4083 server.  It allow me to save shelf space flat while still having my
4084 movie collection easily available.  It also make it possible to let
4085 the kids see their favourite DVDs without wearing the physical copies
4086 down.  I prefer to store the DVDs as ISOs to keep the DVD menu and
4087 subtitle options intact.  It also ensure that the entire film is one
4088 file on the disk.  As this is for personal use, the ripping is
4089 perfectly legal here in Norway.</p>
4090
4091 <p>Normally I rip the DVDs using dd like this:</p>
4092
4093 <blockquote><pre>
4094 #!/bin/sh
4095 # apt-get install lsdvd
4096 title=$(lsdvd 2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $3}')
4097 dd if=/dev/dvd of=/storage/dvds/$title.iso bs=1M
4098 </pre></blockquote>
4099
4100 <p>But some DVDs give a input/output error when I read it, and I have
4101 been looking for a better alternative.  I have no idea why this I/O
4102 error occur, but suspect my DVD drive, the Linux kernel driver or
4103 something fishy with the DVDs in question.  Or perhaps all three.</p>
4104
4105 <p>Anyway, I believe I found a solution today using dvdbackup and
4106 genisoimage.  This script gave me a working ISO for a problematic
4107 movie by first extracting the DVD file system and then re-packing it
4108 back as an ISO.
4109
4110 <blockquote><pre>
4111 #!/bin/sh
4112 # apt-get install lsdvd dvdbackup genisoimage
4113 set -e
4114 tmpdir=/storage/dvds/
4115 title=$(lsdvd 2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $3}')
4116 dvdbackup -i /dev/dvd -M -o $tmpdir -n$title
4117 genisoimage -dvd-video -o $tmpdir/$title.iso $tmpdir/$title
4118 rm -rf $tmpdir/$title
4119 </pre></blockquote>
4120
4121 <p>Anyone know of a better way available in Debian/Squeeze?</p>
4122
4123 <p>Update 2011-09-18: I got a tip from Konstantin Khomoutov about the
4124 readom program from the wodim package.  It is specially written to
4125 read optical media, and is called like this: <tt>readom dev=/dev/dvd
4126 f=image.iso</tt>.  It got 6 GB along with the problematic Cars DVD
4127 before it failed, and failed right away with a Timmy Time DVD.</p>
4128
4129 <p>Next, I got a tip from Bastian Blank about
4130 <a href="http://bblank.thinkmo.de/blog/new-software-python-dvdvideo">his
4131 program python-dvdvideo</a>, which seem to be just what I am looking
4132 for.  Tested it with my problematic Timmy Time DVD, and it succeeded
4133 creating a ISO image.  The git source built and installed just fine in
4134 Squeeze, so I guess this will be my tool of choice in the future.</p>
4135
4136       </div>
4137       <div class="tags">
4138
4139
4140         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>.
4141
4142
4143       </div>
4144     </div>
4145     <div class="padding"></div>
4146
4147     <div class="entry">
4148       <div class="title">
4149         <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>
4150       </div>
4151       <div class="date">
4152          4th August 2011
4153       </div>
4154       <div class="body">
4155         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
4156 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
4157 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
4158 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
4159 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
4160 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
4161 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
4162 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
4163 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
4164
4165 <p><blockquote>
4166 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
4167 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
4168 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
4169 </blockquote></p>
4170
4171 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
4172 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
4173 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
4174 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
4175 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
4176 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
4177 hard to explain.</p>
4178
4179 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
4180 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
4181 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
4182 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
4183 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
4184 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
4185 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
4186 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
4187 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
4188 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
4189 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
4190 mode).</p>
4191
4192 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
4193 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
4194 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
4195 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
4196 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
4197 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
4198 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
4199 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
4200 after visiting single user mode.</p>
4201
4202 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
4203 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
4204 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
4205 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
4206 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
4207 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
4208 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
4209 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
4210
4211 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
4212 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
4213 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
4214
4215       </div>
4216       <div class="tags">
4217
4218
4219         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>.
4220
4221
4222       </div>
4223     </div>
4224     <div class="padding"></div>
4225
4226     <div class="entry">
4227       <div class="title">
4228         <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>
4229       </div>
4230       <div class="date">
4231         30th July 2011
4232       </div>
4233       <div class="body">
4234         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
4235 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
4236 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
4237 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
4238 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
4239 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
4240 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
4241 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
4242 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
4243 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
4244 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
4245 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
4246 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
4247
4248 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
4249 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
4250 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
4251 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
4252 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
4253 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
4254 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
4255 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
4256 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
4257
4258 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
4259 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
4260 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
4261 is presented.</p>
4262
4263 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
4264 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
4265 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
4266 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
4267 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
4268 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
4269 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
4270 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
4271 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
4272 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
4273 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
4274 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
4275 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
4276 find time to push this forward.</p>
4277
4278       </div>
4279       <div class="tags">
4280
4281
4282         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>.
4283
4284
4285       </div>
4286     </div>
4287     <div class="padding"></div>
4288
4289     <div class="entry">
4290       <div class="title">
4291         <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>
4292       </div>
4293       <div class="date">
4294         29th July 2011
4295       </div>
4296       <div class="body">
4297         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
4298 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
4299 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
4300 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
4301 issues.</p>
4302
4303 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
4304 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
4305 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
4306
4307 <ol>
4308
4309 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
4310 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
4311 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
4312 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
4313 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
4314 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
4315 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
4316 Debian.</li>
4317
4318 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
4319 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
4320 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
4321 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
4322 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
4323 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
4324 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
4325 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
4326 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
4327 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
4328 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
4329 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
4330 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
4331
4332 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
4333 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
4334 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
4335 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
4336 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
4337 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
4338 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
4339 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
4340 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
4341 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
4342
4343 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
4344 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
4345 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
4346 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
4347 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
4348 latter behaviour.</li>
4349
4350 </ol>
4351
4352 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
4353 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
4354 it do not matter much.</p>
4355
4356 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
4357 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
4358 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
4359
4360       </div>
4361       <div class="tags">
4362
4363
4364         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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4365
4366
4367       </div>
4368     </div>
4369     <div class="padding"></div>
4370
4371     <div class="entry">
4372       <div class="title">
4373         <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>
4374       </div>
4375       <div class="date">
4376         26th July 2011
4377       </div>
4378       <div class="body">
4379         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
4380 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
4381 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
4382 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
4383 security support for a few years.</p>
4384
4385 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
4386 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
4387 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
4388 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
4389 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
4390 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
4391 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
4392 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
4393 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
4394 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
4395 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
4396 easier in the future.</p>
4397
4398 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
4399 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
4400 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
4401 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
4402 do not have time for.</p>
4403
4404       </div>
4405       <div class="tags">
4406
4407
4408         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>.
4409
4410
4411       </div>
4412     </div>
4413     <div class="padding"></div>
4414
4415     <div class="entry">
4416       <div class="title">
4417         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Software_vs__proprietary_softare___.html">Free Software vs. proprietary softare...</a>
4418       </div>
4419       <div class="date">
4420         20th June 2011
4421       </div>
4422       <div class="body">
4423         <p>Reading
4424 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2011/06/20/open-source-vs-closed-source-eulas/">the
4425 thingiverse blog</a>, I came across two highlights of interesting
4426 parts of the
4427 <a href="http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Autodesk_EULA">Autodesk</a>
4428 and
4429 <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/06/things-you-cant-do-with-the-microsoft-kinect-sdk.html">Microsoft
4430 Kinect</a> End User License Agreements (EULAs), which illustrates
4431 quite well why I stay away from software with EULAs.  Whenever I take
4432 the time to read their content, the terms are simply unacceptable.</p>
4433
4434       </div>
4435       <div class="tags">
4436
4437
4438         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>.
4439
4440
4441       </div>
4442     </div>
4443     <div class="padding"></div>
4444
4445     <div class="entry">
4446       <div class="title">
4447         <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>
4448       </div>
4449       <div class="date">
4450         30th April 2011
4451       </div>
4452       <div class="body">
4453         <p>Today, the first draft implementation of an
4454 <a href="http://www.open311.org/">Open311 API</a> for the Norwegian
4455 service <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> started to
4456 work.  It is only available on the developer server for now, and I
4457 have not tested it using any existing Open311 client (I lack the
4458 platforms needed to run the clients I have found so far), but it is
4459 able to query the database and extract a list of open and closed
4460 requests within a given category and reported to a given municipality.
4461 I believe that is a good start to create a useful service for those
4462 that want to do data mining on the requests submitted so far.</p>
4463
4464 <p>Where is it?  Visit
4465 <a href="http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/">http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/</a>
4466 to have a look.  Please send feedback to the
4467 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami">fiksgatami
4468 (at) nuug.no</a> mailing list.</p>
4469
4470       </div>
4471       <div class="tags">
4472
4473
4474         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>.
4475
4476
4477       </div>
4478     </div>
4479     <div class="padding"></div>
4480
4481     <div class="entry">
4482       <div class="title">
4483         <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>
4484       </div>
4485       <div class="date">
4486         29th April 2011
4487       </div>
4488       <div class="body">
4489         <p>The last few days I have spent some time trying to add support for
4490 the <a href="http://www.open311.org/">Open311 API</a> in the
4491 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">Norwegian FixMyStreet service</a>.
4492 Earlier I believed Open311 would be a useful API to use to submit
4493 reports to the municipalities, but when I noticed that the
4494 <a href="http://fixmystreet.org.nz/">New Zealand version</a> of
4495 FixMyStreet had implemented Open311 on the server side, it occurred to
4496 me that this was a nice way to allow the public, press and
4497 municipalities to do data mining directly in the FixMyStreet service.
4498 Thus I went to work implementing the Open311 specification for
4499 FixMyStreet.  The implementation is not yet ready, but I am starting
4500 to get a draft limping along.  In the process, I have discovered a few
4501 issues with the Open311 specification.</p>
4502
4503 <p>One obvious missing feature is the lack of natural language
4504 handling in the specification.  The specification seem to assume all
4505 reports will be written in English, and do not provide a way for the
4506 receiving end to specify which languages are understood there.  To be
4507 able to use the same client and submit to several Open311 receivers,
4508 it would be useful to know which language to use when writing reports.
4509 I believe the specification should be extended to allow the receivers
4510 of problem reports to specify which language they accept, and the
4511 submitter to specify which language the report is written in.
4512 Language of a text can also be automatically guessed using statistical
4513 methods, but for multi-lingual persons like myself, it is useful to
4514 know which language to use when writing a problem report.  I suspect
4515 some lang=nb,nn kind of attribute would solve it.</p>
4516
4517 <p>A key part of the Open311 API is the list of services provided,
4518 which is similar to the categories used by FixMyStreet.  One issue I
4519 run into is the need to specify both name and unique identifier for
4520 each category.  The specification do not state that the identifier
4521 should be numeric, but all example implementations have used numbers
4522 here.  In FixMyStreet, there is no number associated with each
4523 category.  As the specification do not forbid it, I will use the name
4524 as the unique identifier for now and see how open311 clients handle
4525 it.</p>
4526
4527 <p>The report format in open311 and the report format in FixMyStreet
4528 differ in a key part.  FixMyStreet have a title and a description,
4529 while Open311 only have a description and lack the title.  I'm not
4530 quite sure how to best handle this yet.  When asking for a FixMyStreet
4531 report in Open311 format, I just merge title an description into the
4532 open311 description, but this is not going to work if the open311 API
4533 should be used for submitting new reports to FixMyStreet.</p>
4534
4535 <p>The search feature in Open311 is missing a way to ask for problems
4536 near a geographic location.  I believe this is important if one is to
4537 use Open311 as the query language for mobile units.  The specification
4538 should be extended to handle this, probably using some new lat=, lon=
4539 and range= options.</p>
4540
4541 <p>The final challenge I see is that the FixMyStreet code handle
4542 several administrations in one interface, while the Open311 API seem
4543 to assume only one administration.  For FixMyStreet, this mean a
4544 report can be sent to several administrations, and the categories
4545 available depend on the location of the problem.  Not quite sure how
4546 to best handle this.  I've noticed
4547 <a href="http://seeclickfix.com/open311/">SeeClickFix</a> added
4548 latitude and longitude options to the services request, but it do not
4549 solve the problem of what to return when no location is specified.
4550 Will have to investigate this a bit more.</p>
4551
4552 <p>My distaste for web forums have kept me from bringing these issues
4553 up with the open311 developer group.  I really wish they had a email
4554 list available via <a href="http://www.gmane.org/">Gmane</a> to use for
4555 discussions instead of only
4556 <a href="http://lists.open311.org/groups/discuss">a forum<a/>.  Oh,
4557 well.  That will probably resolve itself, one way or another.  I've
4558 also tried visiting the IRC channel #open311 on FreeNode, but no-one
4559 seem to reply to my questions there.  This make me wonder if I just
4560 fail to understand how the open311 community work.  It sure do not
4561 work like the free software project communities I am used to.</p>
4562
4563       </div>
4564       <div class="tags">
4565
4566
4567         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>.
4568
4569
4570       </div>
4571     </div>
4572     <div class="padding"></div>
4573
4574     <div class="entry">
4575       <div class="title">
4576         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_enteres_Google_Summer_of_Code_2011.html">Gnash enteres Google Summer of Code 2011</a>
4577       </div>
4578       <div class="date">
4579          6th April 2011
4580       </div>
4581       <div class="body">
4582         <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project</a> is still
4583 the most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation.
4584 A few days ago the project
4585 <a href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnash-dev/2011-04/msg00011.html">announced</a>
4586 that it will participate in Google Summer of Code.  I hope many
4587 students apply, and that some of them succeed in getting AVM2 support
4588 into Gnash.</p>
4589
4590       </div>
4591       <div class="tags">
4592
4593
4594         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>.
4595
4596
4597       </div>
4598     </div>
4599     <div class="padding"></div>
4600
4601     <div class="entry">
4602       <div class="title">
4603         <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>
4604       </div>
4605       <div class="date">
4606          3rd April 2011
4607       </div>
4608       <div class="body">
4609         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
4610 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
4611 update in English.</p>
4612
4613 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
4614 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
4615 of the British service
4616 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
4617 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
4618 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
4619 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
4620 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
4621 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
4622 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
4623 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
4624 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
4625 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
4626 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
4627 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
4628 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
4629
4630 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
4631 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
4632 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
4633 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
4634 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
4635 public infrastructure.</p>
4636
4637 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
4638 such service?</p>
4639
4640       </div>
4641       <div class="tags">
4642
4643
4644         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>.
4645
4646
4647       </div>
4648     </div>
4649     <div class="padding"></div>
4650
4651     <div class="entry">
4652       <div class="title">
4653         <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>
4654       </div>
4655       <div class="date">
4656         28th January 2011
4657       </div>
4658       <div class="body">
4659         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
4660 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
4661 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
4662 available on the Internet, and check our locally
4663 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
4664 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
4665 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
4666 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
4667 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
4668 out which security holes were present in our free software
4669 collection.</p>
4670
4671 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
4672 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
4673 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
4674 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
4675 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
4676 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
4677 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
4678 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
4679 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
4680 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
4681 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
4682 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
4683 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
4684 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
4685 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
4686 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
4687
4688 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
4689 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
4690 check out, one could look up
4691 <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
4692 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
4693 The most recent one is
4694 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
4695 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
4696 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
4697
4698 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
4699 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
4700 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
4701 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
4702 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
4703 security issues out.</p>
4704
4705 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
4706 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
4707 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
4708 RHEL is providing
4709 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
4710 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
4711 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
4712
4713 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
4714 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
4715 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
4716 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
4717 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
4718 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
4719 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
4720 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
4721 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
4722 established soon.</p>
4723
4724 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
4725 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
4726 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
4727 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
4728 for their packages.</p>
4729
4730       </div>
4731       <div class="tags">
4732
4733
4734         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>.
4735
4736
4737       </div>
4738     </div>
4739     <div class="padding"></div>
4740
4741     <div class="entry">
4742       <div class="title">
4743         <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>
4744       </div>
4745       <div class="date">
4746         23rd January 2011
4747       </div>
4748       <div class="body">
4749         <p>In the
4750 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
4751 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
4752 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
4753 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
4754 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
4755 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
4756 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
4757 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
4758 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
4759 one of my machines like this:</p>
4760
4761 <pre>
4762 loaded modules:
4763 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
4764 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
4765 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
4766 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
4767 10de:03ec pata_amd
4768 10de:03f6 sata_nv
4769 1022:1103 k8temp
4770 109e:036e bttv
4771 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
4772 11ab:4364 sky2
4773 </pre>
4774
4775 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
4776 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
4777
4778 <pre>
4779 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
4780     echo loaded pci modules:
4781     (
4782         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
4783         for address in * ; do
4784             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
4785                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
4786                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
4787                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
4788                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
4789                     echo "$id $module"
4790                 fi
4791             fi
4792         done
4793     )
4794     echo
4795 fi
4796 </pre>
4797
4798 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
4799 mappings:</p>
4800
4801 <pre>
4802 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
4803     echo loaded usb modules:
4804     (
4805         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
4806         for address in * ; do
4807             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
4808                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
4809                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
4810                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
4811                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
4812                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
4813                         echo "$id $module"
4814                     fi
4815                 fi
4816             fi
4817         done
4818     )
4819     echo
4820 fi
4821 </pre>
4822
4823 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
4824 well.</p>
4825
4826       </div>
4827       <div class="tags">
4828
4829
4830         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>.
4831
4832
4833       </div>
4834     </div>
4835     <div class="padding"></div>
4836
4837     <div class="entry">
4838       <div class="title">
4839         <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>
4840       </div>
4841       <div class="date">
4842         16th January 2011
4843       </div>
4844       <div class="body">
4845         <p>The video format struggle on the web continues, and the three
4846 contenders seem to be Ogg Theora, H.264 and WebM.  Most video sites
4847 seem to use H.264, while others use Ogg Theora.  Interestingly enough,
4848 the comments I see give me the feeling that a lot of people believe
4849 H.264 is the most supported video format in browsers, but according to
4850 the Wikipedia article on
4851 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">HTML5 video</a>,
4852 this is not true.  Check out the nice table of supprted formats in
4853 different browsers there.  The format supported by most browsers is
4854 Ogg Theora, supported by released versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google
4855 Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Konqueror, Epiphany, Origyn Web Browser and
4856 BOLT browser, while not supported by Internet Explorer nor Safari.
4857 The runner up is WebM supported by released versions of Google Chrome
4858 Chromium Opera and Origyn Web Browser, and test versions of Mozilla
4859 Firefox.  H.264 is supported by released versions of Safari, Origyn
4860 Web Browser and BOLT browser, and the test version of Internet
4861 Explorer.  Those wanting Ogg Theora support in Internet Explorer and
4862 Safari can install plugins to get it.</p>
4863
4864 <p>To me, the simple conclusion from this is that to reach most users
4865 without any extra software installed, one uses Ogg Theora with the
4866 HTML5 video tag.   Of course to reach all those without a browser
4867 handling HTML5, one need fallback mechanisms.  In
4868 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>, we provide first fallback to a
4869 plugin capable of playing MPEG1 video, and those without such support
4870 we have a second fallback to the Cortado java applet playing Ogg
4871 Theora.  This seem to work quite well, as can be seen in an <a
4872 href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20110111-semantic-web/">example
4873 from last week</a>.</p>
4874
4875 <p>The reason Ogg Theora is the most supported format, and H.264 is
4876 the least supported is simple.  Implementing and using H.264
4877 require royalty payment to MPEG-LA, and the terms of use from MPEG-LA
4878 are incompatible with free software licensing.  If you believed H.264
4879 was without royalties and license terms, check out
4880 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
4881 Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps.</p>
4882
4883 <p>A incomplete list of sites providing video in Ogg Theora is
4884 available from
4885 <a href="http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/List_of_Theora_videos">the
4886 Xiph.org wiki</a>, if you want to have a look.  I'm not aware of a
4887 similar list for WebM nor H.264.</p>
4888
4889 <p>Update 2011-01-16 09:40: A question from Tollef on IRC made me
4890 realise that I failed to make it clear enough this text is about the
4891 &lt;video&gt; tag support in browsers and not the video support
4892 provided by external plugins like the Flash plugins.</p>
4893
4894       </div>
4895       <div class="tags">
4896
4897
4898         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/video">video</a>.
4899
4900
4901       </div>
4902     </div>
4903     <div class="padding"></div>
4904
4905     <div class="entry">
4906       <div class="title">
4907         <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>
4908       </div>
4909       <div class="date">
4910         12th January 2011
4911       </div>
4912       <div class="body">
4913         <p>Today I discovered
4914 <a href="http://www.digi.no/860070/google-dropper-h264-stotten-i-chrome">via
4915 digi.no</a> that the Chrome developers, in a surprising announcement,
4916 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/html-video-codec-support-in-chrome.html">yesterday
4917 announced</a> plans to drop H.264 support for HTML5 &lt;video&gt; in
4918 the browser.  The argument used is that H.264 is not a "completely
4919 open" codec technology.  If you believe H.264 was free for everyone
4920 to use, I recommend having a look at the essay
4921 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
4922 Free That Matters</a>".  It is not free of cost for creators of video
4923 tools, nor those of us that want to publish on the Internet, and the
4924 terms provided by MPEG-LA excludes free software projects from
4925 licensing the patents needed for H.264.  Some background information
4926 on the Google announcement is available from
4927 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/24243/Google_To_Drop_H264_Support_from_Chrome">OSnews</a>.
4928 A good read. :)</p>
4929
4930 <p>Personally, I believe it is great that Google is taking a stand to
4931 promote equal terms for everyone when it comes to video publishing on
4932 the Internet.  This can only be done by publishing using free and open
4933 standards, which is only possible if the web browsers provide support
4934 for these free and open standards.  At the moment there seem to be two
4935 camps in the web browser world when it come to video support.  Some
4936 browsers support H.264, and others support
4937 <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg Theora</a> and
4938 <a href="http://www.webmproject.org/">WebM</a>
4939 (<a href="http://www.diracvideo.org/">Dirac</a> is not really an option
4940 yet), forcing those of us that want to publish video on the Internet
4941 and which can not accept the terms of use presented by MPEG-LA for
4942 H.264 to not reach all potential viewers.
4943 Wikipedia keep <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">an
4944 updated summary</a> of the current browser support.</p>
4945
4946 <p>Not surprising, several people would prefer Google to keep
4947 promoting H.264, and John Gruber
4948 <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2011/01/simple_questions">presents
4949 the mind set</a> of these people quite well.  His rhetorical questions
4950 provoked a reply from Thom Holwerda with another set of questions
4951 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/24245/10_Questions_for_John_Gruber_Regarding_H_264_WebM">presenting
4952 the issues with H.264</a>. Both are worth a read.</p>
4953
4954 <p>Some argue that if Google is dropping H.264 because it isn't free,
4955 they should also drop support for the Adobe Flash plugin.  This
4956 argument was covered by Simon Phipps in
4957 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/01/google-and-h264---far-from-hypocritical/index.htm">todays
4958 blog post</a>, which I find to put the issue in context.  To me it
4959 make perfect sense to drop native H.264 support for HTML5 in the
4960 browser while still allowing plugins.</p>
4961
4962 <p>I suspect the reason this announcement make so many people protest,
4963 is that all the users and promoters of H.264 suddenly get an uneasy
4964 feeling that they might be backing the wrong horse.  A lot of TV
4965 broadcasters have been moving to H.264 the last few years, and a lot
4966 of money has been invested in hardware based on the belief that they
4967 could use the same video format for both broadcasting and web
4968 publishing.  Suddenly this belief is shaken.</p>
4969
4970 <p>An interesting question is why Google is doing this.  While the
4971 presented argument might be true enough, I believe Google would only
4972 present the argument if the change make sense from a business
4973 perspective.  One reason might be that they are currently negotiating
4974 with MPEG-LA over royalties or usage terms, and giving MPEG-LA the
4975 feeling that dropping H.264 completely from Chroome, Youtube and
4976 Google Video would improve the negotiation position of Google.
4977 Another reason might be that Google want to save money by not having
4978 to pay the video tax to MPEG-LA at all, and thus want to move to a
4979 video format not requiring royalties at all.  A third reason might be
4980 that the Chrome development team simply want to avoid the
4981 Chrome/Chromium split to get more help with the development of Chrome.
4982 I guess time will tell.</p>
4983
4984 <p>Update 2011-01-15: The Google Chrome team provided
4985 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/more-about-chrome-html-video-codec.html">more
4986 background and information on the move</a> it a blog post yesterday.</p>
4987
4988       </div>
4989       <div class="tags">
4990
4991
4992         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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
4993
4994
4995       </div>
4996     </div>
4997     <div class="padding"></div>
4998
4999     <div class="entry">
5000       <div class="title">
5001         <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>
5002       </div>
5003       <div class="date">
5004         30th December 2010
5005       </div>
5006       <div class="body">
5007         <p>After trying to
5008 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">compare
5009 Ogg Theora</a> to
5010 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the Digistan
5011 definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
5012 to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
5013 this.  As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
5014 the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
5015 JPEG, PNG, SVG and others.  But to be able to complete this in a
5016 reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
5017
5018 <p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
5019 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse">the
5020 wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
5021 to help out.  The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
5022 place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
5023 NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
5024 of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
5025
5026 <p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do.  Do not be
5027 scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
5028
5029       </div>
5030       <div class="tags">
5031
5032
5033         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>.
5034
5035
5036       </div>
5037     </div>
5038     <div class="padding"></div>
5039
5040     <div class="entry">
5041       <div class="title">
5042         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html">The many definitions of a open standard</a>
5043       </div>
5044       <div class="date">
5045         27th December 2010
5046       </div>
5047       <div class="body">
5048         <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
5049 "<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
5050 Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
5051 the term has been decided by Digistan.  The term "Open Standard" has
5052 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
5053 about standards.  One end up discussing which definition is the best
5054 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
5055 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
5056
5057 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
5058 standards, here are a few that I know about.  This list is not
5059 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
5060 complete survey.  More definitions are available on the
5061 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
5062 page</a>.</p>
5063
5064 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
5065 Interoperability Framework version 1.0.  Really sad to notice that BSA
5066 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
5067 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
5068 their own people.  Anyway, the definition is still available and it
5069 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
5070 specification on equal terms.</p>
5071
5072 <blockquote>
5073
5074 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
5075 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
5076 open standard:</p>
5077
5078 <ul>
5079
5080 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
5081 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
5082 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
5083 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
5084
5085 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
5086 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
5087 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
5088 nominal fee.</li>
5089
5090 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
5091 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
5092 free basis.</li>
5093
5094 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
5095
5096 </ul>
5097 </blockquote>
5098
5099 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
5100 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
5101 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
5102 definition</a> in 2004.  It even made it into the Danish parlament as
5103 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
5104 definition of a open standard</a>.  Another from a different part of
5105 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
5106
5107 <blockquote>
5108
5109 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
5110
5111 <ol>
5112
5113 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
5114 tilgængelig.</li>
5115
5116 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
5117 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
5118
5119 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
5120 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
5121
5122 </ol>
5123
5124 </blockquote>
5125
5126 <p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
5127 definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
5128
5129 <blockquote>
5130
5131 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
5132
5133 <ol>
5134
5135 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
5136 manner equally available to all parties;</li>
5137
5138 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
5139 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
5140 Standard themselves;</li>
5141
5142 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
5143 any party or in any business model;</li>
5144
5145 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
5146 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
5147 parties;</li>
5148
5149 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
5150 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
5151 parties.</li>
5152
5153 </ol>
5154
5155 </blockquote>
5156
5157 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
5158 its
5159 <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
5160 Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
5161
5162 <blockquote>
5163 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
5164
5165 <ul>
5166
5167 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
5168   democratic:
5169
5170          <ul>
5171
5172          <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
5173             participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
5174             imposed by the organization under which it is developed
5175             and managed.</li>
5176
5177          <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
5178             method, can be changed through input from all
5179             participants.</li>
5180
5181          <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
5182             the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
5183
5184          <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
5185             and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
5186
5187          <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
5188             public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
5189             comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
5190
5191          </ul>
5192
5193 </li>
5194
5195 </ul>
5196
5197 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
5198 <ul>
5199
5200 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
5201   and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
5202   implementations to the interface described in the standard without
5203   undue or restrictive constraints.  Interfaces include APIs,
5204   protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
5205
5206 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
5207   a technical or economic barriers</li>
5208
5209 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
5210   interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
5211   program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
5212   programs and mutually to use the information which has been
5213   exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
5214   file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
5215   conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
5216   computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
5217   intended to function.</li>
5218
5219 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
5220   standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
5221   must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
5222
5223 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
5224   fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
5225   perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
5226   sell products based on the standard.  The only exceptions are
5227   terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
5228   outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
5229   patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
5230   only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
5231
5232       <ul>
5233
5234       <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
5235         licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
5236         (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
5237
5238       <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
5239         or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
5240         essential to practice that standard (also known as a
5241         "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
5242
5243       <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
5244         licensor</li>
5245
5246       </ul>
5247 </li>
5248
5249 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
5250   implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
5251   or restricted licensing terms</li>
5252
5253 </ul>
5254
5255 </blockquote>
5256
5257 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
5258 there are so many of them.  As you can see, the same holds true for
5259 open standard definitions.  Most of the definitions have a lot in
5260 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
5261 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
5262 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
5263 competition to downplay the significance of open standards.  I hope we
5264 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
5265 Standards.</p>
5266
5267       </div>
5268       <div class="tags">
5269
5270
5271         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>.
5272
5273
5274       </div>
5275     </div>
5276     <div class="padding"></div>
5277
5278     <div class="entry">
5279       <div class="title">
5280         <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>
5281       </div>
5282       <div class="date">
5283         25th December 2010
5284       </div>
5285       <div class="body">
5286         <p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
5287 Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
5288
5289 <blockquote>
5290
5291 <p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
5292 as follows:</p>
5293
5294 <ol>
5295
5296 <li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
5297 in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
5298 freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
5299
5300 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
5301 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
5302 open decision-making procedure available to all interested
5303 parties.</li>
5304
5305 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
5306 document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
5307 distribute, and use it freely.</li>
5308
5309 <li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
5310 irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
5311
5312 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
5313
5314 </ol>
5315
5316 <p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
5317 measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
5318 products based on the standard.</p>
5319 </blockquote>
5320
5321 <p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
5322 and open standard according to this definition.  Here is a short
5323 writeup of what I have been able to gather so far.  I brought up the
5324 topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
5325 <a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
5326 July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
5327 According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
5328 the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
5329
5330 <p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
5331
5332 <p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
5333 Ogg Theora specification.  It can be argued that the
5334 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
5335 given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
5336 making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
5337 obvious that this is a real risk.  One issue with the Xiph
5338 foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
5339 control the foundation) are not easily available on the web.  I've
5340 been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
5341 seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
5342 where is is spent in the foundation.  It is thus not obvious for an
5343 external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
5344 it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
5345 specification.  But it seem unlikely.</p>
5346
5347 <p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
5348
5349 <p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
5350 claim it to be, this point is fulfilled.  If Xiph foundation is
5351 controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
5352 documentation indicating this.</p>
5353
5354 <p>According to
5355 <a href="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
5356 prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
5357 government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
5358 the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
5359 Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
5360 report is correct.</p>
5361
5362 <p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
5363
5364 <p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
5365 container format</a> and both the
5366 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
5367 <a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
5368 the web.  This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
5369
5370 <blockquote>
5371
5372 Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
5373 specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
5374 capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
5375 the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
5376 specification compliance.
5377
5378 </blockquote>
5379
5380 <p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
5381 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
5382 this is the term:<p>
5383
5384 <blockquote>
5385
5386 <p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
5387 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
5388 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
5389 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
5390 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
5391 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
5392 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
5393 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
5394 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
5395 Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
5396 in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
5397 translate it into languages other than English.</p>
5398
5399 <p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
5400 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
5401 </blockquote>
5402
5403 <p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
5404 this term seem to be fulfilled.  There might be a problem with the
5405 missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
5406 thus reuse it in other specifications.  Not quite sure if that is a
5407 requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
5408
5409 <p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
5410
5411 <p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
5412 Theora format.
5413 <a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
5414 and
5415 <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
5416 Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
5417 patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
5418 them.  Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
5419 this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
5420 without paying any royalties.  For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
5421 Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
5422 than any real problem with Ogg Theora.</p>
5423
5424 <p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
5425
5426 <p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
5427
5428 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
5429
5430 <p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
5431 depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation.  Given the
5432 background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
5433 safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
5434 would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
5435 this.</p>
5436
5437 <p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
5438 see if they are free and open standards.</p>
5439
5440       </div>
5441       <div class="tags">
5442
5443
5444         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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
5445
5446
5447       </div>
5448     </div>
5449     <div class="padding"></div>
5450
5451     <div class="entry">
5452       <div class="title">
5453         <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>
5454       </div>
5455       <div class="date">
5456         25th December 2010
5457       </div>
5458       <div class="body">
5459         <p>A few days ago
5460 <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece">an
5461 article</a> in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
5462 2.0 of
5463 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Interoperability_Framework">European
5464 Interoperability Framework</a> has been successfully lobbied by the
5465 proprietary software industry to remove the focus on free software.
5466 Nothing very surprising there, given
5467 <a href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/29/2115235/Open-Source-Open-Standards-Under-Attack-In-Europe">earlier
5468 reports</a> on how Microsoft and others have stacked the committees in
5469 this work.  But I find this very sad.   The definition of
5470 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt">an
5471 open standard from version 1</a> was very good, and something I
5472 believe should be used also in the future, alongside
5473 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the
5474 definition from Digistan</A>.  Version 2 have removed the open
5475 standard definition from its content.</p>
5476
5477 <p>Anyway, the news reminded me of the great reply sent by Dr. Edgar
5478 Villanueva, congressman in Peru at the time, to Microsoft as a reply
5479 to Microsofts attack on his proposal regarding the use of free software
5480 in the public sector in Peru.  As the text was not available from a
5481 few of the URLs where it used to be available, I copy it here from
5482 <a href="http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.html">my
5483 source</a> to ensure it is available also in the future.  Some
5484 background information about that story is available in
5485 <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6099">an article</a> from
5486 Linux Journal in 2002.</p>
5487
5488 <blockquote>
5489 <p>Lima, 8th of April, 2002<br>
5490 To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ<br>
5491 General Manager of Microsoft Perú</p>
5492
5493 <p>Dear Sir:</p>
5494
5495 <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>
5496
5497 <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>
5498
5499 <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>
5500
5501 <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>
5502
5503 <p>
5504 <ul>
5505 <li>Free access to public information by the citizen. </li>
5506 <li>Permanence of public data. </li>
5507 <li>Security of the State and citizens.</li>
5508 </ul>
5509 </p>
5510
5511 <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>
5512
5513 <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>
5514
5515 <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>
5516
5517 <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>
5518
5519 <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>
5520
5521
5522 <p>From reading the Bill it will be clear that once passed:<br>
5523 <li>the law does not forbid the production of proprietary software</li>
5524 <li>the law does not forbid the sale of proprietary software</li>
5525 <li>the law does not specify which concrete software to use</li>
5526 <li>the law does not dictate the supplier from whom software will be bought</li>
5527 <li>the law does not limit the terms under which a software product can be licensed.</li>
5528
5529 </p>
5530
5531 <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>
5532
5533 <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>
5534
5535 <p>As for the observations you have made, we will now go on to analyze them in detail:</p>
5536
5537 <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>
5538
5539 <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>
5540
5541 <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>
5542
5543 <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>
5544
5545 <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>
5546
5547 <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>
5548
5549 <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>
5550
5551 <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>
5552
5553 <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>
5554
5555 <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>
5556
5557 <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>
5558
5559 <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>
5560
5561 <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>
5562
5563 <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>
5564
5565 <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>
5566
5567 <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>
5568
5569 <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>
5570
5571 <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>
5572
5573 <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>
5574
5575 <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>
5576
5577 <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>
5578
5579 <p>On security:</p>
5580
5581 <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>
5582
5583 <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>
5584
5585 <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>
5586
5587 <p>In respect of the guarantee:</p>
5588
5589 <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>
5590
5591 <p>On Intellectual Property:</p>
5592
5593 <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>
5594
5595 <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>
5596
5597 <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>
5598
5599 <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>
5600
5601 <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>
5602
5603 <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>
5604
5605 <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>
5606
5607 <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>
5608
5609 <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>
5610
5611 <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>
5612
5613 <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>
5614
5615 <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>
5616
5617 <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>
5618
5619 <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>
5620
5621 <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>
5622
5623 <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>
5624
5625 <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>
5626
5627 <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>
5628
5629 <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>
5630
5631 <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>
5632
5633 <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>
5634
5635 <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>
5636
5637 <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>
5638
5639 <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>
5640
5641 <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>
5642
5643 <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>
5644
5645 <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>
5646
5647 <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>
5648
5649 <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>
5650
5651 <p>Cordially,<br>
5652 DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ<br>
5653 Congressman of the Republic of Perú.</p>
5654 </blockquote>
5655
5656       </div>
5657       <div class="tags">
5658
5659
5660         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>.
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/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html">Officeshots still going strong</a>
5670       </div>
5671       <div class="date">
5672         25th December 2010
5673       </div>
5674       <div class="body">
5675         <p>Half a year ago I
5676 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
5677 a bit</a> about <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>,
5678 a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
5679 the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.</p>
5680
5681 <p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
5682 Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
5683 different Office implementations handle different ODF features.  Sad
5684 to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
5685 LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
5686 for OfficeShots users yet).  I am glad to see that the ODF community
5687 got such a great test tool available.</p>
5688
5689       </div>
5690       <div class="tags">
5691
5692
5693         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>.
5694
5695
5696       </div>
5697     </div>
5698     <div class="padding"></div>
5699
5700     <div class="entry">
5701       <div class="title">
5702         <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>
5703       </div>
5704       <div class="date">
5705         22nd December 2010
5706       </div>
5707       <div class="body">
5708         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
5709 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
5710 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
5711 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
5712 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
5713 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
5714 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
5715 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
5716 university.</p>
5717
5718 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
5719 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
5720 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
5721 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
5722 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
5723 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
5724 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
5725 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
5726
5727 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
5728 I perform on a new model.</p>
5729
5730 <ul>
5731
5732 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
5733 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
5734 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
5735
5736 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
5737 installation, X.org is working.</li>
5738
5739 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
5740 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
5741 reported by the program.</li>
5742
5743 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
5744 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
5745 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
5746 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
5747 normally test this by playing
5748 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
5749 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
5750
5751 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
5752 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
5753
5754 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
5755 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
5756
5757 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
5758 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
5759
5760 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
5761 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
5762 few.</li>
5763
5764 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
5765 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
5766 notice this.</li>
5767
5768 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
5769 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
5770 resume.</li>
5771
5772 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
5773 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
5774 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
5775 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
5776 not.</li>
5777
5778 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
5779 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
5780 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
5781 existence.</li>
5782
5783 </ul>
5784
5785 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
5786 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
5787 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
5788 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
5789 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
5790 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
5791 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
5792 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
5793
5794       </div>
5795       <div class="tags">
5796
5797
5798         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>.
5799
5800
5801       </div>
5802     </div>
5803     <div class="padding"></div>
5804
5805     <div class="entry">
5806       <div class="title">
5807         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
5808       </div>
5809       <div class="date">
5810         11th December 2010
5811       </div>
5812       <div class="body">
5813         <p>As I continue to explore
5814 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
5815 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
5816 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
5817
5818 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
5819 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
5820 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
5821 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
5822 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
5823 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
5824 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
5825 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
5826 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
5827 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
5828 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
5829 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
5830 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
5831 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
5832 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
5833 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
5834 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
5835 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
5836 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
5837 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
5838
5839 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
5840 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
5841 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
5842 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
5843 If the Skolelinux foundation
5844 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
5845 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
5846 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
5847 Given that it is impossible to know if money can across the border or
5848 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
5849 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
5850 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
5851 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
5852
5853 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
5854 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
5855 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
5856 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
5857 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
5858 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
5859 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
5860 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
5861 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
5862 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
5863 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
5864 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
5865 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
5866 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
5867 currencies.</p>
5868
5869 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
5870 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
5871 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
5872 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
5873 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
5874 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
5875 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
5876 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
5877 BitCoins.  Check out
5878 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
5879 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
5880 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
5881 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
5882 yet.</p>
5883
5884 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
5885 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
5886 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
5887 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
5888 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
5889
5890       </div>
5891       <div class="tags">
5892
5893
5894         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>.
5895
5896
5897       </div>
5898     </div>
5899     <div class="padding"></div>
5900
5901     <div class="entry">
5902       <div class="title">
5903         <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>
5904       </div>
5905       <div class="date">
5906         10th December 2010
5907       </div>
5908       <div class="body">
5909         <p>With this weeks lawless
5910 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
5911 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
5912 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
5913 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
5914 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
5915 A blog post from
5916 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
5917 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
5918 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
5919 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
5920 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
5921 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
5922 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
5923
5924 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
5925 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
5926 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
5927 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
5928 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
5929 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
5930 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
5931 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
5932 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
5933 Debian</a> soon.</p>
5934
5935 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
5936 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
5937 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
5938 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
5939 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
5940 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
5941 you can even get
5942 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
5943 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
5944 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
5945 on the current exchange rates.</p>
5946
5947 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
5948 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
5949 donations to the address
5950 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
5951
5952       </div>
5953       <div class="tags">
5954
5955
5956         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>.
5957
5958
5959       </div>
5960     </div>
5961     <div class="padding"></div>
5962
5963     <div class="entry">
5964       <div class="title">
5965         <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>
5966       </div>
5967       <div class="date">
5968          9th December 2010
5969       </div>
5970       <div class="body">
5971         <p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
5972 student assosiation <a href="http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
5973 Osloensis</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
5974 get their own 3D printer.  They wanted to learn from me based on my
5975 work in the area.  After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
5976 offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
5977 the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon.  I look
5978 forward to see how this goes.  This monday their volunteer driver
5979 picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
5980 last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
5981 operational.</p>
5982
5983 <p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
5984 and seem capable of getting the reprap operational.  I really look
5985 forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
5986 <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse</a>.  I even got
5987 some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
5988 the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
5989 very cool 3D scanner.</p>
5990
5991       </div>
5992       <div class="tags">
5993
5994
5995         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>.
5996
5997
5998       </div>
5999     </div>
6000     <div class="padding"></div>
6001
6002     <div class="entry">
6003       <div class="title">
6004         <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>
6005       </div>
6006       <div class="date">
6007         29th November 2010
6008       </div>
6009       <div class="body">
6010         <p>On friday, the first Debian Edu / Skolelinux
6011 <a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2010-12-03-05-Oslo">development
6012 gathering</a> in a long time take place here in Oslo, Norway.  I
6013 really look forward to seeing all the good people working on the
6014 Squeeze release.  The gathering is open for everyone interested in
6015 learning more about Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
6016
6017 <p>On Saturday, the Norwegian member organization taking care of
6018 organizing these development gatherings, Fri Programvare i Skolen,
6019 will hold its
6020 <a href="http://friprogramvareiskolen.no/Genfors/2010">General Assembly
6021 for 2010</a>.  Membership is open for all, and currently there are 388
6022 people registered as members.  Last year 32 members cast their vote in
6023 the memberdb based election system.  I hope more people find time to
6024 vote this year.</p>
6025
6026       </div>
6027       <div class="tags">
6028
6029
6030         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>.
6031
6032
6033       </div>
6034     </div>
6035     <div class="padding"></div>
6036
6037     <div class="entry">
6038       <div class="title">
6039         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
6040       </div>
6041       <div class="date">
6042         27th November 2010
6043       </div>
6044       <div class="body">
6045         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
6046 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
6047 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
6048 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
6049 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
6050 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
6051 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
6052 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
6053
6054 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
6055 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
6056 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
6057 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
6058 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
6059 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
6060 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
6061 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
6062 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
6063 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
6064 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
6065
6066 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
6067 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
6068 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
6069 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
6070 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
6071 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
6072 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
6073 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
6074 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
6075 what is going on.</p>
6076
6077       </div>
6078       <div class="tags">
6079
6080
6081         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>.
6082
6083
6084       </div>
6085     </div>
6086     <div class="padding"></div>
6087
6088     <div class="entry">
6089       <div class="title">
6090         <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>
6091       </div>
6092       <div class="date">
6093         22nd November 2010
6094       </div>
6095       <div class="body">
6096         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
6097 upgrade testing of the
6098 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
6099 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
6100 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
6101 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
6102
6103 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
6104
6105 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6106
6107 <blockquote><p>
6108   apache2.2-bin
6109   aptdaemon
6110   baobab
6111   binfmt-support
6112   browser-plugin-gnash
6113   cheese-common
6114   cli-common
6115   cups-pk-helper
6116   dmz-cursor-theme
6117   empathy
6118   empathy-common
6119   freedesktop-sound-theme
6120   freeglut3
6121   gconf-defaults-service
6122   gdm-themes
6123   gedit-plugins
6124   geoclue
6125   geoclue-hostip
6126   geoclue-localnet
6127   geoclue-manual
6128   geoclue-yahoo
6129   gnash
6130   gnash-common
6131   gnome
6132   gnome-backgrounds
6133   gnome-cards-data
6134   gnome-codec-install
6135   gnome-core
6136   gnome-desktop-environment
6137   gnome-disk-utility
6138   gnome-screenshot
6139   gnome-search-tool
6140   gnome-session-canberra
6141   gnome-system-log
6142   gnome-themes-extras
6143   gnome-themes-more
6144   gnome-user-share
6145   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
6146   gstreamer0.10-tools
6147   gtk2-engines
6148   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
6149   gtk2-engines-smooth
6150   hamster-applet
6151   libapache2-mod-dnssd
6152   libapr1
6153   libaprutil1
6154   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
6155   libaprutil1-ldap
6156   libart2.0-cil
6157   libboost-date-time1.42.0
6158   libboost-python1.42.0
6159   libboost-thread1.42.0
6160   libchamplain-0.4-0
6161   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
6162   libcheese-gtk18
6163   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
6164   libcryptui0
6165   libdiscid0
6166   libelf1
6167   libepc-1.0-2
6168   libepc-common
6169   libepc-ui-1.0-2
6170   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
6171   libfreerdp0
6172   libgconf2.0-cil
6173   libgdata-common
6174   libgdata7
6175   libgdu-gtk0
6176   libgee2
6177   libgeoclue0
6178   libgexiv2-0
6179   libgif4
6180   libglade2.0-cil
6181   libglib2.0-cil
6182   libgmime2.4-cil
6183   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
6184   libgnome2.24-cil
6185   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
6186   libgpod-common
6187   libgpod4
6188   libgtk2.0-cil
6189   libgtkglext1
6190   libgtksourceview2.0-common
6191   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
6192   libmono-addins0.2-cil
6193   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
6194   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
6195   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
6196   libmono-posix2.0-cil
6197   libmono-security2.0-cil
6198   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
6199   libmono-system2.0-cil
6200   libmtp8
6201   libmusicbrainz3-6
6202   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
6203   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
6204   libopal3.6.8
6205   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
6206   libpt2.6.7
6207   libpython2.6
6208   librpm1
6209   librpmio1
6210   libsdl1.2debian
6211   libsrtp0
6212   libssh-4
6213   libtelepathy-farsight0
6214   libtelepathy-glib0
6215   libtidy-0.99-0
6216   media-player-info
6217   mesa-utils
6218   mono-2.0-gac
6219   mono-gac
6220   mono-runtime
6221   nautilus-sendto
6222   nautilus-sendto-empathy
6223   p7zip-full
6224   pkg-config
6225   python-aptdaemon
6226   python-aptdaemon-gtk
6227   python-axiom
6228   python-beautifulsoup
6229   python-bugbuddy
6230   python-clientform
6231   python-coherence
6232   python-configobj
6233   python-crypto
6234   python-cupshelpers
6235   python-elementtree
6236   python-epsilon
6237   python-evolution
6238   python-feedparser
6239   python-gdata
6240   python-gdbm
6241   python-gst0.10
6242   python-gtkglext1
6243   python-gtksourceview2
6244   python-httplib2
6245   python-louie
6246   python-mako
6247   python-markupsafe
6248   python-mechanize
6249   python-nevow
6250   python-notify
6251   python-opengl
6252   python-openssl
6253   python-pam
6254   python-pkg-resources
6255   python-pyasn1
6256   python-pysqlite2
6257   python-rdflib
6258   python-serial
6259   python-tagpy
6260   python-twisted-bin
6261   python-twisted-conch
6262   python-twisted-core
6263   python-twisted-web
6264   python-utidylib
6265   python-webkit
6266   python-xdg
6267   python-zope.interface
6268   remmina
6269   remmina-plugin-data
6270   remmina-plugin-rdp
6271   remmina-plugin-vnc
6272   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
6273   rhythmbox-plugins
6274   rpm-common
6275   rpm2cpio
6276   seahorse-plugins
6277   shotwell
6278   software-center
6279   system-config-printer-udev
6280   telepathy-gabble
6281   telepathy-mission-control-5
6282   telepathy-salut
6283   tomboy
6284   totem
6285   totem-coherence
6286   totem-mozilla
6287   totem-plugins
6288   transmission-common
6289   xdg-user-dirs
6290   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
6291   xserver-xephyr
6292 </p></blockquote>
6293
6294 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6295
6296 <blockquote><p>
6297   cheese
6298   ekiga
6299   eog
6300   epiphany-extensions
6301   evolution-exchange
6302   fast-user-switch-applet
6303   file-roller
6304   gcalctool
6305   gconf-editor
6306   gdm
6307   gedit
6308   gedit-common
6309   gnome-games
6310   gnome-games-data
6311   gnome-nettool
6312   gnome-system-tools
6313   gnome-themes
6314   gnuchess
6315   gucharmap
6316   guile-1.8-libs
6317   libavahi-ui0
6318   libdmx1
6319   libgalago3
6320   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
6321   libgtksourceview2.0-0
6322   liblircclient0
6323   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
6324   libspeexdsp1
6325   libsvga1
6326   rhythmbox
6327   seahorse
6328   sound-juicer
6329   system-config-printer
6330   totem-common
6331   transmission-gtk
6332   vinagre
6333   vino
6334 </p></blockquote>
6335
6336 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6337
6338 <blockquote><p>
6339   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
6340 </p></blockquote>
6341
6342 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6343
6344 <blockquote><p>
6345 [nothing]
6346 </p></blockquote>
6347
6348 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
6349
6350 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6351
6352 <blockquote><p>
6353   ksmserver
6354 </p></blockquote>
6355
6356 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6357
6358 <blockquote><p>
6359   kwin
6360   network-manager-kde
6361 </p></blockquote>
6362
6363 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6364
6365 <blockquote><p>
6366   arts
6367   dolphin
6368   freespacenotifier
6369   google-gadgets-gst
6370   google-gadgets-xul
6371   kappfinder
6372   kcalc
6373   kcharselect
6374   kde-core
6375   kde-plasma-desktop
6376   kde-standard
6377   kde-window-manager
6378   kdeartwork
6379   kdeartwork-emoticons
6380   kdeartwork-style
6381   kdeartwork-theme-icon
6382   kdebase
6383   kdebase-apps
6384   kdebase-workspace
6385   kdebase-workspace-bin
6386   kdebase-workspace-data
6387   kdeeject
6388   kdelibs
6389   kdeplasma-addons
6390   kdeutils
6391   kdewallpapers
6392   kdf
6393   kfloppy
6394   kgpg
6395   khelpcenter4
6396   kinfocenter
6397   konq-plugins-l10n
6398   konqueror-nsplugins
6399   kscreensaver
6400   kscreensaver-xsavers
6401   ktimer
6402   kwrite
6403   libgle3
6404   libkde4-ruby1.8
6405   libkonq5
6406   libkonq5-templates
6407   libnetpbm10
6408   libplasma-ruby
6409   libplasma-ruby1.8
6410   libqt4-ruby1.8
6411   marble-data
6412   marble-plugins
6413   netpbm
6414   nuvola-icon-theme
6415   plasma-dataengines-workspace
6416   plasma-desktop
6417   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
6418   plasma-runners-addons
6419   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
6420   plasma-scriptengine-python
6421   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
6422   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
6423   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
6424   plasma-scriptengines
6425   plasma-wallpapers-addons
6426   plasma-widget-folderview
6427   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
6428   ruby
6429   sweeper
6430   update-notifier-kde
6431   xscreensaver-data-extra
6432   xscreensaver-gl
6433   xscreensaver-gl-extra
6434   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
6435 </p></blockquote>
6436
6437 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6438
6439 <blockquote><p>
6440   ark
6441   google-gadgets-common
6442   google-gadgets-qt
6443   htdig
6444   kate
6445   kdebase-bin
6446   kdebase-data
6447   kdepasswd
6448   kfind
6449   klipper
6450   konq-plugins
6451   konqueror
6452   ksysguard
6453   ksysguardd
6454   libarchive1
6455   libcln6
6456   libeet1
6457   libeina-svn-06
6458   libggadget-1.0-0b
6459   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
6460   libgps19
6461   libkdecorations4
6462   libkephal4
6463   libkonq4
6464   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
6465   libkscreensaver5
6466   libksgrd4
6467   libksignalplotter4
6468   libkunitconversion4
6469   libkwineffects1a
6470   libmarblewidget4
6471   libntrack-qt4-1
6472   libntrack0
6473   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
6474   libplasmaclock4a
6475   libplasmagenericshell4
6476   libprocesscore4a
6477   libprocessui4a
6478   libqalculate5
6479   libqedje0a
6480   libqtruby4shared2
6481   libqzion0a
6482   libruby1.8
6483   libscim8c2a
6484   libsmokekdecore4-3
6485   libsmokekdeui4-3
6486   libsmokekfile3
6487   libsmokekhtml3
6488   libsmokekio3
6489   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
6490   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
6491   libsmokekparts3
6492   libsmokektexteditor3
6493   libsmokekutils3
6494   libsmokenepomuk3
6495   libsmokephonon3
6496   libsmokeplasma3
6497   libsmokeqtcore4-3
6498   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
6499   libsmokeqtgui4-3
6500   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
6501   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
6502   libsmokeqtscript4-3
6503   libsmokeqtsql4-3
6504   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
6505   libsmokeqttest4-3
6506   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
6507   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
6508   libsmokeqtxml4-3
6509   libsmokesolid3
6510   libsmokesoprano3
6511   libtaskmanager4a
6512   libtidy-0.99-0
6513   libweather-ion4a
6514   libxklavier16
6515   libxxf86misc1
6516   okteta
6517   oxygencursors
6518   plasma-dataengines-addons
6519   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
6520   plasma-widget-lancelot
6521   plasma-widgets-addons
6522   plasma-widgets-workspace
6523   polkit-kde-1
6524   ruby1.8
6525   systemsettings
6526   update-notifier-common
6527 </p></blockquote>
6528
6529 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
6530 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
6531 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
6532 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
6533
6534       </div>
6535       <div class="tags">
6536
6537
6538         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>.
6539
6540
6541       </div>
6542     </div>
6543     <div class="padding"></div>
6544
6545     <div class="entry">
6546       <div class="title">
6547         <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>
6548       </div>
6549       <div class="date">
6550         22nd November 2010
6551       </div>
6552       <div class="body">
6553         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
6554 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
6555 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
6556 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
6557 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
6558 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
6559 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
6560 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
6561 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
6562
6563 <p>I found
6564 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
6565 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
6566 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
6567 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
6568 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
6569 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
6570
6571 <pre>
6572 #!/bin/sh
6573
6574 # Based on
6575 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
6576
6577 set -e
6578 set -x
6579
6580 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
6581     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
6582     exit 1
6583 else
6584     host="$1"
6585 fi
6586
6587 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
6588     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
6589     exit 1
6590 fi
6591
6592 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
6593 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
6594 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
6595 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
6596
6597 img=$host.img
6598 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
6599 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
6600
6601 parted $img mklabel msdos
6602 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
6603 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
6604 parted $img set 1 boot on
6605
6606 modprobe dm-mod
6607 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
6608 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
6609
6610 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
6611 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
6612 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
6613
6614 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
6615 losetup -d /dev/loop0
6616 </pre>
6617
6618 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
6619 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
6620
6621 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
6622 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
6623 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
6624 seem to work just fine.</p>
6625
6626       </div>
6627       <div class="tags">
6628
6629
6630         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>.
6631
6632
6633       </div>
6634     </div>
6635     <div class="padding"></div>
6636
6637     <div class="entry">
6638       <div class="title">
6639         <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>
6640       </div>
6641       <div class="date">
6642         20th November 2010
6643       </div>
6644       <div class="body">
6645         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
6646 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
6647 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
6648 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
6649
6650 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
6651 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
6652 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
6653
6654 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
6655
6656 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6657
6658 <blockquote><p>
6659   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
6660   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
6661   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
6662   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
6663   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
6664   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
6665   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
6666   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
6667   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
6668   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
6669   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
6670   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
6671   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
6672   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
6673   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
6674   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
6675   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
6676   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
6677   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
6678   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
6679   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
6680   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
6681   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
6682   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
6683   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
6684   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
6685   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
6686   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
6687   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
6688   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
6689   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
6690   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
6691   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
6692   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
6693   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
6694   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
6695   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
6696   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
6697   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
6698   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
6699   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
6700   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
6701   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
6702   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
6703   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
6704   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
6705   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
6706   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
6707   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
6708   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
6709   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
6710   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
6711   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
6712   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
6713   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
6714   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
6715   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
6716   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
6717   zip
6718 </p></blockquote>
6719
6720 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
6721
6722 <blockquote><p>
6723   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
6724   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
6725   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
6726   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
6727   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
6728   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
6729   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
6730   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
6731   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
6732   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
6733   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
6734   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
6735   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
6736   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
6737   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
6738   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
6739   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
6740   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
6741   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
6742   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
6743   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
6744   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
6745   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
6746   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
6747   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
6748   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
6749   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
6750   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
6751   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
6752 </p></blockquote>
6753
6754 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6755
6756 <blockquote><p>
6757   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
6758 </p></blockquote>
6759
6760 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6761
6762 <blockquote><p>
6763 [nothing]
6764 </p></blockquote>
6765
6766 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
6767
6768 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6769
6770 <blockquote><p>
6771   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
6772   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
6773   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
6774   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
6775   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
6776   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
6777   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
6778   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
6779   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
6780   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
6781   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
6782   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
6783   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
6784   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
6785   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
6786   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
6787   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
6788   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
6789   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
6790   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
6791   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
6792   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
6793   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
6794   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
6795   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
6796   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
6797   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
6798   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
6799   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
6800   ttf-sazanami-gothic
6801 </p></blockquote>
6802
6803 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6804
6805 <blockquote><p>
6806   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
6807   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
6808   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
6809   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
6810   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
6811   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
6812   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
6813   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
6814   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
6815   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
6816   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
6817   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
6818   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
6819   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
6820   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
6821   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
6822   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
6823   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
6824   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
6825   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
6826   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
6827   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
6828   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
6829   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
6830   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
6831   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
6832   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
6833   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
6834   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
6835   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
6836   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
6837   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
6838   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
6839 </p></blockquote>
6840
6841 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6842
6843 <blockquote><p>
6844   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
6845   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
6846   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
6847   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
6848   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
6849   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
6850   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
6851 </p></blockquote>
6852
6853 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6854
6855 <blockquote><p>
6856   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
6857 </p></blockquote>
6858
6859       </div>
6860       <div class="tags">
6861
6862
6863         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>.
6864
6865
6866       </div>
6867     </div>
6868     <div class="padding"></div>
6869
6870     <div class="entry">
6871       <div class="title">
6872         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
6873       </div>
6874       <div class="date">
6875         20th November 2010
6876       </div>
6877       <div class="body">
6878         <p>Answering
6879 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
6880 call from the Gnash project</a> for
6881 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
6882 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
6883 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
6884 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
6885 releases out more often.</p>
6886
6887 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
6888 I have considered setting up a <a
6889 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
6890 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
6891 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
6892 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
6893 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
6894 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
6895 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
6896 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
6897 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
6898 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
6899 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
6900 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
6901
6902       </div>
6903       <div class="tags">
6904
6905
6906         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>.
6907
6908
6909       </div>
6910     </div>
6911     <div class="padding"></div>
6912
6913     <div class="entry">
6914       <div class="title">
6915         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
6916       </div>
6917       <div class="date">
6918          9th November 2010
6919       </div>
6920       <div class="body">
6921         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
6922
6923 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
6924 3D linked in from
6925 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
6926 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
6927
6928       </div>
6929       <div class="tags">
6930
6931
6932         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>.
6933
6934
6935       </div>
6936     </div>
6937     <div class="padding"></div>
6938
6939     <div class="entry">
6940       <div class="title">
6941         <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>
6942       </div>
6943       <div class="date">
6944          7th November 2010
6945       </div>
6946       <div class="body">
6947         <p>Prioritising packages for the Debian Edu /
6948 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> DVD, which is
6949 supposed provide a school with all the services and user applications
6950 needed on the pupils computer network has always been hard.  Even
6951 schools without Internet connections should be able to get Debian Edu
6952 working using this DVD.</p>
6953
6954 <p>The job became a lot harder when apt and aptitude started
6955 installing recommended packages by default.  We want the same set of
6956 packages to be installed when using the DVD and the netinst CD, and
6957 that means all recommended packages need to be on the DVD.  I created
6958 a patch for debian-cd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/601203">BTS
6959 report #601203</a> to do this, and since this change was applied to
6960 the Debian Edu DVD build, we have been seriously short on space.</p>
6961
6962 <p>A few days ago we decided to drop blender, wxmaxima and kicad from
6963 the default installation to save space on the DVD, believing that
6964 those needing these applications are few and can get them from the
6965 Debian archive.</p>
6966
6967 <p>Yesterday, I had a look what source packages to see which packages
6968 were using most space.  A few large packages are well know;
6969 openoffice.org, openclipart and fluid-soundfont.  But I also
6970 discovered that lilypond used 106 MiB and fglrx-driver used 53 MiB.
6971 The lilypond package is pulled in as a dependency for rosegarden, and
6972 when looking a bit closer I discovered that 99 MiB of the 106 MiB were
6973 the documentation package, which is recommended by the binary package.
6974 I decided to drop this documentation package from our DVD, as most of
6975 our users will use the GUI front-ends and do not need the lilypond
6976 documentation.  Similarly, I dropped the non-free fglrx-driver package
6977 which might be installed by d-i when its hardware is detected, as the
6978 free X driver should work.</p>
6979
6980 <p>With this change, we finally got space for the LXDE and Gnome
6981 desktop packages as well as the language specific packages making the
6982 DVD more useful again.</p>
6983
6984       </div>
6985       <div class="tags">
6986
6987
6988         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>.
6989
6990
6991       </div>
6992     </div>
6993     <div class="padding"></div>
6994
6995     <div class="entry">
6996       <div class="title">
6997         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
6998       </div>
6999       <div class="date">
7000         24th October 2010
7001       </div>
7002       <div class="body">
7003         <p>Some updates.</p>
7004
7005 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
7006 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
7007 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
7008 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
7009 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
7010 :)</p>
7011
7012 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
7013 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
7014 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
7015 It is called
7016 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
7017 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
7018 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
7019 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
7020 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
7021 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
7022
7023 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
7024 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
7025 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
7026 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
7027 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
7028 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
7029 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
7030 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
7031 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
7032 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
7033
7034       </div>
7035       <div class="tags">
7036
7037
7038         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>.
7039
7040
7041       </div>
7042     </div>
7043     <div class="padding"></div>
7044
7045     <div class="entry">
7046       <div class="title">
7047         <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>
7048       </div>
7049       <div class="date">
7050         19th October 2010
7051       </div>
7052       <div class="body">
7053         <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project</a> is the
7054 most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation. It
7055 has done great so far, but there is still far to go, and recently its
7056 funding has dried up.  I believe AVM2 support in Gnash is vital to the
7057 continued progress of the project, as more and more sites show up with
7058 AVM2 flash files.</p>
7059
7060 <p>To try to get funding for developing such support, I have started
7061 <a href="http://www.pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">a pledge</a> with the
7062 following text:</P>
7063
7064 <p><blockquote>
7065
7066   <p>"I will pay 100$ to the Gnash project to develop AVM2 support but
7067   only if 10 other people will do the same."</p>
7068
7069   <p>- Petter Reinholdtsen, free software developer</p>
7070
7071   <p>Deadline to sign up by: 24th December 2010</p>
7072
7073   <p>The Gnash project need to get support for the new Flash file
7074   format AVM2 to work with a lot of sites using Flash on the
7075   web. Gnash already work with a lot of Flash sites using the old AVM1
7076   format, but more and more sites are using the AVM2 format these
7077   days. The project web page is available from
7078   http://www.getgnash.org/ . Gnash is a free software implementation
7079   of Adobe Flash, allowing those of us that do not accept the terms of
7080   the Adobe Flash license to get access to Flash sites.</p>
7081
7082   <p>The project need funding to get developers to put aside enough
7083   time to develop the AVM2 support, and this pledge is my way to try
7084   to get this to happen.</p>
7085
7086   <p>The project accept donations via the OpenMediaNow foundation,
7087   <a href="http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32">http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32</a> .</p>
7088
7089 </blockquote></p>
7090
7091 <p>I hope you will support this effort too.  I hope more than 10
7092 people will participate to make this happen.  The more money the
7093 project gets, the more features it can develop using these funds.
7094 :)</p>
7095
7096       </div>
7097       <div class="tags">
7098
7099
7100         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>.
7101
7102
7103       </div>
7104     </div>
7105     <div class="padding"></div>
7106
7107     <div class="entry">
7108       <div class="title">
7109         <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>
7110       </div>
7111       <div class="date">
7112          9th October 2010
7113       </div>
7114       <div class="body">
7115         <p>This summer I got the chance to buy cheap Spykee robots, and since
7116 then I have worked on getting Linux software in place to control them.
7117 The firmware for the robot is available from the producer, and using
7118 that source it was trivial to figure out the protocol specification.
7119 I've started on a perl library to control it, and made some demo
7120 programs using this perl library to allow one to control the
7121 robots.</p>
7122
7123 <p>The library is quite functional already, and capable of controlling
7124 the driving, fetching video, uploading MP3s and play them.  There are
7125 a few less important features too.</p>
7126
7127 <p>Since a few weeks ago, I ran out of time to spend on this project,
7128 but I never got around to releasing the current source.  I decided
7129 today that it was time to do something about it, and uploaded the
7130 source to my Debian package store at people.skolelinux.org.</p>
7131
7132 <p>Because it was simpler for me, I made a Debian package and
7133 published the source and deb.  If you got a spykee robot, grab the
7134 source or binary package:</p>
7135
7136 <p><ul>
7137 <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>
7138 <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>
7139 <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>
7140 </ul></p>
7141
7142 <p>If you are interested in helping out with developing this library,
7143 please let me know.</p>
7144
7145       </div>
7146       <div class="tags">
7147
7148
7149         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>.
7150
7151
7152       </div>
7153     </div>
7154     <div class="padding"></div>
7155
7156     <div class="entry">
7157       <div class="title">
7158         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Links_for_2010_10_03.html">Links for 2010-10-03</a>
7159       </div>
7160       <div class="date">
7161          3rd October 2010
7162       </div>
7163       <div class="body">
7164         <p><ul>
7165
7166 <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
7167 is no Plan B: why the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition will be ugly</a></li>
7168
7169 <li>Scanner looking under clothes
7170 <a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/10/03/nyheter/utenriks/reise/overvakingskamera/flyplasser/13667192/">has
7171 already been misused at Heathrow</a>.</li>
7172
7173 <li><a href="http://wiki.softwarelivre.org/Landell">Landell
7174 Webcasting</a> - interesting alternative for
7175 <ahref="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/">DVSwitch</a> with
7176 simple setup.
7177
7178 </ul></p>
7179
7180       </div>
7181       <div class="tags">
7182
7183
7184         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>.
7185
7186
7187       </div>
7188     </div>
7189     <div class="padding"></div>
7190
7191     <div class="entry">
7192       <div class="title">
7193         <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>
7194       </div>
7195       <div class="date">
7196          9th September 2010
7197       </div>
7198       <div class="body">
7199         <p>A few days ago I had the mixed pleasure of bying a new digital
7200 camera, a Canon IXUS 130.  It was instructive and very disturbing to
7201 be able to verify that also this camera producer have the nerve to
7202 specify how I can or can not use the videos produced with the camera.
7203 Even thought I was aware of the issue, the options with new cameras
7204 are limited and I ended up bying the camera anyway.  What is the
7205 problem, you might ask?  It is software patents, MPEG-4, H.264 and the
7206 MPEG-LA that is the problem, and our right to record our experiences
7207 without asking for permissions that is at risk.
7208
7209 <p>On page 27 of the Danish instruction manual, this section is
7210 written:</p>
7211
7212 <blockquote>
7213 <p>This product is licensed under AT&T patents for the MPEG-4 standard
7214 and may be used for encoding MPEG-4 compliant video and/or decoding
7215 MPEG-4 compliant video that was encoded only (1) for a personal and
7216 non-commercial purpose or (2) by a video provider licensed under the
7217 AT&T patents to provide MPEG-4 compliant video.</p>
7218
7219 <p>No license is granted or implied for any other use for MPEG-4
7220 standard.</p>
7221 </blockquote>
7222
7223 <p>In short, the camera producer have chosen to use technology
7224 (MPEG-4/H.264) that is only provided if I used it for personal and
7225 non-commercial purposes, or ask for permission from the organisations
7226 holding the knowledge monopoly (patent) for technology used.</p>
7227
7228 <p>This issue has been brewing for a while, and I recommend you to
7229 read
7230 "<a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/23236/Why_Our_Civilization_s_Video_Art_and_Culture_is_Threatened_by_the_MPEG-LA">Why
7231 Our Civilization's Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the
7232 MPEG-LA</a>" by Eugenia Loli-Queru and
7233 "<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/">H.264 Is Not
7234 The Sort Of Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps to learn more about
7235 the issue.  The solution is to support the
7236 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
7237 open standards</a> for video, like <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg
7238 Theora</a>, and avoid MPEG-4 and H.264 if you can.</p>
7239
7240       </div>
7241       <div class="tags">
7242
7243
7244         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/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>.
7245
7246
7247       </div>
7248     </div>
7249     <div class="padding"></div>
7250
7251     <div class="entry">
7252       <div class="title">
7253         <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>
7254       </div>
7255       <div class="date">
7256          4th September 2010
7257       </div>
7258       <div class="body">
7259         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
7260 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
7261 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
7262 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
7263 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
7264 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
7265 installed.</p>
7266
7267 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
7268 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
7269 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
7270 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
7271 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
7272 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
7273 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
7274 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
7275 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
7276
7277 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
7278 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
7279 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
7280 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
7281 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
7282 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
7283 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
7284 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
7285 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
7286 pages they want to visit.</p>
7287
7288 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
7289 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
7290 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
7291 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
7292 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
7293 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
7294 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
7295 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
7296 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
7297 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
7298 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
7299
7300       </div>
7301       <div class="tags">
7302
7303
7304         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>.
7305
7306
7307       </div>
7308     </div>
7309     <div class="padding"></div>
7310
7311     <div class="entry">
7312       <div class="title">
7313         <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>
7314       </div>
7315       <div class="date">
7316          1st September 2010
7317       </div>
7318       <div class="body">
7319         <p>This evening I made my first Perl GUI application.  The last few
7320 days I have worked on a Perl module for controlling my recently
7321 aquired Spykee robots, and the module is now getting complete enought
7322 that it is possible to use it to control the robot driving at least.
7323 It was now time to figure out how to use it to create some GUI to
7324 allow me to drive the robot around.  I picked PerlQt as I have had
7325 positive experiences with the Qt API before, and spent a few minutes
7326 browsing the web for examples.  Using Qt Designer seemed like a short
7327 cut, so I ended up writing the perl GUI using Qt Designer and
7328 compiling it into a perl program using the puic program from
7329 libqt-perl.  Nothing fancy yet, but it got buttons to connect and
7330 drive around.</p>
7331
7332 <p>The perl module I have written provide a object oriented API for
7333 controlling the robot.  Here is an small example on how to use it:</p>
7334
7335 <p><pre>
7336 use Spykee;
7337 Spykee::discover(sub {$robot{$_[0]} = $_[1]});
7338 my $host = (keys %robot)[0];
7339 my $spykee = Spykee->new();
7340 $spykee->contact($host, "admin", "admin");
7341 $spykee->left();
7342 sleep 2;
7343 $spykee->right();
7344 sleep 2;
7345 $spykee->forward();
7346 sleep 2;
7347 $spykee->back();
7348 sleep 2;
7349 $spykee->stop();
7350 </pre></p>
7351
7352 <p>Thanks to the release of the source of the robot firmware, I could
7353 peek into the implementation at the other end to figure out how to
7354 implement the protocol used by the robot.  I've implemented several of
7355 the commands the robot understand, but is still missing the camera
7356 support to make it possible to control the robot from remote.  First I
7357 want to implement support for uploading new firmware and configuring
7358 the wireless network, to make it possible to bootstrap a Spykee robot
7359 without the producers Windows and MacOSX software (I only have Linux,
7360 so I had to ask a friend to come over to get the robot testing
7361 going. :).</p>
7362
7363 <p>Will release the source to the public soon, but need to figure out
7364 where to make it available first.  I will add a link to
7365 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot/">the NUUG wiki</a> for
7366 those that want to check back later to find it.</p>
7367
7368       </div>
7369       <div class="tags">
7370
7371
7372         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>.
7373
7374
7375       </div>
7376     </div>
7377     <div class="padding"></div>
7378
7379     <div class="entry">
7380       <div class="title">
7381         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken hard link handling with sshfs</a>
7382       </div>
7383       <div class="date">
7384         30th August 2010
7385       </div>
7386       <div class="body">
7387         <p>Just got an email from Tobias Gruetzmacher as a followup on my
7388 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">previous
7389 post about sshfs</a>.  He reported another problem with sshfs.  It
7390 fail to handle hard links properly.  A simple way to spot this is to
7391 look at the . and .. entries in the directory tree.  These should have
7392 a link count >1, but on sshfs the count is 1.  I just tested to see
7393 what happen when trying to hardlink, and this fail as well:</p>
7394
7395 <pre>
7396 % ln foo bar
7397 ln: creating hard link `bar' => `foo': Function not implemented
7398 %
7399 </pre>
7400
7401 <p>I have not yet found time to implement a test for this in my file
7402 system test code, but believe having working hard links is useful to
7403 avoid surprised unix programs.  Not as useful as working file locking
7404 and symlinks, which are required to get a working desktop, but useful
7405 nevertheless. :)</p>
7406
7407 <p>The latest version of the file system test code is available via
7408 git from
7409 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a></p>
7410
7411       </div>
7412       <div class="tags">
7413
7414
7415         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>.
7416
7417
7418       </div>
7419     </div>
7420     <div class="padding"></div>
7421
7422     <div class="entry">
7423       <div class="title">
7424         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken umask handling with sshfs</a>
7425       </div>
7426       <div class="date">
7427         26th August 2010
7428       </div>
7429       <div class="body">
7430         <p>My file system sematics program
7431 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">presented
7432 a few days ago</a> is very useful to verify that a file system can
7433 work as a unix home directory,and today I had to extend it a bit.  I'm
7434 looking into alternatives for home directory access here at the
7435 University of Oslo, and one of the options is sshfs.  My friend
7436 Finn-Arne mentioned a while back that they had used sshfs with Debian
7437 Edu, but stopped because of problems.  I asked today what the problems
7438 where, and he mentioned that sshfs failed to handle umask properly.
7439 Trying to detect the problem I wrote this addition to my fs testing
7440 script:</p>
7441
7442 <pre>
7443 mode_t touch_get_mode(const char *name, mode_t mode) {
7444   mode_t retval = 0;
7445   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, mode);
7446   if (-1 != fd) {
7447     unlink(name);
7448     struct stat statbuf;
7449     if (-1 != fstat(fd, &statbuf)) {
7450       retval = statbuf.st_mode & 0x1ff;
7451     }
7452     close(fd);
7453   }
7454   return retval;
7455 }
7456
7457 /* Try to detect problem discovered using sshfs */
7458 int test_umask(void) {
7459   printf("info: testing umask effect on file creation\n");
7460
7461   mode_t orig_umask = umask(000);
7462   mode_t newmode;
7463   if (0666 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
7464     printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 000\n",
7465            newmode);
7466   }
7467   umask(007);
7468   if (0660 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
7469     printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 007\n",
7470            newmode);
7471   }
7472
7473   umask (orig_umask);
7474   return 0;
7475 }
7476
7477 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
7478   [...]
7479   test_umask();
7480   return 0;
7481 }
7482 </pre>
7483
7484 <p>Sure enough.  On NFS to a netapp, I get this result:</p>
7485
7486 <pre>
7487 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
7488 info: testing symlink creation
7489 info: testing subdirectory creation
7490 info: testing fcntl locking
7491   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
7492   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
7493   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
7494   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
7495   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
7496   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
7497 info: testing umask effect on file creation
7498 </pre>
7499
7500 <p>When mounting the same directory using sshfs, I get this
7501 result:</p>
7502
7503 <pre>
7504 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
7505 info: testing symlink creation
7506 info: testing subdirectory creation
7507 info: testing fcntl locking
7508   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
7509   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
7510   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
7511   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
7512   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
7513   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
7514 info: testing umask effect on file creation
7515   error: Wrong file mode 644 when creating using mode 666 and umask 000
7516   error: Wrong file mode 640 when creating using mode 666 and umask 007
7517 </pre>
7518
7519 <p>So, I can conclude that sshfs is better than smb to a Netapp or a
7520 Windows server, but not good enough to be used as a home
7521 directory.</p>
7522
7523 <p>Update 2010-08-26: Reported the issue in
7524 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/594498">BTS report #594498</a></p>
7525
7526 <p>Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
7527 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
7528 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a>.</p>
7529
7530       </div>
7531       <div class="tags">
7532
7533
7534         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>.
7535
7536
7537       </div>
7538     </div>
7539     <div class="padding"></div>
7540
7541     <div class="entry">
7542       <div class="title">
7543         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Rob_Weir__How_to_Crush_Dissent.html">Rob Weir: How to Crush Dissent</a>
7544       </div>
7545       <div class="date">
7546         15th August 2010
7547       </div>
7548       <div class="body">
7549         <p>I found the notes from Rob Weir on
7550 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/VGb23-kta8c/how-to-crush-dissent.html">how
7551 to crush dissent</a> matching my own thoughts on the matter quite
7552 well.  Highly recommended for those wondering which road our society
7553 should go down.  In my view we have been heading the wrong way for a
7554 long time.</p>
7555
7556       </div>
7557       <div class="tags">
7558
7559
7560         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>.
7561
7562
7563       </div>
7564     </div>
7565     <div class="padding"></div>
7566
7567     <div class="entry">
7568       <div class="title">
7569         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_hardcoded_config_on_Debian_Edu_clients.html">No hardcoded config on Debian Edu clients</a>
7570       </div>
7571       <div class="date">
7572          9th August 2010
7573       </div>
7574       <div class="body">
7575         <p>As reported earlier, the last few days I have looked at how Debian
7576 Edu clients are configured, and tried to get rid of all hardcoded
7577 configuration settings on the clients.  I believe the work to be
7578 mostly done, and the clients seem to work just fine with dynamically
7579 generated configuration.</p>
7580
7581 <p>What is the point, you might ask?  The point is to allow a Debian
7582 Edu desktop to integrate into an existing network infrastructure
7583 without any manual configuration.</p>
7584
7585 <p>This is what happens when installing a Debian Edu client here at
7586 the University of Oslo using PXE.  With the PXE installation, I am
7587 asked for language (Norwegian Bokmål), locality (Norway) and keyboard
7588 layout (no-latin1), Debian Edu profile (Roaming Workstation), if I
7589 accept to reformat the hard drive (yes), if I want to submit info to
7590 popcon.debian.org (no) and root password (secret).  After answering
7591 these questions, the installer goes ahead and does its thing, and
7592 after around 50 minutes it is done.  I press enter to finish the
7593 installation, and the machine reboots into KDE.  When the machine is
7594 ready and kdm asks for login information, I enter my university
7595 username and password, am told by kdm that a local home directory has
7596 been created and that I must log in again, and finally log in with the
7597 same username and password to the KDE 4.4 desktop.  At no point during
7598 this process did it ask for university specific settings, and all the
7599 required configuration was dynamically detected using information
7600 fetched via DHCP and DNS.  The roaming workstation is now ready for
7601 use.</p>
7602
7603 <p>How was this done, you might wonder?  First of all, here is the
7604 list of things that need to be configured on the client to get it
7605 working properly out of the box:</p>
7606
7607 <ul>
7608 <li>IP address/netmask and DNS server.</li>
7609 <li>Web proxy URL.</li>
7610 <li>LDAP server for NSS directory information (user, group, etc).</li>
7611 <li>Kerberos server for PAM password checking.</li>
7612 <li>SMB mount point to access the network home directory. (*)</li>
7613 <li>Central syslog server to send syslog messages to. (*)</li>
7614 <li>Sitesummary collector URL to submit info to central server. (*)</li>
7615 </ul>
7616
7617 <p>(Hm, did I forget anything?  Let me knew if I did.)</p>
7618
7619 <p>The points marked (*) are not required to be able to use the
7620 machine, but needed to provide central storage and allowing system
7621 administrators to track their machines.  Since yesterday, everything
7622 but the sitesummary collector URL is dynamically discovered at boot
7623 and installation time in the svn version of Debian Edu.</p>
7624
7625 <p>The IP and DNS setup is fetched during boot using DHCP as usual.
7626 When a DHCP update arrives, the proxy setup is updated by looking for
7627 http://wpat/wpad.dat and using the content of this WPAD file to
7628 configure the http and ftp proxy in /etc/environment and
7629 /etc/apt/apt.conf.  I decided to update the proxy setup using a DHCP
7630 hook to ensure that the client stops using the Debian Edu proxy when
7631 it is moved outside the Debian Edu network, and instead uses any local
7632 proxy present on the new network when it moves around.</p>
7633
7634 <p>The DNS names of the LDAP, Kerberos and syslog server and related
7635 configuration are generated using DNS information at boot.  First the
7636 installer looks for a host named ldap in the current DNS domain.  If
7637 not found, it looks for _ldap._tcp SRV records in DNS instead.  If an
7638 LDAP server is found, its root DSE entry is requested and the
7639 attributes namingContexts and defaultNamingContext are used to
7640 determine which LDAP base to use for NSS.  If there are several
7641 namingContexts attibutes and the defaultNamingContext is present, that
7642 LDAP subtree is used as the base.  If defaultNamingContext is missing,
7643 the subtrees listed as namingContexts are searched in sequence for any
7644 object with class posixAccount or posixGroup, and the first one with
7645 such an object is used as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
7646 search is done by first looking for a host named kerberos, and then
7647 for the _kerberos._tcp SRV record.  I've been unable to find a way to
7648 look up the Kerberos realm, so for this the upper case string of the
7649 current DNS domain is used.</p>
7650
7651 <p>For the syslog server, the hosts syslog and loghost are searched
7652 for, and the _syslog._udp SRV record is consulted if no such host is
7653 found.  This algorithm works for both Debian Edu and the University of
7654 Oslo.  A similar strategy would work for locating the sitesummary
7655 server, but have not been implemented yet.  I decided to fetch and
7656 save these settings during installation, to make sure moving to a
7657 different network does not change the set of users being allowed to
7658 log in nor the passwords required to log in.  Usernames and passwords
7659 will be cached by sssd when the user logs in on the Debian Edu
7660 network, and will not change as the laptop move around.  For a
7661 non-roaming machine, there is no caching, but given that it is
7662 supposed to stay in place it should not matter much.  Perhaps we
7663 should switch those to use sssd too?</p>
7664
7665 <p>The user's SMB mount point for the network home directory is
7666 located when the user logs in for the first time.  The LDAP server is
7667 consulted to look for the user's LDAP object and the sambaHomePath
7668 attribute is used if found.  If it isn't found, the home directory
7669 path fetched from NSS is used instead.  Assuming the path is of the
7670 form /site/server/directory/username, the second part is looked up in
7671 DNS and used to generate a SMB URL of the form
7672 smb://server.domain/username.  This algorithm works for both Debian
7673 edu and the University of Oslo.  Perhaps there are better attributes
7674 to use or a better algorithm that works for more sites, but this will
7675 do for now. :)</p>
7676
7677 <p>This work should make it easier to integrate the Debian Edu clients
7678 into any LDAP/Kerberos infrastructure, and make the current setup even
7679 more flexible than before.  I suspect it will also work for thin
7680 client servers, allowing one to easily set up LTSP and hook it into a
7681 existing network infrastructure, but I have not had time to test this
7682 yet.</p>
7683
7684 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
7685 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
7686
7687 <p>Update 2010-08-09: Simon Farnsworth gave me a heads-up on how to
7688 detect Kerberos realm from DNS, by looking for _kerberos TXT entries
7689 before falling back to the upper case DNS domain name.  Will have to
7690 implement it for Debian Edu. :)</p>
7691
7692       </div>
7693       <div class="tags">
7694
7695
7696         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>.
7697
7698
7699       </div>
7700     </div>
7701     <div class="padding"></div>
7702
7703     <div class="entry">
7704       <div class="title">
7705         <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>
7706       </div>
7707       <div class="date">
7708          8th August 2010
7709       </div>
7710       <div class="body">
7711         <p>A few years ago, I was involved in a project planning to use
7712 Windows file servers as home directory servers for Debian
7713 Edu/Skolelinux machines.  This was thought to be no problem, as the
7714 access would be through the SMB network file system protocol, and we
7715 knew other sites used SMB with unix and samba as the file server to
7716 mount home directories without any problems.  But, after months of
7717 struggling, we had to conclude that our goal was impossible.</p>
7718
7719 <p>The reason is simply that while SMB can be used for home
7720 directories when the file server is Samba running on Unix, this only
7721 work because of Samba have some extensions and the fact that the
7722 underlying file system is a unix file system.  When using a Windows
7723 file server, the underlying file system do not have POSIX semantics,
7724 and several programs will fail if the users home directory where they
7725 want to store their configuration lack POSIX semantics.</p>
7726
7727 <p>As part of this work, I wrote a small C program I want to share
7728 with you all, to replicate a few of the problematic applications (like
7729 OpenOffice.org and GCompris) and see if the file system was working as
7730 it should.  If you find yourself in spooky file system land, it might
7731 help you find your way out again.  This is the fs-test.c source:</p>
7732
7733 <pre>
7734 /*
7735  * Some tests to check the file system sematics.  Used to verify that
7736  * CIFS from a windows server do not work properly as a linux home
7737  * directory.
7738  * License: GPL v2 or later
7739  *
7740  * needs libsqlite3-dev and build-essential installed
7741  * compile with: gcc -Wall -lsqlite3 -DTEST_SQLITE fs-test.c -o fs-test
7742 */
7743
7744 #define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS 64
7745 #define _LARGEFILE_SOURCE 1
7746 #define _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE 1
7747
7748 #define _GNU_SOURCE /* for asprintf() */
7749
7750 #include &lt;errno.h>
7751 #include &lt;fcntl.h>
7752 #include &lt;stdio.h>
7753 #include &lt;string.h>
7754 #include &lt;stdlib.h>
7755 #include &lt;sys/file.h>
7756 #include &lt;sys/stat.h>
7757 #include &lt;sys/types.h>
7758 #include &lt;unistd.h>
7759
7760 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
7761 /*
7762  * Test sqlite open, as done by gcompris require the libsqlite3-dev
7763  * package and linking with -lsqlite3.  A more low level test is
7764  * below.
7765  * See also &lt;URL: http://www.sqlite.org./faq.html#q5 >.
7766  */
7767 #include &lt;sqlite3.h>
7768 #define CREATE_TABLE_USERS                                              \
7769   "CREATE TABLE users (user_id INT UNIQUE, login TEXT, lastname TEXT, firstname TEXT, birthdate TEXT, class_id INT ); "
7770 int test_sqlite_open(void) {
7771   char *zErrMsg;
7772   char *name = "testsqlite.db";
7773   sqlite3 *db=NULL;
7774   unlink(name);
7775   int rc = sqlite3_open(name, &db);
7776   if( rc ){
7777     printf("error: sqlite open of %s failed: %s\n", name, sqlite3_errmsg(db));
7778     sqlite3_close(db);
7779     return -1;
7780   }
7781
7782   /* create tables */
7783   rc = sqlite3_exec(db,CREATE_TABLE_USERS, NULL,  0, &zErrMsg);
7784   if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
7785     printf("error: sqlite table create failed: %s\n", zErrMsg);
7786     sqlite3_close(db);
7787     return -1;
7788   }
7789   printf("info: sqlite worked\n");
7790   sqlite3_close(db);
7791   return 0;
7792 }
7793 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
7794
7795 /*
7796  * Demonstrate locking issue found in gcompris using sqlite3.  This
7797  * work with ext3, but not with cifs server on Windows 2003.  This is
7798  * done in the sqlite3 library.
7799  * See also
7800  * &lt;URL:http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2001-08/msg00854.html> and the
7801  * POSIX specification
7802  * &lt;URL:http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fcntl.html>.
7803  */
7804 int test_gcompris_locking(void) {
7805   struct flock fl;
7806   char *name = "testsqlite.db";
7807   unlink(name);
7808   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, 0644);
7809   printf("info: testing fcntl locking\n");
7810
7811   fl.l_whence = SEEK_SET;
7812   fl.l_pid    = getpid();
7813   printf("  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
7814   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
7815   fl.l_len    = 1;
7816   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
7817   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
7818
7819   printf("  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
7820   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
7821   fl.l_len    = 510;
7822   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
7823   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
7824
7825   printf("  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824");
7826   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
7827   fl.l_len    = 1;
7828   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
7829   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
7830
7831   printf("  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
7832   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
7833   fl.l_len    = 1;
7834   fl.l_type   = F_WRLCK;
7835   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
7836
7837   printf("  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
7838   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
7839   fl.l_len    = 510;
7840   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
7841
7842   printf("  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824");
7843   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
7844   fl.l_len    = 2;
7845   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
7846   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
7847
7848   close(fd);
7849   return 0;
7850 }
7851
7852 /*
7853  * Test if permissions of freshly created directories allow entries
7854  * below them.  This was a problem with OpenOffice.org and gcompris.
7855  * Mounting with option 'sync' seem to solve this problem while
7856  * slowing down file operations.
7857  */
7858 int test_subdirectory_creation(void) {
7859 #define LEVELS 5
7860   char *path = strdup("test");
7861   char *dirs[LEVELS];
7862   int level;
7863   printf("info: testing subdirectory creation\n");
7864   for (level = 0; level &lt; LEVELS; level++) {
7865     char *newpath = NULL;
7866     if (-1 == mkdir(path, 0777)) {
7867       printf("  error: Unable to create directory '%s': %s\n",
7868              path, strerror(errno));
7869       break;
7870     }
7871     asprintf(&newpath, "%s/%s", path, "test");
7872     free(path);
7873     path = newpath;
7874   }
7875   return 0;
7876 }
7877
7878 /*
7879  * Test if symlinks can be created.  This was a problem detected with
7880  * KDE.
7881  */
7882 int test_symlinks(void) {
7883   printf("info: testing symlink creation\n");
7884   unlink("symlink");
7885   if (-1 == symlink("file", "symlink"))
7886     printf("  error: Unable to create symlink\n");
7887   return 0;
7888 }
7889
7890 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
7891   printf("Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system\n");
7892   test_symlinks();
7893   test_subdirectory_creation();
7894 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
7895   test_sqlite_open();
7896 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
7897   test_gcompris_locking();
7898   return 0;
7899 }
7900 </pre>
7901
7902 <p>When everything is working, it should print something like
7903 this:</p>
7904
7905 <pre>
7906 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
7907 info: testing symlink creation
7908 info: testing subdirectory creation
7909 info: sqlite worked
7910 info: testing fcntl locking
7911   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
7912   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
7913   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
7914   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
7915   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
7916   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
7917 </pre>
7918
7919 <p>I do not remember the exact details of the problems we saw, but one
7920 of them was with locking, where if I remember correctly, POSIX allow a
7921 read-only lock to be upgraded to a read-write lock without unlocking
7922 the read-only lock (while Windows do not).  Another was a bug in the
7923 CIFS/SMB client implementation in the Linux kernel where directory
7924 meta information would be wrong for a fraction of a second, making
7925 OpenOffice.org fail to create its deep directory tree because it was
7926 not allowed to create files in its freshly created directory.</p>
7927
7928 <p>Anyway, here is a nice tool for your tool box, might you never need
7929 it. :)</p>
7930
7931 <p>Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
7932 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
7933 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a>.</p>
7934
7935       </div>
7936       <div class="tags">
7937
7938
7939         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>.
7940
7941
7942       </div>
7943     </div>
7944     <div class="padding"></div>
7945
7946     <div class="entry">
7947       <div class="title">
7948         <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>
7949       </div>
7950       <div class="date">
7951          7th August 2010
7952       </div>
7953       <div class="body">
7954         <p>A few days ago, I
7955 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html">tried
7956 to install</a> a Roaming workation profile from Debian Edu/Squeeze
7957 while on the university network here at the University of Oslo, and
7958 noticed how much had to change to get it operational using the
7959 university infrastructure.  It was fairly easy, but it occured to me
7960 that Debian Edu would improve a lot if I could get the client to
7961 connect without any changes at all, and thus let the client configure
7962 itself during installation and first boot to use the infrastructure
7963 around it.  Now I am a huge step further along that road.</p>
7964
7965 <p>With our current squeeze-test packages, I can select the roaming
7966 workstation profile and get a working laptop connecting to the
7967 university LDAP server for user and group and our active directory
7968 servers for Kerberos authentication.  All this without any
7969 configuration at all during installation.  My users home directory got
7970 a bookmark in the KDE menu to mount it via SMB, with the correct URL.
7971 In short, openldap and sssd is correctly configured.  In addition to
7972 this, the client look for http://wpad/wpad.dat to configure a web
7973 proxy, and when it fail to find it no proxy settings are stored in
7974 /etc/environment and /etc/apt/apt.conf.  Iceweasel and KDE is
7975 configured to look for the same wpad configuration and also do not use
7976 a proxy when at the university network.  If the machine is moved to a
7977 network with such wpad setup, it would automatically use it when DHCP
7978 gave it a IP address.</p>
7979
7980 <p>The LDAP server is located using DNS, by first looking for the DNS
7981 entry ldap.$domain.  If this do not exist, it look for the
7982 _ldap._tcp.$domain SRV records and use the first one as the LDAP
7983 server.  Next, it connects to the LDAP server and search all
7984 namingContexts entries for posixAccount or posixGroup objects, and
7985 pick the first one as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
7986 algorithm is used to locate the LDAP server, and the realm is the
7987 uppercase version of $domain.</p>
7988
7989 <p>So, what is not working, you might ask.  SMB mounting my home
7990 directory do not work.  No idea why, but suspected the incorrect
7991 Kerberos settings in /etc/krb5.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf might be
7992 the cause.  These are not properly configured during installation, and
7993 had to be hand-edited to get the correct Kerberos realm and server,
7994 but SMB mounting still do not work. :(</p>
7995
7996 <p>With this automatic configuration in place, I expect a Debian Edu
7997 roaming profile installation would be able to automatically detect and
7998 connect to any site using LDAP and Kerberos for NSS directory and PAM
7999 authentication.  It should also work out of the box in a Active
8000 Directory environment providing posixAccount and posixGroup objects
8001 with UID and GID values.</p>
8002
8003 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
8004 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8005
8006       </div>
8007       <div class="tags">
8008
8009
8010         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>.
8011
8012
8013       </div>
8014     </div>
8015     <div class="padding"></div>
8016
8017     <div class="entry">
8018       <div class="title">
8019         <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>
8020       </div>
8021       <div class="date">
8022          3rd August 2010
8023       </div>
8024       <div class="body">
8025         <p>The new roaming workstation profile in Debian Edu/Squeeze is fairly
8026 similar to the laptop setup am I working on using Ubuntu for the
8027 University of Oslo, and just for the heck of it, I tested today how
8028 hard it would be to integrate that profile into the university
8029 infrastructure.  In this case, it is the university LDAP server,
8030 Active Directory Kerberos server and SMB mounting from the Netapp file
8031 servers.</p>
8032
8033 <p>I was pleasantly surprised that the only three files needed to be
8034 changed (/etc/sssd/sssd.conf, /etc/ldap.conf and
8035 /etc/mklocaluser.d/20-debian-edu-config) and one file had to be added
8036 (/usr/share/perl5/Debian/Edu_Local.pm), to get the client working.
8037 Most of the changes were to get the client to use the university LDAP
8038 for NSS and Kerberos server for PAM, but one was to change a hard
8039 coded DNS domain name in the mklocaluser hook from .intern to
8040 .uio.no.</p>
8041
8042 <p>This testing was so encouraging, that I went ahead and adjusted the
8043 Debian Edu scripts and setup in subversion to centralise the roaming
8044 workstation setup a bit more and avoid the hardcoded DNS domain name,
8045 so that when I test this tomorrow, I expect to get away with modifying
8046 only /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and /etc/ldap.conf to get it to use the
8047 university servers.</p>
8048
8049 <p>My goal is to get the clients to have no hardcoded settings and
8050 fetch all their initial setup during installation and first boot, to
8051 allow them to be inserted also into environments where the default
8052 setup in Debian Edu has been changed or as with the university, where
8053 the environment is different but provides the protocols Debian Edu
8054 uses.</p>
8055
8056       </div>
8057       <div class="tags">
8058
8059
8060         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>.
8061
8062
8063       </div>
8064     </div>
8065     <div class="padding"></div>
8066
8067     <div class="entry">
8068       <div class="title">
8069         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
8070       </div>
8071       <div class="date">
8072         27th July 2010
8073       </div>
8074       <div class="body">
8075         <p>I discovered this while doing
8076 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
8077 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
8078 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
8079 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
8080 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
8081
8082 <p>An example is from todays
8083 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
8084 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
8085 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
8086 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
8087 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
8088 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
8089 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
8090
8091 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
8092
8093 <blockquote><pre>
8094 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
8095  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
8096   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
8097 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
8098  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
8099 </pre></blockquote>
8100
8101 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
8102 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
8103 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
8104 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
8105 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
8106 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
8107 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
8108 of dependency loops.</p>
8109
8110 <p>Thanks to
8111 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
8112 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
8113 dependencies
8114 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
8115 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
8116
8117 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
8118 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
8119 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
8120 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
8121 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
8122 it.</p>
8123
8124       </div>
8125       <div class="tags">
8126
8127
8128         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>.
8129
8130
8131       </div>
8132     </div>
8133     <div class="padding"></div>
8134
8135     <div class="entry">
8136       <div class="title">
8137         <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>
8138       </div>
8139       <div class="date">
8140         27th July 2010
8141       </div>
8142       <div class="body">
8143         <p>I just posted this announcement culminating several months of work
8144 with the next Debian Edu release.  Not nearly done, but one major step
8145 completed.</p>
8146
8147 <blockquote>
8148 <p>This is the first test release based on Squeeze. The focus of this
8149 release is to test the user application selection. To have a look,
8150 install the standalone profile and let the developers know if the set
8151 of installed packages i.e. applications should be modified. If some
8152 user application is missing, or if there are some applications that no
8153 longer make sense to be included in Debian Edu, please let us know.
8154 Also, if a useful application is missing the translation for your
8155 language of choice, please let us know too.</p>
8156
8157 <p>In addition, feedback and help to polish the desktop (menus,
8158 artwork, starters, etc.) is appreciated. We would like to ship a nice
8159 and handy KDE4 desktop targeted for schools out of the box.</p>
8160
8161 <p>The other profiles should be installable, but there is a lot more
8162 work left to be done before they are ready, so do not expect to
8163 much.</p>
8164
8165 <p>Changes compared to the lenny based version</p>
8166
8167 <ul>
8168 <li>Everything from Debian Squeeze
8169 <ul>
8170   <li>Desktop environment KDE 4.4 => the new KDE desktop in
8171          combination with some new artwork
8172   <li>Web browser Iceweasel 3.5
8173   <li>OpenOffice.org 3.2
8174   <li>Educational toolbox GCompris 9.3
8175   <li>Music creator Rosegarden 10.04.2
8176   <li>Image editor Gimp 2.6.10
8177   <li>Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.0
8178   <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.10.4
8179   <li>3D modeler Blender 2.49.2 (new application)
8180   <li>Video editor Kdenlive 0.7.7 (new application)
8181 </ul></li>
8182 <li>Now using Kerberos for password checking (migration not finished).
8183     Enabled for:
8184 <ul>
8185   <li>PAM
8186   <li>LDAP
8187   <li>IMAP
8188   <li>SMTP (sender verification)
8189 </ul>
8190 </li>
8191 <li>New experimental roaming workstation profile for laptops.</li>
8192 <li>Show welcome page to users when they first log in. The URL is
8193     fetched from LDAP.</li>
8194 <li>New LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and Gnome.</li>
8195 <li>General cleanup (not finished)</li>
8196 </ul>
8197 <p>The following features are not working as they should</p>
8198
8199 <ul>
8200 <li>No web based administration tool for creating users and groups. The
8201     scripts ldap-createuser-krb and ldap-add-user-to-group can be used
8202     for testing.</li>
8203 <li>DVD installs are missing debian-installer images for the PXE boot,
8204     and do not set up the PXE menu on eth0 because of this. LTSP
8205     clients should still boot from eth1 on thin client servers.</li>
8206 <li>The restructured KDE menu is not implemented.</li>
8207 <li>The LDAP server setup need to be reviewed for security.</li>
8208 <li>The LDAP directory structure need to be reworked.</li>
8209 <li>Different sets of packages are installed when using the DVD and the
8210     netinst CD. More packages are installed using the netinst CD.</li>
8211 <li>The jackd package fail to install. This is believed to be caused by
8212     some ongoing transition, and hopefully should be solved soon. The
8213     jackd1 package can be installed manually for those that need it.</li>
8214 <li>Some packages lack translations. See
8215     http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Squeeze for updated status,
8216     and help out with translations.</li>
8217 </ul>
8218
8219 <p>To download this multiarch netinstall release you can use</p>
8220
8221 <ul>
8222 <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>
8223 <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>
8224 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
8225 </ul>
8226 <p>To download this multiarch dvd release you can use</p>
8227
8228 <ul>
8229 <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>
8230 <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>
8231 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
8232 </ul>
8233
8234 <p>There is no source DVD available yet. It will be prepared when we
8235 get closer to the final release.</p>
8236
8237 <p>The MD5SUM of these images are</p>
8238
8239 <ul>
8240 <li>3dbf45d59f42a53518b6e3c9ec3b5eb6 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
8241 <li>22f2cbfce281d1c6e478be452638675d debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
8242 </ul>
8243
8244 <p>The SHA1SUM of these images are</p>
8245 <ul>
8246 <li>c53d1b69b40cf37cd27aefaf33f6f6a3821bedf0 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
8247 <li>2ec29d7db676d59d32197b05c277ffe16348376c debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
8248 </ul>
8249 <p>How to report bugs:
8250 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugsInBugzilla</p>
8251
8252 <p>Please direct replies to debian-edu@lists.debian.org</p>
8253 </blockquote>
8254
8255       </div>
8256       <div class="tags">
8257
8258
8259         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>.
8260
8261
8262       </div>
8263     </div>
8264     <div class="padding"></div>
8265
8266     <div class="entry">
8267       <div class="title">
8268         <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>
8269       </div>
8270       <div class="date">
8271         25th July 2010
8272       </div>
8273       <div class="body">
8274         <p>The last few months me and the other Debian Edu developers have
8275 been working hard to get the Debian/Squeeze based version of Debian
8276 Edu/Skolelinux into shape.  This future version will use Kerberos for
8277 authentication, and services are slowly migrated to single signon,
8278 getting rid of password questions one at the time.</p>
8279
8280 <p>It will also feature a roaming workstation profile with local home
8281 directory, for laptops that are only some times on the Skolelinux
8282 network, and for this profile a shortcut is created in Gnome and KDE
8283 to gain access to the users home directory on the file server.  This
8284 shortcut uses SMB at the moment, and yesterday I had time to test if
8285 SMB mounting had started working in KDE after we added the cifs-utils
8286 package.  I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.</p>
8287
8288 <p>Thanks to the recent changes to our samba configuration to get it
8289 to use Kerberos for authentication, there were no question about user
8290 password when mounting the SMB volume.  A simple click on the shortcut
8291 in the KDE menu, and a window with the home directory popped
8292 up. :)</p>
8293
8294 <p>One step closer to a single signon solution out of the box in
8295 Debian Edu.  We already had PAM, LDAP, IMAP and SMTP in place, and now
8296 also Samba.  Next step is Cups and hopefully also NFS.</p>
8297
8298 <p>We had planned a alpha0 release of Debian Edu for today, but thanks
8299 to the autobuilder administrators for some architectures being slow to
8300 sign packages, we are still missing the fixed LTSP package we need for
8301 the release.  It was uploaded three days ago with urgency=high, and if
8302 it had entered testing yesterday we would have been able to test it in
8303 time for a alpha0 release today.  As the binaries for ia64 and powerpc
8304 still not uploaded to the Debian archive, we need to delay the alpha
8305 release another day.</p>
8306
8307 <p>If you want to help out with implementing Kerberos for Debian Edu,
8308 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8309
8310       </div>
8311       <div class="tags">
8312
8313
8314         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>.
8315
8316
8317       </div>
8318     </div>
8319     <div class="padding"></div>
8320
8321     <div class="entry">
8322       <div class="title">
8323         <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>
8324       </div>
8325       <div class="date">
8326         18th July 2010
8327       </div>
8328       <div class="body">
8329         <p>Thanks to
8330 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Opengeodata/~3/wUTCzDZk3lc/project-of-the-week-which-way-home">todays
8331 opengeodata blog entry</a>, I just discovered that the
8332 OpenStreetmap.org site have gotten
8333 <a href="http://nroets.dev.openstreetmap.org/demo/index.html?layers=B000FTFTT">support
8334 for calculating routes</a>.  The support is still experimental and
8335 only available from the development server, until more experience is
8336 gathered on the user interface and any scalability issues.</p>
8337
8338 <p>Earlier, the routing I knew about using the OpenStreetmap.org data
8339 was provided by <a href="http://maps.cloudmade.com/">Cloudmade</a>,
8340 but having it on the main page is required to make everyone aware of
8341 the issue.  I've had people reject Openstreetmap.org as a viable
8342 alternative for them because the front page lacked routing support,
8343 and I hope their needs will be catered for when routing show up on the
8344 www.openstreetmap.org front page.</p>
8345
8346       </div>
8347       <div class="tags">
8348
8349
8350         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>.
8351
8352
8353       </div>
8354     </div>
8355     <div class="padding"></div>
8356
8357     <div class="entry">
8358       <div class="title">
8359         <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>
8360       </div>
8361       <div class="date">
8362         17th July 2010
8363       </div>
8364       <div class="body">
8365         <p>This is a
8366 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
8367 on my
8368 <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
8369 work</a> on
8370 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
8371 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
8372
8373 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
8374 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
8375 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
8376 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
8377
8378 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
8379 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
8380 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
8381
8382 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
8383
8384 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
8385 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
8386 the web.
8387
8388 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
8389 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
8390 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
8391 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
8392 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
8393 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
8394
8395 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
8396 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
8397 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
8398 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
8399 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
8400 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
8401 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
8402 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
8403 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
8404 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
8405 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
8406 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
8407 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
8408 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
8409 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
8410 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
8411
8412 <blockquote><pre>
8413 ldapsearch -h ldap \
8414   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
8415   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
8416   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
8417   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
8418   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
8419   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
8420
8421 ldapsearch -h ldap \
8422   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
8423   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
8424   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
8425   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
8426   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
8427 </pre></blockquote>
8428
8429 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
8430 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
8431 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
8432 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8433 also exist.</p>
8434
8435 <blockquote><pre>
8436 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8437 objectclass: top
8438 objectclass: dnsdomain
8439 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
8440 dc: tjener
8441 arecord: 10.0.2.2
8442 associateddomain: tjener.intern
8443
8444 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8445 objectclass: top
8446 objectclass: dnsdomain2
8447 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
8448 dc: 2
8449 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
8450 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
8451 </pre></blockquote>
8452
8453 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
8454 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
8455 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
8456 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
8457 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
8458 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
8459 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
8460 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
8461 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
8462 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
8463 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
8464 instead.</p>
8465
8466 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
8467 like this:</p>
8468
8469 <blockquote><pre>
8470 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
8471   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
8472   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
8473   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
8474   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
8475   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
8476
8477 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
8478   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
8479 </pre></blockquote>
8480
8481 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
8482 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
8483 reverse lookups.</p>
8484
8485 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
8486 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
8487 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
8488 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
8489
8490 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
8491 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
8492 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
8493
8494 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
8495 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
8496 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
8497 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
8498 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
8499
8500 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
8501 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
8502 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
8503 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
8504 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
8505
8506 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
8507 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
8508 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
8509 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
8510 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
8511 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
8512
8513 <blockquote><pre>
8514 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
8515     SUP top
8516     AUXILIARY
8517     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
8518           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
8519           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
8520           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
8521           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
8522     ))
8523 </pre></blockquote>
8524
8525 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
8526 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
8527 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
8528 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
8529 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
8530 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
8531
8532 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
8533
8534 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
8535 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
8536 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
8537 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
8538 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
8539
8540 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
8541 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
8542 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
8543 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
8544
8545 <blockquote><pre>
8546 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
8547 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
8548 </pre></blockquote>
8549
8550 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
8551 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
8552 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
8553 search result is this entry:</p>
8554
8555 <blockquote><pre>
8556 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8557 cn: dhcp
8558 objectClass: top
8559 objectClass: dhcpServer
8560 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8561 </pre></blockquote>
8562
8563 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
8564 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
8565 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
8566 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
8567 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
8568 The search result is this entry:</p>
8569
8570 <blockquote><pre>
8571 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8572 cn: DHCP Config
8573 objectClass: top
8574 objectClass: dhcpService
8575 objectClass: dhcpOptions
8576 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8577 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
8578 dhcpStatements: authoritative
8579 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
8580 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
8581 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
8582 </pre></blockquote>
8583
8584 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
8585 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
8586 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
8587 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
8588 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
8589 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
8590 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
8591 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
8592 related computer objects.</p>
8593
8594 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
8595 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
8596 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
8597 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
8598 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
8599 like:</p>
8600
8601 <blockquote><pre>
8602 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8603 cn: hostname
8604 objectClass: top
8605 objectClass: dhcpHost
8606 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
8607 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
8608 </pre></blockquote>
8609
8610 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
8611 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
8612 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
8613 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
8614 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
8615 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
8616 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
8617 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
8618 structural object class.
8619
8620 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
8621
8622 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
8623 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
8624 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
8625 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
8626 in the configuration.</p>
8627
8628 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
8629 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
8630 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
8631 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
8632 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
8633 structure.</p>
8634
8635 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
8636 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
8637
8638 <blockquote><pre>
8639 ou=services
8640   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
8641     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
8642     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
8643       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
8644         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
8645     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
8646       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
8647         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
8648     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
8649       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
8650 </pre></blockquote>
8651
8652 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
8653 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
8654 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
8655 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
8656
8657 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
8658 like this:</p>
8659
8660 <blockquote><pre>
8661 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8662 dc: hostname
8663 objectClass: top
8664 objectClass: dhcpHost
8665 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
8666 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
8667 associateddomain: hostname.intern
8668 arecord: 10.11.12.13
8669 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
8670 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
8671 </pre></blockquote>
8672
8673 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
8674 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
8675 auxiliary object class.</p>
8676
8677       </div>
8678       <div class="tags">
8679
8680
8681         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>.
8682
8683
8684       </div>
8685     </div>
8686     <div class="padding"></div>
8687
8688     <div class="entry">
8689       <div class="title">
8690         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
8691       </div>
8692       <div class="date">
8693         14th July 2010
8694       </div>
8695       <div class="body">
8696         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
8697 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
8698 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
8699 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
8700 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
8701
8702 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
8703 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
8704
8705 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
8706 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
8707 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
8708 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
8709 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
8710 to a slave DNS server.</p>
8711
8712 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
8713 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
8714 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
8715 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
8716 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
8717 seem to work.</p>
8718
8719 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
8720 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
8721 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
8722 this:</p>
8723
8724 <blockquote><pre>
8725   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8726   cn: hostname
8727   objectClass: dhcphost
8728   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
8729   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
8730   associateddomain: hostname.intern
8731   arecord: 10.11.12.13
8732   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
8733   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
8734   ldapconfigsound: Y
8735 </pre></blockquote>
8736
8737 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
8738 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
8739 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
8740 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
8741
8742 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
8743 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
8744 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
8745 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
8746 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
8747 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
8748 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
8749 might be a good place to put it.</p>
8750
8751 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
8752 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8753
8754       </div>
8755       <div class="tags">
8756
8757
8758         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>.
8759
8760
8761       </div>
8762     </div>
8763     <div class="padding"></div>
8764
8765     <div class="entry">
8766       <div class="title">
8767         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
8768       </div>
8769       <div class="date">
8770         11th July 2010
8771       </div>
8772       <div class="body">
8773         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
8774 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
8775 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
8776 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
8777
8778 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
8779 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
8780 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
8781 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
8782 LTSP clients.</p>
8783
8784 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
8785 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
8786 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
8787
8788 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
8789 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
8790 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
8791
8792 <blockquote><pre>
8793 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
8794 #
8795 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
8796 #
8797 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
8798 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
8799 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
8800 #
8801 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
8802 # existence of attribute names.
8803 #
8804 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
8805 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
8806 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
8807 #
8808 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
8809 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
8810 #
8811 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
8812 #     SUP top
8813 #     AUXILIARY
8814 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
8815
8816 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
8817 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
8818     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
8819     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
8820         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
8821         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
8822             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
8823             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
8824             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
8825             # bass value on to clients
8826             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
8827         done
8828     done
8829 fi
8830 </pre></blockquote>
8831
8832 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
8833 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
8834 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
8835 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
8836 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
8837
8838 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
8839 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8840
8841 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
8842 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
8843 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
8844 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
8845 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
8846 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
8847
8848       </div>
8849       <div class="tags">
8850
8851
8852         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>.
8853
8854
8855       </div>
8856     </div>
8857     <div class="padding"></div>
8858
8859     <div class="entry">
8860       <div class="title">
8861         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
8862       </div>
8863       <div class="date">
8864          9th July 2010
8865       </div>
8866       <div class="body">
8867         <p>Since
8868 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
8869 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
8870 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
8871 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
8872 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
8873 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
8874 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
8875 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
8876 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
8877 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
8878 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
8879 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
8880 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
8881
8882       </div>
8883       <div class="tags">
8884
8885
8886         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>.
8887
8888
8889       </div>
8890     </div>
8891     <div class="padding"></div>
8892
8893     <div class="entry">
8894       <div class="title">
8895         <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>
8896       </div>
8897       <div class="date">
8898          3rd July 2010
8899       </div>
8900       <div class="body">
8901         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
8902 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
8903 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
8904 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
8905 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
8906 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
8907 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
8908 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
8909
8910 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
8911 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
8912 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
8913 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
8914 publish the difference.</p>
8915
8916 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8917
8918 <blockquote><p>
8919   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
8920   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
8921   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
8922   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
8923   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
8924   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
8925   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
8926   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
8927 </p></blockquote>
8928
8929 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
8930
8931 <blockquote><p>
8932   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
8933   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
8934   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
8935   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
8936   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
8937   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
8938   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
8939   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
8940   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
8941   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
8942   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
8943   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
8944   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
8945   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
8946   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
8947   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
8948   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
8949   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
8950   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
8951   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
8952 </p></blockquote>
8953
8954 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
8955
8956 <blockquote><p>
8957   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
8958   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
8959   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
8960   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
8961   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
8962   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
8963   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
8964   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
8965   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
8966   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
8967   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
8968   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
8969   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
8970   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
8971   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
8972   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
8973   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
8974   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
8975   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
8976   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
8977   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
8978 </p></blockquote>
8979
8980 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
8981
8982 <blockquote><p>
8983   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
8984   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
8985   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
8986 </p></blockquote>
8987
8988 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
8989 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
8990 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
8991 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
8992 the difference somewhat.
8993
8994       </div>
8995       <div class="tags">
8996
8997
8998         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>.
8999
9000
9001       </div>
9002     </div>
9003     <div class="padding"></div>
9004
9005     <div class="entry">
9006       <div class="title">
9007         <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>
9008       </div>
9009       <div class="date">
9010          1st July 2010
9011       </div>
9012       <div class="body">
9013         <p>For a laptop, centralized user directories and password checking is
9014 a bit troubling.  Laptops are typically used also when not connected
9015 to the network, and it is vital for a user to be able to log in or
9016 unlock the screen saver also when a central server is unavailable.
9017 This is possible by caching passwords and directory information (user
9018 and group attributes) locally, and the packages to do so are available
9019 in Debian.  Here follow two recipes to set this up in Debian/Squeeze.
9020 It is also possible to set up in Debian/Lenny, but require more manual
9021 setup there because pam-auth-update is missing in Lenny.</p>
9022
9023 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nscd + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir</h2>
9024
9025 This is the traditional method with a twist.  The password caching is
9026 provided by libpam-ccreds (version 10-4 or later is needed on
9027 Squeeze), and the directory caching is done by nscd.  The directory
9028 lookup and password checking is done using LDAP.  If one want to use
9029 Kerberos for password checking the libpam-ldapd package can be
9030 replaced with libpam-krb5 or libpam-heimdal.  If one is happy having a
9031 local home directory with the path listed in LDAP, one can use the
9032 pam_mkhomedir module from pam-modules to make this happen instead of
9033 using libpam-mklocaluser.  A setup for pam-auth-update to enable
9034 pam_mkhomedir will have to be written until a fix for
9035 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/568577">bug #568577</a> is in the
9036 archive.  Because I believe it is a bad idea to have local home
9037 directories using misleading paths like /site/server/partition/, I
9038 prefer to create a local user with the home directory in /home/.  This
9039 is done using the libpam-mklocaluser package.</p>
9040
9041 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured</p>
9042
9043 <blockquote><pre>
9044 libnss-ldapd libpam-ldapd nscd libpam-ccreds libpam-mklocaluser
9045 </pre></blockquote>
9046
9047 <p>The ldapd packages will ask for LDAP connection information, and
9048 one have to fill in the values that fits ones own site.  Make sure the
9049 PAM part uses encrypted connections, to make sure the password is not
9050 sent in clear text to the LDAP server.  I've been unable to get TLS
9051 certificate checking for a self signed certificate working, which make
9052 LDAP authentication unsafe for Debian Edu (nslcd is not checking if it
9053 is talking to the correct LDAP server), and very much welcome feedback
9054 on how to get this working.</p>
9055
9056 <p>Because nscd do not have a default configuration fit for offline
9057 caching until <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">bug #485282</a>
9058 is fixed, this configuration should be used instead of the one
9059 currently in /etc/nscd.conf.  The changes are in the fields
9060 reload-count and positive-time-to-live, and is based on the
9061 instructions I found in the
9062 <a href="http://www.flyn.org/laptopldap/">LDAP for Mobile Laptops</a>
9063 instructions by Flyn Computing.</p>
9064
9065 <blockquote><pre>
9066         debug-level             0
9067         reload-count            unlimited
9068         paranoia                no
9069
9070         enable-cache            passwd          yes
9071         positive-time-to-live   passwd          2592000
9072         negative-time-to-live   passwd          20
9073         suggested-size          passwd          211
9074         check-files             passwd          yes
9075         persistent              passwd          yes
9076         shared                  passwd          yes
9077         max-db-size             passwd          33554432
9078         auto-propagate          passwd          yes
9079
9080         enable-cache            group           yes
9081         positive-time-to-live   group           2592000
9082         negative-time-to-live   group           20
9083         suggested-size          group           211
9084         check-files             group           yes
9085         persistent              group           yes
9086         shared                  group           yes
9087         max-db-size             group           33554432
9088         auto-propagate          group           yes
9089
9090         enable-cache            hosts           no
9091         positive-time-to-live   hosts           2592000
9092         negative-time-to-live   hosts           20
9093         suggested-size          hosts           211
9094         check-files             hosts           yes
9095         persistent              hosts           yes
9096         shared                  hosts           yes
9097         max-db-size             hosts           33554432
9098
9099         enable-cache            services        yes
9100         positive-time-to-live   services        2592000
9101         negative-time-to-live   services        20
9102         suggested-size          services        211
9103         check-files             services        yes
9104         persistent              services        yes
9105         shared                  services        yes
9106         max-db-size             services        33554432
9107 </pre></blockquote>
9108
9109 <p>While we wait for a mechanism to update /etc/nsswitch.conf
9110 automatically like the one provided in
9111 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/496915">bug #496915</a>, the file
9112 content need to be manually replaced to ensure LDAP is used as the
9113 directory service on the machine.  /etc/nsswitch.conf should normally
9114 look like this:</p>
9115
9116 <blockquote><pre>
9117 passwd:         files ldap
9118 group:          files ldap
9119 shadow:         files ldap
9120 hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
9121 networks:       files
9122 protocols:      files
9123 services:       files
9124 ethers:         files
9125 rpc:            files
9126 netgroup:       files ldap
9127 </pre></blockquote>
9128
9129 <p>The important parts are that ldap is listed last for passwd, group,
9130 shadow and netgroup.</p>
9131
9132 <p>With these changes in place, any user in LDAP will be able to log
9133 in locally on the machine using for example kdm, get a local home
9134 directory created and have the password as well as user and group
9135 attributes cached.
9136
9137 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nss-updatedb + libpam-ccreds +
9138   libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir</h2>
9139
9140 <p>Because nscd have had its share of problems, and seem to have
9141 problems doing proper caching, I've seen suggestions and recipes to
9142 use nss-updatedb to copy parts of the LDAP database locally when the
9143 LDAP database is available.  I have not tested such setup, because I
9144 discovered sssd.</p>
9145
9146 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + sssd + libpam-mklocaluser</h2>
9147
9148 <p>A more flexible and robust setup than the nscd combination
9149 mentioned earlier that has shown up recently, is the
9150 <a href="https://fedorahosted.org/sssd/">sssd</a> package from Redhat.
9151 It is part of the <a href="http://www.freeipa.org/">FreeIPA</A> project
9152 to provide a Active Directory like directory service for Linux
9153 machines.  The sssd system combines the caching of passwords and user
9154 information into one package, and remove the need for nscd and
9155 libpam-ccreds.  It support LDAP and Kerberos, but not NIS.  Version
9156 1.2 do not support netgroups, but it is said that it will support this
9157 in version 1.5 expected to show up later in 2010.  Because the
9158 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd package</a>
9159 was missing in Debian, I ended up co-maintaining it with Werner, and
9160 version 1.2 is now in testing.
9161
9162 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured to get the
9163 roaming setup I want</p>
9164
9165 <blockquote><pre>
9166 libpam-sss libnss-sss libpam-mklocaluser
9167 </pre></blockquote>
9168
9169 The complete setup of sssd is done by editing/creating
9170 <tt>/etc/sssd/sssd.conf</tt>.
9171
9172 <blockquote><pre>
9173 [sssd]
9174 config_file_version = 2
9175 reconnection_retries = 3
9176 sbus_timeout = 30
9177 services = nss, pam
9178 domains = INTERN
9179
9180 [nss]
9181 filter_groups = root
9182 filter_users = root
9183 reconnection_retries = 3
9184
9185 [pam]
9186 reconnection_retries = 3
9187
9188 [domain/INTERN]
9189 enumerate = false
9190 cache_credentials = true
9191
9192 id_provider = ldap
9193 auth_provider = ldap
9194 chpass_provider = ldap
9195
9196 ldap_uri = ldap://ldap
9197 ldap_search_base = dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9198 ldap_tls_reqcert = never
9199 ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
9200 </pre></blockquote>
9201
9202 <p>I got the same problem here with certificate checking.  Had to set
9203 "ldap_tls_reqcert = never" to get it working.</p>
9204
9205 <p>With the libnss-sss package in testing at the moment, the
9206 nsswitch.conf file is update automatically, so there is no need to
9207 modify it manually.</p>
9208
9209 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9210 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9211
9212       </div>
9213       <div class="tags">
9214
9215
9216         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>.
9217
9218
9219       </div>
9220     </div>
9221     <div class="padding"></div>
9222
9223     <div class="entry">
9224       <div class="title">
9225         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
9226       </div>
9227       <div class="date">
9228         28th June 2010
9229       </div>
9230       <div class="body">
9231         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
9232 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
9233 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
9234 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
9235 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
9236 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
9237 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
9238 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
9239 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
9240 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
9241
9242 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
9243 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
9244 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
9245 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
9246 released.</p>
9247
9248 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
9249 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
9250 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
9251 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
9252
9253 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
9254 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9255
9256 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
9257 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
9258 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
9259 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
9260 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
9261
9262       </div>
9263       <div class="tags">
9264
9265
9266         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>.
9267
9268
9269       </div>
9270     </div>
9271     <div class="padding"></div>
9272
9273     <div class="entry">
9274       <div class="title">
9275         <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>
9276       </div>
9277       <div class="date">
9278         24th June 2010
9279       </div>
9280       <div class="body">
9281         <p>A while back, I
9282 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
9283 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
9284 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
9285 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
9286
9287 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
9288 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
9289 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
9290 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
9291
9292 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
9293 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
9294 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
9295 Debian Edu.</p>
9296
9297 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
9298 the
9299 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
9300 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
9301 available today from IETF.</p>
9302
9303 <pre>
9304 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
9305 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
9306 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
9307  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
9308         NAME 'dhcpHost'
9309         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
9310 -       SUP top
9311 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
9312         MUST cn
9313         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
9314         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
9315 </pre>
9316
9317 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
9318 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
9319 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
9320
9321 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9322 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9323
9324       </div>
9325       <div class="tags">
9326
9327
9328         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>.
9329
9330
9331       </div>
9332     </div>
9333     <div class="padding"></div>
9334
9335     <div class="entry">
9336       <div class="title">
9337         <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>
9338       </div>
9339       <div class="date">
9340         16th June 2010
9341       </div>
9342       <div class="body">
9343         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
9344 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
9345 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
9346 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
9347 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
9348 this:
9349
9350 <blockquote><pre>
9351 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
9352 tasksel --new-install
9353 </pre></blockquote>
9354
9355 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
9356 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
9357 any output what so ever.
9358
9359 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
9360 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
9361 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
9362 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
9363 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
9364 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
9365 code like this:
9366
9367 <blockquote><pre>
9368 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
9369 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
9370 $cmd
9371 </pre></blockquote>
9372
9373 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
9374 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
9375 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
9376 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
9377 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
9378 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
9379 installation.</p>
9380
9381 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
9382 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
9383 like this.</p>
9384
9385       </div>
9386       <div class="tags">
9387
9388
9389         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>.
9390
9391
9392       </div>
9393     </div>
9394     <div class="padding"></div>
9395
9396     <div class="entry">
9397       <div class="title">
9398         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">Officeshots taking shape</a>
9399       </div>
9400       <div class="date">
9401         13th June 2010
9402       </div>
9403       <div class="body">
9404         <p>For those of us caring about document exchange and
9405 interoperability, <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>
9406 is a great service.  It is to ODF documents what
9407 <a href="http://browsershots.org/">BrowserShots</a> is for web
9408 pages.</p>
9409
9410 <p>A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia
9411 that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project
9412 and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be
9413 interested in supporting the project.  I helped him to navigate his
9414 request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with
9415 a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut
9416 arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot.  The machine is
9417 administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily
9418 contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to
9419 see how the project is doing.</p>
9420
9421 <p>Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our
9422 machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as
9423 OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents
9424 in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and
9425 Windows.  This is great.</p>
9426
9427       </div>
9428       <div class="tags">
9429
9430
9431         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>.
9432
9433
9434       </div>
9435     </div>
9436     <div class="padding"></div>
9437
9438     <div class="entry">
9439       <div class="title">
9440         <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>
9441       </div>
9442       <div class="date">
9443         13th June 2010
9444       </div>
9445       <div class="body">
9446         <p>My
9447 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
9448 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
9449 finally made the upgrade logs available from
9450 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
9451 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
9452 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
9453 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
9454
9455 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
9456 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
9457 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
9458 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
9459 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
9460 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
9461 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
9462 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
9463
9464 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
9465 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
9466 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
9467 too surprising.</p>
9468
9469 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
9470 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
9471 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
9472 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
9473 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
9474 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
9475 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
9476 continue.</p>
9477
9478 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
9479 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
9480   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
9481   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
9482   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
9483   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
9484   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
9485   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
9486   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
9487   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
9488   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
9489   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
9490   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
9491   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
9492   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
9493   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
9494   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
9495   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
9496   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
9497   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
9498   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
9499   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
9500   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
9501   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
9502   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
9503   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
9504   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
9505   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
9506   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
9507   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
9508
9509 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
9510
9511 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
9512   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
9513   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
9514   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
9515   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
9516   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
9517   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
9518   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
9519   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
9520   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
9521   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
9522   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
9523   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
9524   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
9525   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
9526   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
9527   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
9528   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
9529   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
9530   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
9531   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
9532   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
9533   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
9534   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
9535   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
9536   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
9537   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
9538   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
9539   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
9540   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
9541   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
9542   zip</p>
9543
9544 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
9545
9546 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
9547   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
9548   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
9549   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
9550   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
9551   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
9552   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
9553   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
9554   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
9555   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
9556   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
9557   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
9558   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
9559   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
9560   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
9561   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
9562   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
9563   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
9564   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
9565   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
9566   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
9567   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
9568   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
9569   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
9570   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
9571   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
9572   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
9573   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
9574
9575 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
9576 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
9577   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
9578   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
9579   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
9580   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
9581   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
9582   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
9583   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
9584   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
9585   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
9586   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
9587   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
9588   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
9589   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
9590   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
9591   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
9592   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
9593   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
9594   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
9595   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
9596   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
9597   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
9598   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
9599   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
9600   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
9601   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
9602   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
9603   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
9604   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
9605   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
9606   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
9607   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
9608   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
9609   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
9610   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
9611   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
9612   xulrunner-1.9</p>
9613
9614
9615       </div>
9616       <div class="tags">
9617
9618
9619         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>.
9620
9621
9622       </div>
9623     </div>
9624     <div class="padding"></div>
9625
9626     <div class="entry">
9627       <div class="title">
9628         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
9629       </div>
9630       <div class="date">
9631         11th June 2010
9632       </div>
9633       <div class="body">
9634         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
9635 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
9636 have been discovered and reported in the process
9637 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
9638 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
9639 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
9640 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
9641 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
9642
9643 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
9644 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
9645 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
9646 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
9647 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
9648 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
9649
9650 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
9651 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
9652 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
9653 is created.  The bug report
9654 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
9655 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
9656 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
9657 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
9658 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
9659 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
9660 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
9661 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
9662 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
9663 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
9664 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
9665 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
9666 Debian Squeeze.</p>
9667
9668 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
9669 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
9670 trick:</p>
9671
9672 <blockquote><pre>
9673 #!/bin/sh
9674 set -ex
9675
9676 if [ "$1" ] ; then
9677     desktop=$1
9678 else
9679     desktop=gnome
9680 fi
9681
9682 from=lenny
9683 to=squeeze
9684
9685 exec &lt; /dev/null
9686 unset LANG
9687 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
9688 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
9689 fuser -mv .
9690 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
9691 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
9692 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
9693 #!/bin/sh
9694 exit 101
9695 EOF
9696 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
9697 exit_cleanup() {
9698     umount $tmpdir/proc
9699 }
9700 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
9701 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
9702 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
9703
9704 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
9705
9706 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
9707 # to return the correct answers.
9708 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
9709     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
9710
9711 # Include the desktop and laptop task
9712 for test in desktop laptop ; do
9713     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
9714 #!/bin/sh
9715 exit 2
9716 EOF
9717     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
9718 done
9719
9720 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
9721 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
9722 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
9723 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
9724
9725 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
9726 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
9727 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
9728 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
9729 fuser -mv
9730 </pre></blockquote>
9731
9732 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
9733 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
9734 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
9735 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
9736 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
9737 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
9738
9739 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
9740 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
9741 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
9742 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
9743 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
9744 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
9745 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
9746
9747 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
9748 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
9749 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
9750 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
9751 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
9752 packages.</p>
9753
9754       </div>
9755       <div class="tags">
9756
9757
9758         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>.
9759
9760
9761       </div>
9762     </div>
9763     <div class="padding"></div>
9764
9765     <div class="entry">
9766       <div class="title">
9767         <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>
9768       </div>
9769       <div class="date">
9770          6th June 2010
9771       </div>
9772       <div class="body">
9773         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
9774 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
9775 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
9776 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
9777 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
9778 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
9779 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
9780
9781 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
9782 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
9783 COLUMNS):</p>
9784
9785 <blockquote><pre>
9786 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
9787 previous=N
9788 PREVLEVEL=
9789 RUNLEVEL=
9790 runlevel=S
9791 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
9792 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
9793 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
9794 </pre></blockquote>
9795
9796 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
9797 script.</p>
9798
9799 <blockquote><pre>
9800 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
9801 previous=N
9802 PREVLEVEL=N
9803 RUNLEVEL=S
9804 runlevel=S
9805 </pre></blockquote>
9806
9807 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
9808 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
9809 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
9810
9811 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
9812 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
9813 choice.</p>
9814
9815       </div>
9816       <div class="tags">
9817
9818
9819         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>.
9820
9821
9822       </div>
9823     </div>
9824     <div class="padding"></div>
9825
9826     <div class="entry">
9827       <div class="title">
9828         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
9829       </div>
9830       <div class="date">
9831          6th June 2010
9832       </div>
9833       <div class="body">
9834         <p>Via the
9835 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
9836 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
9837 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
9838 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
9839 following the standards wars of today.</p>
9840
9841       </div>
9842       <div class="tags">
9843
9844
9845         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>.
9846
9847
9848       </div>
9849     </div>
9850     <div class="padding"></div>
9851
9852     <div class="entry">
9853       <div class="title">
9854         <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>
9855       </div>
9856       <div class="date">
9857          3rd June 2010
9858       </div>
9859       <div class="body">
9860         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
9861 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
9862 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
9863 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
9864 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
9865
9866 <blockquote><pre>
9867 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
9868   vendor                    count
9869   Dell Computer Corporation     1
9870     PowerEdge 1750              1
9871   IBM                           1
9872     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
9873   Intel                         2
9874   [no-dmi-info]                 3
9875 maintainer:~#
9876 </pre></blockquote>
9877
9878 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
9879 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
9880 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
9881 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
9882 option to list the individual machines.</p>
9883
9884 <p>A larger list is
9885 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
9886 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
9887 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
9888 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
9889 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
9890 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
9891 collector.</p>
9892
9893       </div>
9894       <div class="tags">
9895
9896
9897         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>.
9898
9899
9900       </div>
9901     </div>
9902     <div class="padding"></div>
9903
9904     <div class="entry">
9905       <div class="title">
9906         <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>
9907       </div>
9908       <div class="date">
9909          1st June 2010
9910       </div>
9911       <div class="body">
9912         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
9913 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
9914 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
9915 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
9916 wait.</p>
9917
9918 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
9919 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
9920 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
9921 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
9922 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
9923 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
9924
9925 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
9926 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
9927 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
9928 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
9929 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
9930 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
9931 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
9932 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
9933
9934 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
9935
9936       </div>
9937       <div class="tags">
9938
9939
9940         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>.
9941
9942
9943       </div>
9944     </div>
9945     <div class="padding"></div>
9946
9947     <div class="entry">
9948       <div class="title">
9949         <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>
9950       </div>
9951       <div class="date">
9952         27th May 2010
9953       </div>
9954       <div class="body">
9955         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
9956 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
9957 issues are known and should be solved:
9958
9959 <p><ul>
9960
9961 <li>The wicd package seen to
9962 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
9963 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
9964 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
9965 seem to be on the case.</li>
9966
9967 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
9968 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
9969 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
9970 maintainer is on the case.</li>
9971
9972 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
9973 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
9974 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
9975 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
9976 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
9977 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
9978 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
9979 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
9980
9981 </ul></p>
9982
9983 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
9984 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
9985 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
9986 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
9987
9988 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
9989 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
9990 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
9991 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
9992
9993 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
9994
9995       </div>
9996       <div class="tags">
9997
9998
9999         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>.
10000
10001
10002       </div>
10003     </div>
10004     <div class="padding"></div>
10005
10006     <div class="entry">
10007       <div class="title">
10008         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
10009       </div>
10010       <div class="date">
10011         22nd May 2010
10012       </div>
10013       <div class="body">
10014         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
10015 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
10016 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
10017 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
10018
10019 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
10020 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
10021 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
10022 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
10023 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
10024 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
10025 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
10026 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
10027 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
10028 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
10029 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
10030 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
10031 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
10032 going to work.</p>
10033
10034 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
10035 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
10036 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
10037 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
10038 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
10039 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
10040 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
10041 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
10042 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
10043 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
10044 Edu.</p>
10045
10046 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
10047 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
10048 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
10049 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
10050 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
10051 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
10052
10053 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
10054 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
10055
10056       </div>
10057       <div class="tags">
10058
10059
10060         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>.
10061
10062
10063       </div>
10064     </div>
10065     <div class="padding"></div>
10066
10067     <div class="entry">
10068       <div class="title">
10069         <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>
10070       </div>
10071       <div class="date">
10072         19th May 2010
10073       </div>
10074       <div class="body">
10075         <p>Today, the last piece of the puzzle for roaming laptops in Debian
10076 Edu finally entered the Debian archive.  Today, the new
10077 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-mklocaluser.html">libpam-mklocaluser</a>
10078 package was accepted.  Two days ago, two other pieces was accepted
10079 into unstable.  The
10080 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pam-python.html">pam-python</a>
10081 package needed by libpam-mklocaluser, and the
10082 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd</a> package
10083 passed NEW on Monday.  In addition, the
10084 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a>
10085 package we need is in experimental (version 10-4) since Saturday, and
10086 hopefully will be moved to unstable soon.</p>
10087
10088 <p>This collection of packages allow for two different setups for
10089 roaming laptops.  The traditional setup would be using libpam-ccreds,
10090 nscd and libpam-mklocaluser with LDAP or Kerberos authentication,
10091 which should work out of the box if the configuration changes proposed
10092 for nscd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">BTS report
10093 #485282</a> is implemented.  The alternative setup is to use sssd with
10094 libpam-mklocaluser to connect to LDAP or Kerberos and let sssd take
10095 care of the caching of passwords and group information.</p>
10096
10097 <p>I have so far been unable to get sssd to work with the LDAP server
10098 at the University, but suspect the issue is some SSL/GnuTLS related
10099 problem with the server certificate.  I plan to update the Debian
10100 package to version 1.2, which is scheduled for next week, and hope to
10101 find time to make sure the next release will include both the
10102 Debian/Ubuntu specific patches.  Upstream is friendly and responsive,
10103 and I am sure we will find a good solution.</p>
10104
10105 <p>The idea is to set up the roaming laptops to authenticate using
10106 LDAP or Kerberos and create a local user with home directory in /home/
10107 when a usre in LDAP logs in via KDM or GDM for the first time, and
10108 cache the password for offline checking, as well as caching group
10109 memberhips and other relevant LDAP information.  The
10110 libpam-mklocaluser package was created to make sure the local home
10111 directory is in /home/, instead of /site/server/directory/ which would
10112 be the home directory if pam_mkhomedir was used.  To avoid confusion
10113 with support requests and configuration, we do not want local laptops
10114 to have users in a path that is used for the same users home directory
10115 on the home directory servers.</p>
10116
10117 <p>One annoying problem with gdm is that it do not show the PAM
10118 message passed to the user from libpam-mklocaluser when the local user
10119 is created.  Instead gdm simply reject the login with some generic
10120 message.  The message is shown in kdm, ssh and login, so I guess it is
10121 a bug in gdm.  Have not investigated if there is some other message
10122 type that can be used instead to get gdm to also show the message.</p>
10123
10124 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10125 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10126
10127       </div>
10128       <div class="tags">
10129
10130
10131         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>.
10132
10133
10134       </div>
10135     </div>
10136     <div class="padding"></div>
10137
10138     <div class="entry">
10139       <div class="title">
10140         <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>
10141       </div>
10142       <div class="date">
10143         14th May 2010
10144       </div>
10145       <div class="body">
10146         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
10147 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
10148 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
10149 expected, if I am to believe the
10150 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
10151 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
10152 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
10153 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
10154 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
10155 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
10156 version.</p>
10157
10158 More information about
10159 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
10160 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
10161 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
10162 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
10163
10164 <blockquote><pre>
10165 CONCURRENCY=none
10166 </pre></blockquote>
10167
10168 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10169 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10170 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
10171 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
10172
10173       </div>
10174       <div class="tags">
10175
10176
10177         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>.
10178
10179
10180       </div>
10181     </div>
10182     <div class="padding"></div>
10183
10184     <div class="entry">
10185       <div class="title">
10186         <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>
10187       </div>
10188       <div class="date">
10189         14th May 2010
10190       </div>
10191       <div class="body">
10192         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
10193 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
10194 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
10195 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
10196 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
10197 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
10198 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
10199 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
10200
10201 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
10202 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
10203 this on the collector host:</p>
10204
10205 <blockquote><pre>
10206 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
10207 </pre></blockquote>
10208
10209 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
10210 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
10211
10212 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
10213 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
10214 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
10215 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
10216 written yet.</p>
10217
10218       </div>
10219       <div class="tags">
10220
10221
10222         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>.
10223
10224
10225       </div>
10226     </div>
10227     <div class="padding"></div>
10228
10229     <div class="entry">
10230       <div class="title">
10231         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
10232       </div>
10233       <div class="date">
10234         13th May 2010
10235       </div>
10236       <div class="body">
10237         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
10238 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
10239 has been
10240 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
10241
10242 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
10243 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
10244 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
10245 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
10246 based boot system.  Tollef is
10247 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
10248 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
10249 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
10250 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
10251 at the moment do not.</p>
10252
10253 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
10254 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
10255 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
10256 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
10257 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
10258 way forward.</p>
10259
10260 <p>In the mean time, based on the
10261 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
10262 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
10263 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
10264 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
10265 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
10266 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
10267 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
10268 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
10269
10270       </div>
10271       <div class="tags">
10272
10273
10274         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>.
10275
10276
10277       </div>
10278     </div>
10279     <div class="padding"></div>
10280
10281     <div class="entry">
10282       <div class="title">
10283         <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>
10284       </div>
10285       <div class="date">
10286          6th May 2010
10287       </div>
10288       <div class="body">
10289         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
10290 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
10291 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
10292 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
10293 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
10294 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
10295 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
10296
10297 <blockquote><pre>
10298 CONCURRENCY=makefile
10299 </pre></blockquote>
10300
10301 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
10302 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
10303 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
10304 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
10305 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
10306 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
10307 make this happen.</p>
10308
10309 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
10310 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
10311 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
10312 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
10313 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
10314
10315 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
10316 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
10317 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
10318 fix the remaining issues.</p>
10319
10320 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10321 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10322 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
10323 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
10324
10325       </div>
10326       <div class="tags">
10327
10328
10329         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>.
10330
10331
10332       </div>
10333     </div>
10334     <div class="padding"></div>
10335
10336     <div class="entry">
10337       <div class="title">
10338         <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>
10339       </div>
10340       <div class="date">
10341          2nd May 2010
10342       </div>
10343       <div class="body">
10344         <p>One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to
10345 create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to
10346 change the password on the first login attempt.</p>
10347
10348 <p>I'm not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian
10349 Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account.  The account
10350 and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but
10351 unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for
10352 passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.</p>
10353
10354 <p>A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these
10355 settings in /etc/shadow:</p>
10356
10357 <blockquote><pre>
10358 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
10359 Last password change                                    : May 02, 2010
10360 Password expires                                        : never
10361 Password inactive                                       : never
10362 Account expires                                         : never
10363 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
10364 Maximum number of days between password change          : 99999
10365 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
10366 root@tjener:~#
10367 </pre></blockquote>
10368
10369 <p>The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired
10370 account, is to change the date of the last password change to the
10371 lowest value possible (January 1th 1970), and the maximum password age
10372 to the difference in days between that date and today.  To make it
10373 simple, I went for 30 years (30 * 365 = 10950) and January 2th (to
10374 avoid testing if 0 is a valid value).</p>
10375
10376 <p>After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as
10377 intended:</p>
10378
10379 <blockquote><pre>
10380 root@tjener:~# chage -d 1 test; chage -M 10950 test
10381 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
10382 Last password change                                    : Jan 02, 1970
10383 Password expires                                        : never
10384 Password inactive                                       : never
10385 Account expires                                         : never
10386 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
10387 Maximum number of days between password change          : 10950
10388 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
10389 root@tjener:~#
10390 </pre></blockquote>
10391
10392 <p>So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in
10393 Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the
10394 user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).</p>
10395
10396 <p>Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make
10397 sure only the user itself have the account password?</p>
10398
10399 <p>If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for
10400 Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10401
10402 <p>Update 2010-05-02 17:20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the
10403 shadow(8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of
10404 last password change to zero (0) will force the password to be changed
10405 on the first login.  This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so
10406 I did not notice this in my initial testing.  I have tested it on
10407 Squeeze, and '<tt>chage -d 0 username</tt>' do work there.  I have not
10408 tested it on Lenny yet.</p>
10409
10410 <p>Update 2010-05-02-19:05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an
10411 equivalent command to expire a password is '<tt>passwd -e
10412 username</tt>', which insert zero into the date of the last password
10413 change.</p>
10414
10415       </div>
10416       <div class="tags">
10417
10418
10419         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>.
10420
10421
10422       </div>
10423     </div>
10424     <div class="padding"></div>
10425
10426     <div class="entry">
10427       <div class="title">
10428         <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>
10429       </div>
10430       <div class="date">
10431         28th April 2010
10432       </div>
10433       <div class="body">
10434         <p>For some years now, I have wondered how we should handle laptops in
10435 Debian Edu.  The Debian Edu infrastructure is mostly designed to
10436 handle stationary computers, and less suited for computers that come
10437 and go.</p>
10438
10439 <p>Now I finally believe I have an sensible idea on how to adjust
10440 Debian Edu for laptops, by introducing a new profile for them, for
10441 example called Roaming Workstations.  Here are my thought on this.
10442 The setup would consist of the following:</p>
10443
10444 <ul>
10445
10446  <li>During installation, the user name of the owner / primary user of
10447    the laptop is requested and a local home directory is set up for
10448    the user, with uid and gid information fetched from the LDAP
10449    server.  This allow the user to work also when offline.  The
10450    central home directory can be available in a subdirectory on
10451    request, for example mounted via CIFS.  It could be mounted
10452    automatically when a user log in while on the Debian Edu network,
10453    and unmounted when the machine is taken away (network down,
10454    hibernate, etc), it can be set up to do automatic mounting on
10455    request (using autofs), or perhaps some GUI button on the desktop
10456    can be used to access it when needed.  Perhaps it is enough to use
10457    the fish protocol in KDE?</li>
10458
10459  <li>Password checking is set up to use LDAP or Kerberos
10460    authentication when the machine is on the Debian Edu network, and
10461    to cache the password for offline checking when the machine unable
10462    to reach the LDAP or Kerberos server.  This can be done using
10463    <a href="http://www.padl.com/OSS/pam_ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a>
10464    or the Fedora developed
10465    <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD">System
10466    Security Services Daemon</a> packages.</li>
10467
10468  <li>File synchronisation with the central home directory is set up
10469    using a shared directory in both the local and the central home
10470    directory, using unison.</li>
10471
10472  <li>Printing should be set up to print to all printers broadcasting
10473    their existence on the local network, and should then work out of
10474    the box with CUPS.  For sites needing accurate printer quotas, some
10475    system with Kerberos authentication or printing via ssh could be
10476    implemented.</li>
10477
10478  <li>For users that should have local root access to their laptop,
10479    sudo should be used to allow this to the local user.</li>
10480
10481  <li>It would be nice if user and group information from LDAP is
10482    cached on the client, but given that there are entries for the
10483    local user and primary group in /etc/, it should not be needed.</li>
10484
10485 </ul>
10486
10487 <p>I believe all the pieces to implement this are in Debian/testing at
10488 the moment.  If we work quickly, we should be able to get this ready
10489 in time for the Squeeze release to freeze.  Some of the pieces need
10490 tweaking, like libpam-ccreds should get support for pam-auth-update
10491 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566718">#566718</a>) and nslcd (or
10492 perhaps debian-edu-config) should get some integration code to stop
10493 its daemon when the LDAP server is unavailable to avoid long timeouts
10494 when disconnected from the net.  If we get Kerberos enabled, we need
10495 to make sure we avoid long timeouts there too.</p>
10496
10497 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10498 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10499
10500       </div>
10501       <div class="tags">
10502
10503
10504         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>.
10505
10506
10507       </div>
10508     </div>
10509     <div class="padding"></div>
10510
10511     <div class="entry">
10512       <div class="title">
10513         <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>
10514       </div>
10515       <div class="date">
10516         19th April 2010
10517       </div>
10518       <div class="body">
10519         <p>The last few weeks i have had the pleasure of reading a
10520 thought-provoking collection of essays by Cory Doctorow, on topics
10521 touching copyright, virtual worlds, the future of man when the
10522 conscience mind can be duplicated into a computer and many more. The
10523 book titled "Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity,
10524 Copyright, and the Future of the Future" is available with few
10525 restrictions on the web, for example from
10526 <a href="http://craphound.com/content/">his own site</a>. I read the
10527 epub-version from
10528 <a href="http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2883">feedbooks</a> using
10529 <a href="http://www.fbreader.org/">fbreader</a> and my N810. I
10530 strongly recommend this book.</p>
10531
10532       </div>
10533       <div class="tags">
10534
10535
10536         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>.
10537
10538
10539       </div>
10540     </div>
10541     <div class="padding"></div>
10542
10543     <div class="entry">
10544       <div class="title">
10545         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kerberos_for_Debian_Edu_Squeeze_.html">Kerberos for Debian Edu/Squeeze?</a>
10546       </div>
10547       <div class="date">
10548         14th April 2010
10549       </div>
10550       <div class="body">
10551         <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20100413-kerberos/">Yesterdays
10552 NUUG presentation</a> about Kerberos was inspiring, and reminded me
10553 about the need to start using Kerberos in Skolelinux.  Setting up a
10554 Kerberos server seem to be straight forward, and if we get this in
10555 place a long time before the Squeeze version of Debian freezes, we
10556 have a chance to migrate Skolelinux away from NFSv3 for the home
10557 directories, and over to an architecture where the infrastructure do
10558 not have to trust IP addresses and machines, and instead can trust
10559 users and cryptographic keys instead.</p>
10560
10561 <p>A challenge will be integration and administration.  Is there a
10562 Kerberos implementation for Debian where one can control the
10563 administration access in Kerberos using LDAP groups?  With it, the
10564 school administration will have to maintain access control using flat
10565 files on the main server, which give a huge potential for errors.</p>
10566
10567 <p>A related question I would like to know is how well Kerberos and
10568 pam-ccreds (offline password check) work together.  Anyone know?</p>
10569
10570 <p>Next step will be to use Kerberos for access control in Lwat and
10571 Nagios.  I have no idea how much work that will be to implement.  We
10572 would also need to document how to integrate with Windows AD, as such
10573 shared network will require two Kerberos realms that need to cooperate
10574 to work properly.</p>
10575
10576 <p>I believe a good start would be to start using Kerberos on the
10577 skolelinux.no machines, and this way get ourselves experience with
10578 configuration and integration.  A natural starting point would be
10579 setting up ldap.skolelinux.no as the Kerberos server, and migrate the
10580 rest of the machines from PAM via LDAP to PAM via Kerberos one at the
10581 time.</p>
10582
10583 <p>If you would like to contribute to get this working in Skolelinux,
10584 I recommend you to see the video recording from yesterdays NUUG
10585 presentation, and start using Kerberos at home.  The video show show
10586 up in a few days.</p>
10587
10588       </div>
10589       <div class="tags">
10590
10591
10592         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>.
10593
10594
10595       </div>
10596     </div>
10597     <div class="padding"></div>
10598
10599     <div class="entry">
10600       <div class="title">
10601         <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>
10602       </div>
10603       <div class="date">
10604          6th March 2010
10605       </div>
10606       <div class="body">
10607         <p>6 years ago, as part of the Debian Edu development I am involved
10608 in, I asked for a hook in the kdm and gdm setup to run scripts as root
10609 when the user log out.  A bug was submitted against the xfree86-common
10610 package in 2004 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/230422">#230422</a>),
10611 and revisited every time Debian Edu was working on a new release.
10612 Today, this finally paid off.</p>
10613
10614 <p>The framework for this feature was today commited to the git
10615 repositry for the xorg package, and the git repository for xdm has
10616 been updated to use this framework.  Next on my agenda is to make sure
10617 kdm and gdm also add code to use this framework.</p>
10618
10619 <p>In Debian Edu, we want to ability to run commands as root when the
10620 user log out, to get rid of runaway processes and do general cleanup
10621 after a user.  With this framework in place, we finally can do that in
10622 a generic way that work with all display managers using this
10623 framework.  My goal is to get all display managers in Debian use it,
10624 similar to how they use the Xsession.d framework today.<p>
10625
10626       </div>
10627       <div class="tags">
10628
10629
10630         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>.
10631
10632
10633       </div>
10634     </div>
10635     <div class="padding"></div>
10636
10637     <div class="entry">
10638       <div class="title">
10639         <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>
10640       </div>
10641       <div class="date">
10642         11th February 2010
10643       </div>
10644       <div class="body">
10645         <p>On Tuesday, the Debian/Lenny based version of
10646 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> was finally
10647 shipped.  This was a major leap forward for the project, and I am very
10648 pleased that we finally got the release wrapped up.  Work on the first
10649 point release starts imediately, as we plan to get that one out a
10650 month after the major release, to include all fixes for bugs we found
10651 and fixed too late in the release process to include last Tuesday.</p>
10652
10653 <p>Perhaps it even is time for some partying?</p>
10654
10655 <p>After this first point release, my plan is to focus again on the
10656 next major release, based on Squeeze.  We will try to get as many of
10657 the fixes we need into the official Debian packages before the freeze,
10658 and have just a few weeks or months to make it happen.</p>
10659
10660       </div>
10661       <div class="tags">
10662
10663
10664         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>.
10665
10666
10667       </div>
10668     </div>
10669     <div class="padding"></div>
10670
10671     <div class="entry">
10672       <div class="title">
10673         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Munin_and_Nagios_configuration.html">Automatic Munin and Nagios configuration</a>
10674       </div>
10675       <div class="date">
10676         27th January 2010
10677       </div>
10678       <div class="body">
10679         <p>One of the new features in the next Debian/Lenny based release of
10680 Debian Edu/Skolelinux, which is scheduled for release in the next few
10681 days, is automatic configuration of the service monitoring system
10682 Nagios.  The previous release had automatic configuration of trend
10683 analysis using Munin, and this Lenny based release take that a step
10684 further.</p>
10685
10686 <p>When installing a Debian Edu Main-server, it is automatically
10687 configured as a Munin and Nagios server.  In addition, it is
10688 configured to be a server for the
10689 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">SiteSummary
10690 system</a> I have written for use in Debian Edu.  The SiteSummary
10691 system is inspired by a system used by the University of Oslo where I
10692 work.  In short, the system provide a centralised collector of
10693 information about the computers on the network, and a client on each
10694 computer submitting information to this collector.  This allow for
10695 automatic information on which packages are installed on each machine,
10696 which kernel the machines are using, what kind of configuration the
10697 packages got etc.  This also allow us to automatically generate Munin
10698 and Nagios configuration.</p>
10699
10700 <p>All computers reporting to the sitesummary collector with the
10701 munin-node package installed is automatically enabled as a Munin
10702 client and graphs from the statistics collected from that machine show
10703 up automatically on http://www/munin/ on the Main-server.</p>
10704
10705 <p>All non-laptop computers reporting to the sitesummary collector are
10706 automatically monitored for network presence (ping and any network
10707 services detected).  In addition, all computers (also laptops) with
10708 the nagios-nrpe-server package installed and configured the way
10709 sitesummary would configure it, are monitored for full disks, software
10710 raid status, swap free and other checks that need to run locally on
10711 the machine.</p>
10712
10713 <p>The result is that the administrator on a school using Debian Edu
10714 based on Lenny will be able to check the health of his installation
10715 with one look at the Nagios settings, without having to spend any time
10716 keeping the Nagios configuration up-to-date.</p>
10717
10718 <p>The only configuration one need to do to get Nagios up and running
10719 is to set the password used to get access via HTTP.  The system
10720 administrator need to run "<tt>htpasswd /etc/nagios3/htpasswd.users
10721 nagiosadmin</tt>" to create a nagiosadmin user and set a password for
10722 it to be able to log into the Nagios web pages.  After that,
10723 everything is taken care of.</p>
10724
10725       </div>
10726       <div class="tags">
10727
10728
10729         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>.
10730
10731
10732       </div>
10733     </div>
10734     <div class="padding"></div>
10735
10736     <div class="entry">
10737       <div class="title">
10738         <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>
10739       </div>
10740       <div class="date">
10741         12th August 2009
10742       </div>
10743       <div class="body">
10744         <p>Just for fun, I did a search right now on Google for a few file ODF
10745 and MS Office based formats (not to be mistaken for ISO or ECMA
10746 OOXML), to get an idea of their relative usage.  I searched using
10747 'filetype:odt' and equvalent terms, and got these results:</P>
10748
10749 <table>
10750 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
10751 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:282000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
10752 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:75600</td> <td>pptx:183000</td></tr>
10753 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500     </td> <td>xlsx:145000</td></tr>
10754 </table>
10755
10756 <p>Next, I added a 'site:no' limit to get the numbers for Norway, and
10757 got these numbers:</p>
10758
10759 <table>
10760 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
10761 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480 </td> <td>docx:4460</td></tr>
10762 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:299   </td> <td>pptx:741</td></tr>
10763 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:187       </td> <td>xlsx:372</td></tr>
10764 </table>
10765
10766 <p>I wonder how these numbers change over time.</p>
10767
10768 <p>I am aware of Google returning different results and numbers based
10769 on where the search is done, so I guess these numbers will differ if
10770 they are conduced in another country.  Because of this, I did the same
10771 search from a machine in California, USA, a few minutes after the
10772 search done from a machine here in Norway.</p>
10773
10774
10775 <table>
10776 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
10777 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:129000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
10778 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:44200</td> <td>pptx:93900</td></tr>
10779 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500     </td> <td>xlsx:82400</td></tr>
10780 </table>
10781
10782 <p>And with 'site:no':
10783
10784 <table>
10785 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
10786 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480</td> <td>docx:3410</td></tr>
10787 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:175</td> <td>pptx:604</td></tr>
10788 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:186       </td> <td>xlsx:296</td></tr>
10789 </table>
10790
10791 <p>Interesting difference, not sure what to conclude from these
10792 numbers.</p>
10793
10794       </div>
10795       <div class="tags">
10796
10797
10798         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>.
10799
10800
10801       </div>
10802     </div>
10803     <div class="padding"></div>
10804
10805     <div class="entry">
10806       <div class="title">
10807         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ISO_still_hope_to_fix_OOXML.html">ISO still hope to fix OOXML</a>
10808       </div>
10809       <div class="date">
10810          8th August 2009
10811       </div>
10812       <div class="body">
10813         <p>According to <a
10814 href="http://twerner.blogspot.com/2009/08/defects-of-office-open-xml.html">a
10815 blog post from Torsten Werner</a>, the current defect report for ISO
10816 29500 (ISO OOXML) is 809 pages.  His interesting point is that the
10817 defect report is 71 pages more than the full ODF 1.1 specification.
10818 Personally I find it more interesting that ISO still believe ISO OOXML
10819 can be fixed in ISO.  Personally, I believe it is broken beyon repair,
10820 and I completely lack any trust in ISO for being able to get anywhere
10821 close to solving the problems.  I was part of the Norwegian committee
10822 involved in the OOXML fast track process, and was not impressed with
10823 Standard Norway and ISO in how they handled it.</p>
10824
10825 <p>These days I focus on ODF instead, which seem like a specification
10826 with the future ahead of it.  We are working in NUUG to organise a ODF
10827 seminar this autumn.</p>
10828
10829       </div>
10830       <div class="tags">
10831
10832
10833         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>.
10834
10835
10836       </div>
10837     </div>
10838     <div class="padding"></div>
10839
10840     <div class="entry">
10841       <div class="title">
10842         <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>
10843       </div>
10844       <div class="date">
10845         27th July 2009
10846       </div>
10847       <div class="body">
10848         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
10849 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
10850 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
10851 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
10852 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
10853 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
10854 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
10855
10856 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
10857 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
10858 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
10859
10860       </div>
10861       <div class="tags">
10862
10863
10864         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>.
10865
10866
10867       </div>
10868     </div>
10869     <div class="padding"></div>
10870
10871     <div class="entry">
10872       <div class="title">
10873         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
10874       </div>
10875       <div class="date">
10876         22nd July 2009
10877       </div>
10878       <div class="body">
10879         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
10880 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
10881 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
10882 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
10883 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
10884 the package up to date.</p>
10885
10886 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
10887 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
10888 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
10889 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
10890 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
10891 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
10892 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
10893 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
10894 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
10895 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
10896 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
10897 working on the future release.</p>
10898
10899 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
10900 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
10901
10902       </div>
10903       <div class="tags">
10904
10905
10906         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>.
10907
10908
10909       </div>
10910     </div>
10911     <div class="padding"></div>
10912
10913     <div class="entry">
10914       <div class="title">
10915         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
10916       </div>
10917       <div class="date">
10918         24th June 2009
10919       </div>
10920       <div class="body">
10921         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
10922 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
10923 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
10924 funded
10925 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
10926 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
10927 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
10928 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
10929 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
10930 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
10931
10932 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
10933 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
10934 boot:</p>
10935
10936 <ul>
10937
10938 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
10939
10940 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
10941    clock is in UTC.</li>
10942
10943 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
10944    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
10945    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
10946
10947 </ul>
10948
10949 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
10950 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
10951 Villegas</a>.
10952
10953 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
10954 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
10955 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
10956 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
10957 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
10958 using this.</p>
10959
10960 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
10961 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
10962 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
10963 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
10964 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
10965 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
10966 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
10967
10968       </div>
10969       <div class="tags">
10970
10971
10972         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>.
10973
10974
10975       </div>
10976     </div>
10977     <div class="padding"></div>
10978
10979     <div class="entry">
10980       <div class="title">
10981         <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>
10982       </div>
10983       <div class="date">
10984          2nd May 2009
10985       </div>
10986       <div class="body">
10987         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
10988 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
10989 do not yet know them.</p>
10990
10991 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
10992 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
10993 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
10994 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
10995 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
10996 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
10997 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
10998 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
10999 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
11000 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
11001 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
11002
11003 <p>The second one is
11004 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
11005 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
11006 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
11007 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
11008 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
11009 and the company behind it is running
11010 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
11011 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
11012 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
11013 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
11014 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
11015 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
11016 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
11017 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
11018
11019 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
11020 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
11021 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
11022 surrounded by today.</p>
11023
11024       </div>
11025       <div class="tags">
11026
11027
11028         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>.
11029
11030
11031       </div>
11032     </div>
11033     <div class="padding"></div>
11034
11035     <div class="entry">
11036       <div class="title">
11037         <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>
11038       </div>
11039       <div class="date">
11040         28th April 2009
11041       </div>
11042       <div class="body">
11043         <p>Julien Blache
11044 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
11045 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
11046 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
11047 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
11048 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
11049 properties.</p>
11050
11051       </div>
11052       <div class="tags">
11053
11054
11055         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>.
11056
11057
11058       </div>
11059     </div>
11060     <div class="padding"></div>
11061
11062     <div class="entry">
11063       <div class="title">
11064         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recording_video_from_cron_using_VLC.html">Recording video from cron using VLC</a>
11065       </div>
11066       <div class="date">
11067          5th April 2009
11068       </div>
11069       <div class="body">
11070         <p>One think I have wanted to figure out for a along time is how to
11071 run vlc from cron to do recording of video streams on the net.  The
11072 task is trivial with mplayer, but I do not really trust the security
11073 of mplayer (it crashes too often on strange input), and thus prefer
11074 vlc.  I finally found a way to do it today.  I spent an hour or so
11075 searching the web for recipes and reading the documentation.  The
11076 hardest part was to get rid of the GUI window, but after finding the
11077 dummy interface, the command line finally presented itself:</p>
11078
11079 <blockquote><pre>URL=http://www.ping.uio.no/video/rms-oslo_2009.ogg
11080 SAVEFILE=rms.ogg
11081 DISPLAY= vlc -q $URL \
11082   --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
11083   --intf=dummy</pre></blockquote>
11084
11085 <p>The command stream the URL and store it in the SAVEFILE by
11086 duplicating the output stream to "nodisplay" and the file, using the
11087 dummy interface.  The dummy interface and the nodisplay output make
11088 sure no X interface is needed.</p>
11089
11090 <p>The cron job then need to start this job with the appropriate URL
11091 and file name to save, sleep for the duration wanted, and then kill
11092 the vlc process with SIGTERM.  Here is a complete script
11093 <tt>vlc-record</tt> to use from <tt>at</tt> or <tt>cron</tt>:</p>
11094
11095 <blockquote><pre>#!/bin/sh
11096 set -e
11097 URL="$1"
11098 SAVEFILE="$2"
11099 DURATION="$3"
11100 DISPLAY= vlc -q "$URL" \
11101   --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
11102   --intf=dummy < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &
11103 pid=$!
11104 sleep $DURATION
11105 kill $pid
11106 wait $pid</pre></blockquote>
11107
11108       </div>
11109       <div class="tags">
11110
11111
11112         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>.
11113
11114
11115       </div>
11116     </div>
11117     <div class="padding"></div>
11118
11119     <div class="entry">
11120       <div class="title">
11121         <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>
11122       </div>
11123       <div class="date">
11124         30th March 2009
11125       </div>
11126       <div class="body">
11127         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
11128 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
11129 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
11130 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
11131 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
11132 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
11133 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
11134 application.</p>
11135
11136 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
11137 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
11138 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
11139 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
11140 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
11141 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
11142 blocked from doing so.</p>
11143
11144 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
11145 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
11146 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
11147 requirements change.</p>
11148
11149 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
11150 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
11151 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
11152
11153       </div>
11154       <div class="tags">
11155
11156
11157         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>.
11158
11159
11160       </div>
11161     </div>
11162     <div class="padding"></div>
11163
11164     <div class="entry">
11165       <div class="title">
11166         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
11167       </div>
11168       <div class="date">
11169         29th March 2009
11170       </div>
11171       <div class="body">
11172         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
11173 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
11174 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
11175 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
11176 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
11177 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
11178 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
11179 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
11180 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
11181 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
11182 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
11183 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
11184 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
11185 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
11186 now. :)</p>
11187
11188       </div>
11189       <div class="tags">
11190
11191
11192         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>.
11193
11194
11195       </div>
11196     </div>
11197     <div class="padding"></div>
11198
11199     <div class="entry">
11200       <div class="title">
11201         <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>
11202       </div>
11203       <div class="date">
11204         29th March 2009
11205       </div>
11206       <div class="body">
11207         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
11208 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
11209 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
11210 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
11211 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
11212 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
11213
11214 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
11215 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
11216 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
11217 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
11218 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
11219 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
11220 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
11221 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
11222 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
11223 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
11224 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
11225 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
11226 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
11227
11228 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
11229 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
11230 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
11231 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
11232
11233 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
11234 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
11235
11236 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
11237 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
11238 new IETF work group?</p>
11239
11240       </div>
11241       <div class="tags">
11242
11243
11244         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>.
11245
11246
11247       </div>
11248     </div>
11249     <div class="padding"></div>
11250
11251     <div class="entry">
11252       <div class="title">
11253         <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>
11254       </div>
11255       <div class="date">
11256         28th February 2009
11257       </div>
11258       <div class="body">
11259         <p>At work, we have a few hundred Linux servers, and with that amount
11260 of hardware it is important to keep track of when the hardware support
11261 contract expire for each server.  We have a machine (and service)
11262 register, which until recently did not contain much useful besides the
11263 machine room location and contact information for the system owner for
11264 each machine.  To make it easier for us to track support contract
11265 status, I've recently spent time on extending the machine register to
11266 include information about when the support contract expire, and to tag
11267 machines with expired contracts to make it easy to get a list of such
11268 machines.  I extended a perl script already being used to import
11269 information about machines into the register, to also do some screen
11270 scraping off the sites of Dell, HP and IBM (our majority of machines
11271 are from these vendors), and automatically check the support status
11272 for the relevant machines.  This make the support status information
11273 easily available and I hope it will make it easier for the computer
11274 owner to know when to get new hardware or renew the support contract.
11275 The result of this work documented that 27% of the machines in the
11276 registry is without a support contract, and made it very easy to find
11277 them.  27% might seem like a lot, but I see it more as the case of us
11278 using machines a bit longer than the 3 years a normal support contract
11279 last, to have test machines and a platform for less important
11280 services.  After all, the machines without a contract are working fine
11281 at the moment and the lack of contract is only a problem if any of
11282 them break down.  When that happen, we can either fix it using spare
11283 parts from other machines or move the service to another old
11284 machine.</p>
11285
11286 <p>I believe the code for screen scraping the Dell site was originally
11287 written by Trond Hasle Amundsen, and later adjusted by me and Morten
11288 Werner Forsbring.  The HP scraping was written by me after reading a
11289 nice article in ;login: about how to use WWW::Mechanize, and the IBM
11290 scraping was written by me based on the Dell code.  I know the HTML
11291 parsing could be done using nice libraries, but did not want to
11292 introduce more dependencies.  This is the current incarnation:</p>
11293
11294 <pre>
11295 use LWP::Simple;
11296 use POSIX;
11297 use WWW::Mechanize;
11298 use Date::Parse;
11299 [...]
11300 sub get_support_info {
11301     my ($machine, $model, $serial, $productnumber) = @_;
11302     my $str;
11303
11304     if ( $model =~ m/^Dell / ) {
11305         # fetch website from Dell support
11306         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";
11307         my $webpage = get($url);
11308         return undef unless ($webpage);
11309
11310         my $daysleft = -1;
11311         my @lines = split(/\n/, $webpage);
11312         foreach my $line (@lines) {
11313             next unless ($line =~ m/Beskrivelse/);
11314             $line =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
11315             $line =~ s/^.+?;(Beskrivelse;)/$1/;
11316
11317             my @f = split(/\;/, $line);
11318             @f = @f[13 .. $#f];
11319             my $lastend = "";
11320             while ($f[3] eq "DELL") {
11321                 my ($type, $startstr, $endstr, $days) = @f[0, 5, 7, 10];
11322
11323                 my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
11324                                             localtime(str2time($startstr)));
11325                 my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
11326                                           localtime(str2time($endstr)));
11327                 $str .= "$type $start -> $end ";
11328                 @f = @f[14 .. $#f];
11329                 $lastend = $end if ($end gt $lastend);
11330             }
11331             my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
11332             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
11333                 if ($lastend lt $today);
11334         }
11335     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^HP / ) {
11336         my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
11337         my $url =
11338             'http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do';
11339         $mech->get($url);
11340         my $fields = {
11341             'BODServiceID' => 'NA',
11342             'RegisteredPurchaseDate' => '',
11343             'country' => 'NO',
11344             'productNumber' => $productnumber,
11345             'serialNumber1' => $serial,
11346         };
11347         $mech->submit_form( form_number => 2,
11348                             fields      => $fields );
11349         # Next step is screen scraping
11350         my $content = $mech->content();
11351
11352         $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
11353         $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
11354         $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
11355         $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
11356
11357         my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
11358
11359         while ($content =~ m/;Warranty Type;/) {
11360             my ($type, $status, $startstr, $stopstr) = $content =~
11361                 m/;Warranty Type;([^;]+);.+?;Status;(\w+);Start Date;([^;]+);End Date;([^;]+);/;
11362             $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty Type;//;
11363             my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
11364                                         localtime(str2time($startstr)));
11365             my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
11366                                       localtime(str2time($stopstr)));
11367
11368             $str .= "$type ($status) $start -> $end ";
11369
11370             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
11371                 if ($end lt $today);
11372         }
11373     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^IBM / ) {
11374         # This code ignore extended support contracts.
11375         my ($producttype) = $model =~ m/.*-\[(.{4}).+\]-/;
11376         if ($producttype &amp;&amp; $serial) {
11377             my $content =
11378                 get("http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/warranty?action=warranty&amp;brandind=5000008&amp;Submit=Submit&amp;type=$producttype&amp;serial=$serial");
11379             if ($content) {
11380                 $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
11381                 $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
11382                 $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
11383                 $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
11384
11385                 $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty status;//;
11386                 my ($status, $end) = $content =~ m/;Warranty status;([^;]+)\s*;Expiration date;(\S+) ;/;
11387
11388                 $str .= "($status) -> $end ";
11389
11390                 my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
11391                 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
11392                     if ($end lt $today);
11393             }
11394         }
11395     }
11396     return $str;
11397 }
11398 </pre>
11399
11400 <p>Here are some examples on how to use the function, using fake
11401 serial numbers.  The information passed in as arguments are fetched
11402 from dmidecode.</p>
11403
11404 <pre>
11405 print get_support_info("hp.host", "HP ProLiant BL460c G1", "1234567890"
11406                        "447707-B21");
11407 print get_support_info("dell.host", "Dell Inc. PowerEdge 2950", "1234567");
11408 print get_support_info("ibm.host", "IBM eserver xSeries 345 -[867061X]-",
11409                        "1234567");
11410 </pre>
11411
11412 <p>I would recommend this approach for tracking support contracts for
11413 everyone with more than a few computers to administer. :)</p>
11414
11415 <p>Update 2009-03-06: The IBM page do not include extended support
11416 contracts, so it is useless in that case.  The original Dell code do
11417 not handle extended support contracts either, but has been updated to
11418 do so.</p>
11419
11420       </div>
11421       <div class="tags">
11422
11423
11424         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>.
11425
11426
11427       </div>
11428     </div>
11429     <div class="padding"></div>
11430
11431     <div class="entry">
11432       <div class="title">
11433         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html">Using bar codes at a computing center</a>
11434       </div>
11435       <div class="date">
11436         20th February 2009
11437       </div>
11438       <div class="body">
11439         <p>At work with the University of Oslo, we have several hundred computers
11440 in our computing center.  This give us a challenge in tracking the
11441 location and cabling of the computers, when they are added, moved and
11442 removed.  Some times the location register is not updated when a
11443 computer is inserted or moved and we then have to search the room for
11444 the "missing" computer.</p>
11445
11446 <p>In the last issue of Linux Journal, I came across a project
11447 <a href="http://www.libdmtx.org/">libdmtx</a> to write and read bar
11448 code blocks as defined in the
11449 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix">The Data Matrix
11450 Standard</a>.  This is bar codes that can be read with a normal
11451 digital camera, for example that on a cell phone, and several such bar
11452 codes can be read by libdmtx from one picture.  The bar code standard
11453 allow up to 2 KiB to be written in the tag.  There is another project
11454 with <a href="http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/">a bar code
11455 writer written in postscript</a> capable of creating such bar codes,
11456 but this was the first time I found a tool to read these bar
11457 codes.</p>
11458
11459 <p>It occurred to me that this could be used to tag and track the
11460 machines in our computing center.  If both racks and computers are
11461 tagged this way, we can use a picture of the rack and all its
11462 computers to detect the rack location of any computer in that rack.
11463 If we do this regularly for the entire room, we will find all
11464 locations, and can detect movements and removals.</p>
11465
11466 <p>I decided to test if this would work in practice, and picked a
11467 random rack and tagged all the machines with their names.  Next, I
11468 took pictures with my digital camera, and gave the dmtxread program
11469 these JPEG pictures to see how many tags it could read.  This worked
11470 fairly well.  If the pictures was well focused and not taken from the
11471 side, all tags in the image could be read.  Because of limited space
11472 between the racks, I was unable to get a good picture of the entire
11473 rack, but could without problem read all tags from a picture covering
11474 about half the rack.  I had to limit the search time used by dmtxread
11475 to 60000 ms to make sure it terminated in a reasonable time frame.</p>
11476
11477 <p>My conclusion is that this could work, and we should probably look
11478 at adjusting our computer tagging procedures to use bar codes for
11479 easier automatic tracking of computers.</p>
11480
11481       </div>
11482       <div class="tags">
11483
11484
11485         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>.
11486
11487
11488       </div>
11489     </div>
11490     <div class="padding"></div>
11491
11492     <div class="entry">
11493       <div class="title">
11494         <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>
11495       </div>
11496       <div class="date">
11497         17th January 2009
11498       </div>
11499       <div class="body">
11500         <p>As part of the work we do in <a href="http://www.nuug.no">NUUG</a>
11501 to publish video recordings of our monthly presentations, we provide a
11502 page with embedded video for easy access to the recording.  Putting a
11503 good set of HTML tags together to get working embedded video in all
11504 browsers and across all operating systems is not easy.  I hope this
11505 will become easier when the &lt;video&gt; tag is implemented in all
11506 browsers, but I am not sure.  We provide the recordings in several
11507 formats, MPEG1, Ogg Theora, H.264 and Quicktime, and want the
11508 browser/media plugin to pick one it support and use it to play the
11509 recording, using whatever embed mechanism the browser understand.
11510 There is at least four different tags to use for this, the new HTML5
11511 &lt;video&gt; tag, the &lt;object&gt; tag, the &lt;embed&gt; tag and
11512 the &lt;applet&gt; tag.  All of these take a lot of options, and
11513 finding the best options is a major challenge.</p>
11514
11515 <p>I just tested the experimental Opera browser available from <a
11516 href="http://labs.opera.com">labs.opera.com</a>, to see how it handled
11517 a &lt;video&gt; tag with a few video sources and no extra attributes.
11518 I was not very impressed.  The browser start by fetching a picture
11519 from the video stream.  Not sure if it is the first frame, but it is
11520 definitely very early in the recording.  So far, so good. Next,
11521 instead of streaming the 76 MiB video file, it start to download all
11522 of it, but do not start to play the video.  This mean I have to wait
11523 for several minutes for the downloading to finish.  When the download
11524 is done, the playing of the video do not start!  Waiting for the
11525 download, but I do not get to see the video?  Some testing later, I
11526 discover that I have to add the controls="true" attribute to be able
11527 to get a play button to pres to start the video.  Adding
11528 autoplay="true" did not help.  I sure hope this is a misfeature of the
11529 test version of Opera, and that future implementations of the
11530 &lt;video&gt; tag will stream recordings by default, or at least start
11531 playing when the download is done.</p>
11532
11533 <p>The test page I used (since changed to add more attributes) is
11534 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20090113-foredrag-om-foredrag/">available
11535 from the nuug site</a>.  Will have to test it with the new Firefox
11536 too.</p>
11537
11538 <p>In the test process, I discovered a missing feature.  I was unable
11539 to find a way to get the URL of the playing video out of Opera, so I
11540 am not quite sure it picked the Ogg Theora version of the video.  I
11541 sure hope it was using the announced Ogg Theora support. :)</p>
11542
11543       </div>
11544       <div class="tags">
11545
11546
11547         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>.
11548
11549
11550       </div>
11551     </div>
11552     <div class="padding"></div>
11553
11554     <div class="entry">
11555       <div class="title">
11556         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_video_mixer_on_a_USB_stick.html">Software video mixer on a USB stick</a>
11557       </div>
11558       <div class="date">
11559         28th December 2008
11560       </div>
11561       <div class="body">
11562         <p>The <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> is
11563 recording our montly presentation on video, and recently we have
11564 worked on improving the quality of the recordings by mixing the slides
11565 directly with the video stream.  For this, we use the
11566 <a href="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/">dvswitch</a> package from
11567 the Debian video team.  As this require quite one computer per video
11568 source, and NUUG do not have enough laptops available, we need to
11569 borrow laptops.  And to avoid having to install extra software on
11570 these borrwed laptops, I have wrapped up all the programs needed on a
11571 bootable USB stick.  The software required is dvswitch with assosiated
11572 source, sink and mixer applications and
11573 <a href="http://www.kinodv.org/">dvgrab</a>.  To allow this setup to
11574 work without any configuration, I've patched dvswitch to use
11575 <a href="http://www.avahi.org/">avahi</a> to connect the various parts
11576 together.  And to allow us to use laptops without firewire plugs, I
11577 upgraded dvgrab to the one from Debian/unstable to get one that work
11578 with USB sources.  We have not yet tested this setup in a production
11579 setup, but I hope it will work properly, and allow us to set up a
11580 video mixer in a very short time frame.  We will need it for
11581 <a href="http://www.goopen.no/">Go Open 2009</a>.</p>
11582
11583 <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/video/bin/usbstick-dvswitch.img.gz">The
11584 USB image</a> is for a 1 GB memory stick, but can be used on any
11585 larger stick as well.</p>
11586
11587       </div>
11588       <div class="tags">
11589
11590
11591         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>.
11592
11593
11594       </div>
11595     </div>
11596     <div class="padding"></div>
11597
11598     <div class="entry">
11599       <div class="title">
11600         <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>
11601       </div>
11602       <div class="date">
11603          7th December 2008
11604       </div>
11605       <div class="body">
11606         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
11607 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
11608 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
11609 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
11610 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
11611 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
11612 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
11613 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
11614
11615 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
11616 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
11617 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
11618 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
11619 of these cards.</p>
11620
11621       </div>
11622       <div class="tags">
11623
11624
11625         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>.
11626
11627
11628       </div>
11629     </div>
11630     <div class="padding"></div>
11631
11632     <div class="entry">
11633       <div class="title">
11634         <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>
11635       </div>
11636       <div class="date">
11637         25th November 2008
11638       </div>
11639       <div class="body">
11640         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
11641 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
11642 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
11643 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
11644 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
11645 notes are available on
11646 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
11647 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
11648 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
11649 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
11650 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
11651 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
11652 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
11653 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
11654 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
11655
11656 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
11657 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
11658
11659       </div>
11660       <div class="tags">
11661
11662
11663         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>.
11664
11665
11666       </div>
11667     </div>
11668     <div class="padding"></div>
11669
11670     <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>
11671     <div id="sidebar">
11672
11673
11674
11675 <h2>Archive</h2>
11676 <ul>
11677
11678 <li>2012
11679 <ul>
11680
11681 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
11682
11683 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
11684
11685 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
11686
11687 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
11688
11689 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
11690
11691 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
11692
11693 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
11694
11695 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
11696
11697 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
11698
11699 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (6)</a></li>
11700
11701 </ul></li>
11702
11703 <li>2011
11704 <ul>
11705
11706 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
11707
11708 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
11709
11710 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
11711
11712 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
11713
11714 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
11715
11716 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
11717
11718 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
11719
11720 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
11721
11722 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
11723
11724 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
11725
11726 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
11727
11728 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
11729
11730 </ul></li>
11731
11732 <li>2010
11733 <ul>
11734
11735 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
11736
11737 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
11738
11739 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
11740
11741 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
11742
11743 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
11744
11745 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
11746
11747 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
11748
11749 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
11750
11751 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
11752
11753 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
11754
11755 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
11756
11757 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
11758
11759 </ul></li>
11760
11761 <li>2009
11762 <ul>
11763
11764 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
11765
11766 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
11767
11768 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
11769
11770 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
11771
11772 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
11773
11774 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
11775
11776 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
11777
11778 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
11779
11780 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
11781
11782 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
11783
11784 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
11785
11786 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
11787
11788 </ul></li>
11789
11790 <li>2008
11791 <ul>
11792
11793 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
11794
11795 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
11796
11797 </ul></li>
11798
11799 </ul>
11800
11801
11802
11803 <h2>Tags</h2>
11804 <ul>
11805
11806  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
11807
11808  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
11809
11810  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
11811
11812  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (2)</a></li>
11813
11814  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
11815
11816  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
11817
11818  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (57)</a></li>
11819
11820  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (113)</a></li>
11821
11822  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (9)</a></li>
11823
11824  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (7)</a></li>
11825
11826  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
11827
11828  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (153)</a></li>
11829
11830  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (18)</a></li>
11831
11832  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
11833
11834  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (8)</a></li>
11835
11836  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (8)</a></li>
11837
11838  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (31)</a></li>
11839
11840  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (17)</a></li>
11841
11842  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
11843
11844  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (4)</a></li>
11845
11846  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
11847
11848  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
11849
11850  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (202)</a></li>
11851
11852  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (145)</a></li>
11853
11854  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (5)</a></li>
11855
11856  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
11857
11858  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (35)</a></li>
11859
11860  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (50)</a></li>
11861
11862  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
11863
11864  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
11865
11866  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
11867
11868  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (4)</a></li>
11869
11870  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
11871
11872  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
11873
11874  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
11875
11876  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (23)</a></li>
11877
11878  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
11879
11880  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (2)</a></li>
11881
11882  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (38)</a></li>
11883
11884  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (2)</a></li>
11885
11886  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (4)</a></li>
11887
11888  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (10)</a></li>
11889
11890  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
11891
11892  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (34)</a></li>
11893
11894  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (3)</a></li>
11895
11896  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (25)</a></li>
11897
11898 </ul>
11899
11900
11901     </div>
11902     <p style="text-align: right">
11903  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.4</a>
11904 </p>
11905
11906   </body>
11907 </html>