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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 "debian".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         17th June 2014
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
  32 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
  33 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
  34 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
  35 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
  36
  37 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
  38 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
  39 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
  40 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
  41 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
  42 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
  43 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
  44 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
  45 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
  46 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
  47 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
  48 goals.</p>
  49
  50 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
  51 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
  52 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
  53 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
  54 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
  55 chapters together into one large web page (aka
  56 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
  57 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
  58 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
  59 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
  60 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
  61 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
  62 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
  63 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
  64 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
  65 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
  66 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
  67 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
  68 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
  69 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
  70 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
  71 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
  72 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
  73 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
  74
  75 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
  76 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
  77 track the English original.  For this we use the
  78 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
  79 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
  80 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
  81 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
  82 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
  83 files), which the translations update with the native language
  84 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
  85 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
  86 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
  87 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
  88 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
  89 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
  90 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
  91 of the documentation.</p>
  92
  93 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
  94 recommend using
  95 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
  96 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
  97 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
  98 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
  99 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
 100 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
 101 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
 102 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
 103
 104 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
 105 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
 106 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
 107 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
 108 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
 109 translated images by storing translated versions in
 110 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
 111 package maintainers know more.</p>
 112
 113 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
 114 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
 115 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
 116 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
 117 PDF version</a> or the
 118 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
 119 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
 120 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
 121
 122 <p>To learn more, check out
 123 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
 124 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
 125 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
 126 manual on the wiki</a> and
 127 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
 128 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
 129
 130       </div>
 131       <div class="tags">
 132
 133
 134         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 135
 136
 137       </div>
 138     </div>
 139     <div class="padding"></div>
 140
 141     <div class="entry">
 142       <div class="title">
 143         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
 144       </div>
 145       <div class="date">
 146         23rd April 2014
 147       </div>
 148       <div class="body">
 149         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
 150 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
 151 So I implemented one, using
 152 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
 153 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
 154 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
 155 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
 156 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
 157 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
 158
 159 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
 160 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
 161 packages to install.  The first part is in
 162 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
 163 this:</p>
 164
 165 <p><blockquote><pre>
 166 Task: isenkram
 167 Section: hardware
 168 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
 169  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
 170  proposed.
 171 Test-new-install: mark show
 172 Relevance: 8
 173 Packages: for-current-hardware
 174 </pre></blockquote></p>
 175
 176 <p>The second part is in
 177 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
 178 this:</p>
 179
 180 <p><blockquote><pre>
 181 #!/bin/sh
 182 #
 183 (
 184     isenkram-lookup
 185     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
 186 ) | sort -u
 187 </pre></blockquote></p>
 188
 189 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
 190 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
 191 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
 192 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
 193 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
 194 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
 195
 196 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
 197 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
 198 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
 199 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
 200 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
 201 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
 202 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
 203 the python-apt code (bug
 204 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
 205 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
 206 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
 207 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
 208 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
 209 unstable today.</p>
 210
 211 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
 212 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
 213 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
 214 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
 215 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
 216 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
 217 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
 218 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
 219 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
 220
 221 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
 222 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
 223 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
 224 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
 225 package.  See also
 226 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
 227 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
 228 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
 229 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
 230
 231       </div>
 232       <div class="tags">
 233
 234
 235         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 236
 237
 238       </div>
 239     </div>
 240     <div class="padding"></div>
 241
 242     <div class="entry">
 243       <div class="title">
 244         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
 245       </div>
 246       <div class="date">
 247         15th April 2014
 248       </div>
 249       <div class="body">
 250         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
 251 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
 252 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
 253 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
 254 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
 255 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
 256
 257 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
 258 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
 259 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
 260 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
 261 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
 262 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
 263 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
 264
 265 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
 266 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
 267 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
 268 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
 269 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
 270 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
 271 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
 272 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
 273 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
 274 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
 275 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
 276 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
 277
 278 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
 279 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
 280 become root:</p>
 281
 282 <p><pre>
 283 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
 284   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
 285   u-boot-tools
 286 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
 287   freedom-maker
 288 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
 289 </pre></p>
 290
 291 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
 292 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
 293 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
 294 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
 295 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
 296 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
 297 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
 298 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
 299
 300 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
 301 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
 302 the preseed values:</p>
 303
 304 <p><pre>
 305 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
 306 </pre></p>
 307
 308 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
 309 it still work.</p>
 310
 311 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
 312 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
 313 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
 314 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
 315 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
 316 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
 317 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
 318
 319 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
 320 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
 321 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
 322 irc.debian.org)</a> and
 323 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
 324 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
 325
 326       </div>
 327       <div class="tags">
 328
 329
 330         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
 331
 332
 333       </div>
 334     </div>
 335     <div class="padding"></div>
 336
 337     <div class="entry">
 338       <div class="title">
 339         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
 340       </div>
 341       <div class="date">
 342          9th April 2014
 343       </div>
 344       <div class="body">
 345         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
 346 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
 347 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
 348 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
 349 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
 350 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
 351 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
 352 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
 353 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
 354 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
 355 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
 356 have looked at a system called
 357 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
 358 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
 359
 360 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
 361 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
 362 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
 363 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
 364 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
 365 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
 366 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
 367 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
 368 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
 369 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
 370 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
 371 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
 372 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
 373
 374 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
 375 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
 376 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
 377 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
 378 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
 379 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
 380 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
 381 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
 382 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
 383 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
 384 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
 385 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
 386 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
 387 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
 388 account.</p>
 389
 390 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
 391 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
 392 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
 393 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
 394 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
 395 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
 396 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
 397
 398 <p><blockquote><pre>
 399 [s3c]
 400 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
 401 backend-login: API-login
 402 backend-password: API-password
 403 fs-passphrase: local-password
 404 </pre></blockquote></p>
 405
 406 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
 407 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
 408 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
 409 details and password to create it:</p>
 410
 411 <p><blockquote><pre>
 412 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
 413 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
 414   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
 415 Enter backend login:
 416 Enter backend password:
 417 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
 418 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
 419 Enter encryption password:
 420 Confirm encryption password:
 421 Generating random encryption key...
 422 Creating metadata tables...
 423 Dumping metadata...
 424 ..objects..
 425 ..blocks..
 426 ..inodes..
 427 ..inode_blocks..
 428 ..symlink_targets..
 429 ..names..
 430 ..contents..
 431 ..ext_attributes..
 432 Compressing and uploading metadata...
 433 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
 434 # </pre></blockquote></p>
 435
 436 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
 437
 438 <p><blockquote><pre>
 439 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
 440   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
 441 Using 4 upload threads.
 442 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
 443 Reading metadata...
 444 ..objects..
 445 ..blocks..
 446 ..inodes..
 447 ..inode_blocks..
 448 ..symlink_targets..
 449 ..names..
 450 ..contents..
 451 ..ext_attributes..
 452 Mounting filesystem...
 453 # df -h /s3ql
 454 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
 455 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
 456 #
 457 </pre></blockquote></p>
 458
 459 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
 460 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
 461 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
 462 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
 463 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
 464 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
 465
 466 <p><blockquote><pre>
 467 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
 468 #
 469 </pre></blockquote></p>
 470
 471 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
 472 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
 473 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
 474 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
 475 file system:</p>
 476
 477 <p><blockquote><pre>
 478 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
 479 Using cached metadata.
 480 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
 481 Checking DB integrity...
 482 Creating temporary extra indices...
 483 Checking lost+found...
 484 Checking cached objects...
 485 Checking names (refcounts)...
 486 Checking contents (names)...
 487 Checking contents (inodes)...
 488 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
 489 Checking objects (reference counts)...
 490 Checking objects (backend)...
 491 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
 492 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
 493 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
 494 Checking objects (sizes)...
 495 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
 496 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
 497 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
 498 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
 499 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
 500 Checking inodes (sizes)...
 501 Checking extended attributes (names)...
 502 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
 503 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
 504 Checking directory reachability...
 505 Checking unix conventions...
 506 Checking referential integrity...
 507 Dropping temporary indices...
 508 Backing up old metadata...
 509 Dumping metadata...
 510 ..objects..
 511 ..blocks..
 512 ..inodes..
 513 ..inode_blocks..
 514 ..symlink_targets..
 515 ..names..
 516 ..contents..
 517 ..ext_attributes..
 518 Compressing and uploading metadata...
 519 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
 520 #
 521 </pre></blockquote></p>
 522
 523 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
 524 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
 525 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
 526 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
 527 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
 528 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
 529 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
 530 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
 531 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
 532 working set.</p>
 533
 534 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
 535 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
 536 busy:</p>
 537
 538 <p><blockquote><pre>
 539 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
 540   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
 541 Using 8 upload threads.
 542 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
 543 #
 544 </pre></blockquote></p>
 545
 546 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
 547 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
 548 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
 549 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
 550 s3qlctrl:
 551
 552 <p><blockquote><pre>
 553 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
 554 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
 555 #
 556 </pre></blockquote></p>
 557
 558 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
 559 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
 560 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
 561 a report:</p>
 562
 563 <p><blockquote><pre>
 564 # s3qlstat /s3ql
 565 Directory entries:    9141
 566 Inodes:               9143
 567 Data blocks:          8851
 568 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
 569 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
 570 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
 571 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
 572 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
 573 #
 574 </pre></blockquote></p>
 575
 576 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
 577 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
 578 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
 579 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
 580 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
 581 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
 582 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
 583 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
 584 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
 585 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
 586 best.</p>
 587
 588 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
 589 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
 590 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
 591 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
 592 poster is titled
 593 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
 594 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
 595 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
 596 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
 597 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
 598
 599 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
 600 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
 601 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
 602 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
 603 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
 604 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
 605 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
 606 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
 607
 608 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
 609 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
 610 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
 611 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
 612 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
 613 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
 614 only read from it.</p>
 615
 616 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 617 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 618 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 619
 620       </div>
 621       <div class="tags">
 622
 623
 624         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
 625
 626
 627       </div>
 628     </div>
 629     <div class="padding"></div>
 630
 631     <div class="entry">
 632       <div class="title">
 633         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
 634       </div>
 635       <div class="date">
 636         14th March 2014
 637       </div>
 638       <div class="body">
 639         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
 640 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
 641 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
 642 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
 643 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
 644 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
 645 release (0.2).</p>
 646
 647 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
 648 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
 649 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
 650 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
 651 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
 652 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
 653 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
 654 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
 655 and build using
 656 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
 657 with a user with sudo access to become root:
 658
 659 <pre>
 660 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
 661   freedom-maker
 662 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
 663   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
 664   u-boot-tools
 665 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
 666 </pre>
 667
 668 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
 669 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
 670 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
 671 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
 672 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
 673 kpartx call.</p>
 674
 675 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
 676 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
 677 the preseed values:</p>
 678
 679 <pre>
 680 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
 681 </pre>
 682
 683 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
 684 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
 685 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
 686 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
 687 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
 688 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
 689
 690 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
 691 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
 692 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
 693 irc.debian.org)</a> and
 694 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
 695 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
 696
 697       </div>
 698       <div class="tags">
 699
 700
 701         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
 702
 703
 704       </div>
 705     </div>
 706     <div class="padding"></div>
 707
 708     <div class="entry">
 709       <div class="title">
 710         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
 711       </div>
 712       <div class="date">
 713         22nd February 2014
 714       </div>
 715       <div class="body">
 716         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
 717 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
 718 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
 719 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
 720 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
 721 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
 722 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
 723 proper home since then.</p>
 724
 725 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
 726 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
 727 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
 728 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
 729 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
 730
 731 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
 732 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
 733 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
 734 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
 735 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
 736 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
 737 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
 738 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
 739 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
 740
 741       </div>
 742       <div class="tags">
 743
 744
 745         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>.
 746
 747
 748       </div>
 749     </div>
 750     <div class="padding"></div>
 751
 752     <div class="entry">
 753       <div class="title">
 754         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
 755       </div>
 756       <div class="date">
 757          3rd February 2014
 758       </div>
 759       <div class="body">
 760         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
 761 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
 762 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
 763 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
 764 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
 765 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
 766 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
 767 <a href="http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz">http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz</a>,
 768 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
 769
 770 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
 771 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
 772 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
 773 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
 774 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
 775 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
 776
 777 <p><blockquote><pre>
 778 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
 779 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
 780 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
 781 dhclient /dev/eth0
 782 </pre></blockquote></p>
 783
 784 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
 785 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
 786 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
 787
 788 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
 789 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
 790 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
 791 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
 792 side.</p>
 793
 794 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
 795 stuff:</p>
 796
 797 <p><blockquote><pre>
 798 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
 799 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
 800 EOF
 801 apt-get update
 802 apt-get dist-upgrade
 803 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
 804     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
 805 update-alternatives --config runsystem
 806 </pre></blockquote></p>
 807
 808 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
 809 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
 810 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
 811 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
 812 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
 813 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
 814 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
 815 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
 816 ssh instead.
 817
 818 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
 819 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
 820 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
 821 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
 822 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
 823 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
 824
 825 <p><blockquote><pre>
 826 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
 827 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
 828 EOF
 829 </pre></blockquote></p>
 830
 831 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
 832 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
 833 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
 834 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
 835
 836 <p><blockquote><pre>
 837 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
 838 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
 839 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
 840 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
 841 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
 842 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
 843 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
 844 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
 845 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
 846 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
 847 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
 848 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
 849 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
 850 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
 851 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
 852 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
 853 #
 854 </pre></blockquote></p>
 855
 856 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
 857 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
 858 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
 859 command line stuff.<p>
 860
 861       </div>
 862       <div class="tags">
 863
 864
 865         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>.
 866
 867
 868       </div>
 869     </div>
 870     <div class="padding"></div>
 871
 872     <div class="entry">
 873       <div class="title">
 874         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
 875       </div>
 876       <div class="date">
 877         14th January 2014
 878       </div>
 879       <div class="body">
 880         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
 881 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
 882 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
 883 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
 884 the source.  The company behind it provide
 885 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
 886 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
 887 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
 888 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
 889 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
 890 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
 891 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
 892 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
 893 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
 894 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
 895 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
 896 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
 897 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
 898 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
 899 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
 900 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
 901 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
 902 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
 903 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
 904
 905 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
 906
 907 <ul>
 908
 909   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
 910   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
 911   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
 912
 913 </ul>
 914
 915 <p>You can
 916 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
 917 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
 918 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
 919 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
 920 include a test suite check.</p>
 921
 922       </div>
 923       <div class="tags">
 924
 925
 926         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 927
 928
 929       </div>
 930     </div>
 931     <div class="padding"></div>
 932
 933     <div class="entry">
 934       <div class="title">
 935         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
 936       </div>
 937       <div class="date">
 938         24th November 2013
 939       </div>
 940       <div class="body">
 941         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
 942 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
 943 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
 944 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
 945 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
 946 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
 947 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
 948 is working on.  I checked the
 949 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
 950 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
 951 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
 952 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
 953 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
 954 These are the release notes:</p>
 955
 956 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
 957
 958 <ul>
 959
 960   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
 961    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
 962    up.</li>
 963
 964   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
 965
 966   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
 967    Matthias Klose.</li>
 968
 969   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
 970    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
 971
 972   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
 973    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
 974    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
 975
 976 </ul>
 977
 978 <p>You can
 979 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
 980 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
 981 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
 982 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
 983 include a testsuite check.</p>
 984
 985       </div>
 986       <div class="tags">
 987
 988
 989         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 990
 991
 992       </div>
 993     </div>
 994     <div class="padding"></div>
 995
 996     <div class="entry">
 997       <div class="title">
 998         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
 999       </div>
1000       <div class="date">
1001          2nd November 2013
1002       </div>
1003       <div class="body">
1004         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
1005 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
1006 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
1007 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
1008 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
1009
1010 <p><pre>
1011 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
1012 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
1013 # Provides:          rsyslog
1014 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
1015 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
1016 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
1017 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
1018 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
1019 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
1020 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
1021 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
1022 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
1023 ### END INIT INFO
1024 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
1025 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
1026 </pre></p>
1027
1028 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
1029 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
1030 info/comments.</p>
1031
1032 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
1033 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
1034
1035 <p><pre>
1036 #!/bin/sh
1037
1038 # Define LSB log_* functions.
1039 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
1040 # and status_of_proc is working.
1041 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
1042
1043 #
1044 # Function that starts the daemon/service
1045
1046 #
1047 do_start()
1048 {
1049         # Return
1050         #   0 if daemon has been started
1051         #   1 if daemon was already running
1052         #   2 if daemon could not be started
1053         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
1054                 || return 1
1055         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
1056                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
1057                 || return 2
1058         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
1059         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
1060         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
1061 }
1062
1063 #
1064 # Function that stops the daemon/service
1065 #
1066 do_stop()
1067 {
1068         # Return
1069         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
1070         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
1071         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
1072         #   other if a failure occurred
1073         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
1074         RETVAL="$?"
1075         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
1076         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
1077         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
1078         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
1079         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
1080         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
1081         # sleep for some time.
1082         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
1083         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
1084         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
1085         rm -f $PIDFILE
1086         return "$RETVAL"
1087 }
1088
1089 #
1090 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
1091 #
1092 do_reload() {
1093         #
1094         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
1095         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
1096         # then implement that here.
1097         #
1098         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
1099         return 0
1100 }
1101
1102 SCRIPTNAME=$1
1103 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
1104 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
1105 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
1106     script="$1"
1107     shift
1108     . $script
1109 else
1110     exit 0
1111 fi
1112
1113 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
1114 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
1115
1116 # Exit if the package is not installed
1117 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
1118
1119 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
1120 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
1121
1122 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
1123 . /lib/init/vars.sh
1124
1125 case "$1" in
1126   start)
1127         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
1128         do_start
1129         case "$?" in
1130                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
1131                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
1132         esac
1133         ;;
1134   stop)
1135         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
1136         do_stop
1137         case "$?" in
1138                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
1139                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
1140         esac
1141         ;;
1142   status)
1143         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
1144         ;;
1145   #reload|force-reload)
1146         #
1147         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
1148         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
1149         #
1150         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
1151         #do_reload
1152         #log_end_msg $?
1153         #;;
1154   restart|force-reload)
1155         #
1156         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
1157         # 'force-reload' alias
1158         #
1159         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
1160         do_stop
1161         case "$?" in
1162           0|1)
1163                 do_start
1164                 case "$?" in
1165                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
1166                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
1167                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
1168                 esac
1169                 ;;
1170           *)
1171                 # Failed to stop
1172                 log_end_msg 1
1173                 ;;
1174         esac
1175         ;;
1176   *)
1177         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
1178         exit 3
1179         ;;
1180 esac
1181
1182 :
1183 </pre></p>
1184
1185 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
1186 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
1187 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
1188 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
1189
1190 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
1191 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
1192 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
1193 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
1194 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
1195
1196       </div>
1197       <div class="tags">
1198
1199
1200         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>.
1201
1202
1203       </div>
1204     </div>
1205     <div class="padding"></div>
1206
1207     <div class="entry">
1208       <div class="title">
1209         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
1210       </div>
1211       <div class="date">
1212          1st November 2013
1213       </div>
1214       <div class="body">
1215         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
1216 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
1217 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
1218 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
1219 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
1220 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
1221 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
1222 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
1223 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
1224 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
1225 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
1226 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
1227
1228 <p>The source is now available from
1229 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p>
1230
1231       </div>
1232       <div class="tags">
1233
1234
1235         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>.
1236
1237
1238       </div>
1239     </div>
1240     <div class="padding"></div>
1241
1242     <div class="entry">
1243       <div class="title">
1244         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
1245       </div>
1246       <div class="date">
1247         27th October 2013
1248       </div>
1249       <div class="body">
1250         <p>The
1251 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
1252 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
1253 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
1254 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
1255 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
1256 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
1257 of a plan to simplify the build system for
1258 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
1259 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
1260 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
1261 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
1262 Raspberry Pi.</p>
1263
1264 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
1265 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
1266 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
1267 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
1268 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
1269 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
1270 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
1271 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
1272 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
1273 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
1274 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
1275 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
1276 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
1277 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
1278 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
1279 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
1280 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
1281 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
1282 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
1283 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
1284 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
1285 available from
1286 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
1287 upstream project page</a>.</p>
1288
1289 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
1290 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
1291 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
1292 list:</p>
1293
1294 <p><pre>
1295 #!/bin/sh
1296 set -e # Exit on first error
1297 rootdir="$1"
1298 cd "$rootdir"
1299 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
1300 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
1301 EOF
1302 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
1303 # install a kernel somewhere too.
1304 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
1305     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
1306 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
1307 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
1308 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
1309 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
1310 </pre></p>
1311
1312 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
1313 to build the image:</p>
1314
1315 <pre>
1316 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
1317     --variant minbase \
1318     --arch armel \
1319     --distribution jessie \
1320     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
1321     --image test.img \
1322     --size 600M \
1323     --bootsize 64M \
1324     --boottype vfat \
1325     --log-level debug \
1326     --verbose \
1327     --no-kernel \
1328     --no-extlinux \
1329     --root-password raspberry \
1330     --hostname raspberrypi \
1331     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
1332     --customize `pwd`/customize \
1333     --package netbase \
1334     --package git-core \
1335     --package binutils \
1336     --package ca-certificates \
1337     --package wget \
1338     --package kmod
1339 </pre></p>
1340
1341 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
1342 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
1343 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
1344 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
1345 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
1346 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
1347 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
1348
1349 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
1350 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
1351 build dependency list.</p>
1352
1353 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
1354 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
1355 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
1356 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
1357
1358       </div>
1359       <div class="tags">
1360
1361
1362         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
1363
1364
1365       </div>
1366     </div>
1367     <div class="padding"></div>
1368
1369     <div class="entry">
1370       <div class="title">
1371         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
1372       </div>
1373       <div class="date">
1374         15th October 2013
1375       </div>
1376       <div class="body">
1377         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
1378 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
1379 these. :)</p>
1380
1381 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
1382 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
1383 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
1384 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
1385 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
1386 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
1387 hope you will to. :)</p>
1388
1389 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
1390 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
1391 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
1392 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
1393 donated.  Are you next?</p>
1394
1395 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
1396 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
1397 statement under the heading
1398 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
1399 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
1400 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
1401 too.</p>
1402
1403       </div>
1404       <div class="tags">
1405
1406
1407         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1408
1409
1410       </div>
1411     </div>
1412     <div class="padding"></div>
1413
1414     <div class="entry">
1415       <div class="title">
1416         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
1417       </div>
1418       <div class="date">
1419         27th September 2013
1420       </div>
1421       <div class="body">
1422         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
1423 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
1424 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
1425 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
1426
1427 <ul>
1428
1429 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
1430 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
1431
1432 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
1433 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
1434
1435 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
1436 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
1437 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
1438 (Youtube)</li>
1439
1440 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
1441 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
1442
1443 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
1444 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
1445
1446 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
1447 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
1448 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
1449
1450 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
1451 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
1452 (Youtube)</li>
1453
1454 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
1455 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
1456
1457 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
1458 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
1459
1460 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
1461 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
1462 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
1463
1464 </ul>
1465
1466 <p>A larger list is available from
1467 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
1468 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
1469
1470 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
1471 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
1472 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
1473 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
1474 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
1475 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
1476 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
1477 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
1478 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
1479 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
1480 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
1481
1482       </div>
1483       <div class="tags">
1484
1485
1486         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
1487
1488
1489       </div>
1490     </div>
1491     <div class="padding"></div>
1492
1493     <div class="entry">
1494       <div class="title">
1495         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
1496       </div>
1497       <div class="date">
1498         10th September 2013
1499       </div>
1500       <div class="body">
1501         <p>I was introduced to the
1502 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
1503 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
1504 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
1505 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
1506 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
1507 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
1508 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
1509 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
1510
1511 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
1512 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
1513 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
1514 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
1515 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
1516
1517 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
1518 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
1519 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
1520 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
1521 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
1522 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
1523 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
1524 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
1525 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
1526 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
1527 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
1528 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
1529 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
1530 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
1531 missing in Debian).</p>
1532
1533 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
1534 scripts
1535 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
1536 and a administrative web interface
1537 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
1538 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
1539 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
1540 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
1541 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
1542 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
1543 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
1544 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
1545 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
1546 this is really working yet, see
1547 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
1548 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
1549 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
1550 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
1551 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
1552 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
1553 with lots of half baked features.</p>
1554
1555 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
1556 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
1557 at.</p>
1558
1559 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
1560
1561 <ol>
1562
1563 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
1564 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
1565 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
1566 to the Debian installer:<p>
1567 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
1568
1569 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
1570 install on.</li>
1571
1572 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
1573 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
1574
1575 </ol>
1576
1577 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
1578
1579 <ol>
1580
1581 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
1582 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
1583 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
1584 <pre>
1585 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
1586 </pre></li>
1587 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
1588 <pre>
1589 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
1590    apt-key add -
1591 apt-get update
1592 apt-get install freedombox-setup
1593 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
1594 </pre></li>
1595 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
1596
1597 </ol>
1598
1599 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
1600 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
1601 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
1602 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
1603 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
1604
1605 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
1606 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
1607 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
1608 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
1609
1610 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
1611 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
1612 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
1613 irc.debian.org and the
1614 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
1615 mailing list</a>.</p>
1616
1617 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
1618 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
1619 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
1620 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
1621 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
1622 default password is 'secret'.</p>
1623
1624       </div>
1625       <div class="tags">
1626
1627
1628         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
1629
1630
1631       </div>
1632     </div>
1633     <div class="padding"></div>
1634
1635     <div class="entry">
1636       <div class="title">
1637         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
1638       </div>
1639       <div class="date">
1640         18th August 2013
1641       </div>
1642       <div class="body">
1643         <p>Earlier, I reported about
1644 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
1645 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
1646 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
1647 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
1648 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
1649 currently on the disk.</p>
1650
1651 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
1652 <a href="https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3472&DwnldID=18363&ProductFamily=Solid-State+Drives+and+Caching&ProductLine=Intel%c2%ae+High+Performance+Solid-State+Drive&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+SSD+520+Series+(180GB%2c+2.5in+SATA+6Gb%2fs%2c+25nm%2c+MLC)&lang=eng">issdfut_2.0.4.iso</a>
1653 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
1654 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
1655 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
1656 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
1657 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
1658 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
1659 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
1660 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
1661 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
1662 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
1663 the broken disks.</p>
1664
1665       </div>
1666       <div class="tags">
1667
1668
1669         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>.
1670
1671
1672       </div>
1673     </div>
1674     <div class="padding"></div>
1675
1676     <div class="entry">
1677       <div class="title">
1678         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk</a>
1679       </div>
1680       <div class="date">
1681         17th July 2013
1682       </div>
1683       <div class="body">
1684         <p>Today I switched to
1685 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
1686 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
1687 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
1688 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180
1689 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
1690 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
1691 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
1692 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
1693 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
1694 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
1695 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
1696 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
1697 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
1698 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
1699 station from now on.</p>
1700
1701 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
1702 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
1703 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
1704 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
1705 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
1706 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
1707 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
1708 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
1709 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
1710 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
1711 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
1712 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
1713
1714 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
1715 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
1716 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
1717 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
1718 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
1719 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
1720 parameters are tuned:</p>
1721
1722 <ul>
1723
1724 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
1725     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
1726
1727 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
1728     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
1729     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
1730
1731 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
1732     systems.</li>
1733
1734 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
1735     /etc/fstab.</li>
1736
1737 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
1738
1739 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
1740     cron.daily).</li>
1741
1742 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
1743     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
1744
1745 </ul>
1746
1747 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
1748 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
1749 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
1750 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
1751 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
1752 from getting the data on the disk (see
1753 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
1754 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
1755 right thing to do.</p>
1756
1757 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
1758 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
1759 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
1760
1761 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
1762 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
1763 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
1764 instead of during my work.</p>
1765
1766 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
1767 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
1768
1769 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
1770 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
1771 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
1772
1773 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
1774 there.</p>
1775
1776 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
1777 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
1778 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
1779 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
1780 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
1781 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
1782 back.</p>
1783
1784       </div>
1785       <div class="tags">
1786
1787
1788         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>.
1789
1790
1791       </div>
1792     </div>
1793     <div class="padding"></div>
1794
1795     <div class="entry">
1796       <div class="title">
1797         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
1798       </div>
1799       <div class="date">
1800         10th July 2013
1801       </div>
1802       <div class="body">
1803         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
1804 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
1805 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
1806 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
1807 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
1808 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
1809 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
1810 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
1811
1812 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
1813 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
1814 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
1815 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
1816 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
1817 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
1818 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
1819 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
1820 lock up when I download a new
1821 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
1822 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
1823 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
1824
1825 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
1826 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
1827 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
1828 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
1829 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
1830 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
1831
1832 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
1833 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
1834 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
1835 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
1836 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
1837 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
1838
1839 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
1840 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
1841 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
1842 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
1843 exist).</p>
1844
1845       </div>
1846       <div class="tags">
1847
1848
1849         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>.
1850
1851
1852       </div>
1853     </div>
1854     <div class="padding"></div>
1855
1856     <div class="entry">
1857       <div class="title">
1858         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
1859       </div>
1860       <div class="date">
1861          9th July 2013
1862       </div>
1863       <div class="body">
1864         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
1865 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
1866 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
1867 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
1868 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
1869 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
1870 Bitraf</a>.</p>
1871
1872 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
1873 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
1874 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
1875 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
1876 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
1877
1878       </div>
1879       <div class="tags">
1880
1881
1882         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>.
1883
1884
1885       </div>
1886     </div>
1887     <div class="padding"></div>
1888
1889     <div class="entry">
1890       <div class="title">
1891         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a>
1892       </div>
1893       <div class="date">
1894          5th July 2013
1895       </div>
1896       <div class="body">
1897         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
1898 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
1899 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
1900 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
1901 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
1902 ended up picking a
1903 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
1904 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
1905 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
1906 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
1907 on that below.</p>
1908
1909 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
1910 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
1911 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
1912 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
1913 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
1914 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
1915 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
1916 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
1917 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
1918
1919 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
1920 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
1921 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
1922 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
1923 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
1924 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
1925 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
1926
1927 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
1928 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
1929
1930 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
1931 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
1932 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
1933 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
1934 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
1935 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
1936 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
1937 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
1938 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
1939 kernel developers as
1940 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
1941 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
1942 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
1943 Lenovo forums, both for
1944 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
1945 2012-11-10</a> and for
1946 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147">X230
1947 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
1948 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
1949 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
1950 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
1951 There is even a
1952 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
1953 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
1954 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
1955
1956 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
1957 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
1958 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
1959 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
1960 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
1961 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
1962 fixed. :)</p>
1963
1964       </div>
1965       <div class="tags">
1966
1967
1968         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>.
1969
1970
1971       </div>
1972     </div>
1973     <div class="padding"></div>
1974
1975     <div class="entry">
1976       <div class="title">
1977         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</a>
1978       </div>
1979       <div class="date">
1980          4th July 2013
1981       </div>
1982       <div class="body">
1983         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
1984 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
1985 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
1986 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
1987 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
1988 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
1989 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
1990 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
1991 with an expencive door stop.</p>
1992
1993 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
1994 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
1995 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
1996 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
1997 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
1998 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
1999 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
2000
2001 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
2002 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
2003 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
2004 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
2005 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
2006 new laptop now. :)</p>
2007
2008 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
2009
2010       </div>
2011       <div class="tags">
2012
2013
2014         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>.
2015
2016
2017       </div>
2018     </div>
2019     <div class="padding"></div>
2020
2021     <div class="entry">
2022       <div class="title">
2023         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html">Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</a>
2024       </div>
2025       <div class="date">
2026         25th June 2013
2027       </div>
2028       <div class="body">
2029         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
2030 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
2031 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
2032 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
2033 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
2034 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
2035 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
2036 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
2037 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
2038 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
2039 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
2040
2041 <p><pre>
2042 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
2043 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
2044 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
2045 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
2046 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
2047 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
2048 firmware-ipw2x00
2049 firmware-ipw2x00
2050 Preconfiguring packages ...
2051 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
2052 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
2053 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
2054 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
2055 #
2056 </pre></p>
2057
2058 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
2059 printed instead:</p>
2060
2061 <p><pre>
2062 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
2063 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
2064 #
2065 </pre></p>
2066
2067 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
2068 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
2069
2070 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
2071 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
2072 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
2073 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
2074 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
2075 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
2076 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
2077 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
2078 machine.</p>
2079
2080 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
2081 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
2082 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
2083 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
2084 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
2085 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
2086
2087       </div>
2088       <div class="tags">
2089
2090
2091         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2092
2093
2094       </div>
2095     </div>
2096     <div class="padding"></div>
2097
2098     <div class="entry">
2099       <div class="title">
2100         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</a>
2101       </div>
2102       <div class="date">
2103         11th June 2013
2104       </div>
2105       <div class="body">
2106         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
2107 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
2108 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
2109 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
2110 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
2111 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
2112 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
2113 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
2114 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
2115 i915 driver used by the
2116 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
2117 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
2118
2119 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
2120 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
2121 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
2122 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
2123 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
2124
2125 <pre>
2126 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
2127 update-initramfs -u -k all
2128 </pre>
2129
2130 <p>Since March 2012 there is
2131 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
2132 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
2133 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
2134 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
2135 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
2136 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
2137 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
2138 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
2139 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
2140 number.</p>
2141
2142 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
2143 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
2144
2145 <p><pre>
2146 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
2147     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
2148     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
2149  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
2150  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
2151     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
2152  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
2153     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
2154  Latency: 0
2155  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
2156  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
2157  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
2158  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
2159  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
2160  Capabilities: <access denied>
2161  Kernel driver in use: i915
2162 </pre></p>
2163
2164 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
2165
2166 <p><pre>
2167 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
2168        ...
2169         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
2170         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
2171        ...
2172 }
2173 </pre></p>
2174
2175 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
2176 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
2177 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
2178 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
2179 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
2180 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
2181 yet shown up in
2182 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
2183 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
2184 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
2185 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
2186 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
2187 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
2188
2189 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
2190 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
2191 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
2192 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
2193 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
2194 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
2195 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
2196 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
2197 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
2198 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
2199 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
2200 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
2201
2202 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
2203 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
2204 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
2205 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
2206 backlight.</p>
2207
2208       </div>
2209       <div class="tags">
2210
2211
2212         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>.
2213
2214
2215       </div>
2216     </div>
2217     <div class="padding"></div>
2218
2219     <div class="entry">
2220       <div class="title">
2221         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html">How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</a>
2222       </div>
2223       <div class="date">
2224         27th May 2013
2225       </div>
2226       <div class="body">
2227         <p>Two days ago, I asked
2228 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">how
2229 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
2230 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
2231 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
2232 and Windows 8.</p>
2233
2234 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
2235 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
2236 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
2237 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
2238 enough to tell.</p>
2239
2240 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
2241 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
2242 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
2243 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
2244 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
2245 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
2246 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
2247 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
2248 to follow.</p>
2249
2250 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
2251 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
2252 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
2253 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
2254 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
2255 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
2256 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
2257 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
2258
2259 <p>I've updated the
2260 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
2261 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
2262 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
2263 machine.</p>
2264
2265 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
2266 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
2267
2268       </div>
2269       <div class="tags">
2270
2271
2272         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>.
2273
2274
2275       </div>
2276     </div>
2277     <div class="padding"></div>
2278
2279     <div class="entry">
2280       <div class="title">
2281         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</a>
2282       </div>
2283       <div class="date">
2284         25th May 2013
2285       </div>
2286       <div class="body">
2287         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
2288 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
2289 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
2290 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
2291 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
2292 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
2293
2294 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
2295 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
2296 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
2297 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
2298 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
2299 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
2300 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
2301 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
2302 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
2303 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
2304
2305 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
2306 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
2307 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
2308 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
2309 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
2310 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
2311
2312 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
2313 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
2314 on new Laptops?</p>
2315
2316       </div>
2317       <div class="tags">
2318
2319
2320         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>.
2321
2322
2323       </div>
2324     </div>
2325     <div class="padding"></div>
2326
2327     <div class="entry">
2328       <div class="title">
2329         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html">How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</a>
2330       </div>
2331       <div class="date">
2332         17th May 2013
2333       </div>
2334       <div class="body">
2335         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
2336 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
2337 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
2338 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
2339 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
2340 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
2341 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
2342 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
2343 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
2344 donate some money</a>.
2345
2346 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
2347 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
2348 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
2349 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
2350 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
2351
2352 <p>The script,
2353 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/branches/wheezy/debian-edu-config/share/debian-edu-config/tools/debian-edu-bless?view=markup">debian-edu-bless<a/>
2354 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
2355 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
2356 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
2357
2358 <ol>
2359
2360 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
2361 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
2362 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
2363     our configuration.</li>
2364 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
2365     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
2366     according to the profile specified in the config above,
2367     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
2368 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
2369     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
2370 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
2371
2372 </ol>
2373
2374 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
2375 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
2376 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
2377 the needed packages.</p>
2378
2379 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
2380 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
2381 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
2382 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
2383 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
2384 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
2385
2386 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
2387 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
2388 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
2389
2390 <p><pre>
2391 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
2392 DESKTOP="lxde"
2393 </pre></p>
2394
2395 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
2396 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
2397 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
2398 boot.</p>
2399
2400       </div>
2401       <div class="tags">
2402
2403
2404         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>.
2405
2406
2407       </div>
2408     </div>
2409     <div class="padding"></div>
2410
2411     <div class="entry">
2412       <div class="title">
2413         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
2414       </div>
2415       <div class="date">
2416         11th May 2013
2417       </div>
2418       <div class="body">
2419         <P>In January,
2420 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
2421 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
2422 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
2423 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
2424 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
2425 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
2426 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
2427 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
2428 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
2429 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
2430 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
2431 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
2432
2433 <p><table>
2434 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/brickos">brickos</a></td><td>alternative OS for LEGO Mindstorms RCX. Supports development in C/C++</td></tr>
2435 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
2436 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libnxt">libnxt</a></td><td>utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NX</td></tr>
2437 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
2438 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
2439 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
2440 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt">python-nxt</a></td><td>python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot</td></tr>
2441 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt-filer">python-nxt-filer</a></td><td>simple GUI to manage files on a LEGO Mindstorms NXT</td></tr>
2442 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/scratch">scratch</a></td><td>easy to use programming environment for ages 8 and up</td></tr>
2443 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
2444 </table></p>
2445
2446 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
2447 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
2448 available in experimental.</p>
2449
2450 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
2451 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
2452 for LEGO designers.</p>
2453
2454       </div>
2455       <div class="tags">
2456
2457
2458         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
2459
2460
2461       </div>
2462     </div>
2463     <div class="padding"></div>
2464
2465     <div class="entry">
2466       <div class="title">
2467         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html">Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy</a>
2468       </div>
2469       <div class="date">
2470          5th May 2013
2471       </div>
2472       <div class="body">
2473         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
2474 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
2475 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
2476 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
2477 soon.</p>
2478
2479 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
2480 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
2481 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
2482 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
2483 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
2484 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
2485 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
2486 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
2487 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
2488 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
2489 Edu.</a>
2490
2491 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
2492 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
2493 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
2494 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
2495 follow.<p>
2496
2497       </div>
2498       <div class="tags">
2499
2500
2501         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>.
2502
2503
2504       </div>
2505     </div>
2506     <div class="padding"></div>
2507
2508     <div class="entry">
2509       <div class="title">
2510         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
2511       </div>
2512       <div class="date">
2513          3rd April 2013
2514       </div>
2515       <div class="body">
2516         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
2517 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
2518 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
2519 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
2520
2521 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
2522 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
2523 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
2524 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
2525 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
2526 BTS. :)</p>
2527
2528       </div>
2529       <div class="tags">
2530
2531
2532         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2533
2534
2535       </div>
2536     </div>
2537     <div class="padding"></div>
2538
2539     <div class="entry">
2540       <div class="title">
2541         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html">Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</a>
2542       </div>
2543       <div class="date">
2544          2nd February 2013
2545       </div>
2546       <div class="body">
2547         <p>My
2548 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
2549 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
2550 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
2551 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
2552 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
2553 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
2554 version too.</p>
2555
2556 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
2557 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
2558 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
2559 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
2560 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
2561 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
2562 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
2563 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
2564
2565 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
2566 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
2567 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
2568 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
2569 it. :)</p>
2570
2571 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2572 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2573 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2574
2575       </div>
2576       <div class="tags">
2577
2578
2579         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>.
2580
2581
2582       </div>
2583     </div>
2584     <div class="padding"></div>
2585
2586     <div class="entry">
2587       <div class="title">
2588         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
2589       </div>
2590       <div class="date">
2591         22nd January 2013
2592       </div>
2593       <div class="body">
2594         <p>Yesterday, I
2595 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
2596 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
2597 pluggable hardware devices, which I
2598 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
2599 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
2600 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
2601 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
2602 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
2603 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
2604 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
2605 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
2606 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
2607 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
2608
2609 <pre>
2610 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
2611 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
2612 </pre>
2613
2614 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
2615 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
2616 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
2617 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
2618
2619 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
2620 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
2621 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
2622 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
2623 word.</p>
2624
2625 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
2626 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
2627 process.</p>
2628
2629 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
2630 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
2631
2632       </div>
2633       <div class="tags">
2634
2635
2636         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2637
2638
2639       </div>
2640     </div>
2641     <div class="padding"></div>
2642
2643     <div class="entry">
2644       <div class="title">
2645         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
2646       </div>
2647       <div class="date">
2648         21st January 2013
2649       </div>
2650       <div class="body">
2651         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
2652 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
2653 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
2654 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
2655 it, fetch the
2656 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
2657 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
2658 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
2659 autostart script.</p>
2660
2661 <p>The design is simple:</p>
2662
2663 <ul>
2664
2665 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
2666 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
2667
2668 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
2669 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
2670 initially did.</li>
2671
2672 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
2673 the APT database, a database
2674 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
2675 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
2676
2677 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
2678 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
2679 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
2680 package or packages.</li>
2681
2682 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
2683 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
2684
2685 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
2686 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
2687
2688 </ul>
2689
2690 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
2691 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
2692 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
2693 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
2694
2695 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
2696 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
2697 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
2698 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
2699 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
2700
2701 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
2702 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
2703 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
2704 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
2705 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
2706 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
2707 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
2708 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
2709
2710 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
2711 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
2712 '<tt>svn checkout
2713 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
2714 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
2715 devscripts package.</p>
2716
2717 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
2718 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
2719 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
2720 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
2721 instructions</a> for details.</p>
2722
2723       </div>
2724       <div class="tags">
2725
2726
2727         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2728
2729
2730       </div>
2731     </div>
2732     <div class="padding"></div>
2733
2734     <div class="entry">
2735       <div class="title">
2736         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</a>
2737       </div>
2738       <div class="date">
2739         19th January 2013
2740       </div>
2741       <div class="body">
2742         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
2743 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
2744 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
2745 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
2746 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
2747 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
2748 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
2749 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
2750 not a durable solution.
2751
2752 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
2753 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
2754
2755 <ul>
2756
2757 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
2758   than A4).</li>
2759 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
2760 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
2761 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
2762 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
2763 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
2764 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
2765 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
2766 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
2767 size).</li>
2768 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
2769   X.org packages.</li>
2770 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
2771   the time).
2772
2773 </ul>
2774
2775 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
2776 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
2777 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
2778 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
2779 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
2780 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
2781 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
2782 still be useful.</p>
2783
2784 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
2785 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
2786 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
2787 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
2788 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
2789 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
2790
2791       </div>
2792       <div class="tags">
2793
2794
2795         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>.
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/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a>
2805       </div>
2806       <div class="date">
2807         18th January 2013
2808       </div>
2809       <div class="body">
2810         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
2811 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
2812 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
2813 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
2814 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
2815 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
2816 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
2817
2818 <pre>
2819 #!/usr/bin/python
2820 import sys
2821 import apt
2822 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
2823     cache = apt.Cache()
2824     cache.open(None)
2825     thepkgs = []
2826     for pkg in cache:
2827         version = pkg.candidate
2828         if version is None:
2829             version = pkg.installed
2830         if version is None:
2831             continue
2832         record = version.record
2833         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
2834             continue
2835         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
2836         for t in mime_types:
2837             t = t.rstrip().strip()
2838             if t == mimetype:
2839                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
2840     return thepkgs
2841 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
2842 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
2843     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
2844 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
2845 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
2846     print "  %s" %pkg
2847 </pre>
2848
2849 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
2850
2851 <pre>
2852 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
2853 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
2854   gecko-mediaplayer
2855 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
2856 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
2857   browser-plugin-gnash
2858 %
2859 </pre>
2860
2861 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
2862 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
2863 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
2864 anyone working on adding it?</p>
2865
2866 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
2867 request for icweasel support for this feature is
2868 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
2869 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
2870 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
2871 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
2872
2873       </div>
2874       <div class="tags">
2875
2876
2877         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>.
2878
2879
2880       </div>
2881     </div>
2882     <div class="padding"></div>
2883
2884     <div class="entry">
2885       <div class="title">
2886         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</a>
2887       </div>
2888       <div class="date">
2889         16th January 2013
2890       </div>
2891       <div class="body">
2892         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
2893 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
2894 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
2895 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
2896 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
2897 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
2898 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
2899 downloaded by the browser.</p>
2900
2901 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
2902 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
2903 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
2904 can be found on the
2905 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
2906 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
2907 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
2908 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
2909 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
2910
2911 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
2912
2913 <pre>
2914   count MIME type
2915   ----- -----------------------
2916      32 text/plain
2917      30 audio/mpeg
2918      29 image/png
2919      28 image/jpeg
2920      27 application/ogg
2921      26 audio/x-mp3
2922      25 image/tiff
2923      25 image/gif
2924      22 image/bmp
2925      22 audio/x-wav
2926      20 audio/x-flac
2927      19 audio/x-mpegurl
2928      18 video/x-ms-asf
2929      18 audio/x-musepack
2930      18 audio/x-mpeg
2931      18 application/x-ogg
2932      17 video/mpeg
2933      17 audio/x-scpls
2934      17 audio/ogg
2935      16 video/x-ms-wmv
2936 </pre>
2937
2938 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
2939
2940 <pre>
2941   count MIME type
2942   ----- -----------------------
2943      33 text/plain
2944      32 image/png
2945      32 image/jpeg
2946      29 audio/mpeg
2947      27 image/gif
2948      26 image/tiff
2949      26 application/ogg
2950      25 audio/x-mp3
2951      22 image/bmp
2952      21 audio/x-wav
2953      19 audio/x-mpegurl
2954      19 audio/x-mpeg
2955      18 video/mpeg
2956      18 audio/x-scpls
2957      18 audio/x-flac
2958      18 application/x-ogg
2959      17 video/x-ms-asf
2960      17 text/html
2961      17 audio/x-musepack
2962      16 image/x-xbitmap
2963 </pre>
2964
2965 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
2966
2967 <pre>
2968   count MIME type
2969   ----- -----------------------
2970      31 text/plain
2971      31 image/png
2972      31 image/jpeg
2973      29 audio/mpeg
2974      28 application/ogg
2975      27 image/gif
2976      26 image/tiff
2977      26 audio/x-mp3
2978      23 audio/x-wav
2979      22 image/bmp
2980      21 audio/x-flac
2981      20 audio/x-mpegurl
2982      19 audio/x-mpeg
2983      18 video/x-ms-asf
2984      18 video/mpeg
2985      18 audio/x-scpls
2986      18 application/x-ogg
2987      17 audio/x-musepack
2988      16 video/x-ms-wmv
2989      16 video/x-msvideo
2990 </pre>
2991
2992 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
2993 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
2994 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
2995 issues.</p>
2996
2997 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
2998 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
2999
3000       </div>
3001       <div class="tags">
3002
3003
3004         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>.
3005
3006
3007       </div>
3008     </div>
3009     <div class="padding"></div>
3010
3011     <div class="entry">
3012       <div class="title">
3013         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html">Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</a>
3014       </div>
3015       <div class="date">
3016         15th January 2013
3017       </div>
3018       <div class="body">
3019         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
3020 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
3021 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
3022 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
3023 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
3024 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
3025 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
3026 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
3027 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
3028 packages.</p>
3029
3030 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
3031 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
3032 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
3033 modalias.</p>
3034
3035 <p><blockquote>
3036 Package: package-name
3037 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
3038 </blockquote></p>
3039
3040 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
3041 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
3042
3043 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
3044 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
3045
3046 <p><blockquote>
3047 Package: cheese
3048 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
3049 </blockquote></p>
3050
3051 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
3052 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
3053
3054 <p><blockquote>
3055 Package: pcmciautils
3056 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
3057 </blockquote></p>
3058
3059 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
3060 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
3061
3062 <p><blockquote>
3063 Package: colorhug-client
3064 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
3065 </blockquote></p>
3066
3067 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
3068 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
3069 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
3070
3071 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
3072 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
3073 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
3074 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
3075 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
3076 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
3077 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
3078 Raring.</p>
3079
3080 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
3081 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
3082 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
3083 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
3084 try the
3085 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
3086 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
3087 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
3088 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
3089
3090 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
3091 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
3092
3093 <p><blockquote>
3094 % ./hw-support-lookup
3095 <br>yubikey-personalization
3096 <br>%
3097 </blockquote></p>
3098
3099 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
3100 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
3101
3102 <p><blockquote>
3103 % ./hw-support-lookup
3104 <br>pcmciautils
3105 <br>%
3106 </blockquote></p>
3107
3108 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
3109 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
3110 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
3111
3112 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
3113 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
3114 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
3115 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
3116 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
3117 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
3118 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
3119 see if it work.</p>
3120
3121 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
3122 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
3123 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
3124 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
3125
3126       </div>
3127       <div class="tags">
3128
3129
3130         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3131
3132
3133       </div>
3134     </div>
3135     <div class="padding"></div>
3136
3137     <div class="entry">
3138       <div class="title">
3139         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
3140       </div>
3141       <div class="date">
3142         14th January 2013
3143       </div>
3144       <div class="body">
3145         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
3146 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
3147 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
3148 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
3149 in
3150 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
3151 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
3152
3153 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
3154
3155 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
3156 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
3157 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
3158 &lt;URL: <a href="http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device">http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device</a> &gt;,
3159 &lt;URL: <a href="http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c">http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c</a> &gt; and
3160 &lt;URL: <a href="http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup">http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup</a> &gt;.
3161
3162 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
3163 this shell script:</p>
3164
3165 <pre>
3166 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
3167 </pre>
3168
3169 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
3170 using modinfo:</p>
3171
3172 <pre>
3173 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
3174 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
3175 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
3176 %
3177 </pre>
3178
3179 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
3180
3181 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
3182 Bridge memory controller:</p>
3183
3184 <p><blockquote>
3185 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
3186 </blockquote></p>
3187
3188 <p>This represent these values:</p>
3189
3190 <pre>
3191  v   00008086  (vendor)
3192  d   00002770  (device)
3193  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
3194  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
3195  bc  06        (bus class)
3196  sc  00        (bus subclass)
3197  i   00        (interface)
3198 </pre>
3199
3200 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
3201 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
3202 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
3203 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
3204
3205 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
3206 means.</p>
3207
3208 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
3209
3210 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
3211 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
3212
3213 <p><blockquote>
3214 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
3215 </blockquote></p>
3216
3217 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
3218
3219 <pre>
3220  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
3221  p    0001  (device product)
3222  d    0206  (bcddevice)
3223  dc     09  (device class)
3224  dsc    00  (device subclass)
3225  dp     00  (device protocol)
3226  ic     09  (interface class)
3227  isc    00  (interface subclass)
3228  ip     00  (interface protocol)
3229 </pre>
3230
3231 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
3232 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
3233 these alias entries show up:</p>
3234
3235 <p><blockquote>
3236 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
3237 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
3238 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
3239 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
3240 </blockquote></p>
3241
3242 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
3243 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
3244 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
3245
3246 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
3247
3248 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
3249 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
3250
3251 <p><blockquote>
3252 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
3253 </blockquote></p>
3254
3255 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
3256
3257 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
3258
3259 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
3260 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
3261 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
3262
3263 <p><blockquote>
3264 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
3265 </blockquote></p>
3266
3267 <p>The values present are</p>
3268
3269 <pre>
3270  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
3271  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
3272  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
3273  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
3274  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
3275  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
3276  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
3277  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
3278  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
3279  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
3280  ct   10             (chassis type)
3281  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
3282 </pre>
3283
3284 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
3285 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
3286
3287 <pre>
3288   3 Desktop
3289   4 Low Profile Desktop
3290   5 Pizza Box
3291   6 Mini Tower
3292   7 Tower
3293   8 Portable
3294   9 Laptop
3295  10 Notebook
3296  11 Hand Held
3297  12 Docking Station
3298  13 All In One
3299  14 Sub Notebook
3300  15 Space-saving
3301  16 Lunch Box
3302  17 Main Server Chassis
3303  18 Expansion Chassis
3304  19 Sub Chassis
3305  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
3306  21 Peripheral Chassis
3307  22 RAID Chassis
3308  23 Rack Mount Chassis
3309  24 Sealed-case PC
3310  25 Multi-system
3311  26 CompactPCI
3312  27 AdvancedTCA
3313  28 Blade
3314  29 Blade Enclosing
3315 </pre>
3316
3317 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
3318 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
3319 claim it is a desktop.</p>
3320
3321 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
3322
3323 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
3324 test machine:</p>
3325
3326 <p><blockquote>
3327 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
3328 </blockquote></p>
3329
3330 <p>The values present are</p>
3331
3332 <pre>
3333   ty  01  (type)
3334   pr  00  (prototype)
3335   id  00  (id)
3336   ex  00  (extra)
3337 </pre>
3338
3339 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
3340 the valid values are.</p>
3341
3342 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
3343
3344 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
3345 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
3346 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
3347 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
3348 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
3349 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
3350 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
3351
3352 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
3353
3354 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
3355 one can use the following shell script:</p>
3356
3357 <pre>
3358   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
3359     echo "$id" ; \
3360     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
3361   done
3362 </pre>
3363
3364 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
3365 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
3366
3367 <pre>
3368   acpi:ACPI0003:
3369     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
3370   acpi:device:
3371   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
3372   acpi:IBM0068:
3373     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
3374     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
3375     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
3376     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
3377   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
3378     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
3379     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
3380     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
3381   [...]
3382 </pre>
3383
3384 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
3385 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
3386 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
3387 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
3388
3389 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
3390 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
3391 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
3392
3393       </div>
3394       <div class="tags">
3395
3396
3397         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3398
3399
3400       </div>
3401     </div>
3402     <div class="padding"></div>
3403
3404     <div class="entry">
3405       <div class="title">
3406         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html">Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</a>
3407       </div>
3408       <div class="date">
3409         10th January 2013
3410       </div>
3411       <div class="body">
3412         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
3413 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
3414 Launcher and updated the Debian package
3415 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
3416 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
3417 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
3418 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
3419 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
3420 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
3421 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
3422 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
3423 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
3424 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
3425 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
3426 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
3427 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
3428 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
3429 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
3430
3431       </div>
3432       <div class="tags">
3433
3434
3435         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
3436
3437
3438       </div>
3439     </div>
3440     <div class="padding"></div>
3441
3442     <div class="entry">
3443       <div class="title">
3444         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</a>
3445       </div>
3446       <div class="date">
3447          9th January 2013
3448       </div>
3449       <div class="body">
3450         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
3451 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
3452 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
3453 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
3454 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
3455 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
3456 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
3457 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
3458 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
3459 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
3460 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
3461
3462 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
3463 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
3464 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
3465 simple:
3466
3467 <ul>
3468
3469 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
3470   starting when a user log in.</li>
3471
3472 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
3473   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
3474
3475 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
3476   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
3477   packages.</li>
3478
3479 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
3480   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
3481
3482 </ul>
3483
3484 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
3485 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
3486 discover database to find packages and
3487 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
3488 packages.</p>
3489
3490 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
3491 draft package is now checked into
3492 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
3493 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
3494 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
3495 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
3496 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
3497 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
3498 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
3499 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
3500 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
3501 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
3502 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
3503 because of the freeze).</p>
3504
3505 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
3506 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
3507 inserted):</p>
3508
3509 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
3510
3511 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
3512 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
3513 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
3514
3515 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
3516 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
3517 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
3518 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
3519 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
3520 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
3521 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
3522
3523 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
3524 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
3525 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
3526 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
3527 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
3528 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
3529 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
3530 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
3531 not be installed?</p>
3532
3533 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
3534 please send me an email. :)</p>
3535
3536       </div>
3537       <div class="tags">
3538
3539
3540         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3541
3542
3543       </div>
3544     </div>
3545     <div class="padding"></div>
3546
3547     <div class="entry">
3548       <div class="title">
3549         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</a>
3550       </div>
3551       <div class="date">
3552          2nd January 2013
3553       </div>
3554       <div class="body">
3555         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
3556 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
3557 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
3558 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
3559 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
3560 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
3561 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
3562 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
3563 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
3564 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
3565
3566 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
3567 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
3568 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
3569
3570       </div>
3571       <div class="tags">
3572
3573
3574         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
3575
3576
3577       </div>
3578     </div>
3579     <div class="padding"></div>
3580
3581     <div class="entry">
3582       <div class="title">
3583         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">How to backport bitcoin-qt version 0.7.2-2 to Debian Squeeze</a>
3584       </div>
3585       <div class="date">
3586         25th December 2012
3587       </div>
3588       <div class="body">
3589         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
3590 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
3591
3592 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
3593 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
3594 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
3595 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
3596 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
3597 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
3598 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
3599 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
3600 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
3601 name.</p>
3602
3603 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
3604 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
3605 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
3606
3607 <blockquote><pre>
3608 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
3609 cd bitcoin
3610 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
3611 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
3612 </pre></blockquote>
3613
3614 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
3615 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
3616 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
3617 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
3618 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
3619 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
3620 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
3621 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
3622 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
3623
3624 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3625 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3626 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3627
3628       </div>
3629       <div class="tags">
3630
3631
3632         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>.
3633
3634
3635       </div>
3636     </div>
3637     <div class="padding"></div>
3638
3639     <div class="entry">
3640       <div class="title">
3641         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
3642       </div>
3643       <div class="date">
3644         21st December 2012
3645       </div>
3646       <div class="body">
3647         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
3648 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
3649 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
3650 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
3651 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
3652 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
3653 is now maintained by a
3654 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
3655 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
3656 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
3657 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
3658 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
3659 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
3660 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
3661 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
3662 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
3663 Corallo in a
3664 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
3665 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
3666 Debian package.</p>
3667
3668 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
3669 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
3670 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
3671 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
3672 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
3673 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
3674 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
3675 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
3676 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
3677 new version to unstable.
3678
3679 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
3680 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
3681 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
3682 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
3683 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
3684 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
3685 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
3686 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
3687 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
3688 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
3689 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
3690 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
3691 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
3692 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
3693 have not tested them.</p>
3694
3695 <p>My
3696 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
3697 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
3698 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
3699 years ago, as can be
3700 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
3701 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
3702 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
3703 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
3704 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
3705 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
3706 the same address as last time,
3707 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3708
3709       </div>
3710       <div class="tags">
3711
3712
3713         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>.
3714
3715
3716       </div>
3717     </div>
3718     <div class="padding"></div>
3719
3720     <div class="entry">
3721       <div class="title">
3722         <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>
3723       </div>
3724       <div class="date">
3725          7th September 2012
3726       </div>
3727       <div class="body">
3728         <p>As I
3729 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
3730 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
3731 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
3732 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
3733 repository for the project</a>.</p>
3734
3735 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
3736 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
3737 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
3738 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
3739
3740 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
3741 PostScript formats at
3742 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
3743 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
3744
3745       </div>
3746       <div class="tags">
3747
3748
3749         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>.
3750
3751
3752       </div>
3753     </div>
3754     <div class="padding"></div>
3755
3756     <div class="entry">
3757       <div class="title">
3758         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
3759       </div>
3760       <div class="date">
3761         16th August 2012
3762       </div>
3763       <div class="body">
3764         <p>I dag fyller
3765 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
3766 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
3767 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
3768
3769       </div>
3770       <div class="tags">
3771
3772
3773         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
3774
3775
3776       </div>
3777     </div>
3778     <div class="padding"></div>
3779
3780     <div class="entry">
3781       <div class="title">
3782         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
3783       </div>
3784       <div class="date">
3785         24th June 2012
3786       </div>
3787       <div class="body">
3788         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
3789 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
3790 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
3791 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
3792 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
3793 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
3794 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
3795 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
3796 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
3797 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
3798 missing in my book.</p>
3799
3800 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
3801 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
3802 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
3803 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
3804 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
3805 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
3806 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
3807
3808       </div>
3809       <div class="tags">
3810
3811
3812         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>.
3813
3814
3815       </div>
3816     </div>
3817     <div class="padding"></div>
3818
3819     <div class="entry">
3820       <div class="title">
3821         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
3822       </div>
3823       <div class="date">
3824         21st November 2011
3825       </div>
3826       <div class="body">
3827         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
3828 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
3829 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
3830 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
3831 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
3832 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
3833 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
3834 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
3835 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
3836 the tools to do so.</p>
3837
3838 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
3839 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
3840 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
3841 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
3842
3843 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
3844 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
3845 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
3846 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
3847 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
3848 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
3849 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
3850 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
3851
3852 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
3853 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
3854 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
3855
3856 <p><pre>
3857 #!/usr/bin/perl
3858 use strict;
3859 use warnings;
3860 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
3861 BEGIN {
3862     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
3863     my %rhelmodules = (
3864         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
3865         );
3866     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
3867         eval "use $module;";
3868         if ($@) {
3869             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
3870             system("yum install -y $pkg");
3871             eval "use $module;";
3872         }
3873     }
3874 }
3875 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
3876
3877 upgrade_dell();
3878
3879 exit 0;
3880
3881 sub run_firmware_script {
3882     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
3883     unless ($script) {
3884         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
3885         exit 1
3886     }
3887     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
3888
3889     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
3890         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
3891     } else {
3892         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
3893     }
3894 }
3895
3896 sub run_firmware_scripts {
3897     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
3898     # Run firmware packages
3899     for my $dir (@dirs) {
3900         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
3901         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
3902         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
3903             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
3904             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
3905         }
3906         closedir $dh;
3907     }
3908 }
3909
3910 sub download {
3911     my $url = shift;
3912     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
3913     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
3914 }
3915
3916 sub upgrade_dell {
3917     my @dirs;
3918     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
3919     chomp $product;
3920
3921     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
3922
3923         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
3924         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
3925
3926         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
3927             CLEANUP => 1
3928             );
3929         chdir($tmpdir);
3930         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
3931         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
3932         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
3933         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
3934         my $fwopts = "-q";
3935         if (@paths) {
3936             for my $url (@paths) {
3937                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
3938             }
3939             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
3940         } else {
3941             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
3942             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
3943         }
3944         chdir('/');
3945     } else {
3946         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
3947         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
3948     }
3949 }
3950
3951 sub fetch_dell_fw {
3952     my $path = shift;
3953     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
3954     download($url);
3955 }
3956
3957 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
3958 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
3959 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
3960 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
3961     my $filename = shift;
3962
3963     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
3964     chomp $product;
3965     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
3966
3967     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
3968
3969     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
3970     my @paths;
3971     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
3972         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
3973         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
3974         my $oscode;
3975         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
3976             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
3977         } else {
3978             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
3979         }
3980         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
3981         {
3982             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
3983         }
3984     }
3985     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
3986         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
3987
3988         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
3989         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
3990
3991         my $cpath = $component->{path};
3992         for my $path (@paths) {
3993             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
3994                 push(@paths, $cpath);
3995             }
3996         }
3997     }
3998     return @paths;
3999 }
4000 </pre>
4001
4002 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
4003 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
4004 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
4005 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
4006 outdated.</p>
4007
4008       </div>
4009       <div class="tags">
4010
4011
4012         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>.
4013
4014
4015       </div>
4016     </div>
4017     <div class="padding"></div>
4018
4019     <div class="entry">
4020       <div class="title">
4021         <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>
4022       </div>
4023       <div class="date">
4024          4th August 2011
4025       </div>
4026       <div class="body">
4027         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
4028 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
4029 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
4030 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
4031 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
4032 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
4033 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
4034 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
4035 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
4036
4037 <p><blockquote>
4038 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
4039 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
4040 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
4041 </blockquote></p>
4042
4043 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
4044 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
4045 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
4046 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
4047 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
4048 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
4049 hard to explain.</p>
4050
4051 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
4052 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
4053 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
4054 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
4055 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
4056 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
4057 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
4058 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
4059 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
4060 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
4061 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
4062 mode).</p>
4063
4064 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
4065 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
4066 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
4067 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
4068 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
4069 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
4070 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
4071 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
4072 after visiting single user mode.</p>
4073
4074 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
4075 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
4076 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
4077 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
4078 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
4079 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
4080 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
4081 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
4082
4083 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
4084 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
4085 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
4086
4087       </div>
4088       <div class="tags">
4089
4090
4091         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>.
4092
4093
4094       </div>
4095     </div>
4096     <div class="padding"></div>
4097
4098     <div class="entry">
4099       <div class="title">
4100         <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>
4101       </div>
4102       <div class="date">
4103         30th July 2011
4104       </div>
4105       <div class="body">
4106         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
4107 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
4108 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
4109 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
4110 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
4111 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
4112 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
4113 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
4114 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
4115 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
4116 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
4117 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
4118 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
4119
4120 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
4121 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
4122 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
4123 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
4124 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
4125 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
4126 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
4127 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
4128 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
4129
4130 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
4131 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
4132 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
4133 is presented.</p>
4134
4135 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
4136 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
4137 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
4138 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
4139 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
4140 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
4141 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
4142 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
4143 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
4144 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
4145 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
4146 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
4147 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
4148 find time to push this forward.</p>
4149
4150       </div>
4151       <div class="tags">
4152
4153
4154         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>.
4155
4156
4157       </div>
4158     </div>
4159     <div class="padding"></div>
4160
4161     <div class="entry">
4162       <div class="title">
4163         <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>
4164       </div>
4165       <div class="date">
4166         29th July 2011
4167       </div>
4168       <div class="body">
4169         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
4170 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
4171 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
4172 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
4173 issues.</p>
4174
4175 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
4176 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
4177 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
4178
4179 <ol>
4180
4181 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
4182 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
4183 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
4184 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
4185 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
4186 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
4187 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
4188 Debian.</li>
4189
4190 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
4191 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
4192 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
4193 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
4194 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
4195 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
4196 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
4197 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
4198 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
4199 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
4200 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
4201 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
4202 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
4203
4204 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
4205 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
4206 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
4207 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
4208 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
4209 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
4210 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
4211 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
4212 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
4213 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
4214
4215 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
4216 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
4217 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
4218 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
4219 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
4220 latter behaviour.</li>
4221
4222 </ol>
4223
4224 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
4225 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
4226 it do not matter much.</p>
4227
4228 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
4229 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
4230 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
4231
4232       </div>
4233       <div class="tags">
4234
4235
4236         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>.
4237
4238
4239       </div>
4240     </div>
4241     <div class="padding"></div>
4242
4243     <div class="entry">
4244       <div class="title">
4245         <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>
4246       </div>
4247       <div class="date">
4248         26th July 2011
4249       </div>
4250       <div class="body">
4251         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
4252 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
4253 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
4254 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
4255 security support for a few years.</p>
4256
4257 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
4258 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
4259 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
4260 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
4261 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
4262 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
4263 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
4264 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
4265 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
4266 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
4267 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
4268 easier in the future.</p>
4269
4270 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
4271 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
4272 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
4273 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
4274 do not have time for.</p>
4275
4276       </div>
4277       <div class="tags">
4278
4279
4280         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>.
4281
4282
4283       </div>
4284     </div>
4285     <div class="padding"></div>
4286
4287     <div class="entry">
4288       <div class="title">
4289         <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>
4290       </div>
4291       <div class="date">
4292          3rd April 2011
4293       </div>
4294       <div class="body">
4295         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
4296 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
4297 update in English.</p>
4298
4299 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
4300 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
4301 of the British service
4302 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
4303 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
4304 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
4305 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
4306 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
4307 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
4308 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
4309 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
4310 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
4311 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
4312 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
4313 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
4314 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
4315
4316 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
4317 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
4318 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
4319 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
4320 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
4321 public infrastructure.</p>
4322
4323 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
4324 such service?</p>
4325
4326       </div>
4327       <div class="tags">
4328
4329
4330         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>.
4331
4332
4333       </div>
4334     </div>
4335     <div class="padding"></div>
4336
4337     <div class="entry">
4338       <div class="title">
4339         <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>
4340       </div>
4341       <div class="date">
4342         28th January 2011
4343       </div>
4344       <div class="body">
4345         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
4346 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
4347 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
4348 available on the Internet, and check our locally
4349 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
4350 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
4351 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
4352 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
4353 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
4354 out which security holes were present in our free software
4355 collection.</p>
4356
4357 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
4358 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
4359 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
4360 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
4361 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
4362 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
4363 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
4364 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
4365 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
4366 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
4367 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
4368 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
4369 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
4370 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
4371 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
4372 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
4373
4374 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
4375 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
4376 check out, one could look up
4377 <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
4378 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
4379 The most recent one is
4380 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
4381 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
4382 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
4383
4384 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
4385 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
4386 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
4387 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
4388 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
4389 security issues out.</p>
4390
4391 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
4392 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
4393 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
4394 RHEL is providing
4395 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
4396 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
4397 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
4398
4399 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
4400 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
4401 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
4402 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
4403 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
4404 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
4405 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
4406 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
4407 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
4408 established soon.</p>
4409
4410 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
4411 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
4412 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
4413 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
4414 for their packages.</p>
4415
4416       </div>
4417       <div class="tags">
4418
4419
4420         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>.
4421
4422
4423       </div>
4424     </div>
4425     <div class="padding"></div>
4426
4427     <div class="entry">
4428       <div class="title">
4429         <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>
4430       </div>
4431       <div class="date">
4432         23rd January 2011
4433       </div>
4434       <div class="body">
4435         <p>In the
4436 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
4437 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
4438 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
4439 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
4440 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
4441 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
4442 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
4443 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
4444 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
4445 one of my machines like this:</p>
4446
4447 <pre>
4448 loaded modules:
4449 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
4450 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
4451 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
4452 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
4453 10de:03ec pata_amd
4454 10de:03f6 sata_nv
4455 1022:1103 k8temp
4456 109e:036e bttv
4457 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
4458 11ab:4364 sky2
4459 </pre>
4460
4461 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
4462 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
4463
4464 <pre>
4465 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
4466     echo loaded pci modules:
4467     (
4468         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
4469         for address in * ; do
4470             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
4471                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
4472                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
4473                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
4474                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
4475                     echo "$id $module"
4476                 fi
4477             fi
4478         done
4479     )
4480     echo
4481 fi
4482 </pre>
4483
4484 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
4485 mappings:</p>
4486
4487 <pre>
4488 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
4489     echo loaded usb modules:
4490     (
4491         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
4492         for address in * ; do
4493             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
4494                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
4495                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
4496                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
4497                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
4498                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
4499                         echo "$id $module"
4500                     fi
4501                 fi
4502             fi
4503         done
4504     )
4505     echo
4506 fi
4507 </pre>
4508
4509 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
4510 well.</p>
4511
4512       </div>
4513       <div class="tags">
4514
4515
4516         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>.
4517
4518
4519       </div>
4520     </div>
4521     <div class="padding"></div>
4522
4523     <div class="entry">
4524       <div class="title">
4525         <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>
4526       </div>
4527       <div class="date">
4528         22nd December 2010
4529       </div>
4530       <div class="body">
4531         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
4532 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
4533 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
4534 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
4535 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
4536 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
4537 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
4538 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
4539 university.</p>
4540
4541 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
4542 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
4543 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
4544 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
4545 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
4546 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
4547 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
4548 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
4549
4550 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
4551 I perform on a new model.</p>
4552
4553 <ul>
4554
4555 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
4556 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
4557 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
4558
4559 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
4560 installation, X.org is working.</li>
4561
4562 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
4563 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
4564 reported by the program.</li>
4565
4566 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
4567 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
4568 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
4569 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
4570 normally test this by playing
4571 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
4572 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
4573
4574 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
4575 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
4576
4577 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
4578 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
4579
4580 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
4581 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
4582
4583 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
4584 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
4585 few.</li>
4586
4587 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
4588 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
4589 notice this.</li>
4590
4591 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
4592 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
4593 resume.</li>
4594
4595 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
4596 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
4597 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
4598 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
4599 not.</li>
4600
4601 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
4602 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
4603 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
4604 existence.</li>
4605
4606 </ul>
4607
4608 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
4609 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
4610 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
4611 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
4612 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
4613 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
4614 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
4615 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
4616
4617       </div>
4618       <div class="tags">
4619
4620
4621         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>.
4622
4623
4624       </div>
4625     </div>
4626     <div class="padding"></div>
4627
4628     <div class="entry">
4629       <div class="title">
4630         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
4631       </div>
4632       <div class="date">
4633         11th December 2010
4634       </div>
4635       <div class="body">
4636         <p>As I continue to explore
4637 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
4638 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
4639 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
4640
4641 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
4642 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
4643 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
4644 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
4645 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
4646 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
4647 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
4648 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
4649 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
4650 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
4651 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
4652 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
4653 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
4654 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
4655 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
4656 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
4657 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
4658 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
4659 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
4660 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
4661
4662 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
4663 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
4664 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
4665 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
4666 If the Skolelinux foundation
4667 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
4668 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
4669 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
4670 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
4671 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
4672 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
4673 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
4674 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
4675
4676 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
4677 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
4678 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
4679 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
4680 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
4681 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
4682 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
4683 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
4684 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
4685 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
4686 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
4687 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
4688 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
4689 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
4690 currencies.</p>
4691
4692 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
4693 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
4694 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
4695 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
4696 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
4697 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
4698 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
4699 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
4700 BitCoins.  Check out
4701 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
4702 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
4703 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
4704 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
4705 yet.</p>
4706
4707 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
4708 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
4709 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
4710 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
4711 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
4712
4713       </div>
4714       <div class="tags">
4715
4716
4717         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>.
4718
4719
4720       </div>
4721     </div>
4722     <div class="padding"></div>
4723
4724     <div class="entry">
4725       <div class="title">
4726         <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>
4727       </div>
4728       <div class="date">
4729         10th December 2010
4730       </div>
4731       <div class="body">
4732         <p>With this weeks lawless
4733 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
4734 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
4735 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
4736 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
4737 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
4738 A blog post from
4739 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
4740 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
4741 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
4742 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
4743 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
4744 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
4745 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
4746
4747 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
4748 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
4749 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
4750 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
4751 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
4752 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
4753 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
4754 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
4755 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
4756 Debian</a> soon.</p>
4757
4758 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
4759 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
4760 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
4761 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
4762 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
4763 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
4764 you can even get
4765 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
4766 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
4767 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
4768 on the current exchange rates.</p>
4769
4770 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
4771 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
4772 donations to the address
4773 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
4774
4775       </div>
4776       <div class="tags">
4777
4778
4779         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>.
4780
4781
4782       </div>
4783     </div>
4784     <div class="padding"></div>
4785
4786     <div class="entry">
4787       <div class="title">
4788         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
4789       </div>
4790       <div class="date">
4791         27th November 2010
4792       </div>
4793       <div class="body">
4794         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
4795 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
4796 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
4797 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
4798 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
4799 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
4800 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
4801 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
4802
4803 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
4804 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
4805 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
4806 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
4807 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
4808 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
4809 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
4810 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
4811 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
4812 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
4813 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
4814
4815 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
4816 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
4817 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
4818 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
4819 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
4820 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
4821 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
4822 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
4823 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
4824 what is going on.</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/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>.
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/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>
4840       </div>
4841       <div class="date">
4842         22nd November 2010
4843       </div>
4844       <div class="body">
4845         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
4846 upgrade testing of the
4847 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
4848 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
4849 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
4850 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
4851
4852 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
4853
4854 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
4855
4856 <blockquote><p>
4857   apache2.2-bin
4858   aptdaemon
4859   baobab
4860   binfmt-support
4861   browser-plugin-gnash
4862   cheese-common
4863   cli-common
4864   cups-pk-helper
4865   dmz-cursor-theme
4866   empathy
4867   empathy-common
4868   freedesktop-sound-theme
4869   freeglut3
4870   gconf-defaults-service
4871   gdm-themes
4872   gedit-plugins
4873   geoclue
4874   geoclue-hostip
4875   geoclue-localnet
4876   geoclue-manual
4877   geoclue-yahoo
4878   gnash
4879   gnash-common
4880   gnome
4881   gnome-backgrounds
4882   gnome-cards-data
4883   gnome-codec-install
4884   gnome-core
4885   gnome-desktop-environment
4886   gnome-disk-utility
4887   gnome-screenshot
4888   gnome-search-tool
4889   gnome-session-canberra
4890   gnome-system-log
4891   gnome-themes-extras
4892   gnome-themes-more
4893   gnome-user-share
4894   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
4895   gstreamer0.10-tools
4896   gtk2-engines
4897   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
4898   gtk2-engines-smooth
4899   hamster-applet
4900   libapache2-mod-dnssd
4901   libapr1
4902   libaprutil1
4903   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
4904   libaprutil1-ldap
4905   libart2.0-cil
4906   libboost-date-time1.42.0
4907   libboost-python1.42.0
4908   libboost-thread1.42.0
4909   libchamplain-0.4-0
4910   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
4911   libcheese-gtk18
4912   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
4913   libcryptui0
4914   libdiscid0
4915   libelf1
4916   libepc-1.0-2
4917   libepc-common
4918   libepc-ui-1.0-2
4919   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
4920   libfreerdp0
4921   libgconf2.0-cil
4922   libgdata-common
4923   libgdata7
4924   libgdu-gtk0
4925   libgee2
4926   libgeoclue0
4927   libgexiv2-0
4928   libgif4
4929   libglade2.0-cil
4930   libglib2.0-cil
4931   libgmime2.4-cil
4932   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
4933   libgnome2.24-cil
4934   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
4935   libgpod-common
4936   libgpod4
4937   libgtk2.0-cil
4938   libgtkglext1
4939   libgtksourceview2.0-common
4940   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
4941   libmono-addins0.2-cil
4942   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
4943   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
4944   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
4945   libmono-posix2.0-cil
4946   libmono-security2.0-cil
4947   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
4948   libmono-system2.0-cil
4949   libmtp8
4950   libmusicbrainz3-6
4951   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
4952   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
4953   libopal3.6.8
4954   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
4955   libpt2.6.7
4956   libpython2.6
4957   librpm1
4958   librpmio1
4959   libsdl1.2debian
4960   libsrtp0
4961   libssh-4
4962   libtelepathy-farsight0
4963   libtelepathy-glib0
4964   libtidy-0.99-0
4965   media-player-info
4966   mesa-utils
4967   mono-2.0-gac
4968   mono-gac
4969   mono-runtime
4970   nautilus-sendto
4971   nautilus-sendto-empathy
4972   p7zip-full
4973   pkg-config
4974   python-aptdaemon
4975   python-aptdaemon-gtk
4976   python-axiom
4977   python-beautifulsoup
4978   python-bugbuddy
4979   python-clientform
4980   python-coherence
4981   python-configobj
4982   python-crypto
4983   python-cupshelpers
4984   python-elementtree
4985   python-epsilon
4986   python-evolution
4987   python-feedparser
4988   python-gdata
4989   python-gdbm
4990   python-gst0.10
4991   python-gtkglext1
4992   python-gtksourceview2
4993   python-httplib2
4994   python-louie
4995   python-mako
4996   python-markupsafe
4997   python-mechanize
4998   python-nevow
4999   python-notify
5000   python-opengl
5001   python-openssl
5002   python-pam
5003   python-pkg-resources
5004   python-pyasn1
5005   python-pysqlite2
5006   python-rdflib
5007   python-serial
5008   python-tagpy
5009   python-twisted-bin
5010   python-twisted-conch
5011   python-twisted-core
5012   python-twisted-web
5013   python-utidylib
5014   python-webkit
5015   python-xdg
5016   python-zope.interface
5017   remmina
5018   remmina-plugin-data
5019   remmina-plugin-rdp
5020   remmina-plugin-vnc
5021   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
5022   rhythmbox-plugins
5023   rpm-common
5024   rpm2cpio
5025   seahorse-plugins
5026   shotwell
5027   software-center
5028   system-config-printer-udev
5029   telepathy-gabble
5030   telepathy-mission-control-5
5031   telepathy-salut
5032   tomboy
5033   totem
5034   totem-coherence
5035   totem-mozilla
5036   totem-plugins
5037   transmission-common
5038   xdg-user-dirs
5039   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
5040   xserver-xephyr
5041 </p></blockquote>
5042
5043 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
5044
5045 <blockquote><p>
5046   cheese
5047   ekiga
5048   eog
5049   epiphany-extensions
5050   evolution-exchange
5051   fast-user-switch-applet
5052   file-roller
5053   gcalctool
5054   gconf-editor
5055   gdm
5056   gedit
5057   gedit-common
5058   gnome-games
5059   gnome-games-data
5060   gnome-nettool
5061   gnome-system-tools
5062   gnome-themes
5063   gnuchess
5064   gucharmap
5065   guile-1.8-libs
5066   libavahi-ui0
5067   libdmx1
5068   libgalago3
5069   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
5070   libgtksourceview2.0-0
5071   liblircclient0
5072   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
5073   libspeexdsp1
5074   libsvga1
5075   rhythmbox
5076   seahorse
5077   sound-juicer
5078   system-config-printer
5079   totem-common
5080   transmission-gtk
5081   vinagre
5082   vino
5083 </p></blockquote>
5084
5085 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
5086
5087 <blockquote><p>
5088   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
5089 </p></blockquote>
5090
5091 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5092
5093 <blockquote><p>
5094 [nothing]
5095 </p></blockquote>
5096
5097 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
5098
5099 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5100
5101 <blockquote><p>
5102   ksmserver
5103 </p></blockquote>
5104
5105 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
5106
5107 <blockquote><p>
5108   kwin
5109   network-manager-kde
5110 </p></blockquote>
5111
5112 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
5113
5114 <blockquote><p>
5115   arts
5116   dolphin
5117   freespacenotifier
5118   google-gadgets-gst
5119   google-gadgets-xul
5120   kappfinder
5121   kcalc
5122   kcharselect
5123   kde-core
5124   kde-plasma-desktop
5125   kde-standard
5126   kde-window-manager
5127   kdeartwork
5128   kdeartwork-emoticons
5129   kdeartwork-style
5130   kdeartwork-theme-icon
5131   kdebase
5132   kdebase-apps
5133   kdebase-workspace
5134   kdebase-workspace-bin
5135   kdebase-workspace-data
5136   kdeeject
5137   kdelibs
5138   kdeplasma-addons
5139   kdeutils
5140   kdewallpapers
5141   kdf
5142   kfloppy
5143   kgpg
5144   khelpcenter4
5145   kinfocenter
5146   konq-plugins-l10n
5147   konqueror-nsplugins
5148   kscreensaver
5149   kscreensaver-xsavers
5150   ktimer
5151   kwrite
5152   libgle3
5153   libkde4-ruby1.8
5154   libkonq5
5155   libkonq5-templates
5156   libnetpbm10
5157   libplasma-ruby
5158   libplasma-ruby1.8
5159   libqt4-ruby1.8
5160   marble-data
5161   marble-plugins
5162   netpbm
5163   nuvola-icon-theme
5164   plasma-dataengines-workspace
5165   plasma-desktop
5166   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
5167   plasma-runners-addons
5168   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
5169   plasma-scriptengine-python
5170   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
5171   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
5172   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
5173   plasma-scriptengines
5174   plasma-wallpapers-addons
5175   plasma-widget-folderview
5176   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
5177   ruby
5178   sweeper
5179   update-notifier-kde
5180   xscreensaver-data-extra
5181   xscreensaver-gl
5182   xscreensaver-gl-extra
5183   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
5184 </p></blockquote>
5185
5186 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5187
5188 <blockquote><p>
5189   ark
5190   google-gadgets-common
5191   google-gadgets-qt
5192   htdig
5193   kate
5194   kdebase-bin
5195   kdebase-data
5196   kdepasswd
5197   kfind
5198   klipper
5199   konq-plugins
5200   konqueror
5201   ksysguard
5202   ksysguardd
5203   libarchive1
5204   libcln6
5205   libeet1
5206   libeina-svn-06
5207   libggadget-1.0-0b
5208   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
5209   libgps19
5210   libkdecorations4
5211   libkephal4
5212   libkonq4
5213   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
5214   libkscreensaver5
5215   libksgrd4
5216   libksignalplotter4
5217   libkunitconversion4
5218   libkwineffects1a
5219   libmarblewidget4
5220   libntrack-qt4-1
5221   libntrack0
5222   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
5223   libplasmaclock4a
5224   libplasmagenericshell4
5225   libprocesscore4a
5226   libprocessui4a
5227   libqalculate5
5228   libqedje0a
5229   libqtruby4shared2
5230   libqzion0a
5231   libruby1.8
5232   libscim8c2a
5233   libsmokekdecore4-3
5234   libsmokekdeui4-3
5235   libsmokekfile3
5236   libsmokekhtml3
5237   libsmokekio3
5238   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
5239   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
5240   libsmokekparts3
5241   libsmokektexteditor3
5242   libsmokekutils3
5243   libsmokenepomuk3
5244   libsmokephonon3
5245   libsmokeplasma3
5246   libsmokeqtcore4-3
5247   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
5248   libsmokeqtgui4-3
5249   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
5250   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
5251   libsmokeqtscript4-3
5252   libsmokeqtsql4-3
5253   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
5254   libsmokeqttest4-3
5255   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
5256   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
5257   libsmokeqtxml4-3
5258   libsmokesolid3
5259   libsmokesoprano3
5260   libtaskmanager4a
5261   libtidy-0.99-0
5262   libweather-ion4a
5263   libxklavier16
5264   libxxf86misc1
5265   okteta
5266   oxygencursors
5267   plasma-dataengines-addons
5268   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
5269   plasma-widget-lancelot
5270   plasma-widgets-addons
5271   plasma-widgets-workspace
5272   polkit-kde-1
5273   ruby1.8
5274   systemsettings
5275   update-notifier-common
5276 </p></blockquote>
5277
5278 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
5279 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
5280 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
5281 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
5282
5283       </div>
5284       <div class="tags">
5285
5286
5287         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>.
5288
5289
5290       </div>
5291     </div>
5292     <div class="padding"></div>
5293
5294     <div class="entry">
5295       <div class="title">
5296         <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>
5297       </div>
5298       <div class="date">
5299         22nd November 2010
5300       </div>
5301       <div class="body">
5302         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
5303 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
5304 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
5305 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
5306 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
5307 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
5308 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
5309 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
5310 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
5311
5312 <p>I found
5313 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
5314 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
5315 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
5316 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
5317 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
5318 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
5319
5320 <pre>
5321 #!/bin/sh
5322
5323 # Based on
5324 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
5325
5326 set -e
5327 set -x
5328
5329 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
5330     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
5331     exit 1
5332 else
5333     host="$1"
5334 fi
5335
5336 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
5337     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
5338     exit 1
5339 fi
5340
5341 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
5342 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
5343 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
5344 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
5345
5346 img=$host.img
5347 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
5348 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
5349
5350 parted $img mklabel msdos
5351 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
5352 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
5353 parted $img set 1 boot on
5354
5355 modprobe dm-mod
5356 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
5357 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
5358
5359 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
5360 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
5361 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
5362
5363 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
5364 losetup -d /dev/loop0
5365 </pre>
5366
5367 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
5368 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
5369
5370 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
5371 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
5372 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
5373 seem to work just fine.</p>
5374
5375       </div>
5376       <div class="tags">
5377
5378
5379         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>.
5380
5381
5382       </div>
5383     </div>
5384     <div class="padding"></div>
5385
5386     <div class="entry">
5387       <div class="title">
5388         <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>
5389       </div>
5390       <div class="date">
5391         20th November 2010
5392       </div>
5393       <div class="body">
5394         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
5395 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
5396 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
5397 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
5398
5399 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
5400 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
5401 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
5402
5403 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
5404
5405 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5406
5407 <blockquote><p>
5408   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
5409   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
5410   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
5411   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
5412   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
5413   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
5414   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
5415   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
5416   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
5417   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
5418   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
5419   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
5420   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
5421   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
5422   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
5423   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
5424   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
5425   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
5426   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
5427   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
5428   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
5429   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
5430   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
5431   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
5432   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
5433   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
5434   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
5435   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
5436   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
5437   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
5438   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
5439   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
5440   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
5441   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
5442   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
5443   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
5444   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
5445   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
5446   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
5447   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
5448   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
5449   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
5450   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
5451   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
5452   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
5453   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
5454   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
5455   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
5456   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
5457   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
5458   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
5459   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
5460   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
5461   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
5462   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
5463   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
5464   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
5465   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
5466   zip
5467 </p></blockquote>
5468
5469 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
5470
5471 <blockquote><p>
5472   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
5473   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
5474   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
5475   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
5476   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
5477   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
5478   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
5479   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
5480   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
5481   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
5482   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
5483   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
5484   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
5485   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
5486   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
5487   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
5488   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
5489   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
5490   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
5491   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
5492   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
5493   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
5494   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
5495   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
5496   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
5497   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
5498   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
5499   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
5500   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
5501 </p></blockquote>
5502
5503 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
5504
5505 <blockquote><p>
5506   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
5507 </p></blockquote>
5508
5509 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5510
5511 <blockquote><p>
5512 [nothing]
5513 </p></blockquote>
5514
5515 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
5516
5517 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5518
5519 <blockquote><p>
5520   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
5521   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
5522   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
5523   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
5524   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
5525   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
5526   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
5527   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
5528   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
5529   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
5530   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
5531   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
5532   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
5533   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
5534   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
5535   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
5536   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
5537   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
5538   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
5539   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
5540   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
5541   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
5542   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
5543   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
5544   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
5545   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
5546   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
5547   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
5548   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
5549   ttf-sazanami-gothic
5550 </p></blockquote>
5551
5552 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
5553
5554 <blockquote><p>
5555   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
5556   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
5557   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
5558   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
5559   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
5560   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
5561   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
5562   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
5563   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
5564   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
5565   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
5566   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
5567   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
5568   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
5569   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
5570   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
5571   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
5572   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
5573   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
5574   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
5575   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
5576   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
5577   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
5578   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
5579   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
5580   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
5581   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
5582   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
5583   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
5584   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
5585   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
5586   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
5587   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
5588 </p></blockquote>
5589
5590 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
5591
5592 <blockquote><p>
5593   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
5594   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
5595   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
5596   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
5597   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
5598   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
5599   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
5600 </p></blockquote>
5601
5602 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5603
5604 <blockquote><p>
5605   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
5606 </p></blockquote>
5607
5608       </div>
5609       <div class="tags">
5610
5611
5612         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>.
5613
5614
5615       </div>
5616     </div>
5617     <div class="padding"></div>
5618
5619     <div class="entry">
5620       <div class="title">
5621         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
5622       </div>
5623       <div class="date">
5624         20th November 2010
5625       </div>
5626       <div class="body">
5627         <p>Answering
5628 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
5629 call from the Gnash project</a> for
5630 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
5631 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
5632 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
5633 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
5634 releases out more often.</p>
5635
5636 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
5637 I have considered setting up a <a
5638 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
5639 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
5640 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
5641 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
5642 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
5643 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
5644 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
5645 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
5646 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
5647 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
5648 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
5649 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
5650
5651       </div>
5652       <div class="tags">
5653
5654
5655         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>.
5656
5657
5658       </div>
5659     </div>
5660     <div class="padding"></div>
5661
5662     <div class="entry">
5663       <div class="title">
5664         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
5665       </div>
5666       <div class="date">
5667          9th November 2010
5668       </div>
5669       <div class="body">
5670         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
5671
5672 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
5673 3D linked in from
5674 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
5675 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
5676
5677       </div>
5678       <div class="tags">
5679
5680
5681         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>.
5682
5683
5684       </div>
5685     </div>
5686     <div class="padding"></div>
5687
5688     <div class="entry">
5689       <div class="title">
5690         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
5691       </div>
5692       <div class="date">
5693         24th October 2010
5694       </div>
5695       <div class="body">
5696         <p>Some updates.</p>
5697
5698 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
5699 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
5700 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
5701 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
5702 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
5703 :)</p>
5704
5705 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
5706 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
5707 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
5708 It is called
5709 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
5710 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
5711 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
5712 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
5713 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
5714 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
5715
5716 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
5717 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
5718 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
5719 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
5720 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
5721 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
5722 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
5723 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
5724 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
5725 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
5726
5727       </div>
5728       <div class="tags">
5729
5730
5731         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>.
5732
5733
5734       </div>
5735     </div>
5736     <div class="padding"></div>
5737
5738     <div class="entry">
5739       <div class="title">
5740         <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>
5741       </div>
5742       <div class="date">
5743          4th September 2010
5744       </div>
5745       <div class="body">
5746         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
5747 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
5748 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
5749 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
5750 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
5751 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
5752 installed.</p>
5753
5754 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
5755 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
5756 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
5757 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
5758 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
5759 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
5760 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
5761 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
5762 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
5763
5764 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
5765 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
5766 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
5767 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
5768 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
5769 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
5770 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
5771 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
5772 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
5773 pages they want to visit.</p>
5774
5775 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
5776 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
5777 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
5778 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
5779 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
5780 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
5781 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
5782 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
5783 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
5784 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
5785 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
5786
5787       </div>
5788       <div class="tags">
5789
5790
5791         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>.
5792
5793
5794       </div>
5795     </div>
5796     <div class="padding"></div>
5797
5798     <div class="entry">
5799       <div class="title">
5800         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
5801       </div>
5802       <div class="date">
5803         27th July 2010
5804       </div>
5805       <div class="body">
5806         <p>I discovered this while doing
5807 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
5808 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
5809 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
5810 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
5811 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
5812
5813 <p>An example is from todays
5814 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
5815 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
5816 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
5817 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
5818 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
5819 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
5820 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
5821
5822 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
5823
5824 <blockquote><pre>
5825 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
5826  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
5827   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
5828 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
5829  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
5830 </pre></blockquote>
5831
5832 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
5833 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
5834 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
5835 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
5836 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
5837 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
5838 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
5839 of dependency loops.</p>
5840
5841 <p>Thanks to
5842 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
5843 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
5844 dependencies
5845 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
5846 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
5847
5848 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
5849 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
5850 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
5851 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
5852 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
5853 it.</p>
5854
5855       </div>
5856       <div class="tags">
5857
5858
5859         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>.
5860
5861
5862       </div>
5863     </div>
5864     <div class="padding"></div>
5865
5866     <div class="entry">
5867       <div class="title">
5868         <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>
5869       </div>
5870       <div class="date">
5871         17th July 2010
5872       </div>
5873       <div class="body">
5874         <p>This is a
5875 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
5876 on my
5877 <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
5878 work</a> on
5879 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
5880 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
5881
5882 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
5883 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
5884 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
5885 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
5886
5887 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
5888 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
5889 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
5890
5891 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
5892
5893 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
5894 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
5895 the web.
5896
5897 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
5898 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
5899 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
5900 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
5901 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
5902 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
5903
5904 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
5905 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
5906 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
5907 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
5908 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
5909 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
5910 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
5911 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
5912 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
5913 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
5914 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
5915 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
5916 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
5917 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
5918 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
5919 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
5920
5921 <blockquote><pre>
5922 ldapsearch -h ldap \
5923   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
5924   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
5925   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
5926   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
5927   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
5928   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
5929
5930 ldapsearch -h ldap \
5931   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
5932   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
5933   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
5934   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
5935   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
5936 </pre></blockquote>
5937
5938 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
5939 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
5940 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
5941 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5942 also exist.</p>
5943
5944 <blockquote><pre>
5945 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5946 objectclass: top
5947 objectclass: dnsdomain
5948 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
5949 dc: tjener
5950 arecord: 10.0.2.2
5951 associateddomain: tjener.intern
5952
5953 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5954 objectclass: top
5955 objectclass: dnsdomain2
5956 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
5957 dc: 2
5958 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
5959 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
5960 </pre></blockquote>
5961
5962 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
5963 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
5964 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
5965 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
5966 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
5967 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
5968 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
5969 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
5970 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
5971 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
5972 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
5973 instead.</p>
5974
5975 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
5976 like this:</p>
5977
5978 <blockquote><pre>
5979 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
5980   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
5981   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
5982   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
5983   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
5984   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
5985
5986 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
5987   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
5988 </pre></blockquote>
5989
5990 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
5991 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
5992 reverse lookups.</p>
5993
5994 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
5995 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
5996 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
5997 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
5998
5999 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
6000 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
6001 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
6002
6003 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
6004 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
6005 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
6006 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
6007 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
6008
6009 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
6010 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
6011 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
6012 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
6013 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
6014
6015 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
6016 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
6017 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
6018 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
6019 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
6020 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
6021
6022 <blockquote><pre>
6023 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
6024     SUP top
6025     AUXILIARY
6026     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
6027           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
6028           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
6029           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
6030           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
6031     ))
6032 </pre></blockquote>
6033
6034 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
6035 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
6036 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
6037 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
6038 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
6039 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
6040
6041 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
6042
6043 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
6044 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
6045 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
6046 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
6047 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
6048
6049 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
6050 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
6051 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
6052 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
6053
6054 <blockquote><pre>
6055 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
6056 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
6057 </pre></blockquote>
6058
6059 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
6060 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
6061 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
6062 search result is this entry:</p>
6063
6064 <blockquote><pre>
6065 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6066 cn: dhcp
6067 objectClass: top
6068 objectClass: dhcpServer
6069 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6070 </pre></blockquote>
6071
6072 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
6073 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
6074 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
6075 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
6076 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
6077 The search result is this entry:</p>
6078
6079 <blockquote><pre>
6080 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6081 cn: DHCP Config
6082 objectClass: top
6083 objectClass: dhcpService
6084 objectClass: dhcpOptions
6085 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6086 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
6087 dhcpStatements: authoritative
6088 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
6089 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
6090 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
6091 </pre></blockquote>
6092
6093 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
6094 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
6095 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
6096 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
6097 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
6098 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
6099 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
6100 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
6101 related computer objects.</p>
6102
6103 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
6104 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
6105 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
6106 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
6107 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
6108 like:</p>
6109
6110 <blockquote><pre>
6111 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6112 cn: hostname
6113 objectClass: top
6114 objectClass: dhcpHost
6115 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
6116 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
6117 </pre></blockquote>
6118
6119 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
6120 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
6121 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
6122 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
6123 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
6124 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
6125 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
6126 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
6127 structural object class.
6128
6129 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
6130
6131 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
6132 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
6133 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
6134 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
6135 in the configuration.</p>
6136
6137 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
6138 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
6139 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
6140 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
6141 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
6142 structure.</p>
6143
6144 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
6145 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
6146
6147 <blockquote><pre>
6148 ou=services
6149   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
6150     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
6151     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
6152       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
6153         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
6154     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
6155       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
6156         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
6157     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
6158       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
6159 </pre></blockquote>
6160
6161 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
6162 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
6163 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
6164 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
6165
6166 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
6167 like this:</p>
6168
6169 <blockquote><pre>
6170 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6171 dc: hostname
6172 objectClass: top
6173 objectClass: dhcpHost
6174 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6175 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
6176 associateddomain: hostname.intern
6177 arecord: 10.11.12.13
6178 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
6179 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
6180 </pre></blockquote>
6181
6182 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
6183 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
6184 auxiliary object class.</p>
6185
6186       </div>
6187       <div class="tags">
6188
6189
6190         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>.
6191
6192
6193       </div>
6194     </div>
6195     <div class="padding"></div>
6196
6197     <div class="entry">
6198       <div class="title">
6199         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
6200       </div>
6201       <div class="date">
6202         14th July 2010
6203       </div>
6204       <div class="body">
6205         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
6206 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
6207 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
6208 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
6209 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
6210
6211 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
6212 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
6213
6214 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
6215 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
6216 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
6217 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
6218 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
6219 to a slave DNS server.</p>
6220
6221 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
6222 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
6223 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
6224 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
6225 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
6226 seem to work.</p>
6227
6228 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
6229 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
6230 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
6231 this:</p>
6232
6233 <blockquote><pre>
6234   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6235   cn: hostname
6236   objectClass: dhcphost
6237   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6238   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
6239   associateddomain: hostname.intern
6240   arecord: 10.11.12.13
6241   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
6242   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
6243   ldapconfigsound: Y
6244 </pre></blockquote>
6245
6246 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
6247 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
6248 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
6249 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
6250
6251 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
6252 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
6253 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
6254 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
6255 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
6256 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
6257 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
6258 might be a good place to put it.</p>
6259
6260 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
6261 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6262
6263       </div>
6264       <div class="tags">
6265
6266
6267         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>.
6268
6269
6270       </div>
6271     </div>
6272     <div class="padding"></div>
6273
6274     <div class="entry">
6275       <div class="title">
6276         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
6277       </div>
6278       <div class="date">
6279         11th July 2010
6280       </div>
6281       <div class="body">
6282         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
6283 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
6284 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
6285 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
6286
6287 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
6288 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
6289 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
6290 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
6291 LTSP clients.</p>
6292
6293 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
6294 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
6295 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
6296
6297 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
6298 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
6299 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
6300
6301 <blockquote><pre>
6302 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
6303 #
6304 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
6305 #
6306 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
6307 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
6308 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
6309 #
6310 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
6311 # existence of attribute names.
6312 #
6313 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
6314 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
6315 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
6316 #
6317 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
6318 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
6319 #
6320 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
6321 #     SUP top
6322 #     AUXILIARY
6323 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
6324
6325 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
6326 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
6327     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
6328     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
6329         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
6330         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
6331             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
6332             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
6333             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
6334             # bass value on to clients
6335             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
6336         done
6337     done
6338 fi
6339 </pre></blockquote>
6340
6341 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
6342 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
6343 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
6344 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
6345 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
6346
6347 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
6348 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6349
6350 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
6351 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
6352 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
6353 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
6354 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
6355 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
6356
6357       </div>
6358       <div class="tags">
6359
6360
6361         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>.
6362
6363
6364       </div>
6365     </div>
6366     <div class="padding"></div>
6367
6368     <div class="entry">
6369       <div class="title">
6370         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
6371       </div>
6372       <div class="date">
6373          9th July 2010
6374       </div>
6375       <div class="body">
6376         <p>Since
6377 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
6378 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
6379 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
6380 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
6381 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
6382 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
6383 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
6384 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
6385 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
6386 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
6387 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
6388 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
6389 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
6390
6391       </div>
6392       <div class="tags">
6393
6394
6395         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>.
6396
6397
6398       </div>
6399     </div>
6400     <div class="padding"></div>
6401
6402     <div class="entry">
6403       <div class="title">
6404         <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>
6405       </div>
6406       <div class="date">
6407          3rd July 2010
6408       </div>
6409       <div class="body">
6410         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
6411 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
6412 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
6413 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
6414 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
6415 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
6416 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
6417 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
6418
6419 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
6420 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
6421 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
6422 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
6423 publish the difference.</p>
6424
6425 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6426
6427 <blockquote><p>
6428   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
6429   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
6430   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
6431   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
6432   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
6433   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
6434   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
6435   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
6436 </p></blockquote>
6437
6438 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6439
6440 <blockquote><p>
6441   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
6442   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
6443   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
6444   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
6445   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
6446   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
6447   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
6448   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
6449   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
6450   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
6451   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
6452   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
6453   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
6454   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
6455   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
6456   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
6457   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
6458   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
6459   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
6460   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
6461 </p></blockquote>
6462
6463 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6464
6465 <blockquote><p>
6466   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
6467   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
6468   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
6469   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
6470   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
6471   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
6472   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
6473   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
6474   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
6475   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
6476   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
6477   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
6478   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
6479   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
6480   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
6481   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
6482   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
6483   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
6484   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
6485   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
6486   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
6487 </p></blockquote>
6488
6489 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6490
6491 <blockquote><p>
6492   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
6493   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
6494   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
6495 </p></blockquote>
6496
6497 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
6498 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
6499 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
6500 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
6501 the difference somewhat.
6502
6503       </div>
6504       <div class="tags">
6505
6506
6507         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>.
6508
6509
6510       </div>
6511     </div>
6512     <div class="padding"></div>
6513
6514     <div class="entry">
6515       <div class="title">
6516         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
6517       </div>
6518       <div class="date">
6519         28th June 2010
6520       </div>
6521       <div class="body">
6522         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
6523 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
6524 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
6525 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
6526 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
6527 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
6528 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
6529 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
6530 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
6531 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
6532
6533 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
6534 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
6535 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
6536 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
6537 released.</p>
6538
6539 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
6540 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
6541 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
6542 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
6543
6544 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
6545 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6546
6547 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
6548 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
6549 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
6550 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
6551 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
6552
6553       </div>
6554       <div class="tags">
6555
6556
6557         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>.
6558
6559
6560       </div>
6561     </div>
6562     <div class="padding"></div>
6563
6564     <div class="entry">
6565       <div class="title">
6566         <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>
6567       </div>
6568       <div class="date">
6569         24th June 2010
6570       </div>
6571       <div class="body">
6572         <p>A while back, I
6573 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
6574 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
6575 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
6576 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
6577
6578 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
6579 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
6580 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
6581 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
6582
6583 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
6584 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
6585 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
6586 Debian Edu.</p>
6587
6588 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
6589 the
6590 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
6591 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
6592 available today from IETF.</p>
6593
6594 <pre>
6595 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
6596 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
6597 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
6598  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
6599         NAME 'dhcpHost'
6600         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
6601 -       SUP top
6602 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
6603         MUST cn
6604         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
6605         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
6606 </pre>
6607
6608 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
6609 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
6610 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
6611
6612 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
6613 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6614
6615       </div>
6616       <div class="tags">
6617
6618
6619         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>.
6620
6621
6622       </div>
6623     </div>
6624     <div class="padding"></div>
6625
6626     <div class="entry">
6627       <div class="title">
6628         <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>
6629       </div>
6630       <div class="date">
6631         16th June 2010
6632       </div>
6633       <div class="body">
6634         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
6635 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
6636 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
6637 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
6638 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
6639 this:
6640
6641 <blockquote><pre>
6642 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
6643 tasksel --new-install
6644 </pre></blockquote>
6645
6646 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
6647 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
6648 any output what so ever.
6649
6650 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
6651 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
6652 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
6653 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
6654 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
6655 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
6656 code like this:
6657
6658 <blockquote><pre>
6659 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
6660 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
6661 $cmd
6662 </pre></blockquote>
6663
6664 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
6665 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
6666 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
6667 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
6668 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
6669 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
6670 installation.</p>
6671
6672 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
6673 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
6674 like this.</p>
6675
6676       </div>
6677       <div class="tags">
6678
6679
6680         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>.
6681
6682
6683       </div>
6684     </div>
6685     <div class="padding"></div>
6686
6687     <div class="entry">
6688       <div class="title">
6689         <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>
6690       </div>
6691       <div class="date">
6692         13th June 2010
6693       </div>
6694       <div class="body">
6695         <p>My
6696 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
6697 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
6698 finally made the upgrade logs available from
6699 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
6700 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
6701 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
6702 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
6703
6704 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
6705 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
6706 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
6707 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
6708 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
6709 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
6710 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
6711 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
6712
6713 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
6714 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
6715 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
6716 too surprising.</p>
6717
6718 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
6719 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
6720 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
6721 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
6722 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
6723 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
6724 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
6725 continue.</p>
6726
6727 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
6728 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
6729   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
6730   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
6731   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
6732   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
6733   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
6734   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
6735   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
6736   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
6737   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
6738   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
6739   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
6740   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
6741   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
6742   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
6743   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
6744   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
6745   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
6746   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
6747   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
6748   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
6749   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
6750   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
6751   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
6752   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
6753   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
6754   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
6755   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
6756   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
6757
6758 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
6759
6760 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
6761   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
6762   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
6763   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
6764   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
6765   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
6766   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
6767   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
6768   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
6769   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
6770   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
6771   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
6772   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
6773   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
6774   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
6775   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
6776   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
6777   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
6778   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
6779   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
6780   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
6781   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
6782   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
6783   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
6784   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
6785   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
6786   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
6787   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
6788   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
6789   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
6790   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
6791   zip</p>
6792
6793 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
6794
6795 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
6796   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
6797   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
6798   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
6799   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
6800   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
6801   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
6802   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
6803   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
6804   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
6805   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
6806   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
6807   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
6808   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
6809   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
6810   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
6811   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
6812   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
6813   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
6814   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
6815   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
6816   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
6817   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
6818   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
6819   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
6820   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
6821   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
6822   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
6823
6824 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
6825 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
6826   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
6827   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
6828   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
6829   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
6830   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
6831   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
6832   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
6833   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
6834   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
6835   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
6836   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
6837   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
6838   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
6839   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
6840   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
6841   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
6842   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
6843   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
6844   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
6845   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
6846   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
6847   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
6848   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
6849   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
6850   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
6851   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
6852   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
6853   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
6854   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
6855   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
6856   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
6857   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
6858   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
6859   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
6860   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
6861   xulrunner-1.9</p>
6862
6863
6864       </div>
6865       <div class="tags">
6866
6867
6868         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>.
6869
6870
6871       </div>
6872     </div>
6873     <div class="padding"></div>
6874
6875     <div class="entry">
6876       <div class="title">
6877         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
6878       </div>
6879       <div class="date">
6880         11th June 2010
6881       </div>
6882       <div class="body">
6883         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
6884 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
6885 have been discovered and reported in the process
6886 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
6887 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
6888 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
6889 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
6890 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
6891
6892 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
6893 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
6894 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
6895 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
6896 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
6897 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
6898
6899 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
6900 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
6901 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
6902 is created.  The bug report
6903 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
6904 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
6905 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
6906 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
6907 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
6908 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
6909 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
6910 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
6911 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
6912 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
6913 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
6914 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
6915 Debian Squeeze.</p>
6916
6917 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
6918 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
6919 trick:</p>
6920
6921 <blockquote><pre>
6922 #!/bin/sh
6923 set -ex
6924
6925 if [ "$1" ] ; then
6926     desktop=$1
6927 else
6928     desktop=gnome
6929 fi
6930
6931 from=lenny
6932 to=squeeze
6933
6934 exec &lt; /dev/null
6935 unset LANG
6936 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
6937 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
6938 fuser -mv .
6939 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
6940 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
6941 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
6942 #!/bin/sh
6943 exit 101
6944 EOF
6945 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
6946 exit_cleanup() {
6947     umount $tmpdir/proc
6948 }
6949 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
6950 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
6951 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
6952
6953 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
6954
6955 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
6956 # to return the correct answers.
6957 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
6958     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
6959
6960 # Include the desktop and laptop task
6961 for test in desktop laptop ; do
6962     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
6963 #!/bin/sh
6964 exit 2
6965 EOF
6966     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
6967 done
6968
6969 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
6970 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
6971 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
6972 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
6973
6974 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
6975 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
6976 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
6977 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
6978 fuser -mv
6979 </pre></blockquote>
6980
6981 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
6982 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
6983 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
6984 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
6985 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
6986 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
6987
6988 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
6989 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
6990 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
6991 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
6992 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
6993 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
6994 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
6995
6996 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
6997 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
6998 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
6999 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
7000 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
7001 packages.</p>
7002
7003       </div>
7004       <div class="tags">
7005
7006
7007         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>.
7008
7009
7010       </div>
7011     </div>
7012     <div class="padding"></div>
7013
7014     <div class="entry">
7015       <div class="title">
7016         <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>
7017       </div>
7018       <div class="date">
7019          6th June 2010
7020       </div>
7021       <div class="body">
7022         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
7023 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
7024 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
7025 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
7026 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
7027 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
7028 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
7029
7030 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
7031 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
7032 COLUMNS):</p>
7033
7034 <blockquote><pre>
7035 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
7036 previous=N
7037 PREVLEVEL=
7038 RUNLEVEL=
7039 runlevel=S
7040 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
7041 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
7042 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
7043 </pre></blockquote>
7044
7045 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
7046 script.</p>
7047
7048 <blockquote><pre>
7049 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
7050 previous=N
7051 PREVLEVEL=N
7052 RUNLEVEL=S
7053 runlevel=S
7054 </pre></blockquote>
7055
7056 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
7057 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
7058 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
7059
7060 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
7061 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
7062 choice.</p>
7063
7064       </div>
7065       <div class="tags">
7066
7067
7068         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>.
7069
7070
7071       </div>
7072     </div>
7073     <div class="padding"></div>
7074
7075     <div class="entry">
7076       <div class="title">
7077         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
7078       </div>
7079       <div class="date">
7080          6th June 2010
7081       </div>
7082       <div class="body">
7083         <p>Via the
7084 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
7085 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
7086 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
7087 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
7088 following the standards wars of today.</p>
7089
7090       </div>
7091       <div class="tags">
7092
7093
7094         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>.
7095
7096
7097       </div>
7098     </div>
7099     <div class="padding"></div>
7100
7101     <div class="entry">
7102       <div class="title">
7103         <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>
7104       </div>
7105       <div class="date">
7106          3rd June 2010
7107       </div>
7108       <div class="body">
7109         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
7110 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
7111 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
7112 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
7113 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
7114
7115 <blockquote><pre>
7116 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
7117   vendor                    count
7118   Dell Computer Corporation     1
7119     PowerEdge 1750              1
7120   IBM                           1
7121     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
7122   Intel                         2
7123   [no-dmi-info]                 3
7124 maintainer:~#
7125 </pre></blockquote>
7126
7127 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
7128 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
7129 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
7130 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
7131 option to list the individual machines.</p>
7132
7133 <p>A larger list is
7134 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
7135 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
7136 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
7137 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
7138 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
7139 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
7140 collector.</p>
7141
7142       </div>
7143       <div class="tags">
7144
7145
7146         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>.
7147
7148
7149       </div>
7150     </div>
7151     <div class="padding"></div>
7152
7153     <div class="entry">
7154       <div class="title">
7155         <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>
7156       </div>
7157       <div class="date">
7158          1st June 2010
7159       </div>
7160       <div class="body">
7161         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
7162 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
7163 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
7164 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
7165 wait.</p>
7166
7167 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
7168 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
7169 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
7170 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
7171 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
7172 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
7173
7174 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
7175 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
7176 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
7177 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
7178 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
7179 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
7180 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
7181 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
7182
7183 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
7184
7185       </div>
7186       <div class="tags">
7187
7188
7189         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>.
7190
7191
7192       </div>
7193     </div>
7194     <div class="padding"></div>
7195
7196     <div class="entry">
7197       <div class="title">
7198         <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>
7199       </div>
7200       <div class="date">
7201         27th May 2010
7202       </div>
7203       <div class="body">
7204         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
7205 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
7206 issues are known and should be solved:
7207
7208 <p><ul>
7209
7210 <li>The wicd package seen to
7211 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
7212 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
7213 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
7214 seem to be on the case.</li>
7215
7216 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
7217 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
7218 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
7219 maintainer is on the case.</li>
7220
7221 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
7222 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
7223 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
7224 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
7225 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
7226 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
7227 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
7228 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
7229
7230 </ul></p>
7231
7232 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
7233 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
7234 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
7235 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
7236
7237 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
7238 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
7239 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
7240 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
7241
7242 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
7243
7244       </div>
7245       <div class="tags">
7246
7247
7248         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>.
7249
7250
7251       </div>
7252     </div>
7253     <div class="padding"></div>
7254
7255     <div class="entry">
7256       <div class="title">
7257         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
7258       </div>
7259       <div class="date">
7260         22nd May 2010
7261       </div>
7262       <div class="body">
7263         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
7264 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
7265 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
7266 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
7267
7268 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
7269 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
7270 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
7271 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
7272 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
7273 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
7274 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
7275 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
7276 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
7277 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
7278 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
7279 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
7280 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
7281 going to work.</p>
7282
7283 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
7284 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
7285 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
7286 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
7287 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
7288 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
7289 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
7290 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
7291 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
7292 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
7293 Edu.</p>
7294
7295 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
7296 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
7297 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
7298 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
7299 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
7300 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
7301
7302 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
7303 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
7304
7305       </div>
7306       <div class="tags">
7307
7308
7309         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>.
7310
7311
7312       </div>
7313     </div>
7314     <div class="padding"></div>
7315
7316     <div class="entry">
7317       <div class="title">
7318         <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>
7319       </div>
7320       <div class="date">
7321         14th May 2010
7322       </div>
7323       <div class="body">
7324         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
7325 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
7326 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
7327 expected, if I am to believe the
7328 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
7329 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
7330 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
7331 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
7332 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
7333 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
7334 version.</p>
7335
7336 More information about
7337 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
7338 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
7339 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
7340 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
7341
7342 <blockquote><pre>
7343 CONCURRENCY=none
7344 </pre></blockquote>
7345
7346 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
7347 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
7348 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
7349 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
7350
7351       </div>
7352       <div class="tags">
7353
7354
7355         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>.
7356
7357
7358       </div>
7359     </div>
7360     <div class="padding"></div>
7361
7362     <div class="entry">
7363       <div class="title">
7364         <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>
7365       </div>
7366       <div class="date">
7367         14th May 2010
7368       </div>
7369       <div class="body">
7370         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
7371 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
7372 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
7373 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
7374 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
7375 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
7376 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
7377 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
7378
7379 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
7380 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
7381 this on the collector host:</p>
7382
7383 <blockquote><pre>
7384 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
7385 </pre></blockquote>
7386
7387 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
7388 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
7389
7390 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
7391 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
7392 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
7393 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
7394 written yet.</p>
7395
7396       </div>
7397       <div class="tags">
7398
7399
7400         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>.
7401
7402
7403       </div>
7404     </div>
7405     <div class="padding"></div>
7406
7407     <div class="entry">
7408       <div class="title">
7409         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
7410       </div>
7411       <div class="date">
7412         13th May 2010
7413       </div>
7414       <div class="body">
7415         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
7416 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
7417 has been
7418 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
7419
7420 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
7421 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
7422 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
7423 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
7424 based boot system.  Tollef is
7425 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
7426 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
7427 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
7428 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
7429 at the moment do not.</p>
7430
7431 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
7432 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
7433 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
7434 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
7435 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
7436 way forward.</p>
7437
7438 <p>In the mean time, based on the
7439 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
7440 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
7441 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
7442 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
7443 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
7444 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
7445 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
7446 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
7447
7448       </div>
7449       <div class="tags">
7450
7451
7452         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>.
7453
7454
7455       </div>
7456     </div>
7457     <div class="padding"></div>
7458
7459     <div class="entry">
7460       <div class="title">
7461         <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>
7462       </div>
7463       <div class="date">
7464          6th May 2010
7465       </div>
7466       <div class="body">
7467         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
7468 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
7469 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
7470 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
7471 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
7472 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
7473 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
7474
7475 <blockquote><pre>
7476 CONCURRENCY=makefile
7477 </pre></blockquote>
7478
7479 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
7480 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
7481 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
7482 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
7483 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
7484 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
7485 make this happen.</p>
7486
7487 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
7488 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
7489 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
7490 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
7491 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
7492
7493 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
7494 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
7495 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
7496 fix the remaining issues.</p>
7497
7498 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
7499 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
7500 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
7501 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
7502
7503       </div>
7504       <div class="tags">
7505
7506
7507         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>.
7508
7509
7510       </div>
7511     </div>
7512     <div class="padding"></div>
7513
7514     <div class="entry">
7515       <div class="title">
7516         <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>
7517       </div>
7518       <div class="date">
7519         27th July 2009
7520       </div>
7521       <div class="body">
7522         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
7523 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
7524 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
7525 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
7526 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
7527 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
7528 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
7529
7530 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
7531 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
7532 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
7533
7534       </div>
7535       <div class="tags">
7536
7537
7538         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>.
7539
7540
7541       </div>
7542     </div>
7543     <div class="padding"></div>
7544
7545     <div class="entry">
7546       <div class="title">
7547         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
7548       </div>
7549       <div class="date">
7550         22nd July 2009
7551       </div>
7552       <div class="body">
7553         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
7554 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
7555 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
7556 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
7557 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
7558 the package up to date.</p>
7559
7560 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
7561 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
7562 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
7563 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
7564 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
7565 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
7566 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
7567 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
7568 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
7569 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
7570 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
7571 working on the future release.</p>
7572
7573 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
7574 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
7575
7576       </div>
7577       <div class="tags">
7578
7579
7580         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>.
7581
7582
7583       </div>
7584     </div>
7585     <div class="padding"></div>
7586
7587     <div class="entry">
7588       <div class="title">
7589         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
7590       </div>
7591       <div class="date">
7592         24th June 2009
7593       </div>
7594       <div class="body">
7595         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
7596 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
7597 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
7598 funded
7599 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
7600 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
7601 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
7602 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
7603 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
7604 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
7605
7606 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
7607 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
7608 boot:</p>
7609
7610 <ul>
7611
7612 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
7613
7614 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
7615    clock is in UTC.</li>
7616
7617 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
7618    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
7619    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
7620
7621 </ul>
7622
7623 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
7624 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
7625 Villegas</a>.
7626
7627 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
7628 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
7629 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
7630 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
7631 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
7632 using this.</p>
7633
7634 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
7635 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
7636 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
7637 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
7638 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
7639 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
7640 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
7641
7642       </div>
7643       <div class="tags">
7644
7645
7646         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>.
7647
7648
7649       </div>
7650     </div>
7651     <div class="padding"></div>
7652
7653     <div class="entry">
7654       <div class="title">
7655         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
7656       </div>
7657       <div class="date">
7658         17th May 2009
7659       </div>
7660       <div class="body">
7661         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
7662 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
7663 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
7664 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
7665 dager siden kom
7666 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
7667 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
7668 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
7669 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
7670 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
7671
7672 <blockquote>
7673 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
7674 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
7675 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
7676 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
7677 </blockquote>
7678
7679 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
7680 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
7681 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
7682 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
7683 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
7684
7685 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
7686 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
7687 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
7688
7689       </div>
7690       <div class="tags">
7691
7692
7693         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</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>.
7694
7695
7696       </div>
7697     </div>
7698     <div class="padding"></div>
7699
7700     <div class="entry">
7701       <div class="title">
7702         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IDG_mener_linux_i_servermarkedet_vil_vokse_med_21__i_2009.html">IDG mener linux i servermarkedet vil vokse med 21% i 2009</a>
7703       </div>
7704       <div class="date">
7705          7th May 2009
7706       </div>
7707       <div class="body">
7708         <p>Kom over
7709 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
7710 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
7711 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
7712 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
7713 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
7714 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
7715 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
7716
7717       </div>
7718       <div class="tags">
7719
7720
7721         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7722
7723
7724       </div>
7725     </div>
7726     <div class="padding"></div>
7727
7728     <div class="entry">
7729       <div class="title">
7730         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
7731       </div>
7732       <div class="date">
7733          2nd May 2009
7734       </div>
7735       <div class="body">
7736         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
7737 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
7738 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
7739 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
7740 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
7741 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
7742 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
7743 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
7744 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
7745 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
7746 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
7747 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
7748 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
7749 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
7750 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
7751 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
7752 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
7753 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
7754 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
7755 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
7756
7757 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
7758 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
7759 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
7760 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
7761 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
7762 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
7763 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
7764 betydelige.</p>
7765
7766       </div>
7767       <div class="tags">
7768
7769
7770         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</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>.
7771
7772
7773       </div>
7774     </div>
7775     <div class="padding"></div>
7776
7777     <div class="entry">
7778       <div class="title">
7779         <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>
7780       </div>
7781       <div class="date">
7782          2nd May 2009
7783       </div>
7784       <div class="body">
7785         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
7786 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
7787 do not yet know them.</p>
7788
7789 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
7790 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
7791 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
7792 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
7793 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
7794 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
7795 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
7796 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
7797 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
7798 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
7799 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
7800
7801 <p>The second one is
7802 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
7803 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
7804 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
7805 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
7806 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
7807 and the company behind it is running
7808 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
7809 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
7810 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
7811 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
7812 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
7813 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
7814 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
7815 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
7816
7817 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
7818 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
7819 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
7820 surrounded by today.</p>
7821
7822       </div>
7823       <div class="tags">
7824
7825
7826         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>.
7827
7828
7829       </div>
7830     </div>
7831     <div class="padding"></div>
7832
7833     <div class="entry">
7834       <div class="title">
7835         <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>
7836       </div>
7837       <div class="date">
7838         28th April 2009
7839       </div>
7840       <div class="body">
7841         <p>Julien Blache
7842 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
7843 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
7844 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
7845 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
7846 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
7847 properties.</p>
7848
7849       </div>
7850       <div class="tags">
7851
7852
7853         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>.
7854
7855
7856       </div>
7857     </div>
7858     <div class="padding"></div>
7859
7860     <div class="entry">
7861       <div class="title">
7862         <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>
7863       </div>
7864       <div class="date">
7865         30th March 2009
7866       </div>
7867       <div class="body">
7868         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
7869 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
7870 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
7871 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
7872 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
7873 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
7874 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
7875 application.</p>
7876
7877 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
7878 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
7879 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
7880 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
7881 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
7882 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
7883 blocked from doing so.</p>
7884
7885 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
7886 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
7887 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
7888 requirements change.</p>
7889
7890 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
7891 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
7892 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
7893
7894       </div>
7895       <div class="tags">
7896
7897
7898         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>.
7899
7900
7901       </div>
7902     </div>
7903     <div class="padding"></div>
7904
7905     <div class="entry">
7906       <div class="title">
7907         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
7908       </div>
7909       <div class="date">
7910         29th March 2009
7911       </div>
7912       <div class="body">
7913         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
7914 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
7915 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
7916 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
7917 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
7918 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
7919 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
7920 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
7921 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
7922 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
7923 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
7924 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
7925 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
7926 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
7927 now. :)</p>
7928
7929       </div>
7930       <div class="tags">
7931
7932
7933         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>.
7934
7935
7936       </div>
7937     </div>
7938     <div class="padding"></div>
7939
7940     <div class="entry">
7941       <div class="title">
7942         <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>
7943       </div>
7944       <div class="date">
7945         29th March 2009
7946       </div>
7947       <div class="body">
7948         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
7949 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
7950 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
7951 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
7952 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
7953 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
7954
7955 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
7956 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
7957 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
7958 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
7959 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
7960 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
7961 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
7962 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
7963 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
7964 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
7965 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
7966 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
7967 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
7968
7969 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
7970 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
7971 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
7972 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
7973
7974 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
7975 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
7976
7977 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
7978 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
7979 new IETF work group?</p>
7980
7981       </div>
7982       <div class="tags">
7983
7984
7985         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>.
7986
7987
7988       </div>
7989     </div>
7990     <div class="padding"></div>
7991
7992     <div class="entry">
7993       <div class="title">
7994         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
7995       </div>
7996       <div class="date">
7997         15th February 2009
7998       </div>
7999       <div class="body">
8000         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
8001 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
8002 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
8003 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
8004 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
8005 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
8006 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
8007 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
8008 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
8009 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
8010 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
8011 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
8012
8013       </div>
8014       <div class="tags">
8015
8016
8017         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/norsk">norsk</a>.
8018
8019
8020       </div>
8021     </div>
8022     <div class="padding"></div>
8023
8024     <div class="entry">
8025       <div class="title">
8026         <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>
8027       </div>
8028       <div class="date">
8029          7th December 2008
8030       </div>
8031       <div class="body">
8032         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
8033 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
8034 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
8035 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
8036 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
8037 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
8038 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
8039 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
8040
8041 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
8042 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
8043 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
8044 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
8045 of these cards.</p>
8046
8047       </div>
8048       <div class="tags">
8049
8050
8051         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>.
8052
8053
8054       </div>
8055     </div>
8056     <div class="padding"></div>
8057
8058     <div class="entry">
8059       <div class="title">
8060         <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>
8061       </div>
8062       <div class="date">
8063         25th November 2008
8064       </div>
8065       <div class="body">
8066         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
8067 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
8068 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
8069 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
8070 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
8071 notes are available on
8072 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
8073 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
8074 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
8075 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
8076 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
8077 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
8078 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
8079 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
8080 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
8081
8082 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
8083 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
8084
8085       </div>
8086       <div class="tags">
8087
8088
8089         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>.
8090
8091
8092       </div>
8093     </div>
8094     <div class="padding"></div>
8095
8096     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
8097     <div id="sidebar">
8098
8099
8100
8101 <h2>Archive</h2>
8102 <ul>
8103
8104 <li>2014
8105 <ul>
8106
8107 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
8108
8109 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
8110
8111 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
8112
8113 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
8114
8115 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
8116
8117 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
8118
8119 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
8120
8121 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
8122
8123 </ul></li>
8124
8125 <li>2013
8126 <ul>
8127
8128 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
8129
8130 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
8131
8132 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
8133
8134 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
8135
8136 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
8137
8138 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
8139
8140 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
8141
8142 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
8143
8144 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
8145
8146 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
8147
8148 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
8149
8150 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
8151
8152 </ul></li>
8153
8154 <li>2012
8155 <ul>
8156
8157 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
8158
8159 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
8160
8161 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
8162
8163 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
8164
8165 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
8166
8167 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
8168
8169 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
8170
8171 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
8172
8173 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
8174
8175 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
8176
8177 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
8178
8179 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
8180
8181 </ul></li>
8182
8183 <li>2011
8184 <ul>
8185
8186 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
8187
8188 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
8189
8190 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
8191
8192 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
8193
8194 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
8195
8196 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
8197
8198 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
8199
8200 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
8201
8202 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
8203
8204 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
8205
8206 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
8207
8208 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
8209
8210 </ul></li>
8211
8212 <li>2010
8213 <ul>
8214
8215 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
8216
8217 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
8218
8219 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
8220
8221 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
8222
8223 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
8224
8225 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
8226
8227 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
8228
8229 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
8230
8231 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
8232
8233 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
8234
8235 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
8236
8237 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
8238
8239 </ul></li>
8240
8241 <li>2009
8242 <ul>
8243
8244 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
8245
8246 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
8247
8248 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
8249
8250 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
8251
8252 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
8253
8254 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
8255
8256 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
8257
8258 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
8259
8260 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
8261
8262 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
8263
8264 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
8265
8266 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
8267
8268 </ul></li>
8269
8270 <li>2008
8271 <ul>
8272
8273 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
8274
8275 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
8276
8277 </ul></li>
8278
8279 </ul>
8280
8281
8282
8283 <h2>Tags</h2>
8284 <ul>
8285
8286  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
8287
8288  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
8289
8290  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
8291
8292  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
8293
8294  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (8)</a></li>
8295
8296  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (14)</a></li>
8297
8298  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
8299
8300  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
8301
8302  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (99)</a></li>
8303
8304  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (148)</a></li>
8305
8306  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
8307
8308  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
8309
8310  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (12)</a></li>
8311
8312  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
8313
8314  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (251)</a></li>
8315
8316  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
8317
8318  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
8319
8320  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (13)</a></li>
8321
8322  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (8)</a></li>
8323
8324  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
8325
8326  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (41)</a></li>
8327
8328  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (9)</a></li>
8329
8330  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
8331
8332  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
8333
8334  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
8335
8336  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
8337
8338  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
8339
8340  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (29)</a></li>
8341
8342  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (247)</a></li>
8343
8344  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (162)</a></li>
8345
8346  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (11)</a></li>
8347
8348  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
8349
8350  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (48)</a></li>
8351
8352  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (73)</a></li>
8353
8354  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
8355
8356  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
8357
8358  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
8359
8360  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
8361
8362  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
8363
8364  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
8365
8366  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
8367
8368  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
8369
8370  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (40)</a></li>
8371
8372  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
8373
8374  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
8375
8376  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (45)</a></li>
8377
8378  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
8379
8380  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (9)</a></li>
8381
8382  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (25)</a></li>
8383
8384  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
8385
8386  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
8387
8388  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (43)</a></li>
8389
8390  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
8391
8392  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (33)</a></li>
8393
8394 </ul>
8395
8396
8397     </div>
8398     <p style="text-align: right">
8399  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
8400 </p>
8401
8402   </body>
8403 </html>